Time for a History Lesson . . .
After the destruction of Jerusalem, a group of Rabbis established a rabbinical school in the Jewish city of at Jabneh (or Jamnia). It became center for Jewish political and religious political thought. Because the Temple had been destroyed in 70 AD – this school led by Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph (A.D. 37-137) redefined certain aspects of Judaism until the Temple could be restored.
One of the things discussed was use of the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) by early Christians.
They decided to eject 7 Books (and portions of Esther and Daniel) that they felt were “uninspired”. They provided a new Greek translation because the early Christians were converting the Jews using the Septuagint, which was compiled about 200 years before the birth of Christ. According to historical sources, the rabbinical gathering at Jabneh was not even an "official" council with binding authority to make such a decision. It can be clearly shown that Jesus and the Apostles studied and quoted from these 7 Books. In the New Testament, we see almost 200 references to them.
The main advocate for removing the 7 Deuterocanonical Books was Rabbi Akiba, who was also known for proclaiming that a man named Simon Bar Kokhba was the “real” Messiah during the 2nd Jewish Revolt (circa 132 AD). It was during THIS time that the Jewish Canon had still been an OPEN Canon during the life of Christ was closed.
So, the Protestant Fathers chose to go with a POST-Christ, POST-Temple Canon of Scripture that was declared by a FALSE Prophet (Akiva) who proclaimed a FALSE “Christ” (Kokhba).
This is who Protestants have chosen to follow instead of Christ’s Church, on whom He bestowed supreme earthly Authority (Matt. 16:18-19, Matt. 18:15-18, Luke 10:16, John 16:12-15, John 20:21-23).
Luther also had problems with many New Testament Books, which he sought to remove. The Book of Hebrews, the Epistles of James and Jude and the Book of Revelation were ALL on the chopping block. He referred to the Epistle of James as the “Epistle of Straw” because it stressed the importance of works, which he rejected. If it had NOT been for the urging of his contemporaries – men like Philip Melanchton – Protestant Bibles would have been MUCH thinner.
Good history lesson.
I agree with everything except.....This is who
Protestants have chosen to follow instead of Christ’s
Church, on whom He bestowed
supreme earthly
Authority (Matt. 16:18-19, Matt. 18:15-18, Luke 10:16, John 16:12-15, John 20:21-23).
There is a little more detail....important details.
The succession of the Catholic Church from Peter is not false but does not tell the whole story.
I would say that more correctly they are a succession of Peter and Paul.
And this is why I say that.
The Gospel scriptures you have provide are about Yeshua talking to His Apostles. Note that they still considered themselves Jewish. The term Christian does not appear until later...maybe ten or 15 years later....so they are not talking about Christianity. Somewhere along the line Christ's ministry is coined "the Way" meaning the way or path to heaven or even the way of life....speculation.
So the Way was Jewish....the Apostles were Jewish-Christians....they were out to convert Jews, they had no interest in converting Pagans.
Christ does not seem to give the Pagans much interest either. But some scholars refer to Christ as the secret Messiah. They seem to think He was running another ministry for the Pagans behind the scenes. I agree that it is possible but not well spelled out in the Gospels. I believe the ministry was correctly offered to the Jews first.....but because of His connection to Paul and Peter, I believe it was Yeshua's intent all along to offer salvation to the Pagans. The Bible refers to these converted Pagans as Gentiles.
But the Jews reject Christ and Christ commissions Paul to start His ministry which butted head with the Jewish-Christians until they had the meeting in Jerusalem with James....who at that time was the leader of the Jewish Christians. After this Meeting, James issues a letter outlining the acceptance of Gentile Christians. But the effect of this meeting was that the Gentiles-Christians were more or less a separate group that did not practice Christianity the same way as the Jewish Christians. I could go into the differences but it would be a lot of information. The Protestants miss, this and it is one of the reasons they try to mingle Judaism with Christianity.
By the end of the first century most of the Jewish-Christians have been killed off and the Gentiles took the reins of the Church. Writings of early Christianity that have survived are from Gentile-Christians....disciples of Paul and of Peter who joined Paul in his ministry. This is actually the "Church" that the Catholics descend from. The Bishops that attended the ecumenical councils were Gentile-Christians.
Of course this is a very abbreviated account.
or higher than Christ.
