Subject: Sola Scriptura supported by bible? |
Bible Note: "What is YOUR authority? And answer my question regarding infant baptism, citing your authority as the source." My authority is Jesus Christ. He is not dead, but He is alive and He reigns in and through His church. So the church is the physical manifistation of Christ on earth and therfore is the authority as it has been given by Him. Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The problem comes in because man's pride and insecurities still find their way in. The Bible to many people has become a crutch, kind of a security blanket. It is a scary thing to not have all the right answers, to have to trust in Christ when you just don't know if you are right or not. To the degree that we claim to be right we in a sense are simply trying to justify ourselves. But we are justified by faith, not by being right. Can we proceed in faith even when we don't know the answers? I don't think we can begin to realize faith until we don't know the answers. As long as we hold tightly to our crutches, our sacred cows, we can never step out in faith. I honestly don't know the "right" answer regarding infant baptism. I believe it is acceptable, and I in fact prefer it. But the issue isn't whether it is right or not. I don't believe any denomination or sect of Christianity has the exclusive right answers. You listed a bunch of different groups. These could be likened to the Samaratins of Jesus' day. They had a resemblence to the true religion, but had been corrupted by the many pagen beliefs. Yet Jesus on several occasions used the Samaratins to convict the Jews. I wouldn't put down Mormons, because in my judging of them I have become worse than them. We are justified by faith in Christ, not by being right. Faith in Christ means trusting that He is faithful when we are not. That He is right when we are not. So my trust is in Him, not the Bible or any particular interpretation of it. As far as the church goes, there are times when we are probably not right. But can we still trust that as the church, we are justified? |