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Furthermore, since Jesus promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth would teach them all things, bring all things to their remembrance, and guide them into all truth (John 14:26; 16:13), then the apostles had all truth, and they revealed all truth to us.
I have no argument with that, but clearly "all truth" was not recorded or preserved.
You’re blaming the Scriptures for division? Scripture isn’t the problem. People are. It’s mainly because they won’t study for themselves. They’re content to let others do their thinking for them (parents, pastors, commentaries, etc.) The Scriptures are meant to unite, not divide us.
I believe that most people are sincere in trying to correctly interpret the scriptures, but I don't think it's as cut and dried as you are implying. There are so many, many doctrines that separate Christians of different denominations, and all of them can point to certain biblical verses as evidence that they're right. I could name a half a dozen of these right off the top of my head, but each of them could comprise an entire thread on there own.
It’s true that the Scriptures are meant to lead us to Christ, but they are also meant to unite us. Surely you don’t think God gave us His holy word to divide us, do you?
The term “Sola Scriptura” is not found in God’s word. That said everything we need to know to be saved and to live a life pleasing to God is found in His word. There is no need for anything but Scripture. The word of God is able to make us perfect (complete).
So I'm curious... With your last statement in mind, I'm wondering why you even bothered to start the thread on whether the Church Jesus Christ established is on the earth today. I mean, why would it even matter if you could just get all of your answers from reading the Bible?
I would have to highly disagree with you there, as Jesus is not son of Hilkiah (v.20), nor will/does Jesus break off and fall away (v.25), nor is Jesus the steward (v.15/19) -
Rather Jesus is instead The King, who Himself confers authority to the steward (v.21 & Mat 16:19).
Seems a perfect example of why scripture teaches us "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things." 2 Peter 1:20
So I'm curious... With your last statement in mind, I'm wondering why you even bothered to start the thread on whether the Church Jesus Christ established is on the earth today. I mean, why would it even matter if you could just get all of your answers from reading the Bible?
I started the thread because when MeerKat asked me what denomination I belonged to, I explained to her that I didn’t belong to any denomination. I explained to her that it is possible for believers to follow the patterns prescribed for the church of the New Testament. We can obey the gospel as the first Christians did. Our work, worship and church organization can follow the early church’s examples. Meerkat said she didn’t think it was possible. Hence, my OP. I wanted to know what other people thought. The Scriptures do provide everything we need to know for what God’s will is for His church. I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know the answer. I wanted to know other opinions. Maybe I didn’t word it as well as I could have. Hope this helps.
A serious question here . Given that Bibles weren’t around as codified Scripture until hundreds of years after the Apostles, and that the average Christian didn’t have his own Bible until only a few hundred years ago ( the first printed Bible that made it available to the common person was about 1500AD ) , how did the early Christians get by?
A well known Christian historian and bishop of about 320 AD lists the following books of the Bible as not scripture, to varying degrees . James, Jude, 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd John. Revelations was also suspect and not accepted by many Christians . So as late as 300 years after Christ the Bible isn’t really established as we now know it . For reference, the US will have been around for 300 years in about 55 more years . So there was no Bible as we know it available to early Christians for longer than the US has been a nation
But until the printing press came along only rich people that could afford to pay scribes to hand copy a Bible for them had their own Bibles . In addition, until about the 1700s most of the common people were illiterate . So how did the non wealthy and the illiterate get by for 1500- 1600 years after the Apostles ?
You are spot on in all of your observations. Excellent post (which will undoubtedly be ignored by the Sola Scriptura crowd).
I started the thread because when MeerKat asked me what denomination I belonged to, I explained to her that I didn’t belong to any denomination. I explained to her that it is possible for believers to follow the patterns prescribed for the church of the New Testament. We can obey the gospel as the first Christians did. Our work, worship and church organization can follow the early church’s examples. Meerkat said she didn’t think it was possible. Hence, my OP. I wanted to know what other people thought. The Scriptures do provide everything we need to know for what God’s will is for His church. I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know the answer. I wanted to know other opinions. Maybe I didn’t word it as well as I could have. Hope this helps.
The things Jesus said they were not ready to comprehend because they were too carnal. That is why what He presented to them was merely "carnal milk" NOT "spiritual solid food." Apparently, we never did get ready to comprehend the "spiritual solid food." The dogma stagnated at the "carnal milk" level for more than two millennia. In God's evolutionary timescale that is barely more than two days so I guess there is hope for future generations.
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