The Blinders of Tradition

I was listening to an audio devotional recently, produced by a nationally known clergyman. He read the following verses:

1 Corinthians 15:50-51

I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable/ Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

He then explained that our bodies, such as they are now, cannot inhabit the heavenly realm and therefore must be changed. Those of us who are alive when Christ returns, he taught, will be changed. This change will be instant, radical, and eternal, he said. How thrilling, I thought. He then stated, “Those who have died are waiting in heaven with Jesus, and they too, will be changed.”

What? Waiting in heaven with Jesus? How did he get “waiting in heaven with Jesus” from “the dead will be raised imperishable”?  This radical switcheroo took me by surprise.

Surely, he understood the vocabulary. How did he read the simple words “the dead will be raised” and come up with “waiting in heaven with Jesus”? How did he read one thing and turn it into the opposite?

Tradition.

The Oxford English Dictionary offers 11 definitions of “tradition,” including this one: “Doctrine, or a particular doctrine, which is not stated in scripture, but which is believed to have comparable authority, having been transmitted orally or by other non-written means.” Evidently, it is part of his church’s tradition to believe that Christians who have died are, in fact, alive, waiting in heaven with Jesus. So, when he came to the part of verse 51 that says, “The dead will be raised imperishable,” tradition automatically switched the words to “they are alive, waiting in heaven with Jesus.”

Tradition can blind a person to simple words on a page.  

Tradition can blind any of us. It’s something to guard against as we study to show ourselves approved unto God as workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.