Amen decon
Hi decon, your time line is very accurate. The hand written Epistles began to circulate during the 1st century Church as early as 50A.D. The Greek word
"Epistle", is derived from the word
"pistol", a word we use to describe a gun that delivers
"bullets." The Epistles were small books that were used to deliver "the Gospel message."
Endoscopy is attempting to rationalize the use of
"a creed" by saying it
took to long to hand write scripture and that people were illiterate at that time so the use of creeds came into being by necessity. Nonsense the Catholic Church kept the scriptures out of the hands of believers so that they could maintain control. The 1st Century Church had plenty of hand written scripture to accommodate all local Churches, just ask the Apostle Paul.
True story; the career dept. at our Church, (about 300 strong), hand wrote the entire Old and New Testament with
"#2 lead pencils", all in about a 2 week period of time, during Christmas holiday. This was accomplished through the help and guidance of the
"Holy Spirit", so that a young Christian boy who was
"allergic" to every writing material,
"ink or lead", so that he could have his own personal bible to read and grow as a young believer.
The 1st Century Church would have had little trouble accomplishing something similar. The fact remains that a creed that was produce by men, fails by comparison to a God breathed hand written Bible. I believe that
"if one precious life" was lost do to someone believing in a
"man made creed", rather than believing in the one person who can save, Jesus Christ, then a creed is very problematic.
2Tmothy3:16
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,"