Hi OldGobbo. Thank you again for the follow up. You said, †Firstly, of course the Vatican has a claim on the bible…â€
In my earlier comment, I said that the Vatican does not have a unique claim to the Bible. By this I mean that they are not the exclusive honchos concerning the Bible even though a number of them suppose they are.
You said, â€It’s not just some singular book (as you well know)…
As I see it, the Bible is one singular cohesive whole book (as each part of the Bible is dependent upon its other parts), comprised of 66 sections or parts (that are admittedly referred to as “books," sometimes “epistles,” etc), which begins with the “book†of Genesis and ends with the book of Revelation. Aside from these, there are no other “books” contained in the Bible.
You said, â€Just because ‘the bible’ as we know it isn’t actually locked away in the Vatican doesn’t mean that they don’t have a part of it which is important.
The role or part that the Vatican has in the Bible is that they are only one of many in “churchdom†who sometimes use it. The Vatican is deeply committed to their voluminous ecclesiastical edicts, magesterium principles, writs and other stuff that come straight out of the hearts and minds of the mortal men in their hierarchy and are therefore NOT inerrant as the Bible is. What matters is that God saves each elect person individually, between Him and the individual, by His mercy and grace alone.
You said, †If God himself is personally taking care of the ‘errors’ in some sort of case by case subjective destiny plan then I doubt I have an argument to dispute that.â€
The opposite of that is also true OldGobbo. Without the Bible to define its own terms it would be impossible for someone like me to argue for Biblical inerrancy. Thankfully, the Bible describes God’s role of authorship (1 Pet. 1:21).
You said, †find it interesting you can claim that the bible is without error (for you) when you freely admit you have never read the historically accurate bible.â€
But I have read (studied) the historically accurate Bible - if we are defining the Bible as being comprised of 66 “books†from Genesis-Revelation. My study of the Bible does not incorporate the so-called “extra-Biblical†books because I do not consider them to be a part of the Bible.
You said, â€â€¦You’re basing your faith in the bible’s accuracy… in the bible?â€
I base my understanding of the Bible in its inerrancy. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10: 17) which is the Bible. Yet, it is Christ’s faith that matters in salvation. A believer’s faith only has meaning because Christ’s faith is accredited to each believer individually (Gal. 2: 16, Eph. 2: 8-9). Thank you again OldGobbo. I appreciate your taking the time to follow up. passion