by seekchristonly 37 Replies latest watchtower bible
I get the idea that Jesus railed against the religious leaders of the time, because of the burdens they'd placed on the people with their excessive laws and all that, AND that he told people to follow him.
That's clear.
But if he didn't want organised religion in his name, why would he allow all the stuff Paul wrote about in his letters (congregational organisation, how to be an overseer, etc etc) to be canonised?
"why would he allow all the stuff Paul wrote about in his letters (congregational organisation, how to be an overseer, etc etc) to be canonised?"
Better yet, why did Roman polititians and "apostate Christians" get to decide on the Bible canon?
RichardHarley - Did Jesus choose the New Testament canon?
The word canon means "rule" or "stick" its a Jewish idea, or did
the Catholic Church decide which books would be in the Bible?
We only have one fragment of a book from the first century.
There were undoubtedly other manuscripts, probably hundreds
since they were writing back and forth to each other. Where are they ?
Why did Paul write so many books ? 14 books ? Isn't that some kind of
a record ? Moses only wrote five books. Was this a controlled by God process ?
Or was it tampered with? The Masoretic Text ? The Deoterocanonical ?
Or fully canonical ? Who decides ? The Jewish Tanakh or Christian canon?
Or the Samaritan canon ? What about the Samaritan Book of Joshua ?
Here is a list of Bible books mentioned in the Bible, but not found in
the Bible:The book of Jasher , The Book of Enoch, The Book of Samual the Seer,
The Book of the Acts of Solomen, The Book of Nathan the Prophet,
The Book of Shemaiah .... a partial list of books refered to in the Bible
as scripture and we have no idea what they say.
The simple message Jesus gave was about the internalization of
faith and an internal connection to God not dependent on outside
structures of doctrine, publishing books and magazines or buildings
or central authority or governing bodies in the form of men
sitting in power and men in judgement over others making
up rules and interpreting scripture for us. The word "organization"
is not in the Bible nor is the term "governing body" these are
man made entities " proving false to their power"
2 Timothy 3:5
Lexham English Bible (LEB)
5 "maintaining a form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid these people."
The "power" described is the indwelling of the spirit Jesus talked about. This is what the Watchtower does, sets up a form and takes away the
power Jesus said every person would have within themselves.
Village girl , I get what you're saying with the internal faith stuff and the personal connection to god, but are you implying them that paul's writings about congregational structure should note be in the bible, that he was acting on his own?
The APostles also recognised the true church or the KIngdom within which cannot be seen and not made with human hands or with bricks and mortar. In Hebrews he said to the others let us go with confidence into the true place of worship, the one not made with human hands right into the presence of God himself into the Holy of Holies. That is open for all who want to enter in. It cannot be done in or through a church or systamtic way. It is spiritual and those who surrender to CHrist need to seperate The Kingodm within and a physical church. He dwells within the believer , the kingdom within. He waits for each of us to coem to him and enter in and becoe the church. Its all spiritual. You bleong to CHrist not a church or organization
OK so I'll ask it a third time.
Why then did Christ allow Paul to write all that he did about organisational structure of the congregations?
good question
Because the end of the age was coming upon their generation in the 1st century. There are no instructions for after the destruction of jerusalem in 70ad. Nothing is written by anyone after this event. Because they were all gone.
This reminds me of John Shelby Spong's Jesus for the NonReligious.
