Posted on 11/11/2014 11:35:48 AM PST by NYer
The true "rule of faith"—as expressed in the Bible itself—is Scripture plus apostolic tradition, as manifested in the living teaching authority of the Catholic Church, to which were entrusted the oral teachings of Jesus and the apostles, along with the authority to interpret Scripture correctly.
The Bible denies that it is sufficient as the complete rule of faith. Paul says that much Christian teaching is to be found in the tradition which is handed down by word of mouth (2 Tim. 2:2). He instructs us to "stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thess. 2:15).
This oral teaching was accepted by Christians, just as they accepted the written teaching that came to them later. Jesus told his disciples: "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me" (Luke 10:16). The Church, in the persons of the apostles, was given the authority to teach by Christ; the Church would be his representative. He commissioned them, saying, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).
And how was this to be done? By preaching, by oral instruction: "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). The Church would always be the living teacher. It is a mistake to limit "Christ’s word" to the written word only or to suggest that all his teachings were reduced to writing. The Bible nowhere supports either notion.
Of course, Vlad has pointed out the word 'Bible' is not in scripture either. Of course it is not, It is a later culture and language that coined the word 'bible,' why would it be there?
Actually, the term existed from before the assemblage of the Bible. It comes from Koine Greek, τὰ βιβλία, (tà biblía, "the books") is a canonical collection of texts sacred in Judaism and Christianity.
he Bible does not have a single author – it is a collection of 73 books which were written by many different authors over a long period of time. It is divided into two main sections – the Old Testament and the New. The Old Testament is the Jewish Scriptures which were used by faithful Jews before the time of Christ. The New Testament consists of books and letters written by the early Christians.
The canon (list of books) of the Old Testament was not formally fixed and varied a great deal between different groups of faithful Jews. The Pharisees, Sadducees, Samaritans and other groups all had different lists of books which they considered to be Sacred Scripture, although there was agreement on the core of which books were part of the canon.
Christians have the current 46 book Old Testament because this was the canon used by the leaders of the early Christian Church; the apostles and their followers. This canon was found in a Greek translation of the Scriptures known as the Septuagint. This was the version used by very many Jews in the first century.
he assemblage of the New Testament is a very interesting process and a highly complex one. It can, however, by summarized relatively simply as follows.
Various Christians wrote books explaining the history of the Christian Church (including Gospels about the life of Christ and more general histories such as the Acts of the Apostles) and letters addressed to specific communities and persons (such as the letters of Saint Paul) and also what are best considered to be “open letters” (such as Hebrews). There were hundreds of different documents circulating around, all of them purporting to the authentic Christian teaching and accurate history and doctrine.
However, many of these documents were not what they claimed to be – they were forgeries not written by the people whose names they bore, or were heretical documents advancing novel notions about Christ. Some of these documents have survived today – examples are the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas. Neither of these documents were written by their alleged authors – they are late forgeries designed to cash in on the success and popularity of Christianity.
Out of all these hundreds of documents – many of them forgeries – the current 27 book New Testament appeared. This process took a long time – roughly 300 years went by from the writing of the last book of the New Testament (Revelation) until the list was finalized.
The list was compiled by the bishops of the Catholic Church. Initially, local canons were assembled by individual bishops. These canons were lists of books which could be read aloud in Churches at Mass. Despite the fact that these canons were independently assembled they bore a great deal of similarity to each other – because the Catholic bishops were all using the same criteria to determine which books should be included. They looked to see if the books were written by an apostle or someone who was reporting the words of an apostle. They checked to see how much the book was being used by other bishops and priests in their Masses, and also looked at how often the book was quoted by the Church Fathers in their writings. Only those books which “scored” favorably on all three of these criteria made it into their canons.
Excellent post NYer.
GOT it!
I used to play the piano too, all classical. I don't have a piano any more. I did enjoy it. Maybe I'm buy some used spinet again someday.
“I will pray for you to come to realize the truth of the Catholic Church...”
With ambassadors like you, the chances of that grow slimmer.
If you are open to the Holy Spirit, it is only a matter of time.
I think it is patently absurd to believe that people who care intensely about one another on earth, and pray for one another, cease doing so at death.
As to prayers addressed to Mary or to God: Why must it be either/or? What is unreasonable about addressing all prayer to God--as all prayer is addressed--in concert with or in union with the prayers of other people in heaven and on earth?
Wherever two or more are gathered...
It is unreasonable to say--as you do--that I can pray alongside my brother here on earth, but the moment he dies, and is in the presence of God, he can no longer pray with me.
Will you never tire of this erroneous narrative of how we got the Bible??? The "New Testament appeared", like what, MAGIC? Explain if this process took 300+ years why do we have references to the canon (rule of faith) that expressly mentions ALL the 27 books of the New Testament from early church fathers dating from the FIRST century? Why do we have Jewish references to the 39 books of the Old Testament canon - excluding the Apocrypha?
Though I have doubts some FRoman Catholics will bother to read it, let me once again post the following link for anyone at all interested in the TRUE story (not the pretended Roman Catholic church-glorifed version):
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