[HarleyD]

Hmmmmm...those are interesting points you bring up OP. Not being familiar with the customs and habits of the Presbyterian church I find it rather interesting.

I'll grant you, your "two headed" approach is correct and certainly within keeping of scripture. But what happens when there are conflicts with what you are reading and with what the Magisterium is saying to be true? Does your understanding of scripture override the Magisterium? Luther said so. Should the Magisterium interpretation of the scripture be honored? The Catholic Church stated so.

The issue boils down to what has the higher authority. Our Catholic brethren believes the Magisterium overrides the scriptures and they have their reasons. Protestantism, OTOH, was built on the concept that scripture takes precedence over the Magisterium.

To be sure within Protestantism there are a wide interpretation as to how closely one should follow the Magisterium. BUT, if one wants to relinquish ALL authority to the Magisterium, then I would submit this is Catholic thinking and was never the intent of Protestantism or any original Protestant Magisterium thinking.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

I'll grant you, your "two headed" approach is correct and certainly within keeping of scripture. But what happens when there are conflicts with what you are reading and with what the Magisterium is saying to be true?

I would appeal to my Presbyter, then to my Session, then to my Presbytery, then to my Synod, and finally to the General Assembly of The Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

At no point along this chain could any single allegedly-"Infallible" Human Personage deny me my Right of Appeal to Scripture, and at all points above my Presbyter (assuming I had an intractable disagreement with my Presbyter over a reading of Scripture) would the matter be determined by Conciliar Governance ("two heads are better than one"), with Right of Appeal.

Theoretically, if I appealed to the General Assembly, and my petition were adjudged by the full council of both the Ministers and the Lay Elders to be invalid -- then I would have to either submit myself to the Ruling of the Council, or else go into schism.

However, it should be noted that the General Assembly has proven in the past (even once or twice in the 20th Century) to accept modifications to even the (otherwise-binding) Confession of Faith when a powerful Appellate Case against a disputed clause of the Confession can be resoundingly proved to the entire Council, from Scripture Alone.

As regards the reading of Scripture in the light of Magisterial edification, then: I am far more comfortable with the Biblically-ordained Presbyterian system of Conciliar Government (see Acts 15), multiple Right of Appeal, and acknowledgement of the supremacy of Biblical Law over Creedal Regulation... than I could ever be comfortable with the Romanist system of "The Pope says it, so you better damn well believe it, and that settles it".

Best, OP