Did the Church CREATE the BIBLE? PART-1Many, Many Believers say: "The Church is Superior to Scripture!"A best-selling author and scholar of the current generation, Rob Bell, explains it this way. Since the Church came first, and the Church determined the canon of Scripture by voting, the Church is obviously superior to the Scripture - which came 350 years later. [SOURCE: Rob Bell, "The Velvet Elvis; Rethinking the Christian Faith: - (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2005) Ibid. 67, 68].
Rob Bell reasons and understands - along with much of the 'modern Christian world' - as follows: [1] The Canon of Scripture was not decided until the 4th century; [2] The Church existed from early in the 1st century; [3] The Church had Doctrine and authority during these 350 years before there was - one Book, one Bible, one Version that was "Christened-&-Authorized as a Singular, Sola Scriptura"; [4] In fact, it was the living Church that decided which Scriptural writings and doctrines were inspired, and which ones were not. Rob Bell SUMMARIZES: Thus the Church Christ established preceded the singular canonized version of Scripture, and operated without it for 350 years, teaching and deciding doctrinal issues (as in Acts 15) the whole time; and when the Scriptural canon was established, it was the long-established Church (doing fine without it) who finally decided to have a canonized Scripture. Rob Bell CONCLUDES: The Church came first, was superior to the Scriptural writings from the very beginning, and always had the authority to decide what was and what was not "true Scripture" - at any time. Rob Bell UNDERSTANDS: FACT: Christ Himself established this Church-then-Bible-Canon order and practice; FACT: Christ could have easily written a singular and perfect Gospel account, but He chose not to; FACT: The Church met in Council and decided what the Church was to believe in Acts 15 - 350 years before canonized Scripture - and the Acts 15 Scripture declares that "this seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us"; FACT: Christ claimed "all authority" and gave His Authority to the "Living Church" in the Great Commission, Matt 28; Christ was establishing His order of authority and practice through the Apostles He had chosen, trained, and confirmed with resurrections from the dead. FACT: Since God knows the end from the beginning, He obviously designed, and decreed for His Divine Order to be this way. FACT: God has never changed that established order, so until He does, it still stands supreme: > > First, Christ established His Church; > > > Secondly, the Church established their Scripture (Or so it seems to Bell and the Catholic Church). Rob Bell makes APPLICATION: Ron Bell insists this is the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that 'Scripture alone' is our guide. Rob Bell DECLARES: "It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is." Thus Rob Bell takes the same position that the Roman Catholic Church took against the Reformers: That since the Roman Catholic Church (guided by the Holy Spirit) gave us the Bible, the Church (guided by the Holy Spirit) is authoritative over the Bible. [NOTE: He emphasizes "(guided by the Holy Spirit)" we'll deal with is shortly]. Rob Bell, however, expands that idea beyond Rome to any Christian group anywhere struggling with the meaning of the Bible. Rather than rely on the original historical approach to determine the authors' meaning, he trusts that in some manner the Holy Spirit is giving us new light, rather than seek to establish a clear line of unbroken teaching from Jesus, though His Chosen Apostles, through the early Church Missions, through the ages, though the Reformation, and by the most dedicated "post-modern" believers today. [SOURCE: Rob Bell, "The Velvet Elvis; Rethinking the Christian Faith: - (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2005) Ibid. 67, 68]. Rob Bell's Errors: Church Superior to Scripture & Christianity 'IS' a 'Lot of Paradoxes':Rob Bell Declares, Christianity is a Bunch of PARADOXES Rob Bell says, 'it is not so much that the Christian faith has a lot of paradoxes, it's that Christianity is a lot of paradoxes: And we cannot resolve a paradox. So the jump in the air turns out to be a leap into the dark; the unknown and unknowable. Paradoxes are like square circles: you can talk about them but such talk reveals precisely nothing.' We give Rob Bell the benefit of doubt that these statements of Christianity being many paradoxes springs from a true and sincere heart, a heart that is seeking and longing to know truth, to remove the "seeming paradoxes". We trust that he is being very bravely honest, to admit that he does not understand these many things that seem to be impossible and paradoxical. If so we applaud his honesty. We trust and hope this is the case, and that Rob Bell is not mocking Christianity from a post-modern liberal-scholarship viewpoint, decreeing that Christianity is nothing than a mass of contradictions that make no sense, thus the modern Church must depend on the "consensus-politically-correct"version of truth - from homosexuality to many ways to eternal life! To sort out the "seeming paradoxes" - we recommend 15-20 years of complete isolation from all media, books, preaching-teaching and tradition, with a minimum of 12 hours a day "Sola Scriptura" - or give a bit of attention to those who have done so. Following, is the understanding such study and isolation, invested on many mission fields in third-world nations, which has led us that presented below. [NOTE: We are not claiming full-truth in any manner, but we do seek to establish a more Scriptural understanding of the Word of God, than it being under the authority of the Church as Mr. Bell has given, respectfully. Premises 1-4: Scripture is Greatly Superior To the Church by Origin, Duration, Equation, and Divinity;FACT-1: Origin: "In the beginning was the Word,..." John 1.1 INVERSE-FACT-1: The Church was not, in the beginning with God, the Church is not mentioned until Matthew 16, and Acts 7 makes a reference to "the Church in the wilderness" in the days of Moses, about 3,000 years after Adam and Eve.
INVERSE-FACT-2: The Church did not come for millions of billions of trillions of infinite eons of infinite ages after the Word was established in the beginning by God. In fact, the duration of the Church compared to the duration of the Word of God is not even so much as the tiniest speck of sand, compared to all the sand, on all the sea-shores and deserts of all the Earth - and all of the planets in the thousands of trillions of Solar Systems, of the 400 billion Galaxies, each with approximately 200-400 billion Suns (Stars)/
This inherently claims the Word still "IS" God, since God cannot change, and God is the 'Eternal "I-AM" - the Ever-Present One. Thus if God ever was His Word, He is still His Word and will always be His Word. Since God being perfect cannot change, 'IF' God neither "is" His Word, nor "will be" His Word Eternally, THEN He never was His word However, since He explicitly declares "the Word WAS God from the Beginning, so 'IS' His Word and so His Word shall ever be. INVERSE-FACT-3: The Church is never "equated with God to be God." Jesus started the Church, Jesus loves the Church, Jesus died for the Church, and Jesus claims the Church is his body, but not the full Christ;
INVERSE-FACT-2: The Church is not Divine. The Church is not the "True Divinity of Jesus" any more than your body, arms and limbs are you. EXAMPLE: If you lose all four limbs; and your sight, hearing, and speech, and even your consciousness and must be fed through a tube in the stomach, hooked up to kidney machine and an iron lung on IV's, you are still you - the God-created soul is still there - humanly indefinable. You are MORE than your body! Thus with Christ. The Church is His Body, but He is the Head - the brain, the thinking, the knowledge, the understanding, the wisdom, and the "Sum-Total of Truth!" None of these traits of the mind of Christ in totality rest in the believer or the Church; Though we are are being transformed by the renewing of our Minds (Romans 12:1-3), and growing in wisdom, understanding and knowledge and may have some of these as Gifts of the Spirit (I Cor 12): Yet in this life we "See through a glass darkly, and only then, face to face." (I Cor 13). Challenge to Rob Bell:Personally, it seems to us at NewtonStein that the First Century Apostles and Prophets had an anointing of the Holy Spirit that we do not have today: > Verifiable resurrections from the dead, > Verifiable deaths by the Holy Spirit, from lying to the Spirit, (Acts 5) > Multitudes healed "every one" - just from the shadow of Peter passing by: Acts 5:14-16 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one. > Special Miracles by the hand of Paul, even healing from touching handkerchiefs and aprons Paul had worn, Acts 19:12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. We further see this extra-anointing of the Holy spirit when they met in Acts 15, where after MUCH initial disputing, they ALL had their say until done talking, and they ALL agreed with the judgement-opinion-recommendation; [NOTE: This was not a "sentence" - as James was neither high-priest nor pope. James was not even among the 12, never had a vision, never did a miracle, never started a Church and only wrote one little book of Scripture, never went on a mission trip and never even recognized Jesus as Messiah when He Ministered in person. Certainly Peter, Paul and John were superior to James in Scriptural-gospel credibility. By Choosing James to devise the solution, it showed humility of the Apostles and benefited in various ways]. Furthermore, that which pleased all of the disciples please the whole Church. Acts 15:22 Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church,... Challenge to Rob Bell:If he believes we have the same manifestation of the Holy Spirit today as the first generation, let him do as follows:> Call a conference, perhaps to sort out the many schools of belief on The Revelation; > Let everyone who wants, attend, > Let everyone who wants to dispute, do so, > Let the Holy Spirit give one person the understanding that ALL the others agree to, > Let this be presented to the "whole church" and received their unanimous vote as well: IF Rob Bell can produce an Acts 15 Jerusalem Council WITH Acts 15 Results - as they claim the Holy Ghost led them - we will agree with his teaching that the Holy Spirit is leading us in a "very enlightening manner" . . . . . . and will very seriously consider accepting any thing his council decides for my person doctrine. However, since the modern Church - leaders or the followers - are about as far from any kind of unanimously agreement and understanding on 'any doctrine of any kind' - this evidence indicates, the "latter day rain prophesied by the New Testament and Old Covenant prophets has not arrived yet. Latter Rain Out-pouring of the Holy SpiritThe generation may well come - and we pray for it - when the great first generation miracles and supernatural manifestation are again seen on this Earth, when many thousands are saved by the healing of one well-know lame man, leaping and praising God all over town (Acts 3-4). The healing of someone like Joni Erikson Tada, or Muhammed Ali, whom many people know - would get the new season of miracle started. We Ask Rob Bell to ConsiderFACT: It is simple to 'Call for a Council' as they did in Acts 15. FACT: It is not easy to achieve Acts 15 results! FACT: Neither the great Early Councils of Nicaea in AD 325, nor any that followed had the blessing and anointing of the Holy Spirit as did Acts 15, whether discussing the divinity of Christ, Antinomianism, Arianism, Nestorianism, Gnosticism, etc. FACT: None of them had Acts 15 Spirit Anointing, and instead of producing a near-perfect unity, ALL of them caused further division from the Early days through the Councils of Trent in 1545-63 to Vatican-II of 1961-2 or any of the protestant or non-denominational councils. FACT: even the early Councils seeking to decide canon [Which God NEVER said to do (more on this later)] did not have the Acts 15 evidence of the calling, anointing and leading of the Holy Spirit. Canon Dispute Existed from the Very Beginning[1] Jews and non-Jews did not agree on the Old Covenant Books, authors, order, names or even categories of writings; [2] The Syriac Peshita, The Masoretic, The Septuagint (which Jesus, Paul and Apostles used), the Roman Catholic Bible of Athanasius, The catholic scholar of the Latin Vulgate, Jerome, and the great scholar Augustine - ALL disagreed on the canon of Scripture! [3] From the earliest days, there has been the Jewish Masoretic Bible, The Syrian-Aramaic Peshita, The Ethiopian Canon (the largest one), The Roman Catholic, The Greek Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox-Armenian - and today - the Reformation Protestant canons of Scripture. ** Thus we have at least Seven-Official Bible Canons, all but the Protestant existing for over 1,000 years, several close to 1,500 years, and the Septuagint Jesus used, nearly 2,300 years. [4] Our question to Rob Bell is simple? "Which canon, ow which Church?" "By which Council?" [5] The truth is, there has never been a "whole Church Acts 15 Jerusalem-type Council - truly called, blessed and anointed by the Holy Spirit with Acts 15 results. ** It is possible. We are not about to limit God at all. We are simply saying it hasn't happened since - that Acts 15 is as unique as Acts 2 and Pentecost, and the results of each. We ask Mr. Bell to help by Defining Canon for us:> Who decided the Scripture should be canonized? > Who decided, who should decide? > Who decided the criteria to be accepted cor canon? > Who decided when this was achieved? > To any answer, we ask: how do we know this is from God, just because an Earthly Organization says so? It appears Mr. Bell has Accepted the Roman catholic VersionWe ask Mr. Bell of this matter: (A) Since you accept the Roman Catholic version and Council decision on canon of Scripture; (B) What other doctrines do you accept the Roman Catholic version and Council decisions on? (C) Do you accept all of the Roman Catholic Council decisions? (D) If yes, you have clarified your thinking for us to understand your conclusions; (E) If no, what are your criteria, your Scriptural conditions, applied consistently and logically across all Roman Catholic Councils of the ages to do as follows: > > (E)(1) Accept some Roman Council Decisions as true, Holy Spirit led, authoritative decisions equal to Holy Scripture; > > (E)(e) Reject some Roman Council Decisions as not true, Holy Spirit, led authoritative decisions equal to Holy Scripture; Initial conclusion on Rob Bell's Theorem:The previous defenses of the Word of God are some simple facts of logic and reasoning with a few Scriptures. Part-II, Presents what God's Word is from His own mouth, from His own Holy, inspired, inerrant Scripture. Part-III, Presents 12 scriptural Axioms on Inspiration and inerrancy: how it is proved. Part-IV, Presents how God establishes His "own canon" of His Word. Why God never Commanded a Canon of Scripture  
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