Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Joe Rossi) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Why invoke the Saints? Message-ID: Date: 5 Jun 90 03:17:48 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Jet Propelled Lab - Pasadena CA Lines: 44 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ctdonath@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Carl T. Donath) writes: > >Am I getting my point across? (probably not - just got some flame-throwers >ready) My point: tradition is nice, but only by looking into God's word >can we find out how emphatically we should follow tradition, or whether >a tradition should be followed at all. > >I have seen too many people faithfully follow tradition without having >the foggiest notion as to why they are doing it. Their only reason is >"its traditional". >By justifying a tradition with scripture (this must be done by every person >following the tradition), we learn its true meaning and can justify its >continuation. Without scriptural meaning, tradition is just "going thru >the motions". interesting, but how about the point of view that regards the reading of Scripture itself in the same light? People believe John 3:17 because its traditional. People believe the Doctrine because it is traditional. I suppose for some a canonized holy book is beyond tradition, set in stone per se, but for the life of me, I can't give my reverence to what I can only percieve as man writ document, passed down through the ages, when that reverence is for God alone. You don't understand why they pray to saints. I don't understand, often why, we pray to Jesus. When we can pray directly to God. I don't understand why we can see God in the Bible, But not in the tree that became the Bible. I guess I can't escape the perception that even accepting things as God-mandated because they appear so in Holy Writ, is quite possibly a tradition without spiritual meaning in that the assertion of knowledge of Truth in symbolized form is itself a tradition that we become slaves to, and in fact, end up going through the motions of having faith, but without the real awareness of God's Love. -- "...it seldom turns out the way it does in the song." **********************STANDARD DISCLAIMER******************************