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To: Justice
Considering God's Word as the highest authority is ignorant? Really?

No. Considering the Scriptures (rather than the God's Word, Who became Incarnate of Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made Man, and to whom those Scriptures testify) to be not merely the highest authority, but somehow, unlike all other texts, self-interpreting is ignorant. The problem with sola Scriptura is that it isn't what it claims to be, because what it claims to be can't really exist, because texts, even Divinely inspired texts, are not self-interpreting.

When pressed, every "Bible believing" Christian proves that he or she is secretly relying on a hermeneutic tradition to arrive at the "literal" meaning of Scripture. And it is almost always a hermeneutic tradition that is deliberately constructed in opposition to the hermeneutic and doctrinal tradition that existed in the Patriarchate of Rome about half a millenium after their schism from the Holy Orthodox Church.

As an example, I would point to the fact that most folks who aver that the Bible is "literally true" somehow regard "Take, eat, this is my body," to be merely metaphor or symbol, not literally true -- essentially appealing to a tradition that the Latin church's teaching on the nature of the Eucharist is not merely a little defective and in need of correction (We Orthodox have problems with their application of the Aristotelian notions of substance and accident to explaining a Divine Mystery), but is absolutely false and must be absolutely denied. Thin arguments based on stretched interpretations of other passages of Scripture are put forward to defend the claim that Our Lord did not mean what He said when instituting the Eucharist on the night on which He was betrayed, but the fact is that most Biblical literalists are nothing of the sort, since if one is a Biblical literalist, one cannot hold a Zwinglian view of the Eucharist.

123 posted on 10/27/2014 6:31:28 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: The_Reader_David; Justice
No. Considering the Scriptures (rather than the God's Word, Who became Incarnate of Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made Man, and to whom those Scriptures testify) to be not merely the highest authority, but somehow, unlike all other texts, self-interpreting is ignorant. The problem with sola Scriptura is that it isn't what it claims to be, because what it claims to be can't really exist, because texts, even Divinely inspired texts, are not self-interpreting.

The problem is NOT with sola Scriptura, but with how people define what it means. Most who reject the doctrine get it wrong. As the ONLY resource we have that is 100% Divinely-inspired, God-breathed, Holy Spirit revealed truth, the Scriptures ARE the authority by which all truth claims must be measured. If someone declares Christians MUST believe the universe revolves around the earth or they cannot be saved, we could reject it because it is NOT something God's word teaches us nor is it something God tells us is a major tenet of the faith - not to mention it cannot be shown to be something Jesus or the Apostles taught nor can it be found in either the Old Testament or the New Testament writings.

Since the first century, Christians have believed in basic doctrines that define the Christian faith and they are ALL proven BY sacred Scripture. Scripture DOES interpret Scripture and the heresies that arose from the start WERE disputed BY Scripture. God's word is the highest authority we have because nothing else is Divinely-inspired truth. It was good enough for Jesus, His Apostles and the early Christians, it is good enough for us and IS our authority to which we owe obedience. The church (believers) is not in authority over God's word - just the opposite.

    If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (II Thess. 3:14,15)

156 posted on 10/27/2014 9:33:35 PM PDT by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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