"The Word" On The Street

It was an unsuspecting Saturday morning in and urban subdivision. A well dressed couple walked door to door, carrying a bible and a brief case. I passed them on the street, they greeted me very kindly, and offered me an invitation to a large gathering. My initial thought was that our church should do more door to door ministry.

My friend and I introduced ourselves and our faith backgrounds. Perhaps they assumed I was a stereotypical-habitual-going-through-the-motions church goer, who knows. But not because I was longing for a relationship with their God, rather because I wanted to learn more about what they believe, I started asking questions.



They were very kind, and tried to answer my questions to the best of their ability. However, in the span of about one minute, a few major red flags came up.

I initially asked if they had a web site, book or other resource with their full doctrinal teachings. I mentioned that our church has all of our doctrine compiled and available in any format and language. Three pamphlets later (without any help), she finally returned with a small, two page, sheet, outlining a couple points of belief for them. For a "potential convert" I was a little surprised.

I read in the pamphlet that they believe Jesus, though a great man, is not God. They believe God the Father is superior, and don't recognize the Trinity. As an after thought I started to think about the nature of beings. When my daughter was conceived, she took my nature as human. She didn't assume the nature of a mere animal and it wouldn't be possible for her to do so. In the same way, Jesus is of the same nature of God the father, therefore Jesus is equally God, just as we are equally human.

They believe only 144,000 faithful will be saved at the end of the age. This is derived from Revelation 14, "Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads". With an initial read of that verse alone, I could see how one might come to that conclusion. Luckily, we have many other verses that speak on our redemption. What's interesting is if you keep reading just a few more verses later Revelation 4:4 says, "These are the ones [of the 144,000] who have not been defiled with women... Who are blameless, without lie". If their conclusion on this was correct, ONLY MEN could be saved! I'm pretty sure, Mary, a woman, and the mother of God, who all ages will call blessed, is among the saints who will join the Savior at the end of the age...

They believe that the bible alone is their guide and not the traditions of man. My first question was, if that is true, what was your guide before the bible was written (which the last New Testament book was around 100AD, not compiled and canonized until around 385AD, and not possible to be distributed widely until the invention of the printing press in the 1500's)?

2 Thessalonians 2:15, Paul explains that it is through sacred Tradition that we are to also follow instruction, not limited to scripture (the “word of God”), and not limited to writings: “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”

The “word of God” originally wasn’t written, it was passed on orally, through sacred Tradition, "When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God" (1 Thess. 2:13). "Keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the [sacred] tradition that you received from us" (2 Thess. 3:6).

Jesus himself and the apostles quoted from scripture that wasn't written in the compiled Jewish old testament, but was passed orally. The gospel of John tells us, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25). Their view seems contradictory, because it was the faithful Traditions of Christians for 2000 years that have allowed us to accurately transcribe, translate and pass on Holy Scripture. So what did they do before the Bible was written?

They were very kind, generous people, who appeared to be living a life of their beliefs. I need to commend them for that. We can learn from their methods. But I do wish we had more time to chat. I'm thankful for the holy Church that Christ instituted and gave authority to.