Originally Posted by Robert
Pilgrim,
I agree with your concern about leaving out the opinions of the Church universal, past and present. That being said, we still have the responsibility to make judgements on the exegesis set forth by such men. We cannot decide ahead of time who we will give authority to (should there be disagreement among said men of God). We have to look at their points of view and decide what we believe. There is no getting around this responsibility!
Please allow me to iterate in response to what you and carlos123 have several times wrote in regard to the writings of "stalwart" men, sometimes with ridicule and disrespect; men indwelt by the Spirit of Christ and endowed by Him with gifts and offices in the body of Christ; the Church.

It hasn't been a few times that what was explained is that the writings of these men on the relevant subjects brought to the floor, e.g., the organization of the Church, the authority of the Church, the office bearers in the Church with their responsibilities, the sacraments, corporate worship, meeting on the Lord's Day, the NT Sabbath, etc., have been tested over time as to their faithfulness to Scripture. Some of these writings took the form of official denominational Confessions and Catechisms. Most all include biblical references to support them. In fact, e.g., the Westminster Confession makes it more than clear from the beginning that the Confession is only a secondary authority and that Scripture is the ultimate and final authority, e.g.,

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Chapter I, Article VI. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.

Article X.X. The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
Secondly, I and others have pointed you to articles here on The Highway in which the authors have painstakingly studied the Scriptures and written what they have found the Scriptures to teach on a particular subject. The majority of us here have examined those writings and found them to be in accord with biblical truth and thus they serve as a means of expressing what we believe God has spoken and offered them to you as such. The vast majority of the Protestant churches, albeit until the last 100+ years have also been agreement on what these men wrote across denominational lines. Therefore, since these things are considered to be faithful to the Scriptures and thus "the faith once delivered unto the saints", the onus is upon you and others like you who hold views antithetical and/or contrary to them to show where these men erred in their understanding of their study of the Scriptures. To do this you need to READ them! [Linked Image]

Lastly, we have the right to judge who is to be given secondary authority ahead of time since this is our home, our churches, our denominations in which we have found unity world-wide regardless of our other minor differences. We belong to the CHURCH of the Lord Christ whose Spirit brought forth these godly men at sundry times when the Church was attacked as to its doctrines. The benefit has been ours. We see no reason to set ourselves above the wisdom of these men since we have already searched the Scriptures and found that these men spoke truth. Again, the onus is upon YOU, carlos123, hisalone (who has aligned himself in spirit with you too as being one of the 'opposition'), and any others who join with us here to show by sound exegesis, biblical hermeneutics using the Analogy of Faith that the official statements of faith found in the Creeds, Confessions, Catechisms and writings of the church doctors of theology are in error.

We are willing to let you give it a try. We are open to what you have to present from the Scriptures even though myriad others over centuries have done likewise and failed. We are more than confident that God's truth has and always will withstand any and all assaults. grin

In His grace,


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simul iustus et peccator

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