Before we continue in this vein, please consider this:
We were the ones who wrote Scripture, or in the case of the OT, selected it. We put the Bible together and we said what it is to be.
We are also the only entity authorized to interpret it. We have the Scriptures; you have an abridged copy of them. We have the wherewithal to interpret them; you are grasping at straws.
Kosta is correct. Without the Catholic Church, you have no more proof that the Bible is the Word of God than you do for the Koran.
I'm confused again! If the RCC church, per MarkBsnr, "We were the ones who wrote Scripture, or in the case of the OT, selected it. We put the Bible together and we said what it is to be." is correct then what about this from an Eastern Orthodox website?
The Holy Scriptures Were Produced by the Orthodox Church. The Church"s holy prophets and Apostles wrote the books contained in the Bible. The Church determined which books were authoritative and belonged in Holy Scripture. The Church preserved and passed on the texts of these Scriptural books.
The seventy-two Jewish rabbis and scholars who gave us the Septuagint Greek Old Testament, produced seventy-two identical Greek translations working independently and in insolation from one another. Writing in Greek, the Holy Apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, and Jude produced the books of the New Testament.
The Holy Scriptures Were Preserved by the Orthodox Church. These books and letters were studied, copied, collected, recopied, passed from group of early Christians to another, and read in the services of the Church.
That all occurred 1700 years ago, long before the Roman Church asserted its dominance and proclaimed itself the sole arbiter of all matters of faith and morals. Long before the Roman Church slipped into idolatry.
“Kosta is correct. Without the Catholic Church, you have no more proof that the Bible is the Word of God than you do for the Koran.”
Is the Bible, standing by itself, the Word of God?
HOGWASH.
The Roman edifice essentially begain, rose up a few hundred years after the Scriptures were penned and even after the council met to agree on the Canon.
Political movements and power plays do not automatically equal God’s imprimateur AT ALL.
Historical political Revisionism does not make theological fact.