The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Matthew 12:40

Fingers?

Majority does not automatically equate with right. That's an indisuputable fact. Nor does longevity of a view held automatically make it correct. However, when the overwhelming majority of 'professing' Christian churches which differ on other matters all agree on a particular issue, then this carries much weight. Add to that the antiquity of the view, going all the way back to the Church Fathers, iterated by the Protestant Reformers, echoed by the Puritans and even by the Evanjellycal Fundementalists, you have a formidable task to show that this view is incorrect.

I learned something new about you; you have a bit of a sense of humor. NO ONE is disputing the "words" recorded that Jesus spoke. What is not agreed upon is the "meaning" of those words. It's a hermeneutical issue which affects its application as well. When Jesus said, "I am the door..." (Jh 10:7,9), do you actually believe that He was describing his physical makeup and appearance, i.e., a "door"? Or, perhaps Jesus traveled around with tendrils since He said, "I am the vine..." (Jh 15:5), and His believers belong to His agrarian society since they are "branches"?

Obviously, the point attempting to be made is that language is not a simple, static thing but rather it is complex and one has to study it to come to understand it and how to use it. The "plain meaning" idea simply doesn't work. That is why the confessional churches all adhere to the "Grammatico-Historico" hermeneutic. The grammar must be understood and respected before one can 'rightly divide the Word of truth' (2Tim 2:15).

That's quite the list, which I am sure you didn't spend hours researching but contrariwise, you had at hand for occasions like this which I am fully convinced is what you do; travel from forum to forum pushing your unique doctrines... true?

I guess what I should have done was to have been more specific in asking my question, e.g., "Who else among confessional, conservative Christian churches holds to this view?" I think there would be no list of groups in that case.