Come with me now, as we enter the time of yesteryear ...
A man ... preaching around the countryside, finds himself writing (a?) letter and realizes ... perhaps knows ... he's "under the influence" so to speak .. of God.
Is he thinking, listening or autowriting ?
Is he analyzing what he's doing?
I think mostly he is talking to the people he's writing to via quill and ink.
He's preaching .... he's just not in the presence of the people he's writing (preaching) to.
There was no "Bible" at the time thus there were no "scriptures" ... the commonly used word for the words of the Bible.
knarf, I tried to travel back with you, not sure I made the journey correctly. I totally agree with what was written about scripture. The trick is determining what is scripture and what is not. All scripture is inspired by God, but that does mean that all writings considered by men as scripture are in fact scripture. It also does not mean that all writings rejected by men as scripture are NOT scripture.
As in most things regarding the Christian faith, it is indeed about FAITH, that gift of God (Eph. 4:8). Faith in God, faith in Christ, faith in scripture, faith that that which is proclaimed as scripture IS scripture, faith that the “still, small voice” we hear is God speaking to us, etc.
Fortunately, we have the historical Christ, his unexplained (by earthly standards) resurrection, his appearance to the disciples, and the willingness of those who witnessed Jesus’ ministry to cling to it despite the threat of, and performance of acts of cruelty and torture that, did they not believe, surely they would have recanted.
I do not reject the Bible as God’s word, I accept it, but I recognize that it is, in part, the result of decisions made by men, led by God, but men nonetheless.