S
schaick
Guest
You don’t listen very well, do you?
**I said that we have the teachings **of the Early Church Fathers who passed on the faith when there was NO canon of Scripture. And the ONLY way for that canon to be revealed to the world was to have it declared by the Catholic Church - God’s earthly instrument and supreme Authority on earth.
Have you ever researched how the Biblical canon came into being? How about the New Testament itself?
**In short, my anti-**Catholic friend - there WAS NO BIBLE in the first 3½ centuries of the church’s existence. Read about the Councils of Rome, Hippo and Carthage at the end of the 4th Century where the canon was declared. Many areas only has certain letters and Gospels but nobody knew what the Bible was until the Catholic Church declared what the Holy Spirit revealed.
You honestly believe that the Catholic Church didn’t some into being until the 3rd century? I gave you a quote from Ignatius of Antioch who wrote about the Catholic Church in about 110 A.D:
Where the bishop is to be seen, there let all his people be; just as, wherever Jesus Christ is present, there is the Catholic Church" (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110[/COLOR]]).
This was already the established name of the church by the end of the 1st Century. How can you read that and STILL deny?
I’ll tell you how in 2 words: Spritual Pride.
I’m not anti-catholic.
So you are saying that GOD did not pick the canon but the Catholic church did?
Ignatus 110 A.D is talking about the universal Church-not the Catholic Church we have today.
even as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the universal Church.
Christians in three different, separate areas collected writings they acknowledged as GOD’s Word.
Clement of Rome (c. A.D. 95)
mentioned at least eight New Testament books in a letter
Ignatius of Antioch (c. A.D. 115)
acknowledged about seven books
Polycarp, a disciple of John, (c. A.D. 108)
acknowledged fifteen letters