You manifest careful thinking and a reverence for revealed Truth.
Many precious Truths of the Christian faith came to us from Apostolic teaching/example not recorded directly in the Biblical text. Crucially, one such truth --- an incredibly important one --- is the Canon of Scripture itself. The Bible did not come to us with a Table or Contents or a list of approved books, recorded in the text itself.
The Church --- the community of believers, if you will --- determined this by the late 4th century. The 4th century. Think of that.
My point is that it is historically and logically incoherent to think there was no church before there was an approved text. The approved text (canon) came from the already-existing Apostolic-rooted community, which knew the teachings of the Apostles from preaching, example and discipleship (which is to say, from Capital "T" Tradition) --- even before they all had the same scroll collection.
This establishes my respect for the foundational, historically and logically prior authority of Apostolic Tradition.
This in no way undercuts the written form of the truths as of paramount importance. In fact, it guarantees it.
Thank you again for your sincere good will in Christ our Lord.
Please stop....you do yourself a disservice by continuing to hold out the Table of Contents as a justification for Roman Catholic "Tradition".
I believe I have demonstrated to you that a good part of the NT was already accepted as Scripture by 70 AD.
The OT was already in place.
My point is that it is historically and logically incoherent to think there was no church before there was an approved text. The approved text (canon) came from the already-existing Apostolic-rooted community, which knew the teachings of the Apostles from preaching, example and discipleship (which is to say, from Capital "T" Tradition) --- even before they all had the same scroll collection.
If Roman Catholicism truly believed all of the writings they rely upon that are not found in the NT they had a chance at Trent to incorporate them into the NT Canon.
That Rome did not, nor has not, done so is telling.
I find it interesting that when Paul was writing to the church at Rome he did not include any of this nonsense about purgatory or indulgences. Romans is considered to be one of the two most important books in the NT in terms of theology.
Nor did any of the other NT writers mention, by your own admission, indulgences or purgatory.
Target rich post there.
“Many precious Truths of the Christian faith came to us from Apostolic teaching/example not recorded directly in the Biblical text.
Please post the complete list of Truths the Apostles taught that do not appear in Scripture.
“Crucially, one such truth -— an incredibly important one -— is the Canon of Scripture itself. The Bible did not come to us with a Table or Contents or a list of approved books, recorded in the text itself.”
No. God moved to inspire, preserve and transmit His Word... long before the church existed.
“My point is that it is historically and logically incoherent to think there was no church before there was an approved text. ”
- 2/3 of it was recognized before Christ’s birth. The Apostles also recognized this while alive.
As such, God’s Truth came before the church and before the first believer.
You can’t fulfill scripture unless it existed to fulfill.
The canon of scripture had to be revisited and refined after the 4th century to refine the inspired books.