In an attempt to downplay passages that speak of authoritative, inspired oral traditions in the New Testament, Geisler and Rhodes wrote that:
. . . oral traditions are
notoriously unreliable. They are the stuff of which legends and myths are made.
. . . what is not written is more easily polluted. (Norman L. Geiser and Ron
Rhodes, When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations [Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1997], 273)
There are many problems with this. True, outside divine
providence, inspired oral tradition could be susceptible to corruption.
However, notice that the authors must assume that God would not intervene in
history to preserve such, as they believe for the Bible (notwithstanding the
large % of verses in the Old and New Testament that has textual variants).
Furthermore, the biblical authors did not share this pessimistic view. For
instance, in 1 Cor 11:23, Paul wrote that:
For I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you . . .
Paul then continues on teaching authoritatively on the Eucharist.
Notice, however, it was not "inspired" at the point of inscripturation
it was considered "inspired" when he received these teachings orally.
As one conservative Reformed Protestant noted:
The words received
and delivered are technical terms
that denote the individual links in the chain of tradition. (Elsewhere Paul
alludes to this handing on of divine revelation [see 15:3]. A perfect example
is Paul’s preaching in Thessalonica, where he orally transmitted the gospel to
the Thessalonians. They in turn passed it on by word of mouth to people
throughout Macedonia and Achaia [1 Thess. 1:5, 6–8].) The words of the
institution originated not with Paul but with Jesus. Hence, these words are
divine and must he honored, kept, and transmitted. Paul is saying that he
received the words of the Lord’s Supper from the Lord through the apostles and
now passes them on to the Corinthians. He expects these people to accept this
sacred trust and tradition which they must in turn pass on to others.
(Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians [New
Testament Commentary 18; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1993], 393)
In the Old Testament, we have another example of a binding,
authoritative oral tradition that is part of the "Word of God" but
not extant in the Bible:
And he [King Hezekiah] set the
Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps,
according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan
the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. (2 Chron
29:25; cf. 2 Chron 35:4)
With respect to this text, we learn the following: (1) David, Gad,
and Nathan were dead for about 250 years at this point; however, (2) they
passed on a "command . . . from the Lord" which was prescribed by
God's prophets on how worship is to be conducted in the temple (hardly a minor
issue; the worship of God is a central issue in theology) and (3) such a
prescription and commandment is nowhere found in the entirety of the Bible yet
King Hezekiah clearly understood them to be authoritative and binding.
It should be clear that Protestant apologists for Sola Scriptura
such as Geisler and Rhodes are clueless and unable to defend the doctrine on
any exegetically sound fashion. For more, see:
Not
By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura
