[Havoc]

If only they had taken seriously their charge and written down everything Our Lord said and did.

It wasn't necessary for them to write down everything he said and did. And they took their charge quite seriously. The unfortunate thing is many people don't take what they did or said seriously and try to make their deeds seem not to be enough. Many give heresay as much or more credibility than what they said. And it hasn't stopped certain people from forging what they'd rather was said into the lexicon. No, we were given what we needed. If there'd been more, it would have just given greater need for forgery to produce the means by which some people would seek their ends. Truth isn't what matters to some, nor the volume of it. expediency to their particular comforts is the rule. Don't play games with regard to the apostles - you do them a dis-service and you are speaking out your aft end in doing so. Tell me one thing that cannot be determined from scripture that is necessary for your attaining heaven. One thing.

[RobbyS]

The whole of the Gospel is contained is our affirmation that Jesus is the Christ. My whole objection to your approach is that you try to reduce the Gospel to what the individual may discern from reading the Book. That, to me is to make the Book into an icon that contains the Spirit. But in that Book I can see nothing so clear that the Gospel is the enterprise of a community that spreads the Word through dirct human contact, by preaching rather than reading. Some teachers, like Apollos, were so gifted in the Law that they could expound on text and convice or at least confound Jews. Others like Phillip had equal success because he could interpret Isaiah and show Christ in it to a receptive hearer. But the most fertile soil was, evidently, men who could not read a word but were convinced by the witness of other believers.