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The fact is that I have a local church, a pastor, and am submissive to the leaders whom I believe God has placed over me, thank you very much.
Yes, but who ordained him to be pastor? In NT ecclesiology, ordination required apostolic succession. Luther was a Catholic monk who had no authority to ordain anybody. He had a lawful superior which he disobeyed to start his own church. In so doing, he appendicized Hebrews, so I suppose disobedience to Heb 13:17 was not a problem for him. Luther said in his preface to hist appendicized Hebrews: “
Up to this point we have had to do with the true and certain chief books of the New Testament. The four which follow [Hebrew, James, Jude, and Revelation] have from ancient times had a different reputation.” Thus, in Luther’s own words, he does not consider these books to be “true and certain chief books of the New Testament.” He described the Epistle of James as “an epistle of straw.” Luther stated of his appendicized James in his preface, “
it is flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture.”
I understand you are not Lutheran, but none of the Protestant churches existed in the 1st through 15th centuries. They created their own Church upon their own version of the Bible.
Who ordained Calvin? Neither was Calvin, or John Smyth–who baptized himself to start the baptist movement–acting in obedience to their lawful pastors. Who commissioned them?
For instance, I’m a commissioned officer in the USAF. Just cuz I went to college and studied a lot of military stuff, does not make me a “commission officer.” I actually have to have received a “commission” from the lawful authority empowered to give that commission. I can’t simply start by own Air Force and pretend it is the “one true” Air Force, as Luther, Calvin, and the rest of the Protestant reformers did when they started their own church. They may have been self-ordained “officers” in their own church, but they are not officers in the lawful Church of Christ which came before them, established in the first century, and continued by the lawful pastors who were ordained through apostolic succession. No self-ordination were valid in NT ecclesiology.
I have no idea how to prove the 66 versus 73 or 81 book issue. From the little I have read, it is a case of different metrics used for canonicity.
It is a case of different understanding of authority. The earliest Christians submitted to the authority of the lawfully ordained pastors of the Church, with St. Peter as the “chief pastor” (cf. Protestant sources
here,
here and
here ) of the ekklhsia kaq olhV (Acts 9:31), or Catholic Church, even when it pertained to questions about which books were divinely inspired Scripture. Prophecy is not a matter of personal interpretation. Use any “metric” you like, but no Christian Church before Protestantism held to a 66-book Bible with an abbreviated Daniel and Esther. The facts speak for themselves. Your question involved the “evidence.” I pray you look into it.
Religion is better than irreligion. But it is equally true that true religion is better than false religion, orthodoxy is better than heterodoxy.
For example, I played soccer in college. Practice makes perfect. That is, it is important to practice soccer, in order to become more perfected in it, to add to the greater prefection of the entire team. But not just any practice will due. “Right practice” is necessary for growth in perfection, and “wrong practice” can actually be detrimental to growth in perfection. If I were to disobey my coach, pick up the ball with my hands and run with it down the field then throw it into the opponents goal asserting this sort of “practice” is better, that would be an example of “wrong practice.” It would be wrong for me to do so for two reasons: 1) I am bound to honor and obey the coach, and 2) my “wrong practice” is contrary to growth in the perfection for me and my teammates.
I suggest Luther wrested the ball from the other players, in disobedience to his coach, and began to assert something novel in the practice of Christianity, something detrimental to growth in Christian perfection.
Orthodoxy means “right worship.” Right worship in Christianity is just as important as “right practice” is in soccer. It is important to remain faithful to the worship of God handed by Christ to the apostles, and from the apostles to their successors, and so on. Because “right practice” of Christianity is that which our Lord intended, as there was not a more fitting way to end our misery.
