And as far as "where do you go for the important part, to take it to the church?", we have the Holy Bible that is our source for all doctrines of the Christian faith. God has not left us rudderless as he provided his Word, the indwelling Holy Spirit AND our local church leadership for resolution of problems regarding the truth of the faith and church discipline. There are clear cut rules spelled out in Scripture for how a church is to deal with members who are involved in public sin. We are told to not forsake the assembly of ourselves together. This is obviously for our edification and spiritual growth. But, like you said, the church is present in all believers and we are blessed when we find others of like mind to fellowship with and to experience all that God has for us. Jesus said where two or more of us are gathered together in his name, he is right there with us.
BB. You should that doesn't wash. Even sola scriptura churches differ on important matters, Calvinists vs. Arminians, etc.
There are clear cut rules spelled out in Scripture for how a church is to deal with members who are involved in public sin.
We don't even agree on what the Church is in Scripture.
It doesn't work, BB. Look around, it flat does not work. You just start another church if you disagree.
Jesus said where two or more of us are gathered together in his name, he is right there with us.
Look around on here. It's reduced to one. "Just me and the Bible, that's all I need."
That's not the Church established by Christ, not the Church of the Apostles. They did not become martyrs for the church of each individual's interpretation, nor for two people and Jesus. But for One Church, Holy and Apostolic, universal in its faith.
thanks for your post.
Look, the Bible is the standard yes, but on what basis do we say that say it is right to believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Anglican/Lutheran) or not? This is central to the former's faith and is part of the denomination's plan of salvation.
Yet others take up the Bible and disagree based on their own interpretation.
The Bible is inerrant, but human beings as individuals can and do make flawed interpretations, even well-meaning, but flawed.
Take another central matter of faith -- do we still have spiritual gifts like prophecy or talking in tongues amongst us (Pentecostals) or not (Presbyterians)? Some pentecostals would say that one has to demonstrate the former to show that one has achieved salvation, others will disagree.
The problem comes that both may interpret verses differently - and in this case, both cannot be correct, right?
Instead, what we in orthodoxy have is the passing down of the teaching, the interpretation of the scripture from Christ through the Apostles. At the end of Christ's ministry, after the Resurrection He taught His apostles one last time and what He taught could not be contained in all the books of the world -- this was the interpretation of the word, Christ's description of this to these simple fishermen etc. who were His Apostles
God did not and has not left us rudderless -- His interpretation and the practices which we practise is what He gave as rudders.
Why did the Early Christians believe and practise a faith that was similar to what we celebrate in the Divine Liturgy/Mass when we read in The Didache written in AD 70 (Apostolic Times), it reads as a description of the Mass/Divine Liturgy
10:5 Remember, Lord, your church. Deliver it from all evil and make it perfect in your love, and gather it from the four winds sanctified for your kingdom which you have prepared for it. For Yours is the power and the glory forever.
These are what we practise today, the beliefs and practises handed down from Christ Himself through the Apostles. The pure sacrifice is not a repeated one but a participation in the One pure, purest Sacrifice -- that in which the High Priest Christ gave of Himself.