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To: bornacatholic; jude24; AnalogReigns
I am somewhat cowering as I dare ask - where in the Bible do you locate your authority to definitively rule on these doctrinal disagreements?

I do not "definitively rule" upon *any* doctrinal disagreement.

Rather, as a Lay Believer operating under the Authority of my Ordained Presbyters, I freely exercise my Layman's Right to Conscientous Reading of Scripture under the Appellate Authority bequeathed by Apostle Saint Timothy to All Believers without discrimination:

Being advised by Timothy that Scripture Alone can thoroughly furnish a Believer unto Perfect Understanding, I intend to continue reading Scripture and speaking my understanding (albeit under the Authority of my Ordained Presbyters, which is also of course commanded in Scripture).

Best, OP

78 posted on 01/20/2006 3:56:39 AM PST by OrthodoxPresbyterian (We are Unworthy Servants; We have only done Our Duty)
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To: OrthodoxPresbyterian
Being advised by Timothy that Scripture Alone can thoroughly furnish a Believer unto Perfect Understanding,

*Don't forgetthe teaching of our first Pope

16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.

*Sleep well, brother

79 posted on 01/20/2006 4:08:17 AM PST by bornacatholic
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To: OrthodoxPresbyterian; RnMomof7
Being advised by Timothy that Scripture Alone can thoroughly furnish a Believer unto Perfect Understanding, I intend to continue reading Scripture and speaking my understanding (albeit under the Authority of my Ordained Presbyters, which is also of course commanded in Scripture).

Which is exactly what I do. I, too, subject myself to the authority of the ordained presbyters in my church and the authority of the ecumenical councils and the Early Church Fathers and the Creeds.

I do this because I do not trust my own interpretations of Scripture standing in isolation. My own prejudices, misconceptions, and errors are read into the text; by using the framework of the Presbyters, the Councils, the Fathers, and the Creeds, that is mitigated. I'll even call this group the Magisterium - and so call myself a Magesterial Protestant.

I think my statements on this approach could have been more clear, because right now RnMomof7 is absolutely convinced I don't believe in absolute truth (I do, I just observe that even the most naked fact requires that we interpret it through the lens of our experiences.). But ultimately, my approach is rooted in a disbelief in the complete perspecuity of the Scriptures (rather, believing that all things pertaining to salvation are clearly found within; the rest is subject to interpretation - by the Magisterium.

86 posted on 01/20/2006 6:24:12 AM PST by jude24 ("Thy law is written on the hearts of men, which iniquity itself effaces not." - St. Augustine)
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