If you concede that some men may be holier than others, wiser than others, or have assistance from the Holy Spirit not enjoyed by each individual, or if you concede that generations of men laboring down the centuries may add to and refine our understanding of the Scriptures in a way no single lifetime would allow...
Well, then, it becomes impossible to claim that one’s own understanding is as good as anyone else’s, or that one can open up the Bible on any old day and read any scripture, and understand it completely and correctly.
As G. K. Chesterton wrote, “There is no other case of one continuous intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years. Its experience naturally covers nearly all experiences; and especially nearly all errors. The result is a map in which all the blind alleys and bad roads are clearly marked, all the ways that have been shown to be worthless by the best of all evidence: the evidence of those who have gone down them.”
To maintain faith in YOPIOS, one must cavalierly dismiss twenty centuries of the spiritual and intellectual work product of history’s greatest minds and holiest men as nothing more than something done by other men, as though one could stay home from work one morning and recreate it by noon.
WORTH REPEATING!!!!! THANKS for the material. By the way, what does YOPIOS stand for exactly?
verdadjusticia:
YOPIOS, having read a little of Chesterton myself, refers most likely to “Your own personal interpretation of Scripture”. While he specifically never maybe used that terminology, he was a constant critic of Individulalism, which ultimately much of Protestantism ultimately relys on, i.e. I will read the bible for myself and determine what it means, etc.
One of my favorite Chesterton quotes is
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.” - Orthodoxy, 1908
Here is a brief forward written about Chesterton for a book about him
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+splendour+of+truth.(COLUMNIST)-a0162183854