[BenKenobi]

“The question is whether or not there is a viable alternative. Councils and church fathers are not without error. Apostolic succession is no guarantee of truth. As I see it, Christianity does not have a solution to this horrible problem.”

So the problem is that people have difficulty following the authority of Christ, so the solution is to let every man interpret for himself? From where I sit, Apostolic succession and Church councils are the best way to preserve the teachings of Christ. That along with having a clear heirarchy with the priest at the top.

[BenKenobi]

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Where does it say anything about sufficiency? All it says is that all scripture is useful. What’s Paul referring to here? The OT or the NT?

[Nosterrex]

The problem is that there is a difference between apostolic consecration and apostolic succession of doctrine. The history of the church is replete with those that have received apostolic consecration but have been clearly heretical. The axiom is that every church father is a heretic. Councils have not only erred, but they are often been contradictory. None of these is going to guarantee the truth of the Gospel. The extreme view that every Christian has the authority to read and to interpret the Scriptures for himself does nothing more than produce countless sects. The best view is that the interpretation of the Scriptures is the work of the ENTIRE church, past and present.