[John Leland 1789]

“FK: That's because you see Christ's singular mission on earth to be the sum of His being. I don't know why you believe that, but to believe it WOULD require throwing out the vast majority of scriptures.”
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This is a great statement that ought to be paid attention to. I believe that if God had not given us the Epistles, we would really not know how to apply the Gospels (Matthew through John) correctly in this age.

Revelation was progressive from Adam to Christ, and from Christ through to the Church Epistles. The mission of Israel's Messiah and King while on earth was obviously the pinnacle of revelation at that time.

But with the rejection by Israel of their King (and the consequent rejection of the Davidic Kingdom), and having murdered Him, the Resurrected Son of God, from the Right Hand of His Father, continued to give new revelation to take us through a previously unrevealed age of the Body of Christ.

This revelation is in the Epistles, and is the Holy Spirit's guidance into all truth, promised by our Lord in John chapter 16.

ALL of the Gospel records (Matthew through John)are true, but they are not ALL the truth. There is subsequent revelation -— the pinnacle got even higher.

The Epistles are just as much the Words of God as are the Gospels. The Words in Romans through Philemon (where Paul is the human writer) are no less the words of the Lord Jesus Christ than are the words printed in red (in your Red Letter Edition) in Matthew through John. The Gospel records are the Son of God speaking from Earth. The Epistles are the Son of God speaking from the Glory, by the Holy Spirit, through Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude.

[Cvengr]

I tend to agree with your position, although since God the Holy Spirit, in this age, always glorifies the Son, I suspect the identity of the person providing the epistles is not sourced in the Son, as much as it is in the Spirit.

[Forest Keeper]

I believe that if God had not given us the Epistles, we would really not know how to apply the Gospels (Matthew through John) correctly in this age.

Thank you for the kind words, and I agree with your above completely. The Epistles amplified the Gospels and showed us how to look at them. Not a single wasted word.

ALL of the Gospel records (Matthew through John) are true, but they are not ALL the truth. There is subsequent revelation -— the pinnacle got even higher.

Well said. And there is prior revelation too in the OT that the Gospels don't repeat in toto. It doesn't make it any less true. We should treat the OT as Jesus did.