The Books of the Bible

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#1
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#1
There are scholars who've written books claiming important writings were left out of the Bible. What do you think?
 
BenFTW

BenFTW

Senior Member
#2
Oct 7, 2012
4,834
981
113
33
#2
If they were supposed to be in there, God would've divinely intervened to make it happen. I think God is more than capable of maintaining His word.
 
G

ggs7

Guest
#3
#3
Is this all we need?

Mat 7:12 Therefore all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, do even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#5
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#5
ggs7 said:
Is this all we need?

Mat 7:12 Therefore all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, do even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Click to expand...
You might have found the most important verses in the Bible. I like to throw in these two also:

Pray constantly. 1 Thess 5:17 RSV

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt 4:17 RSV

It helps make the point that the Bible is already about 1000 pages long, and I suspect a lot of people don’t read it because they think it’s too long already. So what would happen if we added another 9,000 pages? How many of us would have read it?
 
Willie-T

Willie-T

Banned
#6
Feb 7, 2015
22,418
413
0
#6
resurrection33 said:
There are scholars who've written books claiming important writings were left out of the Bible. What do you think?
Click to expand...
I don't know how "important" those other writings were, but I have read just about all of them that have been translated, and found them to be very interesting. I'm glad I was introduced to them. (Kind of like learning Calculus. You don't really need it, but it is worthwhile.)
 
C

Chuckt

Guest
#7
#7
resurrection33 said:
There are scholars who've written books claiming important writings were left out of the Bible. What do you think?
Click to expand...
It is nonsense. Many Christians died for Jesus and didn't leave anything out. We have the writings of the apostolic Church fathers and you can buy these works today. I think they are about 5,000 pages. All of their known writings are preserved so they didn't leave anything out.
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#8
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#8
Willie-T said:
I don't know how "important" those other writings were, but I have read just about all of them that have been translated, and found them to be very interesting. I'm glad I was introduced to them. (Kind of like learning Calculus. You don't really need it, but it is worthwhile.)
Click to expand...

Years ago I stumbled upon some of these writings in my library and was fascinated by them. However, I discovered there were a lot of these writings. There was a group called the Gnostics who were very prolific in their writings. I lost interest at that point. Now I have some time on my hands so I checked out a couple of books on this topic.

Three things come to my mind regarding these writings. First, are they trustworthy?

Second, are they necessary? That is, the Bible already has a thousand pages, or so. Do these additional writings tell us anything the other writings haven’t already told us?

Third, do we want to take a thousand-page book and add thousands of pages to it? Would any of us be willing to read such a book cover to cover?
 
C

Chuckt

Guest
#9
#9
resurrection33 said:

Years ago I stumbled upon some of these writings in my library and was fascinated by them. However, I discovered there were a lot of these writings. There was a group called the Gnostics who were very prolific in their writings. I lost interest at that point. Now I have some time on my hands so I checked out a couple of books on this topic.

Three things come to my mind regarding these writings. First, are they trustworthy?

Second, are they necessary? That is, the Bible already has a thousand pages, or so. Do these additional writings tell us anything the other writings haven’t already told us?

Third, do we want to take a thousand-page book and add thousands of pages to it? Would any of us be willing to read such a book cover to cover?
Click to expand...
If a heretic claimed inspiration from God, why couldn't he add his book today? Because it isn't authored by God.
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#10
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#10
Chuckt said:
If a heretic claimed inspiration from God, why couldn't he add his book today? Because it isn't authored by God.
Click to expand...
I think that would be classified under the heading "untrustworthy." Books were not added to the Bible because they were untrustworthy or because they were unnecessary, since they only repeated what already was in the Bible.
 
B

BeyondET

Guest
#11
#11
resurrection33 said:

Years ago I stumbled upon some of these writings in my library and was fascinated by them. However, I discovered there were a lot of these writings. There was a group called the Gnostics who were very prolific in their writings. I lost interest at that point. Now I have some time on my hands so I checked out a couple of books on this topic.

Three things come to my mind regarding these writings. First, are they trustworthy?

Second, are they necessary? That is, the Bible already has a thousand pages, or so. Do these additional writings tell us anything the other writings haven’t already told us?

Third, do we want to take a thousand-page book and add thousands of pages to it? Would any of us be willing to read such a book cover to cover?
Click to expand...
that would be a mighty big book lol.. I too look at some of these other writings why not it can be another prospective of accounts or info. In the time of Jesus in the flesh and other bible testimonys, there probably was all sorts of eye witness accounts from all sorts of people he knew and those that witness him not just from scholars, apostles but ordinary folks of the day too. probably thousands n thousands of lost writing, if I'm not mistaking during the Christian crusades they burned many books who knows what was burned.
 
Willie-T

Willie-T

Banned
#12
Feb 7, 2015
22,418
413
0
#12
resurrection33 said:

Years ago I stumbled upon some of these writings in my library and was fascinated by them. However, I discovered there were a lot of these writings. There was a group called the Gnostics who were very prolific in their writings. I lost interest at that point. Now I have some time on my hands so I checked out a couple of books on this topic.

Three things come to my mind regarding these writings. First, are they trustworthy?

Second, are they necessary? That is, the Bible already has a thousand pages, or so. Do these additional writings tell us anything the other writings haven’t already told us?

Third, do we want to take a thousand-page book and add thousands of pages to it? Would any of us be willing to read such a book cover to cover?
Click to expand...
What kind of "trustworthy" are you looking for? A huge portion of the canonized Scriptures, we take on pure faith. It sounds like you have actually "read" the Bible, not just turned the pages from Genesis to Revelation, so you already know there are hundreds of things in there that could never stand a logical, rational examination. That is the beauty of God's word, that it cannot be scientifically proven... nor disproven.

So take all these other extraneous readings for whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to see them as, and let it go at that.
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#16
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#16
Willie-T said:
What kind of "trustworthy" are you looking for? A huge portion of the canonized Scriptures, we take on pure faith. It sounds like you have actually "read" the Bible, not just turned the pages from Genesis to Revelation, so you already know there are hundreds of things in there that could never stand a logical, rational examination. That is the beauty of God's word, that it cannot be scientifically proven... nor disproven.

So take all these other extraneous readings for whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to see them as, and let it go at that.
Click to expand...
If something were inaccurate or heretical, I would call that untrustworthy.

You might ask me to give you my definition of “heretical.” Something that contradicts a commandment of God is heretical.
 
tanakh

tanakh

Senior Member
#17
Dec 1, 2015
4,635
1,040
113
76
#17
resurrection33 said:
There are scholars who've written books claiming important writings were left out of the Bible. What do you think?
Click to expand...
There are enough books outside the Bible to create several new volumes. The ones included in the NT tend to be those recognized by all of the early church and the OT with all Jews and Christians. Those outside the Bible range from complete rubbish to useful but uninspired reading. The Gnostic Gospels are for the most part completely alien to
Biblical doctrine. Most of the Scholars who think some are missed out appear to be great fans of Gnosticism so
I wouldn't pay a great deal of attention to their arguments.
 
R

roaringkitten

Guest
#18
#18
resurrection33 said:
There are scholars who've written books claiming important writings were left out of the Bible. What do you think?
Click to expand...
If the Bible is incomplete, then we can only get a partial view of the Word of God(Jesus-John 1:14, 5:39, Heb 10:7, etc). How can we be changed into a complete image, beholding the glory of the Lord, if the image is missing pieces? The Bible has a beautiful truth in the following Scripture, so we can be sure God included all the books that were supposed to be included in the Bible:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor 3:18
 
resurrection33

resurrection33

Banned
#19
Dec 19, 2009
27,513
128
0
71
#19
roaringkitten said:
If the Bible is incomplete, then we can only get a partial view of the Word of God(Jesus-John 1:14, 5:39, Heb 10:7, etc). How can we be changed into a complete image, beholding the glory of the Lord, if the image is missing pieces? The Bible has a beautiful truth in the following Scripture, so we can be sure God included all the books that were supposed to be included in the Bible:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor 3:18
Click to expand...
The Bible isn't incomplete.
 
R

roaringkitten

Guest
#20
#20
resurrection33 said:
The Bible isn't incomplete.
Click to expand...
I didn't say it was incomplete, I used the conditional "if" to address the scholars claims, then wrote a verse refuting their claims.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.