Biblicist
Full Gospel believer
- Mar 27, 2011
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The reason that I commented on your posts was that you began by trying to establish the supposed notion of the unchallengeable authority of your particular denomination over that of others – but this issue was dealt with half a millennia ago.Being there are so many errors in this post about the Catholic Church, I wont even try to correct them so not to derail this thread futher. However, I will commend you on the way you tactfully deflected my question.
What you need to appreciate is that it is quite common to encounter remarks by returning missionaries who intersperse with their observations about the weather in a certain country and the peculiarities of its public transport system, where they quickly follow up with comments about the often unusual and individual beliefs of various regional RC bishops along with how it can often be difficult to work out who are the adherents to local cults or the Roman Catholic church, or with those who have their feet in both camps; then they will quickly move on and discuss other issues that relate to the country that they minister within.
Sadly, what I have posted is so accurate that it could almost be printed and used as currency.
This is a well phrased question and it’s a question that is not all that easy to respond to."I will ask you directly. Let's say you are in disagreement with say.... Major1, 1stcenturylady, Francis Drake, ect. on a certain Scripture passage, would you consider their itnterpretations/ understandings to be in error and yours are not? Do you consider your understanding of Scripture to be Holy Spirit inspired? If so, what if they say the same, but they are totaly differnert interpretations and understanings? You would agree it's impossible for the Holy Spirit to be in error.... Right? So one of you would have to be.Who is it? Without any type of authority, who is it among you all that makes the determination who is in error, and who is not?"
The question that I often pose to myself, is why can I slowly begin to see issues with a certain belief or practice that many of my peers cannot see, or who maybe are simply unprepared to voice their opinions on a given matter, when on the other hand, it can take me years to realise that something that I have accepted as being true is in fact false, or that it at least has some major weaknesses – I wish that I fully understood this.
Even though we should all be able to recognise that whatever our understanding might be of a given matter, that we have approached the question, issue or incident through a set of ingrained filters or conditioning agents, which begins from the womb with our temperament, through to our life experiences which is our character and the decisions that we make through life which is our personality. Then we can throw in our ability to comprehend what we see and read which comes down to our intelligence and emotions and may be limited by our level of education.
As to the role of the Holy Spirit with respect to teaching, to keep things brief, I do not believe that He plays a major role in this.
As I am one who understands that I know very little about a lot of things, I must accept my boundaries and with the limitations that most of us will have with our level of education and general ability to comprehend what we are investigating. So, when I disagree with someone, how I will respond to their opinion will be controlled by how I view their own knowledge or biases toward a given subject. When it comes to the Pneumatic passages within the New Testament, as I have focused most of my efforts in this area over the years, where I have assessed many of the better sources that speak on this subject, then I have a strong confidence in my own views on this subject, but when I move away from my comfort zone I am more than prepared to quickly accept that I could easily be wrong – which is undoubtedly with a lot of things.
But most importantly, for those of us who feel the need to engage at a serious level with our theology, we need to be well read on the matters that interest us, and this is where even those who have a high level of intelligence can be ham-strung if they cannot access these often illusive and certainly expensive resources as they will be unable to effectively engage with those who do.
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