Originally posted by thessalonian:
Once again, Paul says he does the evil that he would not do, while avoiding the good that he would not. We will both agree that his words in scripture are inerrant. He was infallible in writing them. Sure God confirms his words are infallible (as if you have our understanding of scripture he does the same for us) but it is clear that you statement is not true. In fact every writter of every scripture passage and every speaker who spoke infallible words was not infallible in every facet of their life. Thus you are simply wrong.
Paul's words that were recorded in the scripture are infallible, and we are not taking "Paul's words for it." He
proved his words according to the OT scriptures and God
confirmed His words with
signs and wonders. I have mentioned this already in one of the two threads, but I supposed you missed it.
We know the Bereans did not simply
take Paul's word for what he was saying, they
checked the scripturals daily to see if what he was teaching was true. This is never explained to be the wrong thing to do. NEVER does the Bible teach that we must believe the the apostles teachings based upon man's testimony alone.
Paul had proof. Paul
reasoned from the scriptures he NEVER declared infallibilty without proof. He NEVER declared that only the apostles had the power to explain the scriptures. Remember what I sated before, Jesus and the apostles not only
allowed us to know the scriptures, they
expected us to already have knowledge of it. This is why they often used the argument "Have you not read in the scriptures?"
Paul made this statement to the Galatians:
Gal 1:11-12
11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
(from New International Version)
According to the catholic church, that is all he needed to say. It was from God and they should obey it, end of story. But Paul did not. He goes on to give his testimony about how his life was changed and after that how all the other apostles were also living freely, outside of the law, just as he had been. How, when Peter (not infallible in THIS doctrine) was forcing gentiles to live by Jewish customs that Peter himself did not live by, Paul opposed him to his face and corrected this teaching. Paul uses the scriptures to prove his point 3 times in chapter 3 and once in chapter 4.
The entire book of Galatians is Paul
proving that what he was saying was true.
So we do have
"proof" that the words Paul wrote were inspired by the Holy Spirit and that proof is not just that
"he told us so." I do not need to prove him infallibile in all areas of life, because he never taught us anything that wasn't provable in the scripture and that wasn't confirmed by God's signs and wonders.
The only proof you have that the pope is infallible is because the laws of the church that the pope is in charge of tells us so. You have no other proof. You can not prove it in scripture and God has not confirmed it with signs and wonders. So, to make your claim the only other proof left would be to prove infallibilty in all areas of life, which we know is not the case. You have no proof left, you have failed all three tests. The catholic church is
simply wrong.
~Lorelei