Posted by Ray Kidder on 8/6/2009, 8:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Questions for Searcher on liturgical denominations"
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Searcher,
On one of these pairs of posts, you wrote:
"Knowledge comes by revelation from the Holy Spirit when we pray for understanding and seek to know the Lord. 'So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.'
Admittedly, I am wary of the traditions of men. We are warned against putting our faith in the traditions and doctrines and commandments of men. I take that warning seriously."
It seems to me that there are traditions that come from men rather than from God, but there are also traditions that come from God through men. It is my understanding that the old denominations of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and even (to perhaps a lesser extent) some Protestant denominations believe infallability from God resulted from the Seven Ecumenical Councils, as described in this web page:
The Seven Ecumenical Councils
During this long period of Church history, the canon of the 27 books of the New Testament was decided upon as well. The Eastern Orthodox pay particular attention to the traditions that developed as a result of these councils, for they believe the Holy Spirit was guiding the Church into the correct understanding of the truth. They do not consider the belief in the Bible alone to be the best way to understand Christianity because individuals can misinterpret scripture without the aid of the Church working through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Some Eastern Orthodox writers of my lifetime consider Protestantism to be an over-reaction to the problems of Roman Catholicism. This over-reaction has resulted from the incorrect insertion of the filioque into the Nicene Creed by the Roman Catholics. They believe the insertion of the filioque has resulted in an under-emphasis on the workings of the Holy Spirit with either the importance of the Church being overemphasized (Roman Catholicism), or else an individual's faith alone being overemphasized (Protestantism).
Before I go farther in this post for you, I have a few brief questions:
1. Do you think the writing of the Nicene Creed (without the filioque) was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and is therfore infallable?
2. Does this passage from James 1 (NIV) imply that God can give wisdom to one who asks?:
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
3. If you answered question #2 as "yes", then what do you say has happened when two sincere Christians follow the above passage of scripture, even when using the Bible for insights, and come up with contradictory answers?
[For example, some Christians believe it is ok to have women pastors, while other Christians claim that God intends for all pastors to be men.]
I suspect that the Eastern Orthodox view is that God has used Ecumenical Councils to establish traditons from God, through men, to reveal truths to explain the correct interpretations of scripture.
_____
In a recent post, you mentioned the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of Heaven. I have been told that St. Matthew wrote his gospel to Jews who didn't like to use the name of God, so he usually substituted the word "heaven" to make his anticipated readers more resecptive to his gospel. St. Mark and St. Luke wrote their gospels with gentile readers as the anticipated recipients, so they did not use the word "heaven" as a substitute.
Ray Kidder
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