DaveFromMichigan

I agree. Even a cult can use the Scripture to teach their wrong doctrines. That is why I think interpretation must be based on the concept of original intent, that is, what did the author intend to say/teach with what he wrote. If we agree on this basic principle, we can usually come pretty close in majority cases although there will always be differences in details. If we do not agree on this principle, we belong in different schools and sometimes reach irreconcilable differences (irreconcilable in terms of explaining a passage; people can still accept each other as dear brothers and sisters even if their doctrines differ as long as it is not major doctrines).

It must not be easy for you. I will pray for you, tigger398.

I am new to the forum, and I just read about this particular forum, and LOL, I am not trying to compete for best answer. I thought something was bothering you about the Scripture being the sole authority. If not, that is cool. :-)

I personally have not asked Jesus not to come right now. It never even crossed my mind for things like BBQ or Super Bowl. When he came, we will have much better things. We can probably understand this better if we think of a child who asked for Jesus not to come before this Sunday because his parents were going to take him to McDonalds where he could have chicken McNuggets and play in the play house. When Jesus comes, he will give the child things much better than chicken McNuggets and the play house. "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" -- the things God has prepared for those who love him." (1Cor 2:9 NIV) As for us not being in the best condition, his grace is sufficient to cover our shortcomings. The only reason that I have heard that makes sense to me was when I was in my youth, some of my youth group brothers and sisters said they were a little concerned if Jesus came right then because their parents had not received Christ.

Yes, canon is a more difficult subject. The way I looked at it though, is that the 27 books that are in the canon, has been gradually accepted even before the Council of Carthage. Some of them were accepted quite early as quotation from early Church Fathers show. So although the canon was closed later, we know at least that these books have been accepted quite early. So the question is can we add more books? If we are adding a book that has no difference in theology and practical matters from those that are already accepted, then we are not really adding anything new. If we are adding a book that has differences in theology or practice from those in the canon, well, the canon has to take priority because the books in the canon have been accepted very early in the process. But that means that practically we cannot add anything that differs in theology and practical matters from the teaching of the books in the canon. So even for the practical purposes, the canon is closed as we are no longer in the 3rd or 4th century. We might be able to think of some hypothetical situation where we found a book which disagreed with 1 book in the canon but agrees with 26 others. While that might mind boggling to think about how we would solve such a problem, in reality I don't think we have encounter problem like this. Just my thoughts though....

Hi Judas, Maybe you are still forming your theology, so the use of terms are not the ones commonly used, but in reality you might be believing in Sola Scripture. << I believe that the Church carries authority as well. >> The Church carries some weight in Bible interpretation, for sure. Augustine believed that our interpretation must be checked against commonly held faith too, but.... << NOT more authority but does carry authority. The Church can not contradict scripture. >> If the Church cannot contradict Scripture, what you are saying is that the Scripture has the highest authority. Under normal circumstances, they don't contradict each other, but in rare cases (although usually important cases), if it can be clearly demonstrated that they contradict, by what you said above, Scripture should have higher authority, right? If you say that when they don't contradict, they have equal authority; but if they do contradict, Scripture has higher authority, then aren't you simply saying Sola Scriptura? On another post, you mentioned about pastors. Of course God uses pastors to help believers in understanding Scripture too, but in case there is a pastor who explains the Scripture wrong and contradict the Scripture, shouldn't the Scripture have higher authority? Then we again go back to the authority of the Scripture.

I am a little confused now. So you believe the bible is the infallibly inspired word of God, but you do not adhere to sola scriptura? I guess I don't understand what the issue you are having, or is there any? Do you believe in other authorities beside the Bible? I am not arguing or challenging you. I am just trying to understand what you are trying to say or ask.

This is very sad. I remember when I was in college, there was a similar debate too, but the decision at that time was if a group was set up based on christian belief, then it could require that the president of the group be christian. Things have changed obviously since then. :-(

oh, maybe not that early. It was written in 1050 in Aramaic. http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/o/loveofgo.htm

This is really an old poem. It was written in 1st to 3rd century (my memory is fading), but it was one of those very early songs/poems, and written in Greek, if I remember correctly. But if I also remember correctly, it was not originally written about our God, but it was later modified to be a hymn.

I don't think so. Of course, God still loves us and will forgive our sins if we confess our sin, as someone has pointed out from 1 John 1. If there are specific sins that we struggle a lot with, I do believe that God is merciful and His grace will cover our struggles too, that is, we will not lose our salvation even though we are struggling with sin and might occasionally lose the battle; but that is exactly what grace is for. "... where sin increased, grace increased all the more...." (Rom 5:20 NIV) But we are also taught not to abuse his grace and sin deliberately: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Rom 6:1-2 NIV) So God's grace is big enough to forgive our sins even after we are saved, but this grace is not to be abused or misused. And this does not mean he turns a blind eye to sin in a believer's life either.