I think, to a certain extent, you (Kelvin and Peter) are both right. You can justify a lot of things by bending the scriptures to say what you want them to say (ie. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins), but one cannot bend the spirit of the law contained in the canon as a whole.
Peter said:
Clearly, something *more* than the Bible is needed to shape our interpretations of scripture -- for proof of this, look no further than the fact that many popular conservative beliefs *about* the scriptures (such as "biblical inerrancy" and "sola scriptura") are not found anywhere in the scriptures themselves.
One does have to employ something along the lines of the Wesleyan quadrilateral to be able to understand scriptural relevance. It would help if we all read the original Greek and Hebrew. But I agree with Kelvin in that one cannot justify anything with the scriptures.
Sam
Take the money and run. -Radiohead