Replies

I've only received two other responses to that post. One was a thoughtful note from a Catholic (I think, but am not sure) to help correct what he may have thought defective in the Petrene ideas of another Catholic that I had responded to, thus hoping to also correct mine.

Concerning the other response, when anyone only counts the Bible for a quarter or less of their authority for what they believe and practice, it doesn't matter at all what Scripture we quote. They come back implying things like (1) the writer didn't say everything he meant, or (2) the writer's description of what he was doing or where he was, or who his ministry was to is not said in the text to be exhaustive.

What they intend to teach us is that the Scriptures are full of holes, and lines missing that must be filled in. And of course, ABSOLUTELY the ONLY people qualified to plug imaginary holes or fill in imaginary gaps between lines, or complete the author's thoughts where he didn't say all he should have said are the theologians, lawyers and apologists of their particular church. Nobody else knows how to read.

Yes. This is important. It's also important to try to look at it judiciously and not from an advocacy POV, at least some of the time.

I don't know how we might quantify (a quarter or less of their authority for what they believe) how much authority is given this or that element.

But when the Bible is viewed as the Principle tradition but still one which arose and passed down by tradition, one's approach is going to be very different from that chosen by those who view it as something standing outside tradition.

For example, textual variations and questions are going to tend to require some authoritative answer, and the problem of by what standard the text is to be assessed is huge, I would think, if the text is the highest standard.

From our POV, looking to the Bible as the only standard leads to a kind of scribal tradition with several different strands, from the Messianic Jews, to various kinds of dispensationalism, to Calvinist, to Arminian, to Jehovah's Witnesses to the various sects of the Baptist persuasion, and so on.

And as I said earlier, while in these threads the divisions are made light of, they certainly seem to involve an inefficient use of real estate and chattels since the interpretive divisions seem often to lead to denominational division.

Similar things can be said about our approach, in which schools of interpretation are not limited to Scriptural texts but also to theological schools and interpretations of former acts of councils and of Popes. It has been suggested that, aside from the massive corruption of much of the Catholic Church in Luther's time, he was also a victim of a kind of extreme Ockhamism which led to a serious misrepresentation of the Gospel.

We all have our problems. We each think the other's set of problems is worse than ours.

***What they intend to teach us is that the Scriptures are full of holes, and lines missing that must be filled in. And of course, ABSOLUTELY the ONLY people qualified to plug imaginary holes or fill in imaginary gaps between lines, or complete the author’s thoughts where he didn’t say all he should have said are the theologians, lawyers and apologists of their particular church. Nobody else knows how to read.***

1 Tim 3:
15
But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.

Acts 8:
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7 Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, “Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route.”
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So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, 8 that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship,
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and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
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The Spirit said to Philip, “Go and join up with that chariot.”
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9 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
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He replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
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This was the scripture passage he was reading: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
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In (his) humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from the earth.”
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Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, “I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?”
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Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him.
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As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?”
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10
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Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him.
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When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.

The Church was created to teach, instruct and admonish. How can one understand if nobody teaches him?