The origional church of Christ was founded not on a person such as Peter but on a confession of faith that Peter gave.
Therefore the church that Christ founded was one on doctrine, doctrines which are found and taught in the holy scriptures.
so he didn't like listening to the Tradition, he only liked reading the the Bible?
Well yes and no. The problem in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churchs is that tradition has been taken to a whole new level.
Lutherans use tradition to help us understand scripture and what the early Christians did. But entire doctrines can not be invented completly out of tradition, they must have some basis in scripture.
The problem with Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox churchs is that they have taken traditions to a whole new level. Plus they have picked and choosen tradition. Listen when it boils down to it, there are a lot of writings and traditions from early Christians, most of whom died in good standing with the church. Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox traditions pick and choose which of those traditions they like and which they dislike and say that God led them to the right ones.
This is especially questionable since they disagree on which traditions to use!!! Which one is God leading? Ultimatly you have to belive these churchs simpily because they told you so. They have nothing to back up that these traditions where commanded by God other then a early Christian father wrote something. The problem is that PEOPLE, even early Christian fathers also have their own opinions on things. So just because Iraneus wrote something, doesn't make it gospel truth just because he said so. It just means this is his opinion.
Now whats important is to balance that, when multiple writers all write that the church always performed infant baptisms, thats when we have to pay attention. First of all because they are saying that the CHURCH has ALWAYS belived this. They arn't off on a rant about one topic or another, they are laying down that the church in general belives this. Major difference. . .
One is like a pastor writing on health care issues. Just because a pastor wrote his opinion on health care doesn't mean that the entire church supports his argument or beliefs in that regard. In that regard its an entirely political issue which the church has no opinion.
The Lutheran church does not invent doctrines out of thin air, everything must be ultimatly supported via scripture. We may make use of tradition to help us work out the details, but we won't come up with one entirely on the basis of tradition.
If you are familiar with the field of law, tradition in Lutheranism is a sort of weaker version of Stare decisis. If you arn't here is what the definition of Stare Decisis is via Wikipedia.
Stare Decisis is a legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedents established by prior decisions. The words originate from the phrasing of the principle in the
Latin maxim
Stare decisis et non quieta movere: "to stand by decisions and not disturb the undisturbed."
[1] In a legal context,
this is understood to mean that courts should generally abide by precedents and not disturb settled matters
Courts rule on law, and in the absence of a change in law the courts tend to rule the same way that they have previously ruled.
The church interpretes and understands scripture. Since scripture does not change we tend to interprete and understand scripture the way it has been previously understood by the earliest church fathers.
