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NASB | Ephesians 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 4:11 And [His gifts to the church were varied and] He Himself appointed some as apostles [special messengers, representatives], some as prophets [who speak a new message from God to the people], some as evangelists [who spread the good news of salvation], and some as pastors and teachers [to shepherd and guide and instruct], |
Subject: Individualistic Bible reading unbiblical |
Bible Note: Please note that the Bereans were searching the Scriptures TOGETHER in the case of Paul's teaching. What one has to realize is that just as God has provided the Bible and His Spirit to help us discern true teaching from false teaching, he has also given good, spiritually-gifted teachers to help us discern our own false understandings of Scripture from the true ones. The best way of looking at it, in my opinion, is that the Bible is the ultimate, final, infallible authority and the only source of revelation for the Christian today. God has given the church, among whom the Spirit dwells, with His gifted teachers, to correctly interpret Scripture. The church is not infallible, but I would say that as far as an individual congregation or denomination adheres to the whole counsel of God explounded in the Bible, that the church is reliable. He has also given of His Spirit to all of us, so that both individually AND collectively He works within us to teach us truth from error. So there are several dimensions to learning from God about Himself, but nowhere do we see a scenario of "me, my Bible, and the Holy Spirit" as the sole and preferable means of knowing God. We are just as prone to error as false teachers are, because we each still have a tendency to want Scripture to say what we want it to say. The collective communion of saints helps us combat that tendency to justify our own particular sins. --Joe! |