How do you respond to this charge?

[Lockheed]

Paul tells Timothy that the OT is sufficient to make one wise and prepared... the NT is a fuller revelation of God's intent expressed in the OT.

 

[ZiSunka]

"The first Christian's did not have a complete Bible." How does one respond to that from the perspective of Scripture Alone?

Acutally, the Bible as we know it was largely intact and widely circulated around Europe, the Middle East, western Asia and nothern Africa by 200 AD. It contained all of the Jewish scriptures and about 3/4 of the NT, with Revelation and a few of the general epistles missing. Copies of this Bible are extant from before 300 AD.

Also, the individual gospels and letters were copied and circulated immediately after they were written, with no lag time. The NT books didn't sit around in a box waiting for someone to codify them and publish them, they were handcopied and passed on from church to church and generation to generation. Even Revelation and the general epistles were in wide circulation by the end of the 3rd century as individual letters. Centuries later, the catholic church adopted the earliest Bibles and assembled the other books they thought were most important and called that the first canon. But all of those books were available to the early Christians.

The idea of sola scriptura is that the Bible alone is the source of reliable information about God and his relationship to us. All else is commentary, human thinking about how to apply the knowledge of the Bible to human life. I don't think human commentary or tradition has anything to say that God's word is lacking--it's all in there, everything a person needs to know to become a child of God.

 

[MbiaJc]

JMHO, but I think that is why it was important for them to WRITE down things (like what Happened, and what Jesus shared with them).

PS. It might be that we STILL don't have a "complete" bible, since all their writings may not have been discovered yet -- remember the dead sea scrolls.

The Bible tells us that some has been lost, but to just keep what we have.
We have everything that pertains to salvation, life and godliness. So we are not in need of any adition to obtain salvation and live a godly life.

 

[Dmckay]

"The first Christian's did not have a complete Bible." How does one respond to that from the perspective of Scripture Alone?

My Brother in Christ,

The majority of the first Christians were Jewish, and had grown up with the books of the Tanakh—The Jewish Old Testament. A book that most of them knew very well. Looking at the situation from the perspective of approximately 2,000 years. It is easy to see that there was a lot that they could learn about Jesus the Christ from the Messianic prophecies of the OT. Enough to keep them busy for quite some time.

Then consider that Acts tells us several more things: Acts 2:41-47 "41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

They were devoting themselves DAILY to the Apostle's teaching and fellowhip. What were the Apostles teaching them? Everything that they had learned from Jesus, and everything that the Holy Spirit was adding to that knowledge.

As the Apostles went out from Jerusalem this practice went with them. Even Paul, Apostle to Kings and Gentiles, went first to the Jewish synagoges to teach, for there he could find ready audiences who already knew the Scripture of the Old Testament as well as the promises of the coming Messiah. In most of the churches that Paul planted the Pastor's set up to teach the new Christians were often some of the strongest Jewish converts to Christianity who had a strong background in the Old Testament.

This was more than enough to point out the need for redemption and a Kinsman-Redeemer to pay the price for salvation. The whole of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The crying shame today is that too many Pastors don't see and understand that truth. If more pastors feed their flock from the examples and truths of the Old Testament our churches wouldn't be so anemic and apathetic. Remember, these things were written for our example.

By the time the early Christians, especially the Jewish converts, had matured enough to understand the teachings about Christ in the Old Testament, the Epistles were being circulated among the churches and the Gospels were being written. Read verse 47 again. G-d's plan and program for the church worked just fine thank you. At least till the church growth movement came around with their idea for a "better" plan.