"Those who don't believe that they have any 'traditions' in their understanding of Biblical passages are the most vulnerable to actually having some." James WhiteTraditions can certainly affect how we interpret certain passages of scripture, how we do church, or how we relate to others. Having been apart of a certain denomination (Calvary Chapel) for over 10 years, I now realize just how many "traditions" that I developed while there. One of these "traditions" was my understanding of Revelation chapters 2-3. The "hyper-dispensationalist" tendencies of some, in Calvary Chapel, insisted that these churches represented actual church ages. They would take each church in succession and line them up with various points in church history (ie. the Early Church was Ephesus, the Persecuted Church (under Rome) was Smyrna, the Reformation Church was Sardis, and so forth). Though we can certainly see some characteristics of these 7 churches (in chapters 2-3) with church history periods, it was
not meant to be a perfect description of every church age in succession.
There is not even the slightest indication, in these passages, that they were supposed to represent church ages, rather, they were
7 literal churches that existed in the Apostle John's time. This had never been the understanding of these passages until men like Harry Ironside and Hal Lindsey popularized them.
Most credible Dispensational scholars see these as only literal churches as well (see John Walvoord's commentary on revelation, or Robert Thomas' commentary). Why is this interpretation important? For one, it takes away the
practical aspects of learning about these churches and drawing lessons from them. Secondly, it
perverts your understanding of Church History.
Case in point--if the Sardis church becomes the Reformation Church, then one of the greatest revivals in church history becomes "dead" and no better than what it tried to reform--namely, the corrupt Roman Catholic Church of that time (which would correspond with Thyatira). All of this confusion is built upon forcing something into a passage that is never stated (or even implied).
Tradition can be a good or bad thing. The important thing is to always be willing to take a fresh look into how we see things--whether it be our interpretation of scripture or how we structure our church. Our "sacred cows" should never interfere with Biblical truth. More on this topic later.