RE: So, why doesn't Scripture uniquely endorse a specific denomination ?
November 19, 2017 at 4:11 am
(This post was last modified: November 19, 2017 at 4:16 am by KiwiNFLFan.)
The Catholic (and Orthodox) answer to this question would be that Jesus didn't leave men with the Scriptures alone but set up an institutional Church with the authority to teach authoritatively, and it was this Church that put Scripture under one cover and declared which books were part of Scripture.
The Bible is so vague that it's possible for people to interpret it in many different ways. I think one problem is that people are trying to make clear doctrines out of a book that isn't clear. I used to attend an Independent Fundamental KJV Only Baptist church, and a few years later I heard that the guy I used to go out doing door-to-door evangelism ("soul-winning") with has now started his own Independent Fundamental KJV Only Baptist church because he believes that events in the end times will play out differently than the pastor of the original church. Talk about splitting hairs.
I've heard some Christians hold to the concept of adiaphora - issues that aren't clearly taught in Scripture and where it's possible to be orthodox while holding to either side. For example, the Reformed church that I used to attend believed in and practiced infant baptism, yet we had people attend who held to believer's baptism and were welcomed by the church.
The Bible is so vague that it's possible for people to interpret it in many different ways. I think one problem is that people are trying to make clear doctrines out of a book that isn't clear. I used to attend an Independent Fundamental KJV Only Baptist church, and a few years later I heard that the guy I used to go out doing door-to-door evangelism ("soul-winning") with has now started his own Independent Fundamental KJV Only Baptist church because he believes that events in the end times will play out differently than the pastor of the original church. Talk about splitting hairs.
I've heard some Christians hold to the concept of adiaphora - issues that aren't clearly taught in Scripture and where it's possible to be orthodox while holding to either side. For example, the Reformed church that I used to attend believed in and practiced infant baptism, yet we had people attend who held to believer's baptism and were welcomed by the church.
