That does not answer my question - what IS Scripture and WHO decides what it is? Is ALL "Scriptures" inspired by God? The Koran is called Scripture, as is the Hindu Sacred writings. What is Christian Scripture and who determined it??? The individual components do not indicate that they are Scritpures. For example, if you found Philemon separately as a man living in 100 AD, would you immediately say "hey, that is inspired by God". As you can see, my question addresses the makeup of the Canon more than the already-determined compilation.
Scripture is, simply, the recorded word (or expression) of God.
It is God Who inspires it's writing ... and its God Who brings about its recognition.
Again, it is the Church that makes that determination, not the Bible itself.
It is God that makes that determination. The Church doesn't create or determine scripture. It is used by God as a conduit to present His scriptures to the world.
In some cases. In others, it pretains to the history of God's People. There are books of the Bible (Esther) that do not even mention God (in the Hebrew version), while many other books seem to concentrate on the historical action of the Jewish people and God is in the background. And what do you think about other religions' scriptures? What is your view on other self-proclaimed holy books?
It is God Who inspires it's writing ... and its God Who brings about its recognition.
So the claim goes. The Gnostic writings make the very same claim... They claim to come from God, to be inspired by God, and were recognized as such by Gnostic communities. I think God left another way for the man of 100 AD to decide where the TRUE Scriptures and teachings of Christ could be found.
The Church doesn't create or determine scripture. It is used by God as a conduit to present His scriptures to the world.
I disagree. Every writing of the Bible was created by the Church, a member of the Body of Christ. The Church also determines what is Scriptures by identifying the writing with the already-given teachings... There is no other way to get around that one. You merely fall into "begging the question" by your claim that the individual can determine the contents of Scriptures, because then each individual would have a different table of contents. We know by experience that God chooses not to work that way, but through His Church and their leaders. Without the visible Church, you would have no idea what WERE the Scriptures by which you were to lead your life by. This is just plain common sense. No diabolical reasoning here. We can't fall back on "God tells me what is Scripture" because the Bible has already been compiled by the Church. We thus rely on that determination already given. Those who rely on the individual are merely setting themselves up as an authority over what God has established.
Regards