Hi John. I was not sure that you were the one who wrote that piece in the beginning, which is why I spoke about the "author." It is a very common doctrine among scholars and theologians. I offer a few more comments below.
David Miller wrote: >> The idea that the Scriptures were being recorded, >> and this suddenly stopped when John died, is bogus. >> Men of God wrote and this kind of writing was done >> before John and after John. Hundreds of years later, >> some of these writings were canonized as Scripture. John wrote: > You got me, here. I have no idea what you are > talking about, unless you late date some of the NT > scritpures. Wouldn't surprise me. I'm talking about how there were many writings that were reverenced and read in the churches during the first 300 years after Christ ascended into heaven. For example, there were writings such as Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Epistle of Barnabas. The early churches did not suddenly have a complete "Bible" when John wrote Revelation. The viewpoint that one must be an apostle or directly appointed by an apostle to write Scripture is not accurate, neither is the viewpoint that the apostles are the only ones who did miracles, and those upon whom they directly laid hands. There is NO Biblical basis for such viewpoints. Such viewpoints are basically modern inventions. David Miller wrote: >> Most of the apostles left us no Scripture at all, including >> the chief apostle, Jesus Christ himself. John wrote: > true. And I am not saying that they all did. The point is that if only a small fraction of all the apostles did write Scripture, then the primary work of apostles was not writing Scripture. The reason for making Scripture their task or miracles their task is to relegate their office to the past. It is a modern form of apostolic persecution. The line of thinking is that if we show their function no longer necessary, then their office is no longer necessary. Thereby, modern apostles are immediately cut off from the body of Christ. It is done by definition rather than sound argument, much like the way Creationists are cut out of science. My perspective is that the primary work of apostles was oral, not written. Just like Jesus Christ. Therefore, there is a need for their ministry to continue and there is no Biblical justification for supposing that they died out in the first century. John wrote: > You have a problem with "under the tutelage > of the apostles"?? I beleive Mark was supervised > by Peter. What happened was that Mark, like Stephen, Barnabas, and Luke, were among those who LEFT JESUS in John 6:66. There is evidence that Peter helped bring Mark back and Paul helped bring Luke back. Yes, Mark was mentored by Peter, but your effort to draw attention to this fact is only done to salvage your theory that only apostles wrote Scripture. You even imply that perhaps Peter dictated to Mark what to write in his gospel. Following are the steps you take to make your case: 1. Narrow the topic from the Bible to only the NT. 2. Narrow the topic further by showing how most of the NT was written by apostles. 3. Argue that the part of the NT that was not written by apostles was written by those under the tutelage of apostles. 4. Reject historical data that is contrary to your philosophical perspective on the basis of it simply being untrustworthy. 5. Conclusion: the apostles were the ones responsible for the NT. 6. Only apostles and those directly appointed by them did miracles. 7. Conclusion: the writing of Scripture and the performing of miracles ended when the apostle John died at the end of the first century. Am I the only one on this list that has problems with this line of reasoning? Do I really have to spell out the problems here? Peace be with you. David Miller. ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
