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To: ReformationFan

So Paul has the same authority as Christ Our Savior? I have never understood this. Are we the Christian Church or the Paulian Church?


35 posted on 07/16/2012 7:52:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s never been a problem for Trinitarians to understand.


37 posted on 07/16/2012 8:04:55 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
So Paul has the same authority as Christ Our Savior? I have never understood this.

It is recorded that Jesus delegated His authority to the Apostles--who actually wrote the New Testament--telling us about Jesus.

Paul's letters in the New Testament have the authority of the Apostles--which is to say--they have the authority of Christ.

The Church from the earliest days recognized the writings of the New Testament as having exactly the same highest authority as the words of Jesus Himself. This is why Christians call the Bible "God's Word."

(In fact there aren't even any quotation marks in the original Greek texts of the Gospels--delineating exactly which were Jesus' words, as opposed to the writer's words...quotation marks are a translators' educated guess)

The Church is built on the authority of the Apostles--as found in the New Testament--there is no Christian Church without regarding Paul's (and Peter's and James' and John's etc.) words in the New Testament as having the same authority--as delegated by Christ--of Christ Himself.

To try to separate out Jesus words out of the Bible as somehow more authoritative--than the work of the authors who first told us about Jesus (the Bible)....is to invite chaos and destruction into the Church.

Who are you, or me, or anyone, to question Jesus's Apostle, Paul?

48 posted on 07/16/2012 9:18:22 PM PDT by AnalogReigns (reality is analog, not digital...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; ReformationFan
I think I understand your difficulty. You wonder whether Paul can be considered as authoritative as Christ, who is our Lord and our God.

This can be resolved by realizing that all of Paul's authority is derivative: he receives it from Christ as a special favor, and received also the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Probably the greatest proof is found in 2 Peter 3:15-16. There Peter refers to Paul as "our beloved brother." He explains that Paul wrote "according to the wisdom given him." Finally, Peter refers to (apparently) a collection of Paul's letters evaluated them as being in the same class as "the rest of the Scriptures," thus giving a clear indication that Paul's writings are indeed truthful and authoritative.

Paul himself says repeatedly it isn't anything personal having to do with his merit. He knows it all rests on what Jesus promised: "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). The apostles would thus be divinely guided by the Holy Spirit in their teaching and writing.

58 posted on 07/17/2012 6:00:08 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("You can observe a lot just by watchin'." - Yogi Berra)
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