Luther and Calvin would be spinning in their graves to know the multitude of spin-offs that have resulted from their breakaway from Church tradition. The Bible did not fall from the skies. It was a set of books formally authorized by those who had the power to authorize, the Catholic Church. Not some loose assortment of believers as you appear to imply.
An example of early Church traditions if found in St. Ignatius’ work.
St. Ignatius became the third bishop of Antioch, succeeding St. Evodius, who was the immediate successor of St. Peter. He heard St. John preach when he was a boy and knew St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. Seven of his letters written to various Christian communities have been preserved. Eventually, he received the martyr’s crown as he was thrown to wild beasts in the arena.
Below is one of St. Ignatius’ letters:
“Consider how contrary to the mind of God are the heterodox in regard to the grace of God which has come to us. They have no regard for charity, none for the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, none for the man in prison, the hungry or the thirsty. They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead.” [”Letter to the Smyrnaeans”, paragraph 6. circa 80-110 A.D.]
I see you are a one-, maybe, two-note violinist?
For the third (yes, third) time you have pointed out that there are many unsavory spin-off progeny to the Reformation. For the third (yes, third) time, I agreeing with you.
However, that is not the trump card you think it is. There are still Orthodox Protestants in abundance, and you seem to determined to ignore them. You know, . . . People like John Sproule, John MacArthur, JR, etc., . . . . Scholars who equal the cream of the Roman Catholic Church for erudition and prolific teaching and writing.
I simply do not agree that the Roman Catholic Church did not “authorize” the Books of the New Testament canon. Rather, it recognized the books that had been widely accepted throughout the Christian Church for over a century. That “loose assortment of believers” to which you snidely refer, are, in fact, the Body of Christ on earth.
We will similiarly have to disagree on the issue of tradition. I do not wholesale deny or reject all traditions that have come down to us. However, I filter them through the lens of Scripture on the one hand, and I never regard them as salvific (Sola Scriptura; Solo Christo), on the other.
Moving on, if you are trying to imply that only Roman Catholics (vice Protestants) care for the widow, the orphan, the prisoner, etc, then that assertion is so ludicrous as to be risible. If you are earnestly making that assertion, you lose all credibility at this point. If you are not making that point, then why did you raise it in the midst of this online exchange? (I thought you were better than that.)
Finally, while, by all means, I give St. Euodias high marks, he and I will have to agree to disagree on the nature of the Eucharist. (I can work that out with him in Heaven, I believe.) Hint: What he wrote is not Scripture.