Debate: Kevin Offner Replies…
Kevin Offner
April 1, 1997
Lets say we evangelicals agreed that private interpretations of the Bible were too individualistic, in danger of error, and that we needed to "hear" the authoritative Bible within communities of Christians. Let's say we agreed that the only "communities of Christians" that the New Testament authoritatively sanctions are local churches, which in turn include leaders who possess some degree of authority. Let's say we agreed that our local churches, in order (at least) to avoid succumbing to only the most contemporary biblical exegesis, needed self-consciously to align themselves in solidarity with tradition in their hermeneutics. And let's say we agreed that Christ's church universal consists of more than our own individual local church and so includes other churches as well.
Let's say we evangelicals agreed with all of the above. Then what?
One option is to "convert," and become either Roman Catholic or Orthodox. I, for one, understand and respect those who have chosen one of these paths. In either communion one can find security, solidarity, and a more tangible locus of authority. In Roman Catholicism, as Mr. Woods points out, one finds a church who "protects" the believer from error. Here one need no longer be tossed to and fro by the likes of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Wesley, and a myriad of other competing voices, but one can go to just one—to "Peter"—for the authoritative interpretation of truth. And though Orthodoxy lacks a magisterium, here too one can know truth with some certainty, since tradition guards against novel interpretations of the Bible.
But for many evangelicals, even those of us who have come to see the importance of church and tradition, such conversion is not the answer. In Roman Catholicism, ...
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