“Please tell me how any of us can know anything authoritative about Jesus outside of the Bible?”
THAT is the right question.
“By experience!”
And THAT is THE WRONG answer; “experience” could be something you had for lunch talking back to you.
No! The CORRECT answer is, “By The Holy Spirit.” For, although we DO experience Him, He is not “AN Experience”; He is the VERY Person of The Living God sent among us at Pentecost, and — God HELP US — how we have, in our fleshly fear, shunned, compartmentalized, muted, and diminished Him!
But God has not give us a Spirit that makes us timid cowards, but One of POWER, and of LOVE, and of erudite judgment!
ABSOLUTELY, The Scriptures are “The Chariot The Spirit Most Prefers to be carried in,” and the Holy Spirit WILL NOT EVER say ANYTHING that contradicts what is written (although it may clash with how some have interpreted what is written, but that’s different), but he is not confined to what is written. He is The Second Person of the Eternal, Immortal, Immutable, Infinite God, and He is not bounded by ANY THING; He establishes bounds for everything, but He, Himself remains boundless. What is written establishes The Foundation, and the Framework, and all that The Holy Spirit says will comport with, and affirm it, but He will also elaborate, furbish, embellish, and — yea — even complete it in due course.
HEAR HIM!
Magnificent!
yup