'But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.'
(
Eph 4:8)
Sure...but this has nothing to do with what the OP says.
And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,
maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.'
(
Eph 4:11-16)
Yes, indeed, and this is what I was talking about...but here is a more accurate rendering of the Greek for verses 11-14...
Ephesians 4:11-14
And truly, God gave the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and the pastors,
and teachers to the church; for the end result of the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministering to others, the result of the process of building up the Body of Christ through spiritual instruction and edification: until we all attain to the unity of the doctrines of the Faith, and coming to know the Son of God through personal relationship, into a maturity of knowledge and understanding of the truth; into the measure of spiritual maturity in Christ, reaching the intended goal of life in Christ - the fullness of Christian knowledge and love:
so that we might no longer be infants in doctrinal understanding, tossed here and there and driven about by all manner of the winds of shaky, deceitful teachings of men; deceived imposters who seduce people into sin and error through artifice as they walk in the directions of their own carnal minds, causing the unstable to wander out of the right way of God.
Hello...
You describe a sad state of affairs.
Indeed I do...
I believe that the Word of God interprets itself:
That belief is in error, and very simple to demonstrate, as I have in the OP already. While you are correct to a certain point, we not only need the Holy Spirit to interpret it, we also need to know and understand that there are historical, cultural, linguistic, and other "gaps" to us today in being able to simply read and understand everything that is taught or said in Scripture. "Jesus wept," yes...you can understand that, but when Paul makes apparent contradictory statements in Romans, unless you know what you are doing, you will not understand what he is talking about unless you apply a complete Biblical hermeneutic to study of those statements.
for the teachers given by the ascending Lord, taught; and their teaching is recorded in the Word of God; so that we need nothing more than the written Word.
So...you agree with others that you don't even need the Holy Spirit in order to understand Scripture, then? Your statement is general and not accurate. Again...
Romans 3:20
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Romans 2:13
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God,
but the doers of the law who will be justified.
In order to understand what Paul is talking about here in these two verses, you must understand cultural and historical issues, you MUST understand ancient near eastern covenant, which God patterned His covenants and doctrines after. Do you understand those cultural and historical tenets? Do you have any accurate knowledge or understanding of ANE covenants? You might, I am simply asking...
Having come to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord: He, by His Spirit will lead us into all truth; as we read and acknowledge by faith what is written for our learning.
Negative...nowhere in Scripture are YOU told that the Spirit will lead you into all truth; the two places in John where Jesus says that, He is speaking directly to the apostles, NOT us living today. Or, you might also be referring to this verse:
1 John 2:27
But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie--just as it has taught you, abide in him.
Sadly, most English versions butcher this verse, like they do many, many others (which is why it pays to learn the Greek that they were originally written in); this is what John wrote according to the Greek:
1 John 2:27
And the Anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you
should have no need that anyone teach you regarding the things of God; but as the Anointing from Him directs you regarding all things, and He is true, and is not a lie, and according to whatever He guides you to do, do it and remain abiding in Him.
"should" means can, might, may...it is in the Greek a particle of uncertainty, not meaning that the Holy Spirit cannot teach you, but rather on your part, whether or not you have the mind to listen to what He is trying to tell you, rather or not you will lay aside your biases so that you CAN hear His voice when He is trying to direct you into truth. This is why God also gave teachers...called, ordained by Him, equipped and gifted and anointed to teach the truth - because there are many people out there who are not walking with God like they should, so that they can hear Him...yet they claim that they can and do. However, their personal doctrines and statements make it obvious that they do not hear Him.
I am afraid I do not trust any man sufficiently to teach me what the Word of God says. I prefer to read it for myself. For it needs no interpreting.
Then you are basically telling God that He made a mistake in calling, ordaining, gifting, equipping, and anointing teachers. I will trust a person as long as he is teaching what the Scriptures teach, but far too often today the church is filled by false pastors that God never called into the ministry - they called themselves. And when God does not call them, they do not have the calling, ordaining, gifting, equipping, or anointing to be able to teach or preach, and they lead entire congregations astray from "the way of God" (Acts 18:24-26).
Therefore, when I became aware of the need for Biblical principles of interpretation, I learned them and run everything that I hear and study through them, because they ENSURE that what we *think* the Spirit is telling us, really is the Spirit or our own carnal minds listening to seducing spirits. The fact that you claim the Scriptures "need no interpreting" demonstrates that (to put it kindly) you don't know what you are talking about, respectively.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable to us, but not all Scripture is about us, and so we need to rightly divide it, by taking into consideration, who spoke or wrote it, to whom, at what time, with what intent, taking into consideration what the immediate context, and scope of the book being studied has to tell us.
While this is true, there are other considerations that must be taken into account. For example, does the verse or passage deal directly or indirectly with covenant? Are you looking at the Biblical principles of contradiction, topical study, the harmony of Scripture principle? What about progressive revelation, the Christo-centric and Full mention principles? You have a good start there with what you gave, but that is only the beginning, not the whole of the situation...there's the discrimination principle, human willingness principle, the bias principle. Then word definitions, word substitutes, and Scriptural definitions (like "eternal life" does NOT always mean literal eternal life, for example), and the all important grammar principle in the Greek.
It would probably shock your socks off to see all of the translation errors in your Bible due to the bias and grammar principles alone, particularly in versions like the KJV, NIV, and NET bible where the translators, out of their bias, have ignored the Greek grammar in order to make certain verses way what they want them to say, rather than what the Greek text actually says. And that brings me to another point...you can't even trust the English renderings of Scripture for accurate translation, so how in the world you think that all you need to do is read the Bible and you will understand perfectly everything that is stated - when some of the verses have been horribly perverted without your knowledge or understanding - and you think you can? Sorry, Chris...I hate to burst your bubble world, but that simply is not true.
And God KNEW this would happen, and that is why He also ordained that teachers would be in the church as long as the church is on the earth...men who He gifts, equips, calls, and anoints to not only be able to understand what most people cannot understand, but also able to teach in the power of His Spirit. God has indeed provided His church with all that it needs, and that is not the Bible alone - that is a false doctrine straight out of calvinism, another false religion like her sisters the mormons and JW's.
Blessings!