To keep this on the original point, the statement I am disagreeing with is the underlined one:
Symmetry wrote:Church wise, I'm not sure where you disagree with me. We both say that missionaries are agents of churches. They're not just winging it with their own Bibles. So they're authorised and have Bibles that are authorised for their work, which is authorised by the church they are performing missionary work for.
Bibles are not authorized for missionary work and they are not authorized by the church.
If authorization means to make a truth-claim about the contents, then missionaries are winging it, since they each individually will make truth claims about the Bible while bringing their message to the nations.
Would you say I have authorized this forum post because I am making a truth claim about it? What counts as an acceptable authority? In most cases it is the book publisher making a claim about accuracy (rarely about truth). Do book publishers have a Divine Right to authorize texts?
There is no need to provide any definition because there is no process whereby the church is involved in deciding which Bible a missionary is to use unless the Church is paying for them (to hand out), in which case that decision is usually done by the purchasing agent, not somebody in authority.
I suppose at a basic level, I would need some evidence of somebody claiming to authorize something, with whatever definition they use. Have you met anyone who has claimed to authorize a Bible? Maybe you can call the pope and ask how many Bibles he has authorized? (His phone number is 390669881022 and the correct answer is 0).
