The very authority of Holy Scripture is confirmed by the authority of Holy Tradition. Who told us that the Gospel of Matthew was written by Matthew, and the Gospel of Mark was written by Mark? Who established the number of Epistles of the Apostles Peter, John, and Paul? The canon of the New Testament and Old Testament books of the Bible is the work of the Church, and therefore of Tradition. On the other hand, all the Words of God do not fit into the biblical code.

It is said: "Many other things did Jesus do; but, if we were to write about this in detail, then I think that the world itself would not be able to contain the books written..." (John 21:25). Not all prophetic books and apostolic epistles have been preserved. In the Epistle of the Apostle Jude, a fragment from the Book of Enoch is quoted: "Of them also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying: 'Behold, the Lord is coming with thousands of His holy angels' (Jude 2:10). 1,14)

; and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians we find the following words: "I wrote to you in the epistle" (1 Corinthians 5:9), that is, I wrote earlier. Answer the question: What does the Apostle Paul mean when he writes: "Therefore, leaving the beginnings of the teaching of Christ, let us hasten to perfection; and let us not again lay the foundation for conversion from dead works and faith in God, for the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits" (Heb. 6:1-3).

Where, in what epistle are these beginnings of the teaching "on baptisms, on the laying on of hands" given? Many details: how to baptize in one or three immersions, the order of ordination of deacons, presbyters and bishops – all this is preserved at the level of Tradition and is not detailed in Scripture. Concluding the discussion of the significance of Holy Tradition, I would like to draw attention again to the teaching of the Apostle Paul on Tradition: "We bequeath you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to depart from every brother who walks disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they have received from us" (2 Thess. 3:6).

Here again we encounter the word paradosin (tradition), which cannot be translated otherwise than in the Synodal translation. In Weismann's Greek-Russian dictionary, this word is translated as "transmission (of teaching)." Jehovah's Witness: Do you think that what you call "tradition" is something vague and vague? Orthodox: No, on the contrary.

Holy Tradition has a concrete expression in the ancient symbols of the Christian faith, the rules of the Holy Scriptures. The Apostles, the Ecumenical and Local Councils, the ancient liturgies and acts, or in the legends of the martyrs, the works of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church – all these are components of the one Tradition of the Church. 2. About the Church The very nature of the Church as the Body of Christ testifies to the purity of the Church's teaching, based, like the biblical canon, on tradition.

The Apostle Paul wrote: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?..." (1 Corinthians 6:15); and again: "And you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Corinthians 12:27); and again: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I make up for what is lacking in my flesh of Christ's afflictions for His Body, which is the Church" (Col. 1:24). Jehovah's Witness: Your organization is not the Body of Christ (the Church).

Orthodoxy is a historical phenomenon that is not connected with the organization of God, much less with his church. Orthodox: It seems to me that it is time to move on to the question of the Church, especially since you and I have already touched on it. Do you think the Church has existed continuously from the day of its creation to the day of Pentecost? Jehovah's Witness: We believe that as an organization here on earth, the church ceased to exist, having mixed with the state, the empire of Constantine, in the fourth century.

She went from being the Bride of Christ to being a of Babylon. However, throughout all these centuries of apostasy, there must have been "wheat"—individual true anointed Christians. But the "wheat" was mixed with the tares, the worst of which is the Christian clergy, who remain the most essential part of Satan's "seed." This is also said in the Scriptures: "He set before them another parable, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; And while the people were asleep, his enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and departed. When the greenery sprang up and the fruit appeared, then the tares also appeared.

And when the servants of the householder came, they said to him, "Lord! Did you not sow good seed in your field? whence then are the tares on it? And he said to them, The enemy of man has done this. And the slaves said to him, "Do you want us to go and choose them?" But he said, 'No, lest, when you pick out the tares, you pluck up the wheat with them' (Matt. 13:24-29). The time of retreat, from the fourth century to 1914, is the time "when people slept."

In the light of the prophecies of Daniel 4:20-21, 28-29, we can see that the 2,520 years from 607 BC to the end of 1914, when Christ Jesus began to reign in heaven. The date 607 BC marks the end of God's theocratic kingdom. Therefore, the date of 1914 is the beginning of its restoration. So, the kingdom ended in 607 BC.

, and the faith was distorted from 325 A.D. But, as I said, a remnant persisted even in these times of apostasy. As Isaiah says: "If the Lord of hosts had not left us a small remnant, we would have been like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:9). Orthodox: I would call your position lethargic historiography. How can you imagine that Christendom, as you put it, has fallen asleep and "slept" for more than 1500 years?

The purpose of Christendom in every century of church history is the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ. Sending the Apostles to preach the gospel, the Lord said: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen" (Matt. 28:19-20).

Notice the second part of verse 20, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Here Christ speaks of the continuity of the Gospel gospel "always, even to the end of the age," meaning not even years, but "days." The continuity of the church's existence in history is evidenced by a prophecy from the Book of Daniel: "You saw him until a stone was torn from the mountain without hands, and struck the image and its feet of iron and clay, and broke them.