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To: SatinDoll

“Only Church establishment approved Gospels made it into the Bible.”

Yes, but for very sound and strict reasons, which are still defensible to this day, if we were just starting the same project.


40 posted on 01/19/2008 6:42:41 AM PST by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: txzman; paudio; SatinDoll
The Bible wasn't written as an instructional tool for converting people. The Old Testament books were written for people who were already believing Jews, the New Testament books for people who were already believing Christians.

Most of the Epistles, for instance, were written to specific recipients for specific purposes, usually to resolve local disputes concerning doctrines or morals. Paul and other Apostles wrote to particular communities (like Corinth and Galatia) in order to rectify these problems. There was no attempt to give comprehensive doctrinal instruction, because these people were already Christians and had already had comprehensive instruction, orally, from the preaching and example of the Apostles, before they ever had a written text in their hands.

Christian communities existed and flourished for years before even the first book of the New Testament was written. And they existed for centuries before the whole New Testament was collected and canonized.

Thus Scriptures are products of the Church. The Church is not a "product" of the Scriptures.

It's quite different in Islam, where the Koran is believed to have been dictated to a single man in a trance or some kind of paranormal psychological state (Mohammad) and recited, and transcribed verbatim, the ipsissima verba of Allah. It can never be changed by a single syllable nor even, with full legitimacy, translated out of Arabic.

If this is shown to be incorrect, man, it's Götterdämmerung. All hell could break loose. I am serious.

48 posted on 01/19/2008 7:41:31 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Cordially.)
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