John A. Broussard

"the Scriptures are the authority which founded the Church"

This seems to be almost the justification the Catholic Church gives for it's own existence. But wasn't Warfield an Anglican?

There's no question, though, but that the bible is considered by Warfield and others to be divine by its own testimony and became so through some sort of self selection.

Fascinating.

S.C.Carlson

Actually, Warfield was a Presbyterian (a.k.a. Reformed or Calvinist). Here's one biography: http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/et...dly.asp?ID=529

It is probably impossible to understand Warfield's views without appreciating its context in the Protestant vs. Catholic debates prevalent at the time. Warfield's views from the 19th century were not formulated to address the concerns that skeptics of the 21st century have.

Steven Avery

And I think a good comparision is with the Tanach. Josephus says that all the Jewish groups agreed on the exact same books as scripture, (which is our Hebrew/Aramaic Bible today). And there really is no evidence against that, and plenty of supporting (leaving aside an exception like Ethiopians who only had the Pentateuch). Considering the far-flung lands and heavy politicizing between sects politically and religiously, and the long time periods involved, and the diversity of styles and authorships and focus of the books, the simplest and clearest explanation for the uniformity
.... divine inspiration :-)

Shalom,
Praxeus
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic/

Jon Promnitz

:rolling:

John A. Broussard

Or plagiarism.

Steven Avery

> praxeus the simplest and clearest explanation for the uniformity
> .... divine inspiration :-)
A very difficult theory for the whole of the Tanach. There are theories of stories being plagiarized (e.g. Moses in the bulrushes) and counterarguments against such theories, however for the Pentatuech, Prophets and Writings as a whole plagarism becomes a rather dicey theory. Usually the enemies of the Tanach prefer to accuse of fabrication or self-serving history or stuff like like.

However, the more you reduce the integrity of the books, the less likely that the diverse groups (doctrinally, culturally, geographically) would actually agree on the canon, which was the thread question :-)

Shalom,
Praxeus
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic/

funinspace

So, 30-40 years after Christ's death, we are to believe that this god was still providing divine inspiration to a class of unbelievers in this Christ for canon building? Meanwhile the Christian Synod's, of the 300's and 400's, which picked out a OT list that included the Apocrypha were not inspired? But, 1,100 years yet further out, a disparate group of heretical Christians, without any large bodies/Synods debating the issues, went over the Jewish side of "inspiration" and revised the canon once again. Uniformity?

Yep, sure sounds inspired to me :down: