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What is the Authority of the New Testament?
- Thread starter Coder
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PureX
Veteran Member
I think most people who feel this way do so because they find spiritual truth and wisdom within their interpretation of the text.
I am not religious, and do not care about the whole issue of the "factuality" of the story of 'the Christ'. But as I interpret and understand that story, I find a revelation and a promise within it. The revelation is that we all have the divine spirit of 'God' within us as we are 'God's' creations (that being the spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, honesty and humility). And the promise that if we will let go of our fear and selfishness, and allow ourselves to become the human actualization of these gifts of the divine spirit within, we will then be healed and saved from ourselves, and can in turn help others to be healed and saves, too. And if enough of we humans choose to walk this path, the whole Earth will be healed and saved from us.
And "Eden" will be the result.
I don't need to be a religious Christian to recognize the spiritual truth and the wisdom that I am gleaning from this story of Jesus the Christ. I can test the revelation and the promise for myself, in my own life, and recognize the truth of it. And that is it's "authority", for me. That it bears itself out to be spiritually truthful.
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Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Fine. You started the BS by making a personal attack.
Jesus was sure Scripture is the Word of God - John 17:17 - and taught that, and explained that, and lived that
Mankind's l-o-n-g history has proven that man has dominated man to man's injury, man's hurt - Ecclesiastes 8:9
Thus, people who think man can bring Peace on Earth they are in for a BIG surprise - 1st Thess. 5:2-3
Man is Not headed to Peace but to the coming great tribulation of Rev. 7:14
Jesus forewarned us so that we can be forearmed, but the world will Not listen
Yes, writings about God, but No Triune-Trinity god, Trinity is a man-made concept outside of Scripture just taught as Scripture
Please notice that Earth can't contain God - 1st Kings 8:27,49
God had No beginning according to Psalm 90:2
Whereas pre-human Jesus was "IN" the beginning but Never "before" the beginning as his God is
Even the resurrected ascended-to-heaven Jesus still thinks he has a God over him as per Revelation 3:12
Jesus understood and accepted Scripture, Not through 'blind faith' (credulity) but Jesus used logical reasoning on the OT explaining and expounding Scripture for us
Audie
Veteran Member
What do you mean by " truths"?
Only by those who didn't note utility of
Ignore.
Audie
Veteran Member
Paul of the phony snake story
Your statement about the trinity is nothing more than your opinion. I and others clearly see the Trinity in Scripture. If you disagree, then explain this verse: “When the Advocate [The Holy Spirit] comes, whom I [Jesus] will send to you from the Father [God]—the [Holy] Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father [The Holy Spirit]—he [The Holy Spirit] will testify about me [Jesus].
The Holy Spirit is mentioned four times. Jesus sends Him from God (the Father) to His disciples to testify about Him.
Wandering Monk
Well-Known Member
You are going on the assumption that the words attributed to Jesus are actually his.
If you think that they're not, then whose words are they?
Wandering Monk
Well-Known Member
Any early Christian's. Are the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas really his? Most orthodox Christians would say 'no.'
Colt
Well-Known Member
Religious institutions create and then declare their various scriptures to be the foundation of their authority.
Thank you for your reply
I notice you called God's spirit (Psalm 104:30) as ' The ' Holy Spirit
We speak of God's spirit as a 'The' but we do Not speak of The God or The Jesus
At Numbers 11:17,25 God's spirit is a genderless "it"
Greek grammar rules allow for a neuter to be in a gender
Even in English we speak of a car or a ship as a 'she' but we know then remain a neuter "it"
At Luke 11:13 and Luke 11:20 God's spirit is spoken of as being holy and also as being the finger of God - Exodus 31:18; Matt. 12:28
So, yes, God's spirit (it) can be sent out to help us, comfort us and so forth
Of course, the Gospel of Thomas is not in the Protestant New Testament, as it is not considered conanical. So you are correct by saying that "most orthodox Christians would say no".
Wandering Monk
Well-Known Member
Because Christians early on had different collections of the sayings of Jesus. Only some of those became part of the Catholic and Protestant canons. Who gets to decide which sayings are authentic?
C'mon. Seriously.
We describe God as "the Father" and Jesus as "the Son". And the Holy Spirit doesn't have a name other than "the Spirit". (BTW, Numbers is written in Hebrew, not Greek.)
Your comparing the Bible references to how we refer to a car or a ship to prove your point is luducrous!
Your references are absurd!
You are correct that God sends us the Holy Spirit. Congratulations on getting one thing right!
Ebionite
Well-Known Member
In general it's because of tradition relating to the selection of the Christian canon. The rational argument is that texts which are consistent with the prophetic context are likely to be meaningful.
Ebionite
Well-Known Member
While that's true for institutions which follow the doctrine of sola scripture, there's a difference between the written word which relates to a testament and the spoken word which is meaningful for the living.
As for me, this [is] my covenant with them, saith YHWH; My spirit that [is] upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith YHWH, from henceforth and for ever.
Isaiah 59:21
Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
Which is why the Gospel of Thomas is not in the bible.
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Ebionite
Well-Known Member
I think you meant 'not in'. Testaments are the written will of the deceased, not the living.
These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down.
The Gospel of Thomas
The Pseudepigraphal book known as the Gospel of Thomas, a gnostic collection of alleged sayings of Jesus Christ falsely attributed to Thomas.
carm.org