Apostolic Fathers: Dates they lived and other information.

Apostolic Fathers: Five kinds of Tradition.

1. "But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves." (Clement of Alexandria, book 7, ch 16, Scripture the Criterion by Which Truth and Heresy are Distinguished)
   
   What a wonderful anti-Catholic statement Clement makes! Clement will not accept any doctrine, until he can see it is clearly taught in scriptures!
2. "For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, both by the prophets, the Gospel, and the blessed apostles, "in divers manners and at sundry times," [Heb 1:1] leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end. He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord, which by the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded] faithful." ... "For those are slothful who, having it in their power to provide themselves with proper proofs for the divine Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, select only what contributes to their own pleasures. And those have a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a diverse sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers, which are wedded to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human teachings , in order to establish the heresy"(Clement of Alexandria, book 7, ch 16, Scripture the Criterion by Which Truth and Heresy are Distinguished)
   
   Clement shows the sequence of revelation starting with Jesus, moving through the prophets, then finally ending its journey in the written gospels. Notice that at the end of the process, the Christian, "of himself" (using his own powers of interpretation) believes the scriptures. Notice that Clement calls "slothful" those who do not put the work into interpreting the Bible for themselves! These false teachers just carelessly grab anything they can find to support their doctrines without doing a proper and though study. Again this sounds real "Catholic" or "Orthodox" because they are lazy and want the priest to simply tell them what the Bible says, rather than doing the work and studying the scriptures for themselves!

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