AnalogReigns:
I think your pitting the Bible against the Church is part of the Protestant argument for its sola scriptura position. The Catholic Church does not pit the Sacred Scriptures against the CHurh nor against authentic Apostolic Tradition for they all flow from the same source, Christ. The Church is His Body and Christ is the Eternal Word, the Sacred Scriptures flow from Christ thru his Body, the Church. To pit them against each other is from the Historic Apostolic Christianity Tradition, both of which Rome and the Orthodox maintain, is not in continuity with orthodox Apostolic Christianity.
The Holy Spirit sent by Christ to the Apostles, who inspired them to write Sacred Scriptures, is the same Holy Spirit that guided the Church in the 4th and 5th centuries to canonize those Books into the NT that were orthodox in Doctrine, connected to an Apostle, and appropriate for reading in the Liturgy [i.e. the Church’s public Worship]. It was on those criteria that the Church came to determine the Canon.
So no matter how some FR Protestants here try to do mental gymnastics to avoid the historical fact that it was the Decision of the Catholic Church determining the NT Canon, it does not make not true and your “creation and recognition statement” is an attempt to avoid the conclusion that Prof. Kruger came to, that it was the 4th and 5th Century COuncils and decisions of the Popes that finally fixed the NT canon.
I have never “pitted” the Church AGAINST the holy Scriptures, only that the authority of Scripture flows from the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, NOT due to the good and proper recognition the early Church Fathers gave to the scriptures.
That’s not pitting anyone against anything.
The Bible did not become authoritative because the Church said so, rather the Church is the creation of the Bible—that is the teachings of the Apostles through the Holy Spirit—which are entirely encompassed (and only historically provable) in the New Testament. We only know for certain the content of the good news of Jesus as taught by the Apostles—from their writings, which are the New Testament books.
That’s not pitting Church authorities somehow against the bible, rather getting the order straight—everyone is under the Apostolic authority of their writings—and in fact, the authority of the Church is established...in as much as it is faithful to the Apostolic teaching of the Bible, which is God’s Word.
It’s a LOT like expecting the US Supreme Court to be faithful UNDER the Constitution, rather than seeing their own authority as equal to the written text—where they, like Justice Roberts, can make up “constitutional” law out of whole cloth (or “Tradition?”) as they go along...
Expecting the Court to follow and submit to the Constitution is not pitting it against the Constitution, rather getting the order of authority straight. The Supremes have authority for sure, but, only properly in as much as they actually submit to, and obey the Constitution.
Perhaps we can both agree that their current authority is therefore doubtful...