The Church Before the Bible

Discussion in 'Faith, Devotion & Formation' started by bwallac2335, Jul 5, 2020.

  1. Rexlion

    Rexlion Well-Known Member

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    Are you sure about that? Based on Moses' experience with the tablets, I'm sure that God could inscribe the entire 66 books of the Bible on stone tablets in less than a second! :D If there were no one to write to I concede that there would be little point, but surely God did not need to have the Church do the penmanship.
     
  2. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    I think my point was that the canon of the Old Testament is either the LXX which predates the Christian Church or the Masoretic Canon which was established by the Jews somewhere post the expulsion of the Christians from the Synagogue. Clearly it would be silly to think that the Church created or gave us the Old Testament, and far more honest to suggest that the Church received the Old Testament.

    And I mean that in the sense of Article 6:

    All the Books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive, and account them Canonical.​
     
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  3. Tiffy

    Tiffy Well-Known Member

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    My question would have to be this: "Who then would have written the New Testament if the church of Jesus Christ had never existed"?

    It stands to reason that whoever would have written the New Testament and whoever read and believed it would logically become the Church of Jesus Christ.

    This is because all documents which were not included were not included because they were not written by the Church of Jesus Christ, therefore not 'Inspired'. That was the reason for them not being included, surely? They were not unanimously regarded by the Church, as such because their contents did not accord with what the Church decided was 'Truth'. So what documents went into the Bible was decided by the Church.

    The Bible in your hand is a product of The Church, inspired by God. The Church was not originally a product of the Bible inspired by its text.

    (Except that The Church was shaped, influenced and defined by those inspired writings of Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ, as they were being written by them, later to become the Bible in your hand, compiled by The Church).

    I'm sure of what happened and it's just as well that we don't have to cart 66 books made of granite around with us everywhere we go. Deut.6:4-9. :hmm:

    Maybe not, but that is undoubtedly the way God chose to do it, so who are we to speculate on alternatives God might have been forced by circumstance to choose. (That would open a serious theological can of worms concerning the very nature of Almighty God).
    .
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2021
  4. Rexlion

    Rexlion Well-Known Member

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    The Church is the worldwide body of believers/followers, so over the centuries the Church has written many uninspired things that don't belong in the Bible. Your posts and mine, admittedly, are prime examples. :rolleyes:

    We should be careful to not regard the Church in the sense of a monolithic group of automatons that is perfectly inspired by God. Wouldn't you agree?

    On this basis, documents were not included in the Bible because they were not the inspired word of God despite having been written by members of the Church universal.

    The Romans often speak of "the Church" as if it were a Borg cube. That's about how they treated their laity, too, for many centuries. :loopy: I hope Anglicans never think of the Church with such a mindset. :) We are all individuals, each one joined to Christ by grace through faith, made one in Him, but still imperfect. We are not divided into 'those with the hive mind' and 'rogue drones'; rather, we all have our own volition and we all hit the mark sometimes and miss the mark more often than not. Apostles and early churchmen included. Yet when it came to the compilation of the Holy Scriptures, the hand of God prevailed in preserving His word as (to borrow a phrase from our legal system) the truth, and nothing but the truth.
     
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