This post is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Rome Examined: Examination of the Decrees of the Council of Trent. In this concise distillation of Chemnitz’s magisterial critique, we present his scriptural case against Rome’s decrees on tradition, justification, the sacraments, and papal authority—one section at a time. (Find all the excerpts here: https://wolfmueller.co/category/rome-examined/)
1:2: On the Origin, Reliability, and Use of New Testament Scripture
The Insufficiency of Oral Tradition in the Old Testament
[1] The entire debate concerning Holy Scripture cannot be handled more easily and correctly than by establishing the initial origin of Holy Scripture according to its cause and usage. From the light which no one can approach, God came forth in the beginning, revealed Himself and His will, and made Adam, so to speak, a bishop of that time and a bearer of the pure heavenly doctrine.
[2] Not long after, Cain, along with his followers, departed from the pure doctrine. After the death of Adam, even the sons of God, despite the tradition given to them, corrupted their way. Surely the heavenly doctrine was present in the primordial world and was also transmitted as the living Word. But because the thoughts of the hearts of men were evil, the pure doctrine became clouded. Indeed, the purity of doctrine was lost until God restored it by new revelations to Noah.
Though the family at that time was considered the true church, consider how well and happily the tradition of heavenly doctrine was preserved in that family through the living Word! Not that the tradition of true doctrine was completely discarded and trampled, but it become spoiled through the leaven that was added to it, as is later evident from the story of Laban.[1] But as Paul says, a little leaven sours all the dough.
This needs to be considered to understand just how precariously the papists proceed when they desire to preserve the doctrine of the New Testament by their traditions. If Scripture shows us how much the treasure of the Word faltered in the hearts of men in the succession of traditions even in the earliest times, should we now be able to establish heavenly doctrine upon traditions when the world has grown old?
God restored the pure doctrine when He revealed Himself to Abraham and made him a prophet. Thus spoke God also directly to Isaac and to Jacob. The latter as a testament commended his descendants to preserve it faithfully, but how faithfully it was preserved is shown in Ezekiel 20:7, “They disobeyed me and did not leave the idols of Egypt.” Once more then, God showed the patriarchal model of pure doctrine to Moses.
The Origin of Holy Scripture
[5] Not merely on the basis of God’s counsel, but rather according to God’s own act was the pure doctrine given, preserved, and sanctified through the Scriptures which He gave. This is a remarkable phenomenon, whose evidence is found in history, for God first wrote the Ten Commandments. Therefore, the origin of Holy Scripture goes back to God.
The Book of the Covenant mentioned in Exodus 24:7, as well as the Book of Wars (Numbers 21:14) and the Book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13) are of later origin than the words of the Ten Commandments.
[8] So far we have demonstrated two things from the oldest sacred history:
- That the pure heavenly doctrine was not always and everywhere kept pure in the stream of traditions, but rather was more often tainted;
- That God, in order to not always purify the doctrine anew through special revelations captured it in writing under Moses.
The Use of Holy Scripture in the Old Testament
[9] Now that the origin of Holy Scripture is clear, it remains to consider how Scripture was used. Moses wrote in four books not only the sacred history of his time, but above all the doctrine of the Law. Moreover, in the first book he treats the essentials of the faith and life of the patriarchs.
The Ten Commandments were preserved in the ark of the covenant, whereas the writings of Moses were kept on its side under the care of the Levites. The king was always to have the Law with him (Deuteronomy 17:18–20), and the people were to have it on their doorposts (Deuteronomy 6:9, 11:20). The Law was also to be read before the whole people of Israel (Deuteronomy 31:10–13).
[10] Thus, after the composition of the sacred books, Israel was the pillar and foundation of the truth, for it was entrusted with that which God had spoken (Romans 3:2). Moreover, Moses had the Book of the Law copied so that it might be a canon, rule, and guide, from which one was not to depart either to the right or to the left.
The Co-Existence of Oral Tradition with Holy Scripture in the Old Testament
[11] Another observation could yet be added to this. The rest of Noah’s descendants in the world had doubtlessly received many traditions from ancestral times by their forefathers. These people had probably wanted to be considered in possession of God’s Word just as much as the people of Israel. Certainly they boasted of their traditions from the mouth of the patriarchs. If they had had such advocates at that time as Andrada, Pighius, and Lindanus, they certainly would have mocked God’s lofty thoughts in allowing His Word to be written through Moses for the people. For everything which is brought forward in our time by the papists against the authority of Scripture and in favor of tradition could have also been purported by the descendants of Ham and Japheth. These descendants used the name of tradition to defend their religion because they were not able to defend it from Scripture.
The one and simple answer was that at that time it was certainly true that the patriarchs in their long lives had spoken far more about heavenly doctrine than what is compressed into a brief summary in the first book of Moses. But from all that the patriarchs by divine inspiration had done or taught, that biblical extract chosen by God has been deemed sufficient for faith and eternal life. If there were also in the memory of the faithful at that time accounts about the words of the patriarchs which were neither false nor meaningless, so too must these agree with the writings of Moses and be examined according to them.
[12] We also hear about the prophets, like Samuel (1 Samuel 10:25); Isaiah (Isaiah 30:8), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36:2), and others, that the fundamentals of their teaching were written down. It was God who drove them to write (Habakkuk 2:2; Isaiah 8:1). Their writings were stored next to the sacred books of Moses in the ark of the covenant.
[13] If one argues that Isaiah in his eighty years preached more than his sixty-six chapters, then I repeat once again that God only allowed what is necessary for faith and life to be recorded from the teaching of the prophets.
The Old Testament as a Norm and Its According with the New Testament
[14] In every dispute and corruption, the pious of the Old Testament referred to Scripture, thus Jehoshaphat, when he had the people instructed from the Book of the Law; thus Josiah, when he commended the newly discovered Law to the people. When the book of Judges says of the kingless times, “Each one did what was good in his own eyes,” implied in this is that it was the duty of kings to rule in fidelity to the Law. The prophetic lament in perverse times that the Law had been abandoned drives this point home. The book of Ezra also clearly shows how errors that crept in during the exile were removed on the basis of Scripture.
[15] Paul emphasizes before Agrippa the agreement of his teaching with Moses and the Prophets. Abraham says to the rich man, “They have Moses and the Prophets.” The risen One, who had personally dealt with the fathers, invokes the prophetic witness in Luke 24:46 with the words, “Thus it is written.” He truly could have recounted much from unwritten tradition, but He wanted to show that in the written teaching everything is contained. Paul says in Romans 1:1–2 that he preaches the Gospel promised in the prophetic Scriptures. In Acts 17:11, the apostolic preaching is examined according to Holy Scripture and this examination is praised by the Holy Spirit.
Summary
[16–18] In the preceding discussion on the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament we have demonstrated (1) its origin; (2) its cause; (3) its use; (4) its essence as the epitome of the doctrine of salvation; (5) and its sufficiency. But before we enter the discussion about the New Testament, we must make a few comments about the origin of tradition.
[1] Laban, the father of Leah and Rachel, while recognizing the God of Jacob, also possessed and used household idols (Gen 31).
