Would we survive without the Bible?

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Mannyfit75

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Consider this scenario:

What if all the Bibles in the world were destroyed but only the Church was around. Would Christians survive without the Bible?

I think we would because in the First Century they didn’t have the complete Bible as we know it today.
 
I think we would survive, but I also think that God would enlighten and enable us to ‘reconstruct’ perfectly the Bible again. Many people have memorized entire books of the Bible --that would help! Unless we had been in essence bombed back to the Stone Age and there was absolutely no papyrus, vellum, writing implements etc. --and in that case, we would have people maintaining the Bible through oral tradition until we developed the capacity to ‘write it down’ again.
 
I am not sure, because in the first century there was a crossover of time when the Apostles lived and the scriptures were written.

The Catholic church doesn’t rely on scripture alone, and it doesn’t rely on tradition alone.

It relies on a triad of scripture, Sacred tradition, and the teaching Magestrium.

I think that if you remove any of the three, you would run the risk of going into error.

But since the church is guided by the Holy Spirit, maybe this wouldn’t be a threat.

But it would make me worry, because of the fact that a majority of the Bishops had fallen into the Arian heresy at one time.

And it took all three to counter it, Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Teaching Magestrium of the Church.
 
Jesus told us the Church would be with us until the end of time. He doesn’t make mention of the bible being with us until the end of time.

So I trust in the Church being there in some form, with or without the bible, I guess.

And Christianity did pretty well in the Middle Ages when hardly anyone could read and they got all their bible stories from the paintings, stained glass windows and such.

Oh and the Jews did fine without the scriptures in the early years – guess if all the bibles disappeared, we’d see more prophets appointed by the Lord to help guide us.
 
Mannyfit75 said:
Consider this scenario:

What if all the Bibles in the world were destroyed but only the Church was around. Would Christians survive without the Bible?

I think we would because in the First Century they didn’t have the complete Bible as we know it today.
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Of course Catholics would, others might not fare as well. because they would not have any basis for their religion.
 
Of course we would survive. We still have God don’t we??? We still have the Holy Spirit dwelling among us.

With God ANYTHING is possible. 👍
 
Singinbeauty said:
Of course we would survive. We still have God don’t we??? We still have the Holy Spirit dwelling among us.

With God ANYTHING is possible. 👍
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Even keeping his church one united body, and teaching one faith, one doctrine?
 
Singinbeauty said:
Of course we would survive. We still have God don’t we??? We still have the Holy Spirit dwelling among us.

With God ANYTHING is possible. 👍
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Yes, the Christian church could survive, God is faithful to his promises and his people.

Look how the Jews survived their captivity.
Whey they returned and were rebuilding the Temple, they found the Torah, and were so excited, and the High Priest read it aloud.

To me that would mean that they were without the Torah while in captivity, and they survived, at least the ones who wanted to return and serve their God.
 
According to the Bible, the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. It will survive. I don’t see any similar guarantee for the Bible.
 
If something like that happened, it would be God’s plan for it to be that way.
It may be a good thing, because more would be interested in it, if it were gone. People are like that. They take much for granted, and when it is gone, they suddenly realize they really should have paid attention when they had the chance. 😦
 
savedsinner said:
Even keeping his church one united body, and teaching one faith, one doctrine?
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You don’t think that God can do anything??? I hate to break it to you… We, Christ’s Church, ARE one body (His children - His followers), we have ONE Faith (our Faith in God and Christ and the awesome sacrifice that was blessed upon us). One doctrine? Well, we have the most important one agree’d upon… Without Christ we would have no hope of salvation. We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know that without our Faith in God we are lost. Everything else are issues we choose to argue over trying to proove that daddy loves us best. It is so sad and pathetic really. If we all just focus on God and not what the other person is doing we would all fall into place. But no, the hands want to be the feet, the feet want to be the shoulders, and everyone is pushing for the title of the head even though Christ is the head.

Why do you think the we, together, are the body? Each part does something different and work entirely different. We don’t walk on our elbows nor do we pick things up with our pecks. But we all work together to bring Christ to this world. Amazingly we work together when it is important. Between the catholic and protestant churches most if not all of the world KNOWS of Christ and God. Each day the numbers are staggering of who comes to know God and experiences His love. Can you imagine what kind of an impact we could make if we just put down our weapons and work together… but of course this won’t happen, people want to be right and anyone who doesn’t believe the way they do is wrong and deserves the violence. It’s so sad.
 
1 Peter 1:25
BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you

We see that even if we don’t have a bible, the word of the Lord will last forever because it is being preached in the Church.
 
Singinbeauty said:
You don’t think that God can do anything??? I hate to break it to you… We, Christ’s Church, ARE one body (His children - His followers), we have ONE Faith (our Faith in God and Christ and the awesome sacrifice that was blessed upon us). One doctrine? Well, we have the most important one agree’d upon… Without Christ we would have no hope of salvation. We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know that without our Faith in God we are lost. Everything else are issues we choose to argue over trying to proove that daddy loves us best. It is so sad and pathetic really. If we all just focus on God and not what the other person is doing we would all fall into place. But no, the hands want to be the feet, the feet want to be the shoulders, and everyone is pushing for the title of the head even though Christ is the head.

Why do you think the we, together, are the body? Each part does something different and work entirely different. We don’t walk on our elbows nor do we pick things up with our pecks. But we all work together to bring Christ to this world. Amazingly we work together when it is important. Between the catholic and protestant churches most if not all of the world KNOWS of Christ and God. Each day the numbers are staggering of who comes to know God and experiences His love. Can you imagine what kind of an impact we could make if we just put down our weapons and work together… but of course this won’t happen, people want to be right and anyone who doesn’t believe the way they do is wrong and deserves the violence. It’s so sad.
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Sorry, I was just being cantankerous.

I know that the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox would survive, but I wonder how well the Protestants would survive, and especially how the non-denominational churches would survive with out creeds, confessions or statements of faith.
How many generations would pass before their faith wouldn’t be recognizable from what it is today.
I wonder if they would morph into a type of Church more like the Catholics and eastern orthodox, who rely on tradition.

By non-denominational, I mean the churches who have somewhat even rejected their protestant background, and just rely of the bible, or a “Jesus and me” mentality, rejected any creeds.
 
sojo said:
Jesus told us the Church would be with us until the end of time. He doesn’t make mention of the bible being with us until the end of time.
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“God’s Torah is perfect, it restores the soul” (Psalms 19:8).
Eternal Torah

It is a foundation of our faith to believe in the eternal authority of the Torah. It is thus written, “Things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deut. 29:38).

Just as God Himself does not change, so the Torah which is His eternal testimony to Israel, cannot be changed. Moses thus said, “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shall you subtract from it; you must keep the commandments of God your Lord, which I command you” (Deut. 4:2).**** Therefore, no commandment of the Torah can ever be abrogated or changed.****

A person who denies the divine origin of even a single word or variant spelling or reading in the Torah is considered a nonbeliever who has no portion in the World to Come. Concerning such a person, it is written, “Because he has despised God’s word… his soul shall be utterly cut off; his sin shall remain upon him” (Numbers 15:31).

There were times that this Torah was almost lost. A number of Israelite kings had attempted to uproot or change the teachings of the Torah. Thus, during the reign of Achaz (3183-3199; 578-562 BCE) many Torah scrolls were destroyed. Because of this, the Kohen-priests hid the Torah written by Moses in order to safeguard it.

Later during the reign of Manasseh (3228-3283; 533-478 BCE), efforts to destroy the Torah were so successful that the existence of the Torah written by Moses had to be concealed from all but a dedicated few. It was only later, during the reign of Yoshia (in 3303; 458 BCE) that this Torah was found hidden in the Temple. It is thus written, “Chilkiah the Kohen-priest found the book of God’s Torah, [written] in Moses’ hand” (2 Chronicles 34:14). King Yoshia used this as an occasion to rededicate the people to the observance of the Torah.

MORE SAFEGUARDING OF THE TORAH IN THE WHOLE ARTICLE

It is a positive commandment for every Jew to write a Torah or have one written for him. It is thus written, “Now write this song for yourselves” (Deut. 31:19). Since it is forbidden to write portions of the Torah separately, this commandment is an injunction to write the entire Torah.

If a Torah or other sacred writings are incorrectly written, it is forbidden to keep them for more than 30 days, lest they be used or copied. After this period, they must be either corrected or hidden. It is thus written, “Do not let wrong remain in your tents” (Job 11:14).

Originally, the Torah and other scripture were so carefully preserved that every letter, word, and sentence was counted. Traditions still exist based on this knowledge.

However, after the Babylonian exile, it became impossible to find precise Torah scrolls, and several questions arose regarding the exact reading of the Torah and other scripture. Therefore, when the Great Assembly fixed the Bible canon under the leadership of Ezra, they also restored the exact readings of the scriptures…

We find that “Ezra set his heart to delve into God’s Torah” (Ezra 7:10). It is similarly taught, “If you seek it as silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you shall… find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:4).

The name Elohim represents God as Ruler of creation, and thus, the same word is used for judges and angels. The name Elohim is therefore interpreted to indicate that God is the “master of all power.” This also indicates that God’s primary relationship with the universe is to oversee all the forces of creation and providence. When the name Elohim is used in God’s relationships with man, it indicates that He is acting in justice, according to laws as strict as those of nature.

The Tetragrammaton (YHVH) is used as a proper name of God, denoting Him as the ultimate Source of all existence, high above the universe and its laws. The Tetragrammaton is therefore interpreted to mean that God “was, is and will be,” indicating that He is outside the realm of space, time and all other attributes of nature. Therefore, when the Tetragrammaton is used in relation to man, it indicates that God is acting in mercy, transcending all the rules of providence.

It is taught that when King Solomon, the greatest genius of all time, considered certain commandments irrelevant, God said,** “A thousand like Solomon will pass away, but not a single jot of the Torah will be changed.”**

The Psalmist prayed, “Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Torah” (Psalms 119:18).

The Torah is therefore intrinsically perfect, and requires no further external evidence for the truths it teaches. The Psalmist thus said, “God’s Torah is perfect, it restores the soul” (Psalms 19:8).

aish.com/literacy/concepts/Writing_the_Torah.asp
 
Mannyfit75 said:
Consider this scenario:

What if all the Bibles in the world were destroyed but only the Church was around. Would Christians survive without the Bible?

I think we would because in the First Century they didn’t have the complete Bible as we know it today.
Click to expand...
Catholic christians would survive. Protestant christians would be thrown into a state of total chaos.

But all online bibles would have to be erased as well to make this a complete scenario and all electronic bibles destroyed as well.
 
My concern with this scenario is that if ALL bibles were to be destroyed, would some come along and re-write it to suit their own agenda? We know with the example of the Watchtower Society that this has already happened, but imagine this on a global scale.:eek:

I would miss very much reading the bible, but the Christian faith managed to not only survive, but flourish for some 300 odd years without the bible. We did it before, we can do it again.👍
 
Sacred Tradition is superior to Sacred Scripture in completeness. For active Tradition preserves not only the entire written word of God, insofar as the Sacred Books have been transmitted to posterity by the active Tradition of the Church, but also certain truths that are mentioned only cursorily in Scripture, so that without the testimony of the oral teaching of the Apostles they would scarcely be recognized as revealed truths. Examples are the observance of Sunday as the Lord’s Day and the authorship and inspired character of many books of the Bible.

Sacred Tradition enjoys greater independence than Sacred Scripture. For the credibility of Tradition and the truth of the doctrines therein contained can be determined by infallible judgment independently of Scripture, once you grant that the successors of Peter and the Apostles enjoy the protection of the Holy Spirit. Sacred Scripture in all its parts cannot be known as a source of revelation without the witness of Tradition, and therefore depends on it. It is a source of never failing wonder to Catholics that so many Protestants cannot understand this.
 
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