[Forest Keeper]

FK: "The Spirit determined what the scriptures would be."

Any Scripture on that one? And how does the Spirit reveal what the Canon is? Through Joe Smoe? Please...

Ah, so your men DO work independently from the Spirit. This must be so since you appear to disagree with my statement and seek to take credit away from God and install it into men. Not surprising. However, I would use all the scripture that shows that His word is true, such as 2 Tim. 3:16. If mere men really were able to declare with authority to God's Church that non-scripture was in fact scripture, then all scriptures fail at once. The only way to assure inerrancy would be if God controlled the whole thing. To a large degree, we see this immediately in which NT writings the early Church followed, before the Canon.

[Quix]

Indeed. Thanks.

Actually, to me, The Canon was decided much the same way Paul exhorts the local congregation to vet prophetic/word of knowledge etc. stuff in it's midst--prayerful pondering and discernment as a group.

Thankfully, after 300+ years, the church seemed to have a pretty reasonable sense of what God had blessed as The Canon.

[The_Reader_David]

Score one for Forest Keeper: the Orthodox refer to the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils as the 'Harps of the Spirit'. The Sixth Ecumenical Council fixed the canon of Scripture--it was indeed the Holy Spirit acting.

So why is it you are fighting against the judgement of those who were merely instruments of the Holy Spirit and rejecting the complete versions of Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah, and the books of Tobit, Judith, Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon and both books of the Maccabees?

[jo kus]

However, I would use all the scripture that shows that His word is true, such as 2 Tim. 3:16.

That Scripture is inspired was never an issue, FK. The issue is WHAT is Scripture... Unfortunately for your point of view, the Bible itself doesn't tell us what is Scripture. The Church does.

Regards