Joseph Smith, III The Inspired Version is "binding upon the church" -- Mamusz' Restoration Forum

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Date Posted: 20:51:15 04/01/11 Fri
Author: George
Subject: Joseph Smith, III The Inspired Version is "binding upon the church"
In reply to: George 's message, "The CofC scripture reading that John is afraid to post" on 19:23:36 04/01/11 Fri

>>daily lenten scripture readings: saturday april 2,
>>2011.
>>
>snipped
>
>>
>>John 1:1-9
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>JOHN
>>
>>John 1:1-9 (Inspired Version)
>
>The official doctrinal bible of the CofC:
>
>In the beginning was the [gospel preached through
>the Son. And the gospel was the] word, and the
>word was with [the Son, and the Son was with]
>God, and the Son was [of] God. The same was in
>the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him;
>and without him was not anything made which was made.
>4 In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life,
>and the life was the light of men; 5 and the light
>shineth in the world, and the world preceiveth it not.
>
>6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
>7 The same came into the world for a witness, [to
>bear witness] of the light, [to bear records of
>the gospel through the Son,] unto all that through
>him men might believe. 8 He was not that light, but
>came to bear witness of that light, 9 which was the
>true light, which lighteth every man who cometh into
>the world;
>
>Notice that the Inspired Version, which is, by
>Conference approval, the last recourse for doctrine in
>the RLDS/CofC church, states that the Logos is the
>gospel, not that the Logos is Jesus Christ. This
>passage in John is one of the primary scripture
>witnesses in Christianity that Jesus is divine. But
>rather than saying Jesus is the Word (Logos,) and the
>Word is God, the RLDS teaching (made official by World
>Conference action) is that the Word is the gospel, and
>the gospel is with the Son, and the Son is "with" (actually "of") God.
>
>So, if you, as a member of the CofC, are caught teaching >that Jesus is the divine Logos, you can be
>summoned before a church court and charged with
>heresy. Your beliefs and teachings are not going to be
>evaluated by ANYTHING printed in ANY Protestant Bible.
>
>Being that the CofC is a highly political church, like
>that in medieval England, you will not be attacked in
>this way so long as you are in the good graces of
>someone in power. However, cross one of them, and you
>can end up in a kangaroo court over this.
>
>George

For those who would question the overriding nature of the Inspired Version, as well as its reliability, we have the following quote for Joseph Smith, III, the son of the of the founder of the RLDS church, who was also the man who wrote the Inspired Version.

"We do not consider it infallible, nor do we consider the Bible infallible. We do not believe anything that passes through human hands to be in fallible. We do not believ in the plenary inspiration of the Bible, we hold that everything which passes through human hands is fallible....

... There is no tribunal this side of the judgment seat of God that can determine whether anything is true absolutely, but when anything is accepted, of course it is binding upon the Church, although we do not attempt to pass upon the question of its fallibility or infallibility."

From the Testimony of Joseph Smith, III in The Temple Lot Suit.

There you have it, folks. The CofC is not required to examine whether the Inspired Version is reliable or not. It is however, required to accept the Inspired Version as authoritative for the CofC. Presumable, this is because the Inspired Version is considered less fallible than the KJV, the NIV, the NRSV, etc., even though JSIII never heard of the last two. This is true because the World Conference has never revisited the status of the IV as the only doctrinally binding text of the Old and New Testament for the RLDS church (which the CofC claims to be.)

This is the sort of thing that John prefers not to deal with. He prefers to offer prefabricated lists of scripture readings from churches he does not even belong to, who have theology differeing radically from that of the church he does belong to. After all, the other churches have to conform their Christology to John 1:1-9 as written in the extant Greek text of the New Testament.

George

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