>
>>> Who is this "one person" that you speak of?
>> Are you seriously asking the question, or are you trying to make a point?
> I'm seriously asking the question. Who is the "one person"? I don't
> want to take for granted that you are referring to God, who is three
> persons, so I ask: Who is this "one person?"

I would like to suggest that God is one person, who is comprised of
many. It is also God to whom I have referred.

>>> Would you consider Islam to be one of the "owtward forms" of the
>>> "church?"
>> No.
>>
>>> If so, why? If not, why not?
>> All Islamic teaching dictates contradiction of many of the commandments
>> and teachings of the founder of the church.
> Is it fair to say that, in your view, Scripture has supreme authority
> in the
> matter of morals and doctrine,
I do not think Scripture has anything supreme, except truth which cannot
be attained through purely human agency. I think God, Personally and
directly, has all functional supremacy.

> and that Islam, when held up to the Scriptures as an Objective Standard,
I do not think that a human being can hold up anything to anything else
in true objectivity. I think that such is beyond human capacity,
exactly the same way as it is true that the only one who is truly good,
according to the Lord, is God.

> becomes clearly "outside" of the biblical definition of the Church?
Depends on whose clarity you are relying upon. The clarity of God when
He thinks? I think so. The clarity of most human beings in the world,
when they think? I think not. And am I going to rely on a fellow human
being's claim to clarity? I am not; I know now that it is sin to do so,
because we are to pray all glory be given to God.

And when we are more careful with our communications, things become
considerably more difficult. If we use the term "church" without
qualifier, and we adhere to an _unqualified_ usage, we are talking about
people-groupings in general; we have to say "the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ", to expose Islam. And interestingly, the very concept of
"objective" cannot be found in Scripture in description of a holy human
being.

J.E.B.