First of all, I didn't call you a nitpicker, and I'm not complacent in my faith. I admire your zeal, but under the conditions you are setting, it would be impossible for anyone to believe anything about anything. There is nothing wrong with putting faith in people. We all do it all the time every day, including you. You just have to discern how much faith to put in someone and about what. You yourself put faith in total strangers you have never met and know nothing about every time you cross the street, having faith that they will obey the traffic laws. You hesitate to put some faith in a pastor that he knows what he's preaching about suggesting that you would personally have to know the original language. But if you did learn it, you would be putting your faith in the people that taught it to you. After all, how can you be sure they aren't wrong? If you relied only on what was directly revealed to you by God, trusting nothing else because it might be flawed in some way, you would be putting your faith in yourself, assuming that there'a no way you could be mistaken about what you think is His leading.

There has to be a balance. You can't just zero in on a few scriptures or a few concepts and ignore the rest. You study, you pray, you interact with other Christians, then you decide what God is saying to YOU. There will be mistakes made by you and by people around you. But that's life. Your ultimate faith should be placed in God alone. But you also have to put some of your trust in other people or things, as long as they've proven themselves to be trustworthy.

Dakota