(Squeak;36957)
Very though provoking post Sealed. So are there Biblically religious institutions as opposed to the unbiblical religious institutions you mentioned? Or do you believe that all religious institutions are unbiblical?
That's an interesting study in itself, because most of these religious institutions have redefined the word "church" in order to claim authority over the people and make them dependent on these institutions rather than Christ Himself for their salvation. The word "church" in our English Bibles is “ekklesia” and comes from two Greek words: Ek means out and Kaleo means call, and this is the verb form. When we put the two together and write the noun form of it, it is Ekklesia and means "called out ones." Therefore it refers to the individuals who Christ has called out of the world and onto Himself, and not to any man made institution whatsoever.Man made institutions themselves are unbiblical, while the true body of Christ's called ones are said in scripture to be one body in unity without divisions. If people truly made Him their Lord and the Head of the body, there would be no such divisions and all false doctrine would be exposed, but mankind instead has adopted this mob mentality of surrounding himself with people who hold the same false doctrines and driving away anyone who tries to refute them by encouraging that person to attend a different "denomionation" who may teach that doctrine correctly. That way the false doctrines are protected and what professes to be Christianity is divided into hundreds of contradicting religions. Then to try to solve that obvious problem, people claim they are all the body of Christ because only a select few doctrines that they all agree upon are essential, and that you can believe whatever you want on virtually everything else because nothing else is "essential." The apostles on the other hand always addressed divisions immediately and figured out which position was correct to restore the unity of truth, so that this situation wouldn't occur, but that the true body of Christ always agreed on what was true and what wasn't, and that all error was immediately eliminated.
You are right, God gave us the entire Bible, filled with things he expects us to know, which in turn makes the entire Bible essential. The problem then lies in the interpretation of the Bible. So if I don't attend a religious institution (biblical or non-biblical) and am left to interpret the Bible on my own understanding, how do I know if I am interpretting it correctly?
Every false interpretation is addressed in scripture itself, so if you study any issue until your doctrine harmonizes with all of scripture you will know your interpretation is correct. The reason there are different "interpretations" is because most people refuse to accept the true interpretation and cling to a few out of context verses and refuse to aknowledge the other verses that refute their position, in order to defend the false pretexts of their man-made religion, rather than allowing God's Word to be the sole authority. The issue isn't that God hasn't made Himself clear, but rather that the deceitful heart of man cannot endure the truth.
Should I have the ability to make the distinctions between true doctrines and false doctrines on my own? Can this be done by simply reading my Bible on my own? Or is it necessary to have the "right" Bible and be schooled in the original languages in order to derive the correct truth from the Bible?
That is the fundamental issue that the man-made religions do not want you to ask. If they can indoctrinate you with their pretexts, give you the verses that seem to defend their position, and get you to filter everything you read through their understanding, then they can effectively control you for the rest of your life. If you come to Christ on your own and allow His Word to do the teaching with His Spirit indwelling your heart, and you are willing to accept the truth on His terms regardless of whether it is what you wanted to hear, then yes; He will show you the truth, and you can have a definative answer to every pertinent issue. You will know you are interpreting it correctly when you aren't contradicting any other verses.
Somehow I can't see that it should be that difficult to become one of Christ's followers and arrive at the biblical truths? Is it meant to take a lifetime to reach that goal of finding the truth or the ability to distinguish between true and false doctrines?
Jesus said that the way is narrow and few would find it. This is because mankind would rather join a religion that suits himself than to come to Christ on His terms and accept all of His commandments regardless of our own desires to do otherwise. Religion seems like a shortcut to finding these truths, and usually offers easier ways to seemingly gain God's acceptance, but in reality it is the wrong path altogether. This is the broad way of Matthew 7 that the "many" follow, and all call Him Lord, Lord but in actuality He says they never knew Him.You can certainly learn from other people, but you have to be aware of their biases and check everything they say from scripture and make sure there are no contradictions. There are also tools availiable for studying the meanings of words such as "church" as I mentioned earlier, because although most literal translations of the Bible do a sufficient job of conveying the message, there are some areas where they fall short. I guess what it comes down to is if you want to truly come to know Christ, than He has to be the number one agenda of your life, and if He is He will ensure that you find Him. If you try to have it both ways by taking the short cut of religion while freeing up your time to pursue your own desires, then you will likely be misled and fail to find Him.SealedEternal