Quote:
Originally Posted by Zadok  Those who argue church authority, are you not removing the problem just one step - viz. away from the individual to the body corporate. The question blhowes asked was about how we can know (given the differences among those who profess the Lord's name) that we have been led to those conclusions by God?
And what place does the "right of private judgement" have in your understanding? |
I think that the key point is that we are not free agents to come up with any judgement that we wish, our faith is apostolic and the only way that we know the truth is from the teaching of the apostles.
Some posters have felt that the "thread has wandered from the basic question. What role if any does the H.S. have in comunicating truth to the believer via the scriptures?" however you cannot seperate such a question from authority and you cannot seperate authority from the Church.
In my view it is not necessarily wrong for people to hold different positions, Augustine was certainly of the view that you did not have to say one position was wrong. This is not to say that truth is subjective but rather that God is bigger than each one of us and if he gives freedom to hold differing positions then that is his perogative. As long as we submit to authority we will end up in pretty much the same place anyway. I have always liked the verse:
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23 (ESV)
We have to act in faith.
The reason why we know that the Roman church is apostate and why it has been replaced is that the Roman church usurped the authority of the Apostles.