This is a lengthy discussion I had on a forum concerning the authority of the Bible. I may add more later, but he hasn't responded in a couple of days. I don't know if I covered all bases, or did everything as best as I could, so critique it if you have to, but keep in mind that it's just a discussion, and shouldn't be considered more than that.

Bradford

"are we authorized to have praise teams? i haven't found a verse in the bible that does!"

This is the biggest error of our current times. The error of treating the Bible like its the absolute step-by-step manual about the Church... and treating it like God dropped it out of the sky.

A number of years ago I had the opportunity to be engaged in a Bible study with some men who were members of various churches. One of them was a member of the Church of Christ. I began to ask Bible questions of those present. The answers given by the man from the Church of Christ seemed to differ from the others in that he would not answer with "this is what the Church of Christ believes . . .", and then he would allow me to read what God taught in the Scriptures. This really impressed me-to see a person appeal to the Scriptures for all his answers. Later I was to find out why he made us read the Bible to find the Lord's teaching.

We can learn many lessons from the life of Paul. We originally see him at the stoning of Stephen, watching over the coats of the witnesses (Acts 7:58). A friend of mine recently pointed out the fact that Paul's vain beliefs, when he was Saul, can be compared to many people today.