There are several schools of thought about religious traditions among us Oneness Pentecostals. The two extremes are that all man-made traditions are self-righteous, or that we should seek to preserve our traditions on the level of Scripture. Both of these extremes are wrong. But I do have a question to ask about our traditions. What are some of the traditions about which I am speaking? I am talking about things like facial hair, movies, sleeve length, etc. What value does seeking to preserve our extra-biblical traditions at all cost add to the body of Christ? That is what the rest of this blog will discuss.
What Value Does it Add to Our View of God?
The issue of traditions directly affects our view of God. The first concern for a Christian ought to be, "Will seeing things the way I do distort or clarify my view of God?" And anything that does not portray God as he has revealed himself to us in scripture is a distortion of who he is. You may be asking, "How do extra-biblical traditions distort one's view of God?" I will try to explain.
When we add to God's commandments, it makes God appear harsher than what he really is. Adding to God's commandment distorted Adam and Eve's view of God in the garden. Eve claimed that God said they could not "touch" the tree in the midst of the garden (Genesis 3.3). But God had only said that they could not eat from the tree (Genesis 2.16-17). Furthermore, the punishment for eating it was death. I am not certain who made the prohibition more strict than what God did. It seems to be the natural human tendency when in a relationship with God, to improve on what God said.
Commanding not to touch the fruit seems like a wise idea to prevent eating it. Because if you cannot touch it, then you cannot eat it. But it is not what God said. Eve attached the same punishment to touching the fruit as God did to eating it—death (Genesis 3.3). Here is the crux of the matter. When they touched it, they did not die. See there, we touched it and nothing happened. If we can touch it and nothing happens, then we can eat it and nothing will happen. We often create human commandments and equate them with God's commandments. So, when people violate our commandments and nothing happens, they often proceed to break God's commandments.
What Value Does it Add to Our View of Scripture?
Like in the above section, the issue of traditions will affect our view of Scripture. What do our traditions do to how we and the people we teach see Scripture? It taints it. When we choose when we can add to or take away from Scripture, then we set ourselves above Scripture. Our traditions add no value to the word of God, it only takes away from it.
What Value Does it Add to Our View of God?
The issue of traditions directly affects our view of God. The first concern for a Christian ought to be, "Will seeing things the way I do distort or clarify my view of God?" And anything that does not portray God as he has revealed himself to us in scripture is a distortion of who he is. You may be asking, "How do extra-biblical traditions distort one's view of God?" I will try to explain.
When we add to God's commandments, it makes God appear harsher than what he really is. Adding to God's commandment distorted Adam and Eve's view of God in the garden. Eve claimed that God said they could not "touch" the tree in the midst of the garden (Genesis 3.3). But God had only said that they could not eat from the tree (Genesis 2.16-17). Furthermore, the punishment for eating it was death. I am not certain who made the prohibition more strict than what God did. It seems to be the natural human tendency when in a relationship with God, to improve on what God said.
Commanding not to touch the fruit seems like a wise idea to prevent eating it. Because if you cannot touch it, then you cannot eat it. But it is not what God said. Eve attached the same punishment to touching the fruit as God did to eating it—death (Genesis 3.3). Here is the crux of the matter. When they touched it, they did not die. See there, we touched it and nothing happened. If we can touch it and nothing happens, then we can eat it and nothing will happen. We often create human commandments and equate them with God's commandments. So, when people violate our commandments and nothing happens, they often proceed to break God's commandments.
What Value Does it Add to Our View of Scripture?
Like in the above section, the issue of traditions will affect our view of Scripture. What do our traditions do to how we and the people we teach see Scripture? It taints it. When we choose when we can add to or take away from Scripture, then we set ourselves above Scripture. Our traditions add no value to the word of God, it only takes away from it.
Summary
When we go beyond scripture, we do tremendous damage to the conscience. We distort God and his word. We need a revival of letting God say what God has said without adding to it. When we insist on our traditions, we reject the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. And to do so is not Apostolic.
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