(1)If you reject The Catholic Church how do you know which writings should be included in your New Testament?
Have you read the many Gospels & Epistles rejected by the Catholic Church to see if You (rejecting The Churche's Authority) also find them "self-authenticating"?
(2)All heresies are based on EITHER/OR thinking. Catholicism/Orthodoxy is BOTH/AND thinking. Thus Church & Scripture.
(3)it is not I that puts the Church above scripture, but scripture itself.....
"If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." (1Tim3:15)
(4)It is also a matter of History. the Catholic Church was over 350 years old before it compiled the New Testament Canon. The Church precedes the New Testament and discerned what was to be included & what left out.
It was not left for you to "self-discern" by Individual self-authentification
(5)When NT Epistle-writers refer to "scripture" they can only be referring to their Jewish Torah, Law & Prophets.
They show no sense that Catholic Bishops hundreds of years later would add some of these happenstantial letters to scripture on their (necessarily higher or equal) authority!
I have a strange stance on this myself. I agree that the Catholic church, guided by the Holy Spirit, had a hand in directing the final product that we now recognize as the complete Bible - Genesis to Revelation. Although, we are told that God uses all things for the good of those who love Him - Roman 8:28
That said, I think the Church (big C) has its order of authority messed up - not least of which is the Catholic church (little c).
The typical order of authority is something *like* (maybe not exact)
1. Paul
2. Rest of the New Testament Scriptures
3. Christian Writings
4. Old Testament
Trash = Everything Jewish
The real order of authority as I've discovered through my own studies rather than listening to a pope, preacher, or other believers -
1. Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
2. Rest of the Bible
3. Jewish Writings
4. Christian Writings (most of which should be shuffle quickly into the trash)
Now let me explain in more detail.
One of the last things we are told before the intertestamental period is "Remember the laws of my servant Moses..." Mal 4:4. Secondly, in Acts 15:21 the Apostolic Council made a very important *assumption* that we all seem to miss. They assume you'll be studying the words of Moses on a weekly basis. Yeshua Himself said not a dot or tittle would pass from the LAW until all things are completed and He also said that it's easier for Heaven and Earth to disappear before even the smallest piece of the Torah. Perhaps this will help you grasp the authority of the Torah, but if you study the entirety of the Scriptures you'll find many more references to the absolute authority of the Torah over all written content on this planet.
In case you missed it-
1. Anytime you see the word "law" in English, it's talking about the Torah.
2. We're a long way from everything being completed.
3. The Heavens and the Earth are still here
Now before you go off and tell me "but, Paul says" - understand this. Paul is the only author in the entirety of the Bible that is said to be hard to understand and misused. This is stated by two people (two witnesses prove any matter) 2 Pet 3:15 and Acts 21:20.
So before you go off trying to tell me that the Torah and the rest of the OT Scripture were nailed to the cross, know that I will expect two different authors as proof. Because the one author that is difficult to understand is not sufficient according to Biblical standards.
So, while I agree that the original structure of the Catholic church had a hand, guided by the Holy Spirit, in creating what we now have as the complete Bible, I also think it's gone very much astray. As have other denominations. You pray to statues, dead men, beads, and priests. That alone should be sufficient to show that you're not abiding by Biblical standards. But upon study of the Scriptures I think every denomination has gone astray to some extent. We can correct a lot of that by getting our order of authority straight.
Now, why do I say the Jewish writings come before the Christian writings? Because they are the custodians of the Scriptures. This can be obviously seen in that every man that contributed to the Bible is a Hebrew, but you can also see this in the Scriptures such as Romans 3:2. Study yourself to find more evidence - I'm being as brief as I can.
Christian writings on the other hand consistently speak against the authority of the Old Testament because they are coming at the Scriptures from a Greco-Roman viewpoint. Some of them don't make that mistake, but for those that do, I personally have come to consider them fire kindling.
I know I got a bit off topic, but I wanted to reply to this one post.
