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Seriously, Commands in Scripture

BenAdam

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Serious question:

Is everything in scripture stated by someone of authority a command from God?

For instance, I stated in another thread that the apostles commanded the gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols.

Is that a command? Paul later states go for it if your freedom allows.

Another one I run into is how the early church met in Jerusalem and had all things in common and that is how churches are supposed to be today. Isn't that simply commentary on how the church in Jerusalem was meeting?

Please add your thoughts on this.
 

Tobias

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I think when we say a teaching is "biblical" we mean more than simply, "it can be found in the Bible". It has a lot to do with the preacher's desire to show you his teaching is found in the scriptures, because he wants you to believe it is true.

Removing the preacher's intentions from the mix, it sounds like you want to know how to extract truth from the Bible without him? I'm not sure that is possible.

The Bible replaced the priesthood as the ultimate authority in the Church ever since the reformation. Priests who were absolutely corrupt taught many things that were contrary to the scriptures. The alternative was to trust the scriptures over the corrupt priests. This has led to many corrections that the protestant churches have made along the way.

But I do not believe the Bible was ever intended to be the sole authority. The scriptures themselves do not predict a time when they would become so. No, they speak of the authority of the Holy Spirit, and the authority of the men of God that He chooses to watch over us. Oh, and also the authority of the scriptures. :)

But what they do not say is how the one authority of the scriptures can work without the others. Scholars try to make this happen, but in the end they add their own opinions to it and establish doctrine based upon the wisdom God has (hopefully) given them. They direct us to the passages of scripture that they see fit.

As Charismatics, we look to the Holy Spirit to explain the scriptures to us. And many times, what we feel He says is different than what the tools of the scholars might come up with. So which one is the final authority? The scriptures as revealed by the Holy Spirit, or the scriptures as stated in the original language while taking into consideration cultural customs, hermaneutics, and all the other wonderful tools at the scholars' disposal?

I think when someone says that "My beliefs are biblical" they are usually speaking an untruth. Upon further examination, it turns out that their beliefs are in line with what a preacher has taught them, and simply sold to them as "biblical" doctrine.

More and more lay people are realizing this, and looking for the magic that their pastors use to determine which doctrines are biblical and which are not. What we are finding is that there is no legitimate system for determining this. Simply that doctrines are voted in by committee because that is what makes the most sense to those who want to do good and see the advancement of Christianity.


Instead of a "Bible only" foundation, I would personally like to see something more honest in how it's described. Like a three part foundation (built up from Jesus, the one true foundation of course), stating that the scriptures, the Holy Spirit, and those ministers that God promotes to watch over us are all invaluable parts to the whole. But I also acknowledge that something like this would take an act of God (and not just lil ol' me) to put into place. :)
 
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Frogster

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Serious question:

Is everything in scripture stated by someone of authority a command from God?

For instance, I stated in another thread that the apostles commanded the gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols.

Is that a command? Paul later states go for it if your freedom allows.

Another one I run into is how the early church met in Jerusalem and had all things in common and that is how churches are supposed to be today. Isn't that simply commentary on how the church in Jerusalem was meeting?

Please add your thoughts on this.

well, the context, and the recipients of the letter, and where they were at, has to be considered.:)
 
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lismore

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Serious question:

Is everything in scripture stated by someone of authority a command from God?

For instance, I stated in another thread that the apostles commanded the gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols.

Is that a command? Paul later states go for it if your freedom allows.
.

If you go to someone's house for dinner, trying to win them to Christ, don't cause offence by refusing the food? Ever been to a Bhuddist family's house for dinner? It's about not causing offence to the gospel IMO.

On the other hand if you were to run around sacrificing your food to idols, quite dodgy.

Another one I run into is how the early church met in Jerusalem and had all things in common and that is how churches are supposed to be today. Isn't that simply commentary on how the church in Jerusalem was meeting?

True. It doesn't say that all churches should follow that model. The book of Acts also indicates that the Jerusalem church went bust and had to rely on donations from other churches who had not sold everything.

But the Ten Commandments are ten commandments, not ten suggestions!

^_^
 
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nephilimiyr

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Serious question:

Is everything in scripture stated by someone of authority a command from God?
Good question and thread Ben. :thumbsup:

Since I believe that the person or persons speaking is in authority, that therefore means they are speaking in the capacity of God. Unless they are later contradicted or shown to be false, their commands are from God.

For instance, I stated in another thread that the apostles commanded the gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols.

Is that a command? Paul later states go for it if your freedom allows.
Ah, but when the person or people in authority at that time give a command it's usually only for the people of that time and is directly only to those people that they are directly speaking to. The Person or people in authority only opperate in their time.

Jesus is the head of the Church and He transends time. He only gave one command to us. John 15:12, My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. John 15:17, This is my command: love each other.

Jesus only ever gave us one command and that was it, love each other as I have loved you. That is the only universal command from him for all of us believers in him.

The apostles were speaking to the people of their time and for a specific purpose. :)

Another one I run into is how the early church met in Jerusalem and had all things in common and that is how churches are supposed to be today. Isn't that simply commentary on how the church in Jerusalem was meeting?

Please add your thoughts on this.
Yes, it's simply commentary IMO, but it's also the way God wanted the early Church to opperate. That doesn't mean that is the way He wants it to opperate now, or how He expects it to opperate now.
 
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Frogster

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generally the foods sacrificed to idols wordage, refers to the union cult practice of actually partaking of demon rituals, but at the same time, the food in and of itself, or the false god's were no big deal, as per 1 Cor 8, yet at the same time, best not to stumble a young convert, so right in the text there is a built in mechanism of subjectivity/relativity there, same as Romans 14.


But no, we don't want to worship demons...:o
 
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K2K

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Serious question:

Is everything in scripture stated by someone of authority a command from God?

quote]

Is Paul the someone in authority we are trying to follow?



WE SERVE THE LORD OUR GOD ONLY!!!

And since he said he would never leave us, can't you ask the Lord, who is indeed in authority? Or should we lean on our own understanding of the Scriptures?

It seems that we like to lean on our understanding, instead of going to the Lord of lords, King of kings, Wonderful Counselor, to ask what we should do.



 
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Frogster

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Serious question:

Is everything in scripture stated by someone of authority a command from God?

quote]

Is Paul the someone in authority we are trying to follow?



WE SERVE THE LORD OUR GOD ONLY!!!

And since he said he would never leave us, can't you ask the Lord, who is indeed in authority? Or should we lean on our own understanding of the Scriptures?

It seems that we like to lean on our understanding, instead of going to the Lord of lords, King of kings, Wonderful Counselor, to ask what we should do.




well...I mean, nothing wrong with both, God and Scripture. God uses scripture too.
 
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K2K

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well...I mean, nothing wrong with both, God and Scripture. God uses scripture too.

Yes - God uses the Scriptures to teach us, to reprove us, to correct us, and to train us in righteousness.

But we are serving God and are putting Him in authority over our lives, or are we? We could be putting ourselves in authority over our lives, not listening to Him, and searching the Scriptures thinking in them we have eternal life. And there is something wrong with that.
 
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K2K

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There are commands and instructions recorded in the Scriptures, but we are not getting our commands and instructions from the Scriptures, but from the Lord. He talks to us if we are willing to listen!!

Of course because He does not change, but times and circumstances do. Should we be looking to make sacrifices of sheep and oxen. We hardly have any, and besides Christ became our sacrifice. So while God does not change, His specific instructions might.

So it is valuable to read and study the Scriptures, noting the commands and type of command that God made in the past. The study should help us determine if we are indeed hearing from God. The Spirit of God is not the only Spirit. However - we do not get our commands from the Scriptures!! We get them from God!!

We don't say that Paul was someone in authority who heard from so we need to do what Paul commanded! Because we like Paul also get our instructions from the Lord!

So if we are saying that we need to get our instructions from Paul, instead of saying we need to get our instructions from the Lord like Paul did, then we are not making the Jesus Christ the Lord of our life, we are searching the Scriptures thinking they will give us eternal life.
 
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