Anyone who knows anything about the Roman church knows how much it stresses its traditions. This is seen, first of all, in the fact that it claims “sacred tradition” as one of the three pillars of its teaching authority, along with the Bible itself and the “Magisterium,” which is, in essence, the teaching of the pope.

In contrast, the apostle Peter, whom Catholics claim as the first pope, never once refers to tradition as a source of teaching authority, but instead, stresses the sacred Scriptures over and over again. (See the Note, “Peter and the Authority of Scripture.”)

And the Lord Himself rebuked the practice of relying on tradition, rather than the word of God, as our teaching authority, in the strongest possible terms, saying to the Pharisees, the religious leaders of His time:

And why do you also turn aside from the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?….Thus you have made the word of God void of its authority by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,

 

This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as teachings
The precepts of men.
— Matthew 15:3, 6-7; cf. Isaiah 29:13

Even in a more general sense, however, Peter very much discounts the value of tradition, when he speaks of “your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers.” And in doing so also repudiates any notion that our redemption depends on anything other than the blood of Christ, despite what the Roman church may practice in its rituals that involve “corruptible things”:

Knowing you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.
— 1 Peter 1:18-19

Again, this is the one whom Catholics vigorously contend is “the first pope,” even claiming he is the rock upon which their church is built (cf. Matt. 16:18); if only they would be so exercised to pay attention to what he actually said! Then they might finally realize that, indeed, the church he helped to raise up in the New Testament is absolutely not the one they are a part of today.

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—  9 August 2025 —