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To: biblewonk
...about my bible

The fact is, the only reason you have the New Testament canon is because of the trustworthy teaching authority of the Catholic Church. As Augustine put it, ‘I would not believe in the Gospels were it not for the authority of the Catholic Church’ (Against the Letter of Mani Called "The Foundation" 5:6). Any Christian accepting the authority of the New Testament does so, whether or not he admits it, because he has implicit trust that the Catholic Church made the right decision in determining the canon.

The fact is, the Holy Spirit guided the Catholic Church to recognize and determine the canon of the New and Old Testaments in the year 382 at the Council of Rome, under Pope Damasus I. This decision was ratified again at the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397 and 419) and in numerous venues thereafter. You accept exactly the same books of the New Testament that Pope Damasus decreed were canonical, and no others.

Furthermore, one reason you accept the books you do is that they were in the Bible someone gave you when you first became a Christian. You accept them because they were handed on to you. This means you accept the canon of the New Testament that you do because of tradition, because tradition is simply what is handed on to us from those who were in the faith before us. So your knowledge of the exact books that belong in the Bible, such as Philemon and 3 John, rests on tradition rather than on Scripture itself.

The question you have to ask yourself is this: "Where did we get the Bible?" Until you can give a satisfactory answer (and there can really be only one answer) you aren’t in much of a position to rely on the authority of Scripture or to claim that you can be certain that you know how to accurately interpret it.
81 posted on 11/04/2003 10:42:21 AM PST by polemikos (sola scriptura creat hereseos)
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To: polemikos; newgeezer
The fact is, the only reason you have the New Testament canon is because of the trustworthy teaching authority of the Catholic Church. As Augustine put it, ‘I would not believe in the Gospels were it not for the authority of the Catholic Church’ (Against the Letter of Mani Called "The Foundation" 5:6). Any Christian accepting the authority of the New Testament does so, whether or not he admits it, because he has implicit trust that the Catholic Church made the right decision in determining the canon.

The fact is, the Holy Spirit guided the Catholic Church to recognize and determine the canon of the New and Old Testaments in the year 382 at the Council of Rome, under Pope Damasus I. This decision was ratified again at the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397 and 419) and in numerous venues thereafter. You accept exactly the same books of the New Testament that Pope Damasus decreed were canonical, and no others.

Furthermore, one reason you accept the books you do is that they were in the Bible someone gave you when you first became a Christian. You accept them because they were handed on to you. This means you accept the canon of the New Testament that you do because of tradition, because tradition is simply what is handed on to us from those who were in the faith before us. So your knowledge of the exact books that belong in the Bible, such as Philemon and 3 John, rests on tradition rather than on Scripture itself.

The question you have to ask yourself is this: "Where did we get the Bible?" Until you can give a satisfactory answer (and there can really be only one answer) you aren’t in much of a position to rely on the authority of Scripture or to claim that you can be certain that you know how to accurately interpret it.

This argument is very old and very lame. Jews are responsible for bringing my OT through the ages and it is entirely about Jesus. Now for them to say that since they "gave me" my OT then who am I to believe anyone but them to interpret it would be pretty foolish too wouldn't it. This argument is also blasphemous because it puts man in the place of God in His bringing His Word to me. Now if only the RC's who work this sorry argument to death would start reading that book that "they brought to the world(not)" then we could dispense with the many RC traditions that do not appear in the bible.

99 posted on 11/04/2003 11:26:14 AM PST by biblewonk (I must answer all bible questions.)
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