If you do not like the answer of divine providence, then you are in the flesh. The Church Fathers cannot be more authoritative than the Apostles in the New Testament. In addition, many of the Church Fathers contradicted themselves.
See my point here. You did not address the issue I bring forth.
Divine providence is fine, self authenitcating is acceptable, but there had to actions taken on earth to bring those letters and epistles together to make one complete Bible. Please explain that process.
I’ll tell you what I believe happened. The authors, the Apostles who were the earliest Church fathers, wrote letters and epistles to Churches they started. Over time, the Church being one, brought those letters and epistles together but had many more than what are in the Bible today. They read, studied and prayed for guidance so they could decide what was really God breathed and what wasn’t. You know the scriptures warn of those with false teachings about Christ. They had written many things themselves. Through the protection of the Holy Spirit from God, the early Church fathers, the councils, decided on a canon.
**There was a constant history of faithful people from Paul’s time through the Apostolic and Post Apostolic Church.
Melito, bishop of Sardis, an ancient city of Asia Minor (see Rev 3), c. 170 AD produced the first known Christian attempt at an Old Testament canon. His list maintains the Septuagint order of books but contains only the Old Testament protocanonicals minus the Book of Esther.
The Council of Laodicea, c. 360, produced a list of books similar to today’s canon. This was one of the Church’s earliest decisions on a canon.
Pope Damasus, 366-384, in his Decree, listed the books of today’s canon.
The Council of Rome, 382, was the forum which prompted Pope Damasus’ Decree.
Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse wrote to Pope Innocent I in 405 requesting a list of canonical books. Pope Innocent listed the present canon.
The Council of Hippo, a local north Africa council of bishops created the list of the Old and New Testament books in 393 which is the same as the Roman Catholic list today.
The Council of Carthage, a local north Africa council of bishops created the same list of canonical books in 397. This is the council which many Protestant and Evangelical Christians take as the authority for the New Testament canon of books. The Old Testament canon from the same council is identical to Roman Catholic canon today. Another Council of Carthage in 419 offered the same list of canonical books.
Since the Roman Catholic Church does not define truths unless errors abound on the matter, Roman Catholic Christians look to the Council of Florence, an ecumenical council in 1441 for the first definitive list of canonical books.
The final infallible definition of canonical books for Roman Catholic Christians came from the Council of Trent in 1556 in the face of the errors of the Reformers who rejected seven Old Testament books from the canon of scripture to that time.
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It was almost 400 years before there was a widespread agreement on those scriptures. During those 400 years the Church and the faith existed.
Now, those early Church fathers who did this work, under God’s providence, are the very early Church fathers you are discounting because they are men, they are not in scriptures and what they write is not God breathed.
2000 years later, there’s a poster on a forum who goes by the name of Reformed. He privately interprets scriptures and posts “truths” from God. Where was this written in scriptures? Are your writings God breathed? If not, should we listen to anything you have to say?
**2Co 11:4 For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.
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We are not going to submit to another Gospel readily enough.
:getholy: