[NYer]

The heretics are neither - they claim Scripture can be reinterpretted to mean whatever they want it to mean, there are NO absolutes, and the various demonic entities they confuse with the Holy Spirit are allowed to contradict themselves whenever they wish.

Okay, please bear with me in my ignorance of your church's teachings with regard to scripture.

Do the Episcopal and Angligan churches both support 'sola scriptura'? (I am still amazed at the christian apologetics web site www.christianlesbians.com!)

Someone posted a thread the other day and I can't find it right now. The question raised was an excellent one! Is the ECUSA decision the result of 'sola scriptura'? What do you think?

[ahadams2]

You wrote: "Okay, please bear with me in my ignorance of your church's teachings with regard to scripture.

Do the Episcopal and Angligan churches both support 'sola scriptura'? (I am still amazed at the christian apologetics web site www.christianlesbians.com!)

Someone posted a thread the other day and I can't find it right now. The question raised was an excellent one! Is the ECUSA decision the result of 'sola scriptura'? What do you think? "

Good questions! First off, the 'Christian Lesbians' site does not engage in valid apologetics from any orthodox Protestant perspective...though it does once again demonstrate that ignorance can be bliss right up to the moment one stands before the Judgement Seat.

Anglicanism (of which the Episcopal Church was until recently at least putatively a component) holds to a 'three legged stool', or perhaps a better image would be a 'tricycle' approach to theology. If we use the latter, then Holy Scripture, as the inerrant Word of God written, is the big wheel in front with the pedals attached. If anything is NOT supported or if it is contradicted by God's Word, then the front wheel is missing and theologically it ain't going anywhere. *If* something is supported by Scripture, or if Scripture is moot on the topic, then one next checks to see what Church tradition holds with regard to the topic in question. Now here's where *many* of us (though not all) differ with our Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic brothers, in that it is the responsibility of those involved in a particular decision to insure that there is no conflict between the Traditions of the Church and Holy Scripture - this is an individual responsibility before God, and not one which can be, well, foisted off on the Church Fathers, or someone someplace with a mitre. Finally if neither Holy Scripture nor Tradition speak to a topic (space travel, as an example) then careful, educated reason, which also considers on Scriptural principles and seeking to be consistent with the *Biblical* traditions of the Church are to be used to determine the proper course of action. In ALL of the above situations, it is imperative that prayerful consultation, and the prayerful seeking of God's Will is always the first priority in the process of making any decision.

Now if you consider all of the above, you'll see that the heretics in ECUSA tossed the entire tricycle out a window and simply decided that anything that they thought felt good was of God and anything which made them even slightly uncomfortable (like, oh say, accountability for one's actions before God) was not. Also they may hve been influenced by some spirits, but obviously not by the Holy Spirit, since God never contradicts Himself.

did that clarify things at all?