A summation of my argument(s) thus far.
1. In this post, I laid out the Scriptural evidence and my argument for my assertion that the Church is united to God's divine nature in Christ, through the union of the humanity and divinity in the Person of Christ.
2. As a further argument from 1, I have argued that since the Church participates in the divine nature of God, by grace, through union with Christ, the Church has divine authority to declare God's will and her knowledge about God is authoritative due to her participation in God's divinity through Christ (for example, this authority was manifested through the ministry of the apostles and prophets on whom the Church was built, and who were themselves members of Christ's Body, the Church).
3. I have also made two counter arguments against sola scriptura: namely that the Scriptures themselves enjoin upon us the necessity of adhering to the oral apostolic tradition, and that the Scriptures do not claim to be all-sufficient.
4. Given 1-3 above, then, the Church, as "pillar and bulwark of the Truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), has the authority to speak God's will about Scripture (for example, as to what books are Scripture and as to Scripture's proper meaning), and to speak about those things Scripture does not address (for example, as to gathering every Sunday for worship and the celebration of the Lord's Supper).
5. Given 1-4, then, what the Church says about Scripture and about what Scripture does not address, the Church in her declarations will not contradict Scripture, nor will Scripture contradict the Church, for their source is the same, for the Church is being built up into the full man and the head which is Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16), and she cannot contradict herself without becoming something other than herself (given 1 above).
Posted by Clifton at August 9, 2005 11:45 AM | TrackBack