“Aren’t you the one who claimed to have a masters degree in theology? How is it you can seriously say that the Catholic Church “determined what would be divinely-inspired” Scripture or not??? Am I to understand that you think your church had the power to thumbs up or thumbs down what Almighty God delivered to the believers?”
I am saying when the Bible was compiled the only Christians were Catholic. Therefore, Catholics COMPILED THE BIBLE.
The reformation was still hundreds of years away. The Bible
is a Catholic document. Without the Catholic Church there would be no gospels. The Catholic Church came before the gospels.
You HAVE to know that the teachings of Jesus as well as further revelation through the Holy Spirit to Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John began to be put in written form within the first two decades of the establishment of the Christian church, copied and distributed to the various assemblies, don't you? What I presume you to say is that there was no "Bible" until the Catholic Church bunched all those books together and called it the canon (the rule of faith). The use of the word "catholic" (c. 105 A.D.) to refer to the universal faith followed by these local assemblies of Christians is NOT the same thing as what came to be known centuries later as the Roman Catholic Church. Let's at least agree on these facts.
Believers and disciples of Jesus Christ began from the moment Jesus began his ministry (perhaps sooner among some of his family) and those who followed Him and heard his teachings - which later were written down through the leading of the Holy Spirit - were the nucleus of the body of Christ, His church - the called-out assembly. It continued to grow especially after the resurrection and the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the entire world was changed by them. But, to call them "catholics" as if they were equal to what calls itself the Roman Catholic Church today is simply untrue. These men and women weren't even called Christians until Antioch - way after Pentecost happened and it was a pejorative term.
If "catholic" means the universal church, the body of Christ, then you guys will have to accept that this includes ALL those who genuinely ARE Christ's - from all times, walks of life and people. You don't own the word.
Sorry, but projecting backward in history is NOT allowed (other than in the catholic mind).
The FACTS are that the Catholic Church did NOT start when the Catholic Church now CLAIMS that the Catholic Church started.
“I am saying when the Bible was compiled the only Christians were Catholic. Therefore, Catholics COMPILED THE BIBLE.”
What is that sound???
The prideful rooster crows and believes his crowing raised the sun! Oh, foolish rooster!
Do you not know God Himself has set the sun in motion. You strut and preen and brag and chase hens as a king, yet you are just a simple bird - one of millions of birds - created just to announce what God has done. You could no more make the sun rise than stop it. Your bragging is pride.
So are the statements here on FR about the Bible being a Catholic book or that it was written by Catholics, etc.
It could just as easily be claimed by the pen that it wrote the entire Bible. It was simply a tool, used by choice of the ultimate Author. He moved men to write His inspired word. Yet they brag like a rooster.