“A Church with no New Testament for 7 years?
How did it ever survive? [sarc] “
One might ask, how did the nation of Israel survive, since the first five books were written by, essentially, Moses. Then the books of prophecies and so forth by the various prophets at various further times; of course the Psalms much later by David, Proverbs to a great degree by Solomon, etc.
They had direct revelation from God, through the prophets. The canon of the Old Testament was slowly, over the centuries, assembled.
So in the first several years of the church, many believers had heard Jesus directly, prior to His death and resurrection. Jesus names all the apostles to preach and teach with His authority (not just one apostle, mind you), and gives further instruction about choosing out elders and deacons. During this time the apostles write the New Testament; by the time they are dead the New Testament is complete. The inspired epistles and gospels are accepted as the canon of the New Testament.
I don’t think it’s that hard to understand or accept.
So how can any church today use only the Bible -[OT/NT] as its only source of faith, when the early Church didn`t have the written NT for 7 years?
According to the former, the latter would not qualify as a legitimate church today coz it didn`t have nor relied on the written NT when it started.
haha!