The Remnant and Tradition

This post is part 2, part one can be found here.

I am not trying to prove that the Seventh-day Adventists are the remnant. I am trying to develop a biblical understanding of what it means to be the remnant, to hold this identity. I also am not arguing in favor of a list or behavioral code, but rather a better understanding of the biblical principles involved. I don’t believe I have all the answers, but I am searching and if you would like to join me on this journey I hope you are blessed.

Once again I will be borrowing heavily and quoting at length from Dr. Fernando Canale’s Paper “On Being the Remnant.” His paper can be accessed freely and it is 48 pages long. What I present here is my personal summarized and more practical understanding of what he wrote.

Church Tradition

Let’s think about the early church. Soon after the apostles, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the revelation of God in Jesus Christ among them in the New Testament writings, Christians began to use the writings of the apostles not only as a rule of faith but also as spiritual food. Together with the revelations God gave previously during Old Testament times they became the theological and spiritual ground for the Christian Church. (Canale, F. (2013). On Being the Remnant. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 24(1), 132.)

The process of receiving, appropriating, and spiritually internalizing God’s word, however, always involves interpretation.

Due to many and complex historical reasons early in her history the Christian church progressively adapted her teachings and liturgical forms to Greek ontological categories. (I don’t want to take up too much space to explain this, especially because I am not an expert in ontology, but it has to do with being, and existence if interested more information is available here.)

Christian leaders facing the world of culture, science, and reason, decided, for various reasons, not to reject the leading scientific culture of their days: Greek philosophy in its Neoplatonic format. Historians of Christian theology label this process the “hellenization” or alternatively the “de-Judaization” of Christianity.
- Canale p.133 (bold mine)

By adapting to the cultural trends of their days early Christians progressively and radically replaced the macro hermeneutical presuppositions New Testament writers took from the Old Testament canon. (Hermeneutics has to do with interpretation, so the macro or major way of interpreting reality, presuppositions are notions we take for granted.) I have no doubts that in so doing Christians thought they were faithful to God and desired to advance His mission on earth. Unfortunately, they progressively neglected Isaiah’s injunction to use Scriptural teachings as interpretive principles to evaluate new spiritual events (Isaiah 8:20). Moreover, they also failed to follow Christ’s hermeneutical practice when He used Old Testament teachings and categories as interpretive principles necessary for a proper explanation of His salvific ministry and death on the cross to his disciples (Luke 24:27). 
- Canale, F. pp132–133.

The Emergence of Scripture and the Anonymous Remnant

The “synthesis” between Greek macro hermeneutical interpretive principles and biblical data on which Christian tradition stands sheltered a fateful conflict that sooner or later was bound to create theological and spiritual inconsistencies along the way. For example, Luther noticed a glaring irregularity: clearly, the system of meritorious works did not fit experience or the clear teachings of Scripture.

With a God-given conviction and staunch determination, Martin Luther turned to Scripture to fight against tradition and reform the church.

Scripture was emerging from tradition.

With the passing of time, Luther’s and Calvin’s “turn to Scripture” intensified and disseminated throughout Europe and America. In the process, mainline and radical reformations progressively rediscovered and integrated forgotten biblical teachings into the fabric of Christianity. Notably, English Puritan theologians during the seventeenth century and John Wesley during the eighteenth century used Scripture to challenge tradition. Simultaneously, the discovery of further biblical teachings produced an ever-increasing doctrinal and theological fragmentation of Protestant Christianity.

In fact, the “turn to Scripture” by mainline and radical reformations did not challenge but assumed and used the interpretative principles Christian tradition had drawn from Greek philosophical ideas. This little-noticed fact buried deep in the history of Protestant and Evangelical experiences may explain why the emergence of Scripture that followed in the wake of the Reformation did not produce a unified alternative to Roman Catholicism but rather an ever-increasing fragmentation of Christianity in doctrines, practices, and denominations that still goes on unabated.

Nevertheless, from a historical perspective the Protestant “turn to Scripture” involves the progressive emergence of an anonymous remnant. It is a remnant because it springs into existence from faithfulness to Scripture rather than tradition and philosophy. Consequently, the anonymous remnant is a provisional stage in the process of the restoration of the Church back to its biblical nature as the remnant of Israel. (more on this on part 1)

An attentive reading to the history of Christian doctrines reveals that Christianity soon developed a theological tradition that consolidated throughout the Middle Ages. Guided by Neoplatonic and Aristotelian hermeneutical principles, Augustine and Aquinas respectively are perhaps the most distinguished systematizers of Christian tradition. 

Yet, as the study of scriptures progresses, eventually some anomalies that do not fit the system arise. To solve them, creative thinking is needed. Here, “creative thinking” means “thinking outside the box” (the box being tradition). As mentioned above, Martin Luther noticed a glaring inconsistency between Paul’s clear teachings on justification by faith and the traditional teachings of the church on meritorious works and assurance of salvation through plenary papal indulgences. In his attempt to solve these anomalies, however, Luther was still thinking inside the box and using the sources he found in that box: tradition and Scripture. We all know that the system of theology did not like the “fixing” Luther advanced with his “justification by faith alone” proposal and placed him “outside” its community.

 With the passing of time, the Protestant Reformation led to the rediscovery of a wealth of Scriptural teachings and practices, but it never challenged tradition’s philosophical interpretation of the foundational macro hermeneutical principles. Hence, the much-heralded Reformation principle of scripture alone (“sola Scriptura”) never actually challenged the interpretive role of tradition based on Greek philosophical ideas on the reality of God, human nature, the world, the whole of reality (ontology and metaphysics), and reason (epistemology).

In conclusion, because the church stands on Christ as revealed in Scriptures the Protestant turn to Scripture initiated the emergence from tradition of the Biblical remnant albeit in a “stealth” or “anonymous” provisory way. The anonymous remnant was provisory because the Protestant commitment to Scripture did not challenge the ontological, metaphysical, and hermeneutical presuppositions on which Christian traditions had built their theological and ecclesiological systems. Because Protestantism still shares these basic guiding assumptions with Roman Catholicism, its turn to Scripture is partial and produces systemic and theological inconsistencies that unavoidably generated an ever-increasing ecclesiological fragmentation. Due to this situation, Protestantism became unable to fully emerge as the Biblical remnant church. Instead, it became shaky and in need of theological answers and ecclesiological stability. With the passing of time, this search for answers will cause the anonymous remnant to pave the way to the rise on one side of the emerging remnant, and, on the other side, of the emerging church.

 Canale, F. (2013). On Being the Remnant. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 24(1), 134–138.

The practical takeaway for me is the need to study the Bible and allow it to challenge our culture and our presuppositions. I know, “easier said than done,” but at least I know that this is the right path.