Posted on 03/15/2004 6:40:12 PM PST by narses
I totally agree. Just as God didn't give Adam a complete and perfect volume of doctrine when he got booted from the garden, and just as God has yet to provide a complete and perfect volume of doctrine to the world, it is apparent to me that just as we teach our children in accordance to their level of understanding and willingness to give heed to that which they already have been taught, that our Heavenly Father also works according to the collective understanding and obedience of his children at any given time. (i.e., From the time of Moses down until Christ, Israel was given a lower law adapted to their spiritual level and level of obedience.)
To me, this is one of the great messages of the Bible as we have it today. And as such, all the more reason to be diligent to the light and knowledge we possess and always be willing to accept more light and knowledge when the Holy Spirit guides us to it. Hence, I see no need to rush to assertions like "the Bible is all the scripture we need." Perhaps the amount of scripture available to Paul and Timothy in their time was indeed sufficient for them in the context of their light and understanding. Yet, we live in a very different time and in very different circumstances. Surely our Heavenly Father continues to provide light and knowledge in our time as well. Surely his children in this time are just as valuable to Him as His children in other times. Rather than asserting that we have all that we need, perhaps we would better off asserting that we should give heed to the light and knowledge that we have, look forward to and pray from more light and knowledge to come, and welcome it when the Holy Spirit guides us to it.
God bless you in your journey for increased light and knowledge :)
I hope you realize that human corruption, which is inherent in our nature, is different from Christian teaching which is guided by the Holy Spirit. As such, the transgresisons of Protestant ministers, or Orthodox priests, or ordinary Christians, or even of the pope, are acts and expressions of our human corruption and not of false theology.
Unfortunately, you cannot look at the fruit of the, supposedly, infallible teaching of the Catholic church and, indeed, conclude that their teacing is infallible
What are we then to say of various Protestants whose acts and behavior were clearly immoral and evil? Obviously, teaching from an infallible Bible did not cure human corruption. That has to come from within -- and it is a long and incomplete process.
I would say that corruption is not inherent in the manner of interpretation of the scriptures, ... but rather in the hearts of those doing the interpreting
We read Scriptures with imperfect minds and therefore interpret them imperfectly. We can only hope that a collective understanding of imperfect minds, because they are imperfect to different degrees, can gives a less imperfect understanding of that which is Incomprehensible, Eternal, Ineffable, Uncircumscribed, Simple, Indivisible, and so on, the apophatic attributes of God.
If one is seeking God, God has promised that you will find Him through His word
Or is it through His Word? Finding God is an awareness of His love and His ever-presence in your life, not knowing Him, as in understanding or comprehension.
How is it that you, an Othodox Christian, reconcile the claims to unique leadership and teaching by the catholic church ?
Why should I reconcile the claims of unique leadership of the Catholic Church and more than reconciling the cliam of the Protestants that the Church was in apostasy before Martin Luther?
Is God's teaching from the seat of Peter for you ?
Our Lord Jesus Christ commisisoned his Apostles to preach in the name of Trinity. Nowhere did He appoint a "leader" with external authority among them. Even that one passage where Jesus says "Though art Peter and on this Rock I will buld My Church..." is understood to refer to Simon's faith that was rock-solid. For it makes more sense for our Lord to build His Church on that rock-solid Faith as a means for our salvation, then on Peter himself!
Peter and his successors, the Bishops of Rome, did enjoy the primacy of honor, but not the juridical authority over and above other Apostles and their successor bishops. All seven Churches were always equal in rank and all Apostles and their descendant bishops are too. how do the Orthodox trace the authority for the teaching and interpretation of the scriptures
Through the Apostles and their bishops, and valid priesthood, in other words -- through Apostolic succession.
The role of the laity in the Orhtodox Church is not a subordinate one, as it is sometimes in the Catholic Church. The lay members of the Church have equal responsibility and duty to correct or challenge other lay members or ordained members of the church if their teachings clash with the collective knowledge of the Church, especially on issues of practices.
It must be understood that the only "authority" in the Orthodox Church is the authority of the Bishop over his church. He is the final say on matter of the Church. That doesn;tr mean that he cannot be challenged. The Church makes decisions through Synods. There is a place of honor for the Patriarch of Constantinople (the second Rome), who is first among equals but who exerts no stewardship or external authority over other bishops.
The Orthodox Church does not see God as an external authority, in the human fashion, but simply as Truth that is implanted in our minds and inscribed in our hearts.
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