(September 25, 2015 at 5:04 pm)Randy Carson Wrote:(September 25, 2015 at 5:52 am)pocaracas Wrote: Just going from Aractus' reply here:
- The 7 undisputed from Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.
- 2 Thessalonians can be included
- Epistles of James and Jude
And... I can't see any other.
So, Randy, I deffer to your knowledge: what sort of christianity does that leave us with?
Essentially the same that we see today and for this reason: Jesus founded an infallible Church which existed long BEFORE the NT was written or formally canonized. So, even without it, the Oral Tradition of the Church would be sufficient to pass along the core message just as it was long before the invention of the printing press.
However, if you are asking whether there are any doctrines that would be missing as a result of removing specific books from the Bible, again, I say that because the writings of the NT were a reflection of what the Church was preaching and teaching orally (ie, baptism of infants, confession of sins to a priest, the real presence in the Eucharist, etc.), everything that we have today was present in the Early Church before inscripturation.
IOW, the NT authors captured on paper what the Church was already preaching; they did not add to what the Church already knew.
yeah... but there were several alleged bishops/priests preaching a slightly different message, on several places.
Take the gospel of Peter that was found in the tomb of an 8th century egyptian monk...
Or the tale of Thecla, the female companion of Paul...
Or many other views that existed... how can we tell that the true teachings of Jesus are the ones preached by the catholic church?
The notion of the trinity comes well after the fact - would this view still be held, if the roman christians hadn't accepted Paul's teachings?
And yes, I know I'm mixing a bunch of stuff into one bag, but, like you know so well, it's a broad subject.