Replies

“Christ never told his disciples to write anything, he told them to preach.”

We have Gospels from Matthew and John. I would be very surprised to find those weren’t written at least in part according to Jesus’ instructions.

We know, as John said, that Jesus did many things that he, John, didn’t record, and we can be sure that holds for all the Gospels. They have to leave out much considering they’re not very long but cover three years of his ministry.

There’s also no mention at all in the New Testament about how the Gospels came about, but we can be sure they all came from the church and Jesus’ disciples, and that Jesus’ disciples were involved somehow, since they were the actual witnesses — and really the only witnesses to much of what happened.

And I would be very surprised, too, as I said, to find that Jesus didn’t give them at least some instruction about what, if anything, to write about Him, and when and how, and after His Ascension, the Holy Spirit would have led them.

Interesting thread.

Some things that hadn’t really been fleshed out include:
1. Tradition.
Mar 7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Mar 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mar 7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Mar 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
Mar 7:9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
Mar 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
Mar 7:11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)—
Mar 7:12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
Mar 7:13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

2. Calling a man “father” as an honorific:
Mat 23:9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
It’s obvious in context that honoring someone by calling them “father” is what Christ was forbidding.

The “solae” are the reformed understanding of God’s Word:

-Sola scriptura means we believe in scripture alone, primarily because of Christ’s condemnation of tradition above. And it’s obvious from the Dead Sea Scrolls that scripture HAS survived unchanged for millennia.

-Sola fide means we believe in salvation by faith alone. Works flow from genuine faith. Works don’t save, but rather are proof of salvation. But even works and baptism aren’t absolutely necessary, as shown by the thief on the cross. Faith alone is what saved him.

-Sola Christus means we believe in salvation by Christ alone. Christ is the only mediator.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

-Sola gratia means we’re saved by grace, or unmerited favor, alone. As Isaiah said in 64:6, our righteous deeds are like polluted garments or filthy rags. We can’t work our way into heaven. Just as faith without works is dead, works without genuine faith is also dead.

-Soli Deo Gloria means we’re to give God all the glory. All of it. Neither Mary, the pope nor anyone else is to share in His glory.