I keep coming back to the same problem. Christians who believe the Bible is inspired can still disagree about baptism, Communion, salvation, predestination, church government, divorce, spiritual gifts, and the books that belong in the Old Testament.
Some of these differences may be secondary. Others are about things Jesus directly commands the Church to do.
WHAT I AM STUDYING
I am comparing how different traditions explain biblical authority. I am trying to understand the strongest Protestant answer, not just the easy caricature of “me and my Bible.”
I am also paying attention to what happens when two careful interpretations both claim that Scripture is clear.
A FEW THINGS I AM LEARNING
The question is not whether Scripture is authoritative. Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Protestants all say that it is.
The harder question is whether Scripture is meant to function apart from a Church with authority to teach and settle disputes.
WHAT I AM STILL UNSURE ABOUT
A Church claiming authority does not prove that the claim is true. Institutions can be wrong, corrupt, or self-protective. I do not want disagreement by itself to become an easy argument for Catholicism.
WHAT I WANT TO LOOK AT NEXT
Baptism is a good test case because the disagreement is concrete: who receives it, and what does it actually do?