My existence is condemned without Christ. I am an affront to him in my daily walk because I am ether careless or do things I'm not even aware of which undermine his purpose. We are all on some sort of track that doesn't necessarily end when we die, because our lives can still be used as a marker or direction for someone else.

who has the normative authority on the correct interpretation of the bible and why is this the case?

Treebeard because he is true neutral alignment.

There are grossly more disturbing things out there isn't really an argument.

It's not just a first world problem. There are people doing this all over the world.

It's a breeding (non breeding) ground for disease.

Condoms, or clean living.

It's not just a first world problem. There are people doing this all over the world

You don't understand what I meant by this.

There are grossly more disturbing things out there isn't really an argument.

I'll pm you later about what this means.

It's not just a first world problem. There are people doing this all over the world

(You don't understand what I meant by this.)

My appologies for putting this type of *you* statement as a reply.
Because it's insulting. I'm working on me.

To answer your question: no one.

The reason why I brought up this fact in history was to show how human beings have misinterpreted the Bible. I was not trying to imply that I, or other people who share the same view as me, are correct while others are not. I was simply illustrating that the Bible have been misinterpreted when it seemed to support their view.

Psalm 93:1 states that the world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. The book of Joshua recounts how the sun stopped in middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day, indicating that the sun moves. Ecclesiastes 1:5 says the sun rises and sets, and hurries back to where it rises. Christians took these verses literally for centuries. So, in about 1610, shortly after Galileo's scientific discovery and claim that our planet is not the center of the universe, he was lambasted and called a heretic.

I think it would be reasonable to assume that there still are verses in the Bible that are universally misinterpreted to this day, without our knowing, not because we're stupid but because we simply don't know. I think we should practice humility some more and not be so unkind to others. Gay people get really hated on by Christians, a lot more than any other group of people.

This post was edited by pwb3 on Jun 1 2026 03:52pm

if there is no normative authority then it's just your opinion. it has no value if it has no authority

there is no "misinterpreting" because that necessarily implies there is a correct interpretation thus a normative authority

your position is incoherent

What is normative authority? For the sake of thought I'm convinced the world is mostly one massive hive mind. We live in an era where Information is free and readily available but independence is frowned upon.

in this context I am referring to an authority that has the true understanding of holy tradition both oral and written and how he knows it is the case.

if we say there is a possibility of misunderstanding text we must necessarily say there is a true understanding of the text, which would mean there is some normative authority that maintains this holy tradition.

the position he has is incoherent because he simultaneously claims there is no normative authority while claiming there are correct or incorrect interpretations