You wouldn’t believe the books, lexicons, and Greek/Hebrew side by sides I have accumulated over the years. Now with the internet it has become much, much easier to cross reference. You might say that not all have the time but I would simply say that it’s our eternal future at stake and this life is but a blink of an eye if that. My parents both passed on in the last year and they took nothing with them but their faith.
>>It seems to me I must have misunderstood you to say that this is your responsibility and the responsibility of each and every Christian to do the same work for themselves.<<
Would you put your eternal future into the hands of some other human? I would not. Yes it’s each individual’s responsibility to learn and come to their own belief and faith.
>>Is this correct about your views? Or do you rely upon others' expertise in one or more of the areas above and not do all of the work yourself?<<
Of course I use the expertise of language scholars etc. but I can guarantee that I will “search the scriptures daily” to see if what they say fits.
FWIW, I agree with everything you’ve been saying.
Listen and verify.
There is no reason in the world today to not search out the meaning of Scripture by going back to the Greek and Hebrew. There are just too many resources for those languages.
It would be totally foolhardy to put something as critical and important as one's eternal salvation in the hands of any other human being. That's FOREVER. The only one I trust with that is Jesus. I have committed the security of my salvation to God Himself, asking Him to keep it secure, to protect me from myself, knowing that He will remain faithful even when I am faithless.
Nobody's going to have a perfect understanding of God and who He is and how redemption was wrought for us.
All we can do is trust as we now see through a glass darkly and know that when we finally see Him face to face, all the problems of misunderstanding will be taken care of.
Just like an earthly father doesn't expect perfection out of his two year old, God does not expect perfection out of us. He knows we can't do it and is just as pleased with us trusting as the earthly father is with his own children simply trusting him.
David sinned some great sins but God still called him *a man after God's own heart*.
It's not the perfection of the actions or beliefs, but the trust in God, who He is and trust in His character that He will do what He said He would.
Of course I use the expertise of language scholars etc.
And not the expertise of some in what is scripture to begin with? And the expertise of others to preserve it long after the originals are gone? It would seem to me that to even get to the point of necessity of language experts one would have to be standing on a mountain of work of others that one must trust. Agree?