You might want to consider the first 1500 years. Did the Holy Spirit abandon the Christian people for 1500 years, just to pop in again in the 16th century and reveal: "You got the canon wrong"?
And as for those who had split from "Catholic," who exactly gave them the authority to subtract books from the Canon? Some king?
And if that's something the British throne and her licensed liturgists in the Anglican Church had the competence to do, do they still have it? Could Queen Elizabeth II and Abp Justin Welby split off a couple more books if they felt divinely called to do so?
Or, instead of 1500 years, switch your focus to 2,000 years. The big majority of Christians still have the full canon --- 73 books. There has been a Christian church in continuous existence for 1900 years in Mosul, Iraq. They speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. They have the same canon as the rest of us Catholics. I think it's a good bet that they're clinging to their whole Bible as they high-tail it outta there --- as we speak. If the ISIS couldn't make them give it up, I very much doubt the Anglicans would be very persuasive.
Well stated.
I have a question, which is not rhetorical but honest: is any of the Apocrypha ever part of the weekly lectionary in the RC or various Orthodox churches?
“Those who take themselves out of “Catholic,” take themselves out of the Canon.”
Who took themselves out? Your Pope got together with the churches that still agreed with him and voted the rest out.
“You might want to consider the first 1500 years. Did the Holy Spirit abandon the Christian people for 1500 years, just to pop in again in the 16th century and reveal: “You got the canon wrong”?
And as for those who had split from “Catholic,” who exactly gave them the authority to subtract books from the Canon? Some king?”
Nope, those books were never in the canon of inspired literature before the Reformation, so there was nothing to be subtracted.
“Or, instead of 1500 years, switch your focus to 2,000 years. The big majority of Christians still have the full canon -— 73 books. There has been a Christian church in continuous existence for 1900 years in Mosul, Iraq. They speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. They have the same canon as the rest of us Catholics.”
The church has been in continuous existence, but I highly doubt they have been using that canon of 73 books for 2000 years. Like most churches in the East, they probably had their own canon until it got standardized much later. For example, when the Portuguese re-established contact with the Syro-Malabar church in the 1500s, they had to burn all their Bibles because their canon was not in line with Rome’s. We could also go back further than 2000 years, since we are talking about pre-Christian writings. Of course then we would learn that these books were never considered part of the Hebrew canon, so that wouldn’t be very convenient for the narrative you have constructed.
You might want to consider the first 1500 years. Did the Holy Spirit abandon the Christian people for 1500 years, just to pop in again in the 16th century and reveal: "You got the canon wrong"?
The Holy Spirit has not abandoned anyone...however, the RCC has abandoned the Holy Spirit....so yes..the RCC has been in error for 1500 years.
And as for those who had split from "Catholic," who exactly gave them the authority to subtract books from the Canon? Some king?
And just who gave the RCC the "authority" to add books to the Bible?? Some council??
And if that's something the British throne and her licensed liturgists in the Anglican Church had the competence to do, do they still have it? Could Queen Elizabeth II and Abp Justin Welby split off a couple more books if they felt divinely called to do so?
Or, instead of 1500 years, switch your focus to 2,000 years. The big majority of Catholics still have the full canon --- 73 books. Had to fix that for you...Christians have 66 books.
There has been a Christian church in continuous existence for 1900 years in Mosul, Iraq. They speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. They have the same canon as the rest of us Catholics. I think it's a good bet that they're clinging to their whole Bible as they high-tail it outta there --- as we speak. If the ISIS couldn't make them give it up, I very much doubt the Anglicans would be very persuasive.