“You do know, I trust, that the fellows who decided which books made up the canon of scripture in the bible you thump, what was in, what was out, I’ll trade you Hebrews for Revelation, those guys, were a group of Greek and Latin speaking bishops...who venerated icons!”
That is like the security guard outside the mall claiming to own it.
No human beings “decided” what would be in the holy canon of scripture. No human being kept God’s word from being destroyed. Because the message of the Bible is the word of God, it is impossible to destroy. And even when leaders of your religion tried to dilute the scriptures with phony writings and altered texts, the actual scriptures emerged unscathed. And even when the leaders of your religion had people burned at the stake for translating the scriptures and printing them in the common language of the people, God preserved His word and enabled men like William Tyndale to do His work before being martyred by the leaders of your religion who were too busy having orgies and setting up houses of prostitution to care about the common people hearing the word of God.
If you want to claim credit for what your religion under the supposedly infallible leadership of continuous succession has done, then take credit for the whole ball of wax.
“No human beings “decided” what would be in the holy canon of scripture. No human being kept God’s word from being destroyed.”
I know some protestant sects believe that that the authors of the OT and NT as well as the bishops who decided what was in and what was out were, like Mohammed, at base automotons, mere scribes for God. Would that include yours? Do you believe that the authors were in trances, like Mohammed?
” And even when leaders of your religion tried to dilute the scriptures with phony writings and altered texts, the actual scriptures emerged unscathed.”
Which phoney writings and altered texts did the Eastern Fathers and Patriarchs use to dilute the scriptures? The writings of the early Fathers were among the standards used by The Church to determine what in fact was Holy Writ and what was not, unlearner. Even that lead to compromises. Revelation was rejected in the East and Hebrews in the West. Eventually there was a deal and in they came. Truth be told, though, for us, Revelation is kept on top of the bookcase in the back...dusty.
” And even when the leaders of your religion had people burned at the stake for translating the scriptures and printing them in the common language of the people, God preserved His word and enabled men like William Tyndale to do His work before being martyred by the leaders of your religion who were too busy having orgies and setting up houses of prostitution to care about the common people hearing the word of God.”
The scriptures in The Church in the East have always been in the “common language of the people”, at least until we converted the Slavs and even then, the Patriarch of Constantinople sent out Sts. Cyril and Methodios to translate the OT, the NT and the Liturgy and other services into Slavonic. We also didn’t do burnings at the stake, even of heretics. You have us confused with some other church perhaps?
” If you want to claim credit for what your religion under the supposedly infallible leadership of continuous succession has done, then take credit for the whole ball of wax.”
We don’t have an “infallible leadership under continuous succession”, unlearner. Our bishops and patriarchs are all too fallible. The only infallible institutions we have are Ecumenical Councils.