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I don't really post much any more, though I still skim occasionally. But someone said something which caused a question in my mind. So as the title say, Why is the bible your authority?
because it is the Foundation of Christianity:
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11)
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; (Ephesians 2:20)
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:15)
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16)
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:17)
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 12:48)
There were many writings circulating in the first four centuries of the Church (as wll as today) purported to be written by the Apostles or someone who knew an Apostle. To this day, some ancient christian sects, like the Ethiopian church, uses texts not included in some other Bibles. To prevent the christian church from fracturing due to different christian communities choosing to believe the different texts they have that may contradict the texts of others, the leaders of the Church (there was only one then, and yes, it was called Catholic, infact, it was called this as early as 110 A.D. and probably before) decided to discern them and eventually create a canon of official Scripture for the whole universal (catholic) (which means everybody) Church to use.
There was no canon of scripture in the early Church; there was no Bible. The Bible is the book of the Church; she is not the Church of the Bible. It was the Church--her leadership, faithful people--guided by the authority of the Spirit of Truth which discovered the books inspired by God in their writing. The Church did not create the canon; she discerned the canon. Fixed canons of the Old and New Testaments, hence the Bible, were not known much before the end of the 2nd and early 3rd century.
The Bible is not my authority. The living Tradition, history and experiences of the Church as well as its official dogma as taught by the successors to the Apostles, the Bishops today, are. The Bible is simply a part of that Tradition, a part of that authority. The Bible didn't come first, the Church did (Paul was writing to a Church or christian community that was already in existence)....I do not have a Bible-based Church, I have a Church-based Bible.
I hesitate to post, as it is so difficult for me to really lay out exactly what my thoughts are as regarding the Bible, but i would like to try. First, though, I would like to point something out.......it does no good to quote the Bible to someone who does not accept it as you do. If a person doesn't believe it in the first place, why would it matter to that person what it says? So many sincere people attempt to justify their beliefs by loudly proclaming "the Bible says....." To the unbeliever, an easily imagined response could be "so what? i don't care what the Bible says....you do."
I don't know if what I am trying to say here is clear. I'll just continue on, I guess. I believe in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, as my savior, in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, this is MY personal belief. The only reason I would expect someone else to belive that same thing is not by my saying "look in the Bible" but by my living as close to the teaching of jesus to love one another as I can. I suppose it's the old question of "actions speak louder than words". I do not tell someone to search the Bible to back up my beliefs. i do not want to act as judge to another person, and oftentimes I think well-meaning Christians do exactly that, basing their jusdgements on what they perceive to be the truth found in the Bible.(and yes, I realize that my actions are bound to fall short---but I continue to try)
I know i am not saying this well. The Bible was developed over centuries and it's content often revised by various councils or groups of churchmen. is it inspired? I think it is. Can there possibly be other inspired writings from God? I think there can be.
I do not want to try to impose my limited grasp of morality on God....in other words, I think God is far grander and magnificent and forgiving etc than the writings of only a select group of ancient men can convey. Therefore, I do not choose to base all I believe about God on the Bible. Also, as is so very apparent by the posts on this forum, people just don't agree on Biblical interpretation. Sincere people. caring people. learned people. Good people. How does one chose? So I can accept the Bible as a guide----but not as an end.
So do I have questions? Yes. Do I get confused? Yes. Do I think ANYONE of us HUMANS has all the answers? No, I do not. I try to rely on my relationship with God, thru jesus and with the guidance of the holy Spirit. i do the best that I can to love my fellow man. I am one of the fortunate ones, I think, in that I was brought up Christian in America. I do not expect a person raised inanother country by parents equally as devout in their faith to easily forsake that faith and adopt mine based on the writings in a book that I show them.
i know that there are many people who will take offense with what I write. I do not write it to offend anyone. I am a seeker of the truth, just as so many of you are. And the older I get, the less I can accept truth as being either black or white, with no grays in between. Why must it be only one way or the other? I tell others what I believe. i attempt to live it. But I do not consider myself in any way an authority on faith. Can any of us ? The Bible contains much that is good. I do not like to see it used as a means of hurting or rejecting many.
Guess that's just the conclusions I've reached on my own. Please accept this post in the spirit in which it was intended, only as a most humble offering of thought. Not a declaration of certainty.
We've been taught that The Apostle Peter credited Paul
with The Writing 0f Scripture. - 2 Pet 3:16
I've found none of the Apostles in their 'epistles'
felt they themselves or the others wrote Scripture.
When they referred to The Scriptures
it was of what The Prophets of old wrote.
Even Peter was speaking on their commands as Apostles
in agreement with The Words 0f The Holy Prophets.
As Peter was speaking on to bring back to their memory
in his and Paul's epistles - 2Pet.3:1,16
I'd like to quote one of my favorite authors,whom C.S. lewis referred to as his master, George MacDonald;
"But herein is the Bible itself greatly wronged. It nowhere lays claim to be regarded as the word, the way, the Truth. The Bible leads us to Christ, the inexhaustible, the ever unfolding Revelation of God. It is Christ "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," not the Bible, save as leading to Him."
I hesitate to post, as it is so difficult for me to really lay out exactly what my thoughts are as regarding the Bible, but i would like to try. First, though, I would like to point something out.......it does no good to quote the Bible to someone who does not accept it as you do. If a person doesn't believe it in the first place, why would it matter to that person what it says? So many sincere people attempt to justify their beliefs by loudly proclaming "the Bible says....." To the unbeliever, an easily imagined response could be "so what? i don't care what the Bible says....you do."
Quote:
Why I am a Catholic and don't base my faith on just a book.
The Bible was developed over centuries and it's content often revised by various councils or groups of churchmen.
.
This is an age old anti-Catholic protestant accusation that has never been definitively proven. Those councils and "churchmen" venerated the Bible and would never dream of deliberately altering it.
I'd throw in the "Anti" here
Some people are told that the Bible is "God's Word" from a very young age. Same with Santa Claus. Having no ability to rationalize and no comparison to question right or wrong, or nothing with which to compare this "Authority" I can observe where people see it as such.
Most of the Christians I meet who wrap their entire faith, their entire relationship with "God" in the Bible, as in saying that the Bible is either "The word of God" or "Authority" or that one cannot have a relationship with GOd without the Bible tend to be the ones who are referred into my office fro all levels of Psychosomatic illness. These people tend to be the most fear ridden and fearful people I have witnessed. Sompared that is with the rest of the populace.
Why is that? Because man naturally fears what he does not understand. that is a natural response to our evolutionary development the "flight or Fight Response" I won;t get into all the physiology behind that here.
Interesting though...those who believe the Bible the strongest fear "God" the most....
I would say that it is because those who live in the bible the most don't really know God.....they know about what a select group of people in ancient times believed or attributed to God, but that definition really does not apply anymore. If I believed the Bible, I'd probably fear this God too, but since I don't...welll.....
Since we have throughout the ages rpoven so little of the Biblical events to be actually true, wince this wise guy named Buddha came long before and had already figured out most of life's puzzles, and since we really cannot know much about this Jesus character (other than that he was radical in his teachings and made more than a few enemies) we really cannot rely on the Bible as a stand alone historical text. And one cannot understand it without understanding the mythology and culture that produced it.
Which makes it easier to just say "Well God wrote it"
Which we all know, those of us who have analyzed it, that it is a most "ungodly" book.....
But if it works for you fine.
If not, we have counselors and psychiatrists standing by.........
I'd just like to add, in response to cmforte's last post, that I really have no "anti" agenda at all....sorry if it came across that way.
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1 Corinthians 15:3-4
