Where is your Church w/o the Bible?

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This is quite a tired old criticism and has been answered inumerable times. The question is sometimes posed as though it were somehow a new and shocking challenge for Catholics. Here are some excellent responses to your question:

catholic.com/library/Scripture_and_Tradition.asp

and here:

catholic.com/library/What_Your_Authority.asp

…just for starters.

But just very briefly, it was the Church that gave us the Bible in the first place; the young Christian Church was well underway in the ancient world for a long time before Bible as we know it came into existence. The Gospel of Mark, which is likely the first Gospel written, was not penned until at least 65AD. So you need to ask the early Christians, to whom Paul writes in his letters, and of whom Luke speaks about in his Acts, where was the Church before the Bible. And if you begin to understand the Church then, you will begin to understand the Church now. The One True Church ‘operates’ in exactly the same way now as it has done since the time of the Apostles: through the Holy Spirit and in friendship with Jesus Christ and all that he has handed on to us through Peter and the Apostles.

God bless.
 
Acapiteadcalcem said:
This is such a tired, old criticism and has been answered inumerable times. You pose this question as though it is somehow a new and shocking revelation. If you are genuinely seeking a complete answer to your question, you can start by searching for answers in these forums and in the archived answers.

But just very briefly, it was the Church that gave us the Bible in the first place; the young Christian Church was well underway in the ancient world for a long time before Bible as we know it came into existence. The Gospel of Mark, which is likely the first Gospel written, was not penned until at least 65AD. So you need to ask the early Christians, to whom Paul writes in his letters, and of whom Luke speaks about in his Acts, where was the Church before the Bible. And if you begin to understand the Church then, you will begin to understand the Church now.

God bless.
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I am well aware of how we got the Bible. This post is intended for those who say they follow Christs teachings, but do not accept that people actually taught Christianity before those teachings were written down, much less compiled into one collection. And especially those who do not see the similarities of Mass and the Book of Revelations.
Why the harsh words? Did you look at my response to the category of religion?

Same team, same team!
 
You’ve replied to my post while I was still editing it. No offence intended to you personally. Your initial post was not clear. Check out the links above, which give a great reply to the question.
Pax
 
No offense taken.

So, how would Christian churches operate without the Bible?
 
if there never was no Bible i don’t think there would ever be any protestant churches
 
Let me give this a bit of a stab, I do love these questions.

First, if there was no BIBLE (this doesn’t matter what faith you are in), then the teachings would be done orally. This would be preformed for a time until a written version of the teachings were documented.

Second, the bible is but a collection of teachings that instill the morals, examples of the teachings in effect, and in a lot of cases even historical reference to events that then solidify the teachings laid out in the BIBLE.

The fun part of this, especially for the older versions of these documents, is how they were written, when they were written and who they were written for originally. These specific aspects brings to life the meaning of the religion that it follows and therefore gives life to what was taught to today’s age. No amount of attack or ‘BASHING’ (as I like to call it from time to time) will deviate the faith of those who are strong in their religion (no, i do not say that your question is an attack but a lot of people that try and pose the question have a general overtone towards that)
 
mwok said:
If we did not have the Bible, how would your church operate?
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WE rely on not only teachings of the bible but also church father righting . Paul said that we have oral tradition by mouth and by writings . The bible is not the only authority .
 
I don’t think there was a bible for the first 300 years of Christanity. I may be wrong.
 
Without the NT or OT, we would probably worship anything that came into our minds.
 
mwok said:
If we did not have the Bible, how would your church operate?
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Interesting question… Kinda makes me think what Catholics would do without mass. I’m really not being sarcastic here, but that’s the first thing that came to my mind!

I dunno…guess God would find a way to reach our hearts. He IS pretty powerful that way…🙂
 
The Mass is what it’s all about!🙂

We have entered into the new exodus, in which we participate in the new passover where we have the new manna that sustains us on our journey to the new jerusalem.

One reason Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God in Revelations is because the Jews ate the lamb of passover.

The Old Covenant was consummated with a feast just as the New Covenant is consummated with a feast of thanksgiving(eucharista in greek).
 
noobio said:
I don’t think there was a bible for the first 300 years of Christanity. I may be wrong.
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The books were studied but the official word on what was to be recognized as scripture did not come about until the mid 300s and the council of HIPPO in 393 AD being a Key meeting in that . The Hebrew CANON was chosen (with baised manner) around 90-100 Ad the council of Jamnia
 
If we did not have the Bible, how would your church operate?
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I really do not think anyone knows. Its so speculative. The early church started writing so early.
The books were studied but the official word on what was to be recognized as scripture did not come about until the mid 300s and the council of HIPPO in 393 AD being a Key meeting in that . The Hebrew CANON was chosen (with baised manner) around 90-100 Ad the council of Jamnia
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I think it remained iin flux much later than that date for the Jews. That was just a theory. It could be true but nothing concrete says when it was canonized for the Jews. It seems it was just a natural process. 🙂
Since other Christians use different books, I am not sure the process is the same for the East. Their Bibles are bigger than anyones.
 
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