What is the protestant explanation for . . .

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People didn’t need The Bible back then, they had the Catholic Church, plus most of them could not read anyway.
No, they didn’t need the Bible… they had the letters and writings… 🙂 Of which these were read to those who could not read. We don’t need the Bible either as long as we have those letters and writings! 👍
 
Slow down, there, Singinbeauty. Take a minute to read some of the previous posts regarding who decided what was inspired and what was not.
All that is in the Bible is the Inspired Word of God… Are you of the belief that it isn’t?
There had to be some authority that was guiding people in the right path prior to the canon being decided (by Catholic synods and councils).
Ummmm yeah… God! 👍
What was that authority, in your singin’ opinion? 😉
See the answer above… 🙂 I don’t deny that it was the catholic church that did this but I do believe that the Bible existed WAY before it’s current form…
 
No, they didn’t need the Bible… they had the letters and writings… 🙂 Of which these were read to those who could not read. We don’t need the Bible either as long as we have those letters and writings! 👍
It was the Priest and the Bishops of the Catholic Church doing
the Reading.
 
Thank You.

This I know, if it were not the will of God I would not be a Christian !
If it were only up to God’s will, we would all be in heaven someday, as He loves us all dearly and would never damn any of His children to eternal hellfire if it were only His choice. God’s will is inescapable.

Unfortunately, we all have our own free will and we are essentially damning ourselves to hell if we commit mortal sin and are unrepentant.

Your being a Christian is because of God’s grace and your response in the affirmative to it!

Can I get an :amen: !!!
 
It’s MORE fun… 😃 I am so tired of the bickering so it is a relief to know that we both can agree on something! 👍
I agree. Just keep studying and maybe someday God will lead you into the Catholic Church and we can agree about even more!

(By the way, that’s not any kind of shot at you or your current beliefs, only a hope for “Christian unity.”) 😉

:blessyou:
 
If it were only up to God’s will, we would all be in heaven someday, as He loves us all dearly and would never damn any of His children to eternal hellfire if it were only His choice. God’s will is inescapable.

Unfortunately, we all have our own free will and we are essentially damning ourselves to hell if we commit mortal sin and are unrepentant.

Your being a Christian is because of God’s grace and your response in the affirmative to it!

Can I get an :amen: !!!
I resisted God for almost twenty years. It was not until God broke my will that I became a Christian.

By the way’ only Christians are the childern of God, The Bible says that everyone else is an enemy of God.
 
Kevan, with all due respect, I don’t agree with you that the average Christian today could pick up a piece of writing and know that it is a heretical forgery.

It’s not exactly difficult - in fact, anyone who can’t, at least in some cases, must be (& I hate to say this) pretty stupid :(. OTOH, there are a lot of people around who are (in the words of a British MP) “bestially stupid”. When I was an Anglican, I took for granted that only the books in the Bible were canonical - it never once occurred to me that:​

  • the Acts of Paul
  • the Acts of Peter
  • the Pistis Sophia
  • the Letters of Paul & Seneca
  • the Epistle of the Apostles
  • The Gospel of Peter
  • the Letters of Abgar & Jesus
  • the Infancy Gospel of Thomas
  • the Gospel of Thomas
  • the Book of Jeu
  • the Ascension of Isaiah
  • the Gospel of Eve
  • The Questions of Bartholomew
    (to name a few) were Scripture. Many of the books commonly called “NT Apocrypha” are self-condemned, either by their content, their spirit, their divergence from the books that were already recognised as NT Scripture, their late date, their restriction in use to a small part only of the Church, even by their titles - something that is called “The Gospel of Mani” as good as excludes itself, by its place of origin, late date, & content. What was much more common was doubt about books that are canonical - doubts about whether books eventually considered non-canonical might not be canonical, seem to have been resolved earlier rather than later - compare the fortunes of Hebrews, with those of The Shepherd of Hermas
It’s essential to remember that a great deal was happening in the Church in the first 250 years alone; there were many controversies - books that denied the reality of the sufferings or body of Christ, presented the Spirit of God as female, or treated Christ as one of many Aeons, were not likely to be thought acceptable to most Christians. Christian thought was not a blank slate.

FWIW, the Epistle to the Laodiceans appears in at least some mediaeval Bibles - as does the Prayer of Manasseh in the OT (which the Eastern Rites accept, IIRC). As for the canonisation of the Bible - canonisation does not create the books in the canon, any more than being christened creates babies. 🙂 Canonisation of books recognises, officially, that certain books are inspired - it does not create inspiration; the inspired books have to exist, and be used as Scripture, if they are to be recognised as Scripture. The canon existed, & grew, long before 400 or so - & there are over 12,000 (that’s twelve thousand) quotations from the NT in the early Fathers to prove it.

So it is futile to argue (as some do) that there was no Bible before 400 or so. Apart from anything else, such a position is in direct contradiction to what the NT says. Catholics only damage the cause they seek to promote, if they use such demonstrably false arguments 😦 ##
 
The Christians, having no Bible of their own, listened to the reading of the Scriptures in their assemblies and meditated on what they remembered. They heard their teachers expound the truths of Christianity and they challenged false teachers.
By assemblies i assume you meant the Mass?
 
I resisted God for almost twenty years. It was not until God broke my will that I became a Christian.

By the way’ only Christians are the childern of God, The Bible says that everyone else is an enemy of God.
Halfway there-we’ will be wating for you when God leads you “across the Tiber”
 
how the Christian faith can be based on scripture alone when the bible wasn’t finalized for about 400 years after the death of Christ, and then it was another few centuries before it was widely available to the general population?

How did Christians know what to do and how were they led to do it without the scriptures to follow or interpret with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

I’m just curious about that. 🤷
Maybe by the same way that Muhammed decided scripture was “corrupted” and HE had the real deal.

Maybe the same way they disrespect the original “reformers” and will continue to reform into oblivion.
 
Originally Posted by estesbob
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All 33,000 different versions of it?
*sigh… :yawn:
I hate that number too. It does more harm than good. If the 33,000 number concerned faith and morals I would speak to the pope about banning it.

Come to think of it, that 33,000 number has been floating around for a couple of years now. If the number of denoms is growing exponentially, we should be way past 33,000.
 
I hate that number too. It does more harm than good. If the 33,000 number concerned faith and morals I would speak to the pope about banning it.

Come to think of it, that 33,000 number has been floating around for a couple of years now. If the number of denoms is growing exponentially, we should be way past 33,000.
That doesn’t matter, because they are ALL guided by the Holy Spirit and the Gate of Hell will not Prevail against these 33,000 Denominations
they All have the Keys to the kingdom of Heaven, what ever the 33,000 Denominations bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven: and what so ever the 33,000 Denominations shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven. :rolleyes:
 
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