The Great Russian composer Igor Stravinsky is purported to have observed: "There is no such thing as Music Theory although one can be derived from the existing ouvre."
Or, to put it another way: Doctrine (music or scripture) is an artificial human construct and a derivative. It is a construction of the mind based on what is already there in the work itself.
The first wave of composers gave way to a second wave who BUILT UPON the first waves ideas.
Teachers built a complex set of canonical ideas which they taught AS THOUGH no other way was any good at all.
There was a "best" way and only that was good enough.
Christian Doctrine was extracted and fashioned artificially too.
Christianity followed the first wave of Jewish sayings, histories, ideas and orthodoxies.
Whatever sayings, writings and beliefs the Jews held to be valid, inspirational and divinely guided formed the foundation.
Hundreds of stories (gospel) about Jesus had circulated and spread. Eventually, these were built into stories.
These little "books" became: bible.
Christian Doctrine is extracted from the bible by people who interpret intention from scripture.
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Logically or illogically, the idea was this: ALL our religious ideas SO FAR must have come to us by God. And since they came from God they must be divine. And since they are Divine we better investigate DEEPLY and extract what ONE TRUE THING exists in all of it!
All these writings MUST mean something. They must fit together into a SCHEME or PLAN for mankind. All we have to do is figure it out and teach it.
Doctrine was born. Theology was formed. Orthodoxy must follow.
Nobody seems to question the above basis.
Nobody argues that these fundamental writings or sayings came from god.
It was only a matter of sifting through them and GETTING RID OF what didn't seem to fit.
HERE IS THE RUB:
The originals had long since vanished. They had NOT been preserved!
Copies had appeared here and there. Snippets of this and that.
But, the ACTUAL ORIGINALS had simply worn out or had been destroyed after the copies had been made.
Think of it like the original paintings of Van Gogh.
He couldn't sell them. (I think his brother may have bought one). Only gradually over a long time did Van Gogh's efforts acquire merit
in the public consciousness and come to be valued ever more highly until, at auction, they are priceless works of genius!
But, there ARE photographic copies of his originals for us to look at.
The bible had NO SUCH photographic copies. What was preserved can't be compared to anything original.
Since Christian Doctrine has been extracted from this what do we really have?
It comes down to this binary choice: either God's Word has been supernaturally preserved in the bible or it has not.
If it has not then it is simply silly to argue over any doctrine extracted from scripture. Garbage In= Garbage Out.
What does this lead us to consider?
IF the bible contains the preserved and uncorrupted word of God then it cannot AT THE SAME TIME be full of corrupt add-ons injected by human hands. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has the power to PREVENT this from happening.
If the Holy Spirit DID NOT prevent corruption in scripture it follows that the bible is nothing but a corrupt human document.
1.Why have zero (none, nada, zip) original manuscripts or autograph apostolic writings or epistles been preserved so that we can compare them to the bible which exists today? (The thousands of copies don't mean anything unless they accurately preserve the actual words.)
2.Why do those who assert the bible to be inerrant (without error) ONLY DO SO about the ORIGINAL manuscripts and NOT the copies from which current scripture is derived? (Hint: remember; there ARE NONE)
3.Jesus spoke Aramaic and never wrote anything down. The bible only contains a few of Jesus' words in Aramaic "Eli Eli Lama Sabacthani".
Consequently, HOW can we argue meaning and interpretation over what Jesus said since we DON'T HAVE HIS EXACT WORDS?
Doctrine, belief, faith, theology all MEAN NOTHING if they have been derived from INAUTHENTIC PARAPHRASE.
No uncorrupt scripture=No uncorrupt doctrines possible!
Thanks for listening.
