Everyone believes whatever they like and sometimes that’s inconsequential but if salvation depends upon belief then you’d better choose the correct answer on the exam.
A problem, a provision, a promise
by JW Answers 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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TonusOH
On the other hand, if we're more likely to be wrong no matter what we choose, then we may as well live it up before we get escorted to our eternal brimstone bedchambers.
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cofty
Sea Breeze - You are making the common mistake of treating the bible as if it was a single book written by one author. There was no agreed cannon for centuries after the life of Jesus. Gospels and epistles circulated separately along with many more that were later excluded. The ones that made the cut show significant differences - not only in the historical data - but also in the theology of their authors (clearly not eyewitnesses of Jesus by the way)
For example the Jesus of Luke and Acts had a very different understanding of soteriology than did Paul.
Salvation by faith was a theme of Paul and Mark but not of Luke. Honest exegesis forbids us to wrench passages from Paul and pretend that other writers would agree with them when their own words prove otherwise.
Jesus' own words show that he expected 'the end' in his own lifetime. He taught his disciples to abandon their own families because of how urgent the times were. He was a dangerous false prophet who died for his grandiose claims about being 'King of the Jews'.
All your colourful diagrams about events thousands of years in his future would be a total puzzle to him.
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slimboyfat
There was no agreed cannon for centuries after the life of Jesus.
True enough that: not invented until the twelfth or thirteenth century, by the Chinese, according to Wikipedia.
Canonical criticism is the genre of interpretation that treats the New Testament, or other collection, as a cohesive whole. There are indications that the New Testament was edited and standardised after its collection (John chapter 21 was added by an editor, for example) including adoption of the codex, nomina sacra, standard titles for works (“according to Matthew”, and so on), and arrangement of those works in a particular order.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_criticism
https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-New-Testament-David-Trobisch/dp/0199897972
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cofty
by the Chinese,
Eh? WTF?
according to Wikipedia
Ah okay
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Sea Breeze
There was no agreed cannon for centuries after the life of Jesus.
Cofty, with all due respect, this is simply not true.
The apostles reviewed the writings of each other and approved them collectively as authoratative; meaning that they agreed that the writings were not a matter of private interpretation, but bore the stamp of writings that were "moved by the Holy Spirit" or in other words, spoken from God. (2 Peter 1: 20-21)
The process becomes clear when we read 2 Pet. 3:15-16 and discover that the Apostle Peter gave approval to Paul’s writings. We also discover that Paul endorsed Luke in 1 Tim 5:17-18 when he quoted Luke 10:7. It is clear from Luke 1:1-4; Col. 4:16 and 1 Thess 5:27 that the writings of the apostles were distributed and read by the various churches.
In short, the New Testament books were approved by the apostles and were complete by the end of the first century.
By the end of the second century, church leaders (fathers) had quoted from ALL of the New Testament books.
The reason that the early church leaders quoted so much scripture in writing to each other was because like today, there were many "antichrists" in the world distorting facts. These writings make it fairly easy to determine what was sound doctrine, who were the trouble makers, and the authoratative scriptures that were used to refute their lies. It is not rocket science.
Additionally, the Muratorian Fragment (A.D. 150-170) listed all the New Testament books, except for Matthew, Mark, Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter and 3 John. The document is called a fragment because portions of the document have been torn off. The well known biblical scholar Westcott states that the missing books were probably included initially because the document is torn where they should have been listed.
How is it possible for you to consistently get your facts so wrong? Are you an atheist?
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cofty
SB - Are you aware that the authenticity of the Muratorian Fragment is highly suspect?
The fact that some NT authors cited other NT authors doesn't begin to answer my challenge.
All your work is ahead of you.
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Sea Breeze
Are you an atheist Cofty?
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cofty
I don't think that rejection of a supernatural worldview merits a label.
I was raised a JW, spent a decade as a born-again christian before eventually rejecting faith as a virtue.