[Dog Gone]

The truth is that God didn't send us a fax to tell us which books to include in the Bible. A committee decided that and if they had made different decisions the Bible would be different.

I would have preferred a fax.

[restornu]

You don't need a fax when one has the Holy Ghost!

The Lord gave his Doctrine and Covenants all through history on earth.

We Have a Benchmark in the Bible to bring all knowledge there...ponder, pray and let the Holy Spirit teach our minds that which is of the Lord!

[Mad Dawg]

I would have preferred a fax.

I bet the committee would have preferred one too, if they knew what it was.

The Bible thus becomes an ecclesiological problem, and ultimately a pneumatic problem. Did Jesus commission the 12 (minus 1) as apostles with the authority to retain or forgive sins? Did the Holy Spirit descend upon the twelve? Was the council of Jerusalem correct in saying, "It seems good to us and to the Holy Spirit ...."?

I believe that the Holy Spirit reliably guides the Church in the big stuff, and consequently I think the decisions made on such things like which writings to include in the official documents were reliable.

My belief in this matter is strengthened by what seems to me a very different character to the other writings, and a tendency of many of them to fall into the sort of generic mystery/gnosticism which characterizes many of the popular religions these days.

I mean, honest to goodness, if the "gospel" proclaimed by Dan Brown is really the gospel, then who cares? "Sex is good." Wow, Newsflash! "It's nice to be nice to the nice." Stop the presses, make over page one, this changes EVERYTHING! For THIS the Messiah came?

Sheesh!

[muawiyah]

If you want what amounts to a "fax", Islam claims that's what the Koran is ~ with the original kept in Heaven.

Christian and Jewish scriptures are considered to have been "inspired", not dictated.

See my stuff from last evening on this very subject ~ no change.

[dangus]

>> A committee decided that and if they had made different decisions the Bible would be different. <<

Yes, but if zebras flew...

The "committee," guaranteed within the gospels not to disseminate false doctrine, looked to very sound criteria. The "tough calls" (Apocalypse of St. Peter, the oddly omitted Didache, etc.) were also those which contained no false teaching. "The Gospel of Mary [Magdeline]," and the "Gospel of Thomas" (not the Infancy Narrative, which is merely wierd) are such outrageous howlers that it is disgusting and preposterous to mention them in the same context as biblical books.