Brick Walls

Okay, we seem to have hit some sort of brick wall because you keep avoiding the one question I really want you to answer. I have said that my final authority is Scripture. Your ultimate criticism of this is that by doing that, I have no real accountability and ultimately what I choose to believe is left up to my own whims.



Then you proceed to say that we should submit to the authority of THE church. "Which church?", Josh asks. Your response, apparently, is the church represented by what you have chosen to believe. All you have done is widen the circle of that which influnces what you believe from the Bible to the Bible and the councils that you have chosen to accept.



I have no problem accepting the councils and the creeds for what they did well...helping define and clarify the Bible. A good systematic theology class does the same thing. What I cannot accept is when a council, of humans, begins to espouse doctrine that is not clearly laid out in the Bible. You have rejected the doctrine of Immaculate Conception for that reason. I reject the doctrine of Real Presence for the same reason.



There is no one denomination that represents the one true church any more. The church is now found in the conglomeration of churches that exist, the true believers that exist in all the various denominations. Was that God's will? Absolutely not! I believe that God truly desired there to be only one universal church. Unfortunately, as with many of God's perfect plans, we went and messed it up.