King Arts
Well-known member
Doesen't this just hurt the credability of the court and government? After all why should we not pull an Andrew Jackson if they say something we don't like "The court has made it's decision now let it enforce it."Here in South Africa in the old days, when it came to the question of what the law actually meant, the final and infallible authority on the matter was the Appelate Division of the Supreme Court of Bloemfontein.
To quote one of those judges: "Our judgements are not final because we are infallible. No, they are infallible because they are final."
When it's man-made laws, what the court is really ruling on is not "What did the people who wrote this really mean?" but rather, in practical terms, "What interpretation of this document are we going to declare to the one the state will actually base its actions on?"
It's one thing to do that with man-made laws.
But when it comes to Divine revelation? No, we are not going to accept that whatever interpretation a bunch of corrupt old men in robes and funny hats invented just to get money out of people must be the true one. Especially if the people in robes and funny hats cannot even get their act together and agree all the time.
To quote Martin Luther: "I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other in the past."
Also I think you might be misunderstanding my oppinion. I'm not saying the individuals in the Church are infallible no priest, Bishop or Patriarch is infallible. However they DO have authority. And the ecumenical councils themselves are infallible because the holy spirit presided over them, just like how it presided over the compiling of the Bible(Protestants are missing books in the Bible though so they don't even have a complete Bible)
Speaking of Martin Luther, why should we trust what he says, he wanted to take books out of the Bible did he not? Who determines what the Biblical cannon is what books are actually inspired by God. It was the Church that compiled the bible so why would God make them infallible for that one purpose but not the councils that interpreted parts of the Bible?
In fact the early reformers like Calvin or Luther accepted the outcomes of the Councils while disparaging them this makes no sense. Why should we accept the trinity as an article of faith if we only have the Bible and not Church tradition?
Also Martin Luther's quote just leads to heresy. For instance let's say I read the Bible and I say
"You know what after reading the Holy Bible and praying to God I've found out that Jesus is not God. Don't get me wrong Jesus is God's greatest creation above all mankind. BUT he is not God and any who say that are freaking polytheists. Why would God pray to himself? Why would the devil try and tempt Jesus to worship him by giving him the world, if he is God he already has the world and can take it when he wants? Why would the Bible say Jesus does not know the hour of his return only the father does? God is all knowing, this trinity stuff just sounds like Polytheists sneaking stuff in to make a heresy it's not true Christianity. We are monothests the God of Isreal is ONE."
You'd probably say I was a heretic at best and not Christian at worst right? But all of those arguments come straight from the Bible nothing about Church tradition or anything like that. Without Church tradition why should protestants not consider unitarians as just another sect of Christainity like Anglicans, Lutherans, or Calvinists?
Well I understand that I am being a little uncharitable and comparing all Protestants to Baptists or non denominationals. But there is a kernal of truth to what I'm saying because while Lutherans aren't that crazy, their ideas of sola scriptura directly led to the people with no education just picking up a Bible and being a Pastor and saying what they want.(Pastor Jim)KA you come across as horribly ignorant about Protestant Christianity in general.
What makes you think we don't have teams of intelligent trained individuals?
We do. We have Bible collages where people go to study in order to qualify for ministry, and there they must learn to read the Bible in the original Greek, learn a lot of other things etc etc.
But no sane person thinks any of that makes them incapable of error. And they certainly don't get to treat the Bible as something that they have the right to make mean whatever they wish, which is what the RCC implicitly claims for its people in robes and funny hats.