afazio - Spiritual Authority

[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by Drake

The Bible is chocked full of people expressing wrong ideas, misguided thinking, human issues, mistakes, failure, sin, sins, evil, calling out deceptions and erroneous teachings....

Very well then...Now, pray tell, just who can we trust to have the spiritual insight, knowledge and authority to let us know which part(s) of the Bible are , "expressing wrong ideas, misguided thinking, human issues, mistakes, failure", etc? By what objective, external, measurable standards can we accept or reject a teacher who claims for himself/herself such insight, knowledge and authority?

Let me just throw out an example that comes to mind. What if somebody says that he is the only person speaking as God's oracle on earth? Does that qualify him to let us know which parts of the Bible are "expressing wrong ideas, misguided thinking, human issues, mistakes, failure"? What if he says he picked up the mantle of some other fellow who claimed that he was the only person speaking as God's oracle on earth? Does that work for you?

What if this person claims that everyone else has been wrong for hundreds and thousands of years and that he/she has got it right? What if they claim for themselves the position of "apostle of the first kind"? Does that give them the right and authority to dictate to everyone which parts of the Bible are "expressing wrong ideas, misguided thinking, human issues, mistakes, failure"?

Let's put this teaching to the eyes, ears and nose test, shall we?
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