Quote:
Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast
Amen! Brother, I don't think I can add to that!
As for whether or not understanding spiritual authority is about trying to second guess everyone else... I don't think so, although perhaps it depends upon the reason for which the person asks the question. It came to mind for me to post this topic because one of the persons on this site was claiming spiritual authority for themselves - and they wrote: "the Word defines me as one with authority". In a sense, the Word does - but in what sense does It?
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I understand the context. And I fear that there is a willful desire to not even consider that it might not be correct. I note that with respect to any direct challenges over the time to the ones (there are actually two) who take that position, there is nothing in response that would suggest that they even considered them, but rather threw an alternate challenge back. I have only continued to comment periodically for the express purpose of being sure that anyone lurking, especially only occasionally, does not get the impression that these ramblings are accepted as reasonable or true.
We can be fairly sure that there is no scripture that grants the authority that they have taken for themselves. And I note that they seem to take it primarily from Revelation, the one place that mentions something about not adding to the revelation. (I'm not sure that was intended to mean that there can actually not be more scripture, but it is a popular way to use it.)
But I like to come back to the observation that if God really is who he says he is, and he has told us some of it in the scripture that we have, anything that we think beyond that, whether from a "personal word from God," or from what anyone writes or says (whether as a suggestion, or as these guys do, claiming to be adding to scripture) needs to be consistent with what we already know from the scripture we already have. I really don't need to decide whether there is some special definition of spiritual authority that someone can lay claim to. I just need to look at their fruit, and in this case, read what they claim God says. Since it disagrees with what I already know about God from scripture and from the healthy teaching that I have received over many years, I have cause to reject their teaching, and to refuse them the right to be a teacher.
Now within the assembly I am part of, it is not my role to refuse them to teach. But I can reject their words anyway. And still get along with the rest of the assembly. (Not saying these guys have ever been to Irving, TX, or that anyone in my assembly has ever heard a word they say.)