"I beleive it teaches what it teaches - scripture does not mean what each and every private individual concludes it means."
That's correct! That's why there are some 10,000 protestant groups running around all claiming to possess the true meaning.
" I do not take it beyohnd that to mean God ordained a particular church line to alway hold infallible powers of interpretataion and doctrine."
Then you reject the word of Jesus when he said: 'upon this rock I build my CHURCH and the gates of hell will not prevail against it'. Christ created a VISIBLE Church with visible material Apostles, deacons, disciples, etc. and he gave that Church authority. This is Christ's visible Church, not to be confused with Christ's mystical Church. In the 15th chapter of Acts we see this visible Church, led by the Holy Spirit, convene a Council and determine certain doctrines that were binding on the entire Church. Paul submitted to this authority and then took the council decisions to all the churches that he had established. This is the visible Church beginning to exercise the power that Christ had given them.
If the Church did not have these powers, then how could they declare in council which books were inspired and which were not? With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the successor bishops of these same Apostles determined the canon of scripture for all time. They determined what we(both liturgical and Protesant) we view as scripture today.
How can you say they had no power from God to do this when they actually did it? Luther removed four books out of the NT when he removed serveral books out of the OT. The later reformers like Calvin rejected Luther removal of Revelation, James, Hebrews ,etc. from the NT.
These facts are completely supported by history. The successors of the Apostles up to the present is a carefully guarded treasure of the Church.
Popes and bishops have often made mistakes and have often sinned. It is not the power or goodness of the Popes and bishops that define the power and wisdom of the Church but rather the power of Jesus's words when he created his Church. Jesus ordained and empowered the Church and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. The leaders of the Church--Peter, Paul, etc. and the present leaders-are not without sin. It is the power of Christ and the promises of Christ that gives power to the Church not the power of its members or leaders. The promises of Christ to the Church do not depend on the weaknesses of the leaders and members but on the divine power of Christ.
" think you and most take the verse to support the "authority" of you churches
even over the proper use of what God has granted you in the
area of logical and a careful descerning spiritual revelation through the Word of God Alone"
You are very wrong! The power of the Holy Spirit in each believer is crucial to the Christian life. Those of us who follow the Church that Jesus founded do enslave our consciences to the human authority that Christ oradined. We simply use the authority and the teachings of the LIVING Church over the centuries to inform our conscience, to guide our consciences, to guide our thinking and to prevent us from falling into grievous heretical error.
To abolish the authority of the Church that Christ created and to attempt to be a lone ranger type Christian is dangerous and sometimes fatal. Look at the thousand of the trinitarian Protestant denominations and also look at the dozens of non-trinitarian Prtoestant denominations (Mormons, Jehovaha's Witnesses, Untied Pentacostals, etc.)
" once believed what you believe - I found out the hard way
that such a theory cannot be maintained in the "light of reality"
It is not a theory but the hard reality of the words that Jesus spoke. Once you reject Jesus's word about his Church then you are open to reject his words in the 6th chapter of John about his Body and Blood. It is Christ's words that gives power to Holy Communion.
I was once a Protestant preacher. My reading of scripture, early Church fathers and Church History totally convinced me that Jesus's words were true when he said the gates of hell would not prevail against his Church. The power in Christ's ordination of Holy Communion alone is enough to convince one open to the truth.
The Church today, like in the days of Peter and Paul, are made up of sinful human beings--earthen vessels--who have thre treasure of God's Spirit living in them. The collective understanding of the Scriptures by the Church is correct. This is why these sinful leaders of the Church could, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, determined which Church writins would be considered inspired and scripture and which would be considered non-inspired.
I am happy that the Lord preserved you in your sickness and brought you back to us. May he give you many more years to explore his Word and his Church and may you ultimated find His will in all things.
Your brother
Emile |
