garandman, if you're still following this thread.....
Regarding the comment in red: That may be your opinion, but it not what we believe.  The Church got her authority THROUGH Jesus Christ - when Peter was given the keys to the kingdom.  Your error is in trying to separate the head from the body.  Jesus gave the Church the power to determine what is and is not God's communication with man by giving authority to Peter and the apostles.  That authority has been handed down through Apostolic Succession.  No where does the Church teach or believe it has authority above God.




You state that Scripture is "self-attesting", but the explanation you give does not follow.  The Spirit DID communicate to the Church what the canon is - the Spirit was given to the Church by Christ himself to give the bishops the power of infallibly determining the canon when gathered in a council.  That does not in any way make the Magisterium secondary to Scripture, but equal to it.  We call it the 3-legged stool: Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium.  

You previously asked if I could provide Scriptural evidence that the Church has higher authority than the Spirit or the Word - again, I never said it did (neither did Theodoret or valheru21), nor does the Catholic Church teach such a thing.  My point is that Scripture is not the sole or primary authority.  The Church's authority is most certainly NOT derived from the Scriptures, but from Christ.  Historically, the Church came first, established by Christ, the NT Scriptures came AFTER.

Cat, I know, I've tried to explain how we believe in Apostolic authority is not putting the Church above Scripture, no different than the early Church following the teachings of Apostles.  But we submit to the successors of the Apostles the way that the early Church subitted themselves to the teachings of the Apostles.  Just like Act 2:42 They were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.