The Canon (Jesus Christ, ritual, reject, gospel, tradition)

[mormonman]

All Christians, except the LDS, I believe, say that the scriptural cannon is closed. When did God or one of His prophets say there is no more scripture to give??? And, to say that the Bible we have now is the only word of God is kind of dumb. There are obviously lost books, not included in the Bible. I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

[Buttons*]

I'm not christian... but i think the bible has been altered and changed... and such....i see no reason not to add more to it.

[d.]

it is kinda suspicious that he would just suddenly go quiet...of course there must be some kind of complicated, counter-intuitive explanation.

[Victor]

The only public revelation (binding on the whole Catholic Church) is that revealed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, whether oral or written. This ended with the death of the last apostle.


We do believe in private revelation like Fatima or Juan Diego but it is not binding on the whole Church.

[mormonman]

Originally Posted by Victor

The only public revelation (binding on the whole Catholic Church) is that revealed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, whether oral or written. This ended with the death of the last apostle.


We do believe in private revelation like Fatima or Juan Diego but it is not binding on the whole Church.

Where does it say, in the Bible, that there can't be any scripture once the last apostle dies?

[dan]

Here's an absolutely fascinating article about New Testament canonization:

http://www.geocities.com/airspirit3/...mentcanon.html

[No*s]

Originally Posted by mormonman

All Christians, except the LDS, I believe, say that the scriptural cannon is closed. When did God or one of His prophets say there is no more scripture to give??? And, to say that the Bible we have now is the only word of God is kind of dumb. There are obviously lost books, not included in the Bible. I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

"Canon" is a word for "measuring rod." It refers to something by which other things are measured. The "canon of Scripture" is the inspired writings by which we may measure other inspired writings. When taken in that sense, the concept of Scripture is neither really open nor closed. Just as Christ was Truth, the very Word of God, which all else reflects, the subsequent tradition crystallizes a measuring rod which will not really be changed. This does not mean that there are no other inspired writings; it just means the Bible is one of our measuring rods (one of them).

The canon was formed, beginning fairly early on, in response to various cult leaders going out and forming new churches to draw people away. Initially, they simply interpreted accepted writings. 2 Peter deals with that, and it is one of the reasons that it forbids private interpretation of Scripture. Subsequently, though, they began supplying their own books. The Christian bishops countered with other books. The lists coalesced over time and became the OT and NT (The Christian OT has been largely rejected by Protestants and their spiritual children).

If the NT is accurate, then it is because God inspired and moved the Christian bishops correctly, which would be an endorsement of the Catholic tradition (Sola Scriptura is untenable).

As a preemptive comment, there wasn't a conspiracy to cover up the books (in fact, if you read the early writers, they were evidently familiar with them). Such a conspiracy would have been impossible, anyway. The Church was decentralized. Nobody within it had that kind of power. It went to its death when emperors intervened incorrectly (even after Constantine), and so, there was no outside power. They weren't hidden either. They simply weren't copied and were considered unprofitable. After all, it took a long time and a lot of effort to copy material. Why copy the material of some minor sect when you can barely do your own? The other books and gospels fell into disuse and were simply left to rot on the shelves. It's the most practical method in a world when it could take a year or more just to copy a book.

[angellous_evangellous]

Originally Posted by mormonman

All Christians, except the LDS, I believe, say that the scriptural cannon is closed. When did God or one of His prophets say there is no more scripture to give??? And, to say that the Bible we have now is the only word of God is kind of dumb. There are obviously lost books, not included in the Bible. I'm looking forward to your thoughts.

I wonder if you would accept a self-proclaimed prophet who said that all LDS leaders after Joseph Smith and the entire LDS church was apostate, claimed to have the "real" or "genuine" understanding of the LDS faith, and completely redefined everything in LDS scriptures, and then added more?

For example, Bill is in my motorhome, and says that he's Jesus. He tells me that he is really an alien lifeform from the planet Can. The Holy Spirit and God are fellow alien beings who really aren't divine at all, but enjoy playing pool and drinking beer, and think that it's really funny that puny humans build temples and make covanents in their names. What they really wanted was for everyone to be drunk and party all the time and enjoy plenty of alcohol in the Bahamas.

Bill gives us a new testament to Jesus that is completely contradictory to LDS doctrine and understanding the God(s). Would you accept it?

[mormonman]

Originally Posted by angellous_evangellous

I wonder if you would accept a self-proclaimed prophet who said that all LDS leaders after Joseph Smith and the entire LDS church was apostate, claimed to have the "real" or "genuine" understanding of the LDS faith, and completely redefined everything in LDS scriptures, and then added more?

This already happened. The Community of Christ or God (I can't remember which), formerly the RLDS, said that the presidency of the Church should go from father to son. Because of this they left the Church, and claimed to have more revelation. Would I accept? Obviously not, I'm still LDS. Every dispensation of the Gospel up to this point has ended in apostacy. Not this one. This is the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. This is the time to prepare for the literal Second Coming of Christ! Every key and power ever held by previous prophets is on the Earth right now. God's work will not be stopped or hindered by apostates or anyone else.