OK, then don’t address the issue that Sola Scriptura has done more harm than good. Who’s the new ‘born again’ believer supposed to believe the Bible toting ‘soul winning’ IFB knocking on the door or the Bible toting Mormon knocking at the door all appealing to Scripture as their authority?
Your question was “What about all the different denominations?” That is what I just responded to. In response to that, you accuse me of not addressing the question of sola scriptura. You can’t have it both ways. Which is it? A direct answer to your question, or an avoidance to your questions (rabbit trails) and stay on the subject of sola scriptura no matter what you say. I’ll just ignore what you say and preach sola scriptura, ok? I really thought you wanted an answer to your question however.
How could sola scriptura do more harm than good. How could listening to God do more harm than listening to a messenger of Satan? Paul warns about listening to messengers of Satan who are disguised as messengers of light. So how do you know? I know that I am listening to God when I am reading and studying His Word. You cannot say the same as far as your tradition is concerned. Therefore sola scriptura does more good than harm.
Here is the good:
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
--The Holy Spirit which dwells within every believer, illuminates the believer’s mind that he might know the Bible—that which is freely given to him of God.
Here is the bad:
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
What is the difference? Most evangelicals know that they are saved and have the Holy Spirit in them, and are therefore able to understand them and come to the same relative conclusions about the Bible as Mike has so many times pointed out.
Most who are not evangelicals are not saved and do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and cannot understand the Bible. The Bible doesn’t make sense to them. And neither does sola scriptura for that matter. The Bible could never be their authority for it is foolishness unto them. As Paul said:
1 Corinthians 1:18 For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
But to the average evangelical, who loves the Word, the Word is His delight, and in the Word does he meditate in day and night. It is his guidebook in life; a lamp to his feet, a light to his path. It is his only authority in all matters of faith and doctrine. There is no other authority that matters to him.
“William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony of pilgrims, insisted, ‘Those who believe in the Holy Scriptures are bound to observe its teachings. Those who do not are to be bound by its consequences.’"
-- Larry Burkett, What Ever Happened to the American Dream, p. 43.
--The unsaved man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God (the Bible). To him the Bible is foolishness. Neither can he know or understand it. He is spiritually discerned.
I’m not defending the Western Church, but the ‘Roman’ Catholic Church was not ‘invented’. Rome for your information was already one of the five great ecclesiastical centers of the Early Church era…please get informed DHK…I’m embarrassed for you.
That is the essence of soul liberty. It is what the RCC and the Church of England (in the history of England) took away from Bible believing Christians.
Why should you be embarrassed for me? I don’t have it wrong. The RCC didn’t come into existence until the time of Constantine in the fourth century when Constantine made so-called Christianity at that time a state religion. That became the “real” Catholic Church as we know it today. At that time he introduced many of the same idols that the Catholic Church still retains to this day. It is Christianity paganized. But that is not Christianity at all, is it? And the fourth century is not all that early either. The invention of the RCC and its doctrines has been a progressive movement ever since the time of Constantine. Even as recent as 1950 did the RCC accept the assumption of Mary as official doctrine into their church.
There was a church at Rome. Paul wrote to it. Notice that there was no mention of Peter in his letter. It was a church that was independent of all others. There was no hierarchy in place. The Bible indicates that rather bluntly. And that is our authority; not history revised by the RCC.
Rant away about the Roman Catholic Church…I’m not Roman Catholic
That which applies to the RCC for the most part applies to the Orthodox. As you admit yourself the split wasn’t until the eleventh century so up until then all the doctrines were the same. Your objection then, that you are not RCC holds no water. Change your name to Orthodox. You are still under the same basic umbrella, and for centuries believed the exact same thing.
First, the era the Bible’s Canon was established, there was NO “Roman Catholic Church”, there was but ONE Church…The Church Christ sent His 11 at the time out to establish as He (Christ) the corner stone which would be the Foundation and Pillar of Truth.
No, the “church” age didn’t even begin until Pentecost. So even there you are wrong. As you stated but failed to comprehend in your own words—Christ
would be the Foundation and Pillar of the Truth. It is future. That would not happen until Pentecost. Besides that I have to laugh. You have a bunch of different quotes all mixed up and are trying to force a meaning into it (perhaps one of many verses; I don’t know) that isn’t there. So let’s look at the verse that seems to be in question:
1 Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
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--What is Paul speaking to Timothy about? He is speaking of how he ought to behave. Where? In the house of God or in the local church—the one in Ephesus, where he was the pastor. It was the pillar and ground of the truth (for Ephesus). It was the duty of the local church in Ephesus to be the ground, the foundation of the truth. The church was built on the foundation of Christ (1Cor.3:11). It was the duty of that local church to be a pillar of the truth—to hold up the truth of the Word of God; to hold up the name of Christ in Ephesus. The whole illustration was an allusion to the great Temple of Diana which had many pillars in it and for which Ephesus was famous for. Timothy would relate well to this picture. Every Biblical local church is both a foundation and a pillar of the truth!
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