EASY!
2 Timothy: 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3:15
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
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And from the first, what NT books were regarded by all Christians as true?
4 Gospels
Acts
Paul’s letters except Hebrews
1John
1 Peter
And that was it.
250 years later were added James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Jude, Revelation.
Other uninspired books were hanging around the fringe and were considered scripture by some, like the awful Shepherd of Hermas which made it into the early Greek bibles discovered in the 1800s.
1) 1 Corinthians 11:2: “. . . keep the ordinances, as I delivered {them} to you.” Paul in writing, orders the Corinthians to observes teachings transmitted orally.
2) 2 Thessalonians 2:15: “. . . hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” Same here. The Bible directs us to oral teachings
3) 2 Thessalonians 3:6: “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.” Oral teachings are the norm.
4) 1 Corinthians 15:1-3: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.” Again — Paul in writing refers to an oral teaching as authoritative and calls the people to follow it.
5) 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “. . . when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received {it} not {as} the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.” Oral teaching from the apostles is the equivalent of the word of God.
6) Jude 3: “. . . ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Oral teaching is the path to salvation. The Bible says so.
7) Lk 1:1-5 “it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” Luke endorses the oral teaching in writing, and assures us that the original oral teaching is reliable.
8) Rom 6:17 “But God be thanked that [though] you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.” Paul gives thanks to God that his readers follow an oral teaching.
9) 1 Cor 11:23 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you” Paul verifies that his oral teaching is from the Lord.
10) Gal 1:9ff “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” Anyone who preaches a gospel differing from Paul’s ORAL PREACHING is “accursed”.
11) 2 Pet 2:21 “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known [it,] to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.” People who have turned away from Peter’s oral teachings are better off with NO GOSPEL AT ALL.
12) Romans 10:15 “And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” Preachers not sent by the apostles have no authority and are not to be heard. They are not sent by God.
13) John 20:30 “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.” The apostles know more than you do.
14) John 21:25 “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” The apostles know more than you do.
15) 2 John 1:12 “Having many things to write to you, I did not wish [to do so] with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.” John saves his best stuff for the oral teaching. The Bible says so, so it must be true.
16) Luke 10:16 “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” If you do not “hear” the apostles and those sent by them, you do not hear the Lord.
17) Matthew 16:19 “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter received in the keys a mandate given to no other disciple.
18) Matthew 18:18 “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The power of binding and loosing belongs to the apostles, not to all followers of Jesus.
19) Luke 24:45 “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.” The apostles know more than you do.
20) Matthew 13:11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” The apostles know more than you do.
21) Luke 8:10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. The apostles know more than you do.
22) 1 Timothy 3: 14-15 “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” The pillar and bulwark of the truth is not the Bible. It is the Church. THE Church.
23) 2 Peter 1:20 “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” Scriptural interpretation contrary to the authentic apostolic teaching is invalid. You cannot be assured of your salvation simply by reading the Bible in private.
24) 2 Peter 3:16 “There are some things in [Paul’s epistles] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.” Scriptural interpretation contrary to the Church descended from the Apostles is invalid.
I believe that should have answered it.
Thank you. That’s exactly what I was looking for and I’ll be looking all of that up.
For three years I went on a quest to understand Christianity. I went to Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Mormon, and other Christian churches, trying to find answers for my questions. There were many things that bothered me about Church doctrine and I was honestly looking for resolution.
What I got was a big helping of “That’s a good question. You just have to accept it and take it on faith.” One Catholic priest (WONDERFUL man) told me that some of the things I’d brought up had once bothered him as well.
For the most part, the priests and ministers were *wonderful*, honest, loving people who genuinely wanted to talk to me. I was offered some resolution on some of the issues, but there were things that I could never find satisfactory answers to.
I did get one telling me that the fact that I had doubts and questions meant that Satan was trying to keep me from G-d. “Don’t ask. Don’t doubt. It’s evil to do so.”
It is profitable to include iron in your diet.
From this, do you conclude that a diet consisting only of iron would be the best?