“An “excuse”??
Yes, your excuse is that they didn’t “have a book”. You do.
“The event described in Acts clearly indicates how disputes, and questions of dogma were settled in the early Church; not by reference to a book. That is your point, isn’t it? We should conform to how things were done in the early Church, right?”
No. The Apostles were the foundation before the Scriptures were complete. We have them now. Use them.
“There was no book. Paul and Barnabas conferred with the Apostles.”
There were PLENTY of scrolls and letters circulating.
“This also clearly indicates that before the book, there already was the Church. That is, the Church gave us the Scriptures and not vice versa.”
God gave us the Scriptures by directly inspiring men to write his words. He started this during the Old Testament times thousands of years before His gathering.
“That is why Paul and Barnabas had no need of a book when it came to resolving the dispute over circumcision. They consulted the “apostles and ancients”. Likewise, evangelists had no need of a book. They were sent by the Apostles in the name of Jesus.”
No the answer is above.
This is precisely the model used by the Catholic Church.
ROFL........
So a human authority produced the Scriptures which then superceded the authority which produced them?
Got it.
The rules didn't change when the NT was written and the Apostles died. In fact, the NT itself tells you how the church is to be governed: by "overseers" (Greek "episcopoi," from which we get the English word "bishop") appointed by the Apostles and ordained by the laying-on of hands. (See Paul's letters to Timothy. Timothy was one of the "episcopoi".)
Nothing in the NT indicating that the church is to be governed by every individual believer's personal interpretation of the Scriptures, before or after the deaths of the Apostles.