I appreciate your post. Very readable.
On the other hand we hand the Gospel and Letters of John that tell us that not everything is in the Bible.
Also my pastor mentioned something that St. Paul said quoting Jesus, and since St. Paul never meet Jesus, it had to be tradition — the passing on of messages face to face and person to person.
I’ll post the quotes from John in the next post.
That's why I'd like to discuss with him.
1. Paul was much younger when originally arriving in Jerusalem. Paul says: Acts 22:3 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
2. In Acts 23 Paul has his sister's son, who was living in Jerusalem, helped in saving his life. In other words, some of his immediate family was also living in Jerusalem.
3. In Romans he reveals that he had relatives, Adronicus and Junia, who became Christians BEFORE he did. Since his Damascus road experience was probably somewhere around the 7th year following Pentecost, and since the persecution that began with Stephen's death was about 5 years after Pentecost, then it's reasonable to assume these other relatives were also somewhere in or around Judea.
4. Paul was the instigator at the stoning of Stephen, some 5 years after Pentecost. This means that he already had a rage toward Christ and Christianity.
5. Jesus' presence in Jerusalem multiple times over 3 years was most often public.
Summation: Given that Paul was BROUGHT UP in Jerusalem, had a rage toward Christians, and had moved in and about Jerusalem for some time, it is very reasonable to assume that the Apostle Paul had witnessed some aspect of Jesus' ministry.
This is, of course, my opinion, but I think I base it is reasonable when looking at the facts. Paul might well have been one of those Jesus referenced when saying, "Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites...."
“On the other hand we hand the Gospel and Letters of John that tell us that not everything is in the Bible.”
Of course we don’t have everything in the Bible. We have what God chose to inspire. What He gave us is authoritative, sufficient and complete.
Everything else - which none of us know - is comprised of everything He chose not to inspire and include.
“Also my pastor mentioned something that St. Paul said quoting Jesus, and since St. Paul never meet Jesus, it had to be tradition”
Paul was caught up into the heavenlies to meet the glorified Christ face to face. Christ directly revealed things to Paul. Direct Words from God.
Of course it was oral tradition, as much of the Bible was first oral, and not all that can be known has been revealed, (Jn. 21:25; 2Cor. 12:4; Rv. 10:4) but which does not mean all that was of that oral medium was of God, but that which written is God inspired, formally being the word of God. And as such it separates the wheat from the chaff.
And Paul's exhortation to hold to traditions referred to known teaching which could be written as the word of God, and normally was, and was not ancient oral tales such as the Assumption. Moreover, the exhortation to obedience was under the rubric of Scripture being the supreme authority for obedience and testing the veracity of Truth claims, as it is abundantly evidenced to be.
And none of the proffered proof texts you may paste can refute that.
In contrast, Rome presumes to take nebulous ancient oral stories and channeling them into extraBiblical and unScriptural doctrines, and making them equal with Scripture, while making both as servants to her.
For Rome has unScripturally presumed to infallibly declare she is and will be perpetually infallible whenever she speaks in accordance with her infallibly defined (scope and subject-based) formula, which renders her declaration that she is infallible, to be infallible, as well as all else she accordingly declares. Thus Tradition, Scripture and history can only authoritatively mean what she says them mean, as according to her interpretation, only be correct in any conflict.
Which contrary to the basis by which the church was established, that of Scriptural substantiation in word and in power, not the premise of Rome's assured veracity, which.
You need a new pastor then. One who actually knows the word.
Acts 9:1-6 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said,
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”