Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
People would have told their children and so forth. Details would likely have been lost or changed, just as they likely were before the gospels were actually written.
Christianity DID spread without the formal Bible as we know it today. You've surely heard of the Mar Thoma Christians, the people in Kerala, India, who say the apostle Thomas brought Christianity to them. They did not have Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but they had the gospel of Thomas, a book of Jesus's sayings, as well as the story of Thomas's martyrdom, not found in the official Bible compiled by the Roman Church. To this day, even though their church has changed with the influence of other Christians since that time, part of their liturgy is still in Syriac, a language related to the Aramaic that Jesus spoke.
Other missionaries set out toward the far east to bring the gospel in that direction only to find Christians already existing along the trade routes because the earliest Christians were Jews who worked those routes and had brought the stories of Jesus before everything was formalized and packaged.
Do you think the message of the gospel is so weak that if not for people writing books and letters, it would have died out?
Do you think we’d remember history if someone hadn’t written it down?
People would have told their children and so forth. Details would likely have been lost or changed, just as they likely were before the gospels were actually written.
Christianity DID spread without the formal Bible as we know it today. You've surely heard of the Mar Thoma Christians, the people in Kerala, India, who say the apostle Thomas brought Christianity to them. They did not have Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but they had the gospel of Thomas, a book of Jesus's sayings, as well as the story of Thomas's martyrdom, not found in the official Bible compiled by the Roman Church. To this day, even though their church has changed with the influence of other Christians since that time, part of their liturgy is still in Syriac, a language related to the Aramaic that Jesus spoke.
Other missionaries set out toward the far east to bring the gospel in that direction only to find Christians already existing along the trade routes because the earliest Christians were Jews who worked those routes and had brought the stories of Jesus before everything was formalized and packaged.
Do you think the message of the gospel is so weak that if not for people writing books and letters, it would have died out? Of course not.
Also, for most of Christian history, how many people could even read in the first place, especially before the invention of the printing press? Even early medieval kings did not read or write. That's what scribes were for. A king would no more write his own letters than cook his own food. Charlemagne tried to learn to write as an adult and never quite got the hang of it. The only people who COULD read the scriptures for the most part were the clergy. Everybody else had to take for granted that they were telling the truth about what the Bible said. They weren't reading it themselves.
I wish all of Christendom would understand that it is ok to think, to question, to research etc.
Nothing wrong with exploring Church history. Doctrine and denomonation development. Evolution. Astronomy, Geology etc. Our good Lord created it ALL. We were given the most sophisticated brains in creation. We were given the ability to reason.
It should not threaten anyones faith. If anything, it would ultimately bring Christans closer.
I wish all of Christendom would understand that it is ok to think, to question, to research etc.
Nothing wrong with exploring Church history. Doctrine and denomonation development. Evolution. Astronomy, Geology etc. Our good Lord created it ALL. We were given the most sophisticated brains in creation. We were given the ability to reason.
It should not threaten anyones faith. If anything, it would ultimately bring Christans closer.
People would have told their children and so forth. Details would likely have been lost or changed, just as they likely were before the gospels were actually written.
Christianity DID spread without the formal Bible as we know it today. You've surely heard of the Mar Thoma Christians, the people in Kerala, India, who say the apostle Thomas brought Christianity to them. They did not have Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but they had the gospel of Thomas, a book of Jesus's sayings, as well as the story of Thomas's martyrdom, not found in the official Bible compiled by the Roman Church. To this day, even though their church has changed with the influence of other Christians since that time, part of their liturgy is still in Syriac, a language related to the Aramaic that Jesus spoke.
Other missionaries set out toward the far east to bring the gospel in that direction only to find Christians already existing along the trade routes because the earliest Christians were Jews who worked those routes and had brought the stories of Jesus before everything was formalized and packaged.
Do you think the message of the gospel is so weak that if not for people writing books and letters, it would have died out? Of course not.
Also, for most of Christian history, how many people could even read in the first place, especially before the invention of the printing press? Even early medieval kings did not read or write. That's what scribes were for. A king would no more write his own letters than cook his own food. Charlemagne tried to learn to write as an adult and never quite got the hang of it. The only people who COULD read the scriptures for the most part were the clergy. Everybody else had to take for granted that they were telling the truth about what the Bible said. They weren't reading it themselves.
If only the inerrantists and infallibilists about the Bible would educate themselves like this, MQ. Their reliance on magic and wishful thinking has allowed the current barbaric and primitive con=ception of God to linger for over two millennia! It is a travesty. Jesus endured horrendously savage and brutal scourging and crufiixion to demonstrate the TRUE NATURE of God as agape love and forgiveness only to have it completely misinterpreted as a blood sacrifice to their wrathful War God!!!
I asked this on another thread but maybe that drags that thread off topic so....
If you believe God inspired or literally wrote the Bible why do you think He did that?
Simple: so there's an authoritative source that people can't go around changing to fit themselves because the words are given so everyone can see them. Without written documents people will just make up what they want and change things to suit themselves. Sure, people do that even with the documents written for all to consult, but at least they have to try to make those words mean what they want them to; the words can't be escaped.
I asked this on another thread but maybe that drags that thread off topic so....
If you believe God inspired or literally wrote the Bible why do you think He did that?
2 Peter 1:20-21 says. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 3: 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Romans 16:25-27 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him–to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
2 Timothy 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Scripture is the ultimate authority. Psalms 138:2 …for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
We are exhorted to check our teaching against Scripture:
Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to the word, they have no light of dawn.
Acts 17:11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
The apostles from the New Testament received all the truth we need to guide us to eternal life. All we need to guide us to eternal life is written down in the Scriptures: John 16:13; 2 Peter 1:3; Acts 20:20, 27; Matthew 28:20; I Corinthians 14:37; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
We do not need elected men to interpret God’s word for us, but we are to check the scriptures to check out those claiming to be teachers, see Mark 7:14; 2 Timothy 3:15, 16, 17; John 20:30, 31; Acts 17:11; and, Psalm 119:105. 2 Corinthians 1:14 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus
We are not to follow tradition or church laws or any human rules as authority for the church (Matthew 15:1-14; Colossians 2:8; Galatians 1:6-9; Proverbs 14:12; 2 John 9-11; Jeremiah 10:23).
It’s generally telling the truth, although its gone through multiple hands and languages, and have gone through the agencies of many governments and most of them acknowledge a higher power by their councils of wisemen, at least openly, although much less refined in any conception of being of actual Good or Evil and which the Bible makes the main subject matter, mostly involving the matters of man. For a lack of a better word the Holy Bible is a documentation of the history of sin without being a overly graphic piece of literature.
Not to mention having some pretty deep inclinations about prophesy to the end of the world or the death of it and the destruction of the heavens.
It has the re occurring theme of cities, nations, civiliization downfalls or destruction for not addressing sin or being completely engrossed in it. And showing that God’s own accepted land and people were not any exception to the rule.
The Bible is a guide on how we can have a relationship with God. It also guides us in making choices that will benefit not only us but others. The Sermon on the Mount is a great place to start in appreciating the wisdom from above.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If only the inerrantists and infallibilists about the Bible would educate themselves like this, MQ. Their reliance on magic and wishful thinking has allowed the current barbaric and primitive con=ception of God to linger for over two millennia! It is a travesty. Jesus endured horrendously savage and brutal scourging and crufiixion to demonstrate the TRUE NATURE of God as agape love and forgiveness only to have it completely misinterpreted as a blood sacrifice to their wrathful War God!!! 
