From: acoustic@mingming.cms.udel.edu (Asmodeus)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Biblical Inerrancy
Date: 15 Sep 92 08:21:09 GMT

eje@irenanaeus.mlo.dec.com (Eric James Ewanco) writes:
>I would just like to emphasize that the Catholic Church also believes that
>Scripture is inspired and inerrant, and always has -- after all, we're the ones
>who put it together, and declared it inspired and inerrant in the 5th century.

That's one of the reasons that many of us Protestants don't accept inerrancy,
it was *declared* inerrant by those who had a stake in making it so.......

>This story you tell does not at all represent the common evangelical Protestant
>view of the Bible -- evangelical Protestants would be as shocked to hear this
>as you were.  (You must understand that some Protestant denominations have gone
>far afield of true Christianity.  Sounds like Bob George is one of them.)

Of course everyone points the finger at other denominations and says that they
have strayed from the *true* Christianity. If Peter and Paul came back today,
they would not recognize what passes for Christianity today. The Catholic
Church with all its added trappings would look very alien to it's founders.
Protestant churches also, even the ones which proclaim to have regained the
New Testament church, would be unrecognizable. Probably the only thing that
would look familiar to these two would be some small commune out in the hills
somewhere, just the thing that "organized" religion looks down on.
 
>We also believe that only the Church -- through the agreement of all the
>bishops of the church, or through the Bishop of Rome speaking for all the
>bishops in union -- can authoritatively interpret Scripture.  This scandalizes
>many Protestants who believe that each person can accurately interpret
>Scripture. But I would point out that in 400 years of individual
>interpretation, Protestants are even more divided than they ever were, and if
>two people claim to have an authoritative understanding of Scripture by the
>help of the Holy Spirit, yet disagree, one or both of them is wrong.  The fact
>that the Bishops of the Catholic Church can actually agree on an interpretation
>is remarkable, if you consider that if you got 5,000 Protestant ministers in a
>room and asked them to agree on something, it would be hopeless.  Hence the
>Holy Spirit does not grant individuals authoritative interpretation.

Ummmmm.....well.....I'm really not sure if you can say *agreement* of all the
bishops. I know that there has been disagreement, especially from the 
American bishops. The only reason there is one doctrine taught is because that
which is pronounced by the Bishop of Rome is considered church policy. If
you asked all the bishops individually what they think about something, you
will get many answers. Yes, there are many divisions and schools of thought
in the world of Protestantism, but that is because they are *allowed* to
think for themselves and disagree if neccessary.

>  Christian
>doctrine and Scriptures belong to the whole church -- Christianity is a
>community-oriented faith, not an individualistic one, and to interpret
>Scripture by oneself with no consultation or agreement with other Christians is
>I think a wrong thing to do.

That is true. What were John Wesley's pillars of the faith? I believe they
were scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. A Christian cannot
interpret scripture in a vacuum. The opinions of others, as well as one's
own experience and reason, are needed to make one's interpretations. But
also remember, here we are to be a community of faith, but when we answer for
our actions before God, we are responsible as individuals.

>Eric

Asmodeus (aka Ed)