Eastern Orthodoxy

Holy Tradition stands alongside Scripture as authoritative - the Bible is read within the Church's Tradition (the Ecumenical Councils, the Fathers, the liturgy), not by the individual apart from it.

Their basis
They cite 2 Thess 2:15 ('hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by word or by our letter') and 1 Tim 3:15 (the Church is 'the pillar and ground of the truth'), noting that the apostolic preaching came first and orally, that the Church discerned and canonized Scripture, and that John 21:25 shows not everything was written down.

Scripture answers
Jesus warned that human tradition can nullify God's word (Mark 7:8-13), and Paul warns against 'tradition of men' as against Christ (Col 2:8). Scripture is God-breathed and sufficient to make the man of God complete (2 Tim 3:16-17), and the Bereans were commended for testing even apostolic teaching against the Scriptures (Acts 17:11; cf. Isa 8:20). Tradition is honored only insofar as it faithfully carries what the apostles wrote.

Mark 7:8-13Col 2:82 Tim 3:16-17Acts 17:11Isa 8:20

In fairness: They have a genuine point: the apostolic gospel was preached before it was written (1 Cor 15:3), the Church transmitted and recognized the canon, and much of what Orthodoxy preserves - the Trinity, the Nicene Creed, the very list of NT books - is true and is relied upon by all Christians, including those who claim 'Scripture alone.' The real question is not whether tradition exists but whether it stays subordinate to Scripture.

Veneration of icons - images of Christ, Mary, and the saints are kissed, bowed to, and honored, as affirmed by the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II, 787).

Their basis
They distinguish veneration (honor, proskynesis) from worship (latreia, due to God alone), argue the Incarnation makes the invisible God depictable ('the Word became flesh,' John 1:14), and point to God's own commanded images - the cherubim over the ark (Exod 25:18-20) and the bronze serpent (Num 21:8-9). 'The honor given the image passes to the prototype.'

Scripture answers
The second commandment forbids making images to bow down to and serve (Exod 20:4-5), and Israel was reminded they saw 'no form' at Sinai lest they make one (Deut 4:15-19). God is worshiped in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Tellingly, when the very bronze serpent God had commanded became an object of devotion, godly Hezekiah destroyed it and called it 'Nehushtan - a piece of bronze' (2 Kings 18:4).

Exod 20:4-5Deut 4:15-19John 4:242 Kings 18:4Rom 1:23

In fairness: This is a real and careful argument, not idolatry by intent: the Incarnation genuinely changes the image question, God Himself did command sacred images, and the Orthodox sincerely reserve worship (latreia) for God alone. The concern is pastoral and practical - where the line between honoring and adoring an object blurs for ordinary worshipers, exactly the drift that overtook the bronze serpent.

Salvation as theosis (deification) - a lifelong healing and growth into union with God, accomplished by grace working together with the believer (synergy) through the sacraments/mysteries, rather than a single completed forensic verdict.

Their basis
They cite 2 Pet 1:4 ('partakers of the divine nature'), Christ's prayer that we be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:21-23), being transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18), regeneration 'of water and the Spirit' (John 3:5), and the Eucharist as true food (John 6:53-56). They resist a merely legal, one-moment justification that leaves the life unchanged.

Scripture answers
Scripture grounds salvation first in God's grace received through faith, 'not of works, so that no one may boast' (Eph 2:8-9; Gal 2:16; Rom 4:5), and Christ Himself declares 'It is finished' (John 19:30) - the thief on the cross was received with no sacrament (Luke 23:43). The transforming process they describe is real, but it flows FROM a salvation already secured in Christ, not something we complete by cooperation (Phil 1:6).

Eph 2:8-9Gal 2:16John 19:30Luke 23:43Rom 4:5

In fairness: They are right about much here: sanctification truly is a lifelong process, Scripture does speak of sharing the divine nature and being conformed to Christ's image (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18), and their insistence that living faith bears fruit rightly resists cheap grace (James 2:17). Orthodoxy does confess salvation as grace; the difference is emphasis - process and synergy over the finished, assuring work of Christ.

Veneration of the Theotokos (Mary, 'God-bearer,' ever-virgin, all-holy) and the intercession of the saints - believers ask Mary and the departed saints to pray for them.

Their basis
They cite Mary's own words 'all generations will call me blessed' (Luke 1:48), Elizabeth's 'blessed among women' (Luke 1:42), that the saints are alive in Christ ('God is not the God of the dead but of the living,' Matt 22:32), the 'great cloud of witnesses' (Heb 12:1), and the elders offering 'the prayers of the saints' (Rev 5:8). Asking a saint to pray, they say, is like asking a living Christian to pray for you (James 5:16).

Scripture answers
There is 'one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim 2:5), and Jesus taught us to pray directly to the Father (Matt 6:9). Scripture forbids seeking out the dead (Deut 18:10-11), and twice an angel refuses John's veneration with 'Worship God!' (Rev 19:10; 22:8-9). Mary herself points away from herself: 'Do whatever He tells you' (John 2:5); and Jesus redirected a woman who blessed His mother to 'those who hear the word of God and keep it' (Luke 11:27-28).

1 Tim 2:5Matt 6:9Luke 11:27-28John 2:5

In fairness: Mary is genuinely blessed and rightly honored - Scripture itself says all generations will call her so (Luke 1:48), and calling her Theotokos guards the truth that her Son is truly God. The saints are alive in Christ, and asking fellow believers to pray is thoroughly biblical. The caution is directing prayer to the departed and elevating Mary with titles and roles the New Testament does not give her, which can encroach on the honor and mediation that belong to Christ alone.