To: quadrant
Simply because an early Church council decided that certain books should be included and certain books excluded in no way settles the issue. FWIW, no binding council has ever established the canon.
The Synod at Hippo (all churches were not there) was not binding nor was the Council of Trent (EO had already left) when the RCC finally declared what it believed the canon to be. The reason it was never needed was because there really was no great controversy and only a few books at the end of the NT were ever really in question. The councils in the early church were only called where questions of great controversy existed. The absence of any council for over 250 years after the end of the Apostolic Era shows how little controversy there was concerning what was and was not "Inspired".
214 posted on
05/04/2008 10:45:47 AM PDT by
wmfights
(Believe - THE GOSPEL - and be saved)
To: wmfights
Your answer supports my assertion. Since no definitive canon exists, Christians are free to select those books that they feel express the tenets of mere Christianity. I've read parts of some of the books in the RC edition that are not included in the Protestant Bible, and I'm not impressed. I don't see that these books add much of anything to the story of God's revelation to humankind.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson