"Rowland Croucher" :

Is all Scripture inspired? Certainly not. (Again, the words of Satan or Job's 'comforters'... the list goes on). Someone else:

So how does one discern which is "inspired' and which is not?

My response:

The key is Jesus' authority and teaching: we work backwards into the Judaic Law and Prophets and forwards through the teaching of the apostles and councils of the church and follow them inasmuch as they agree with Jesus' emphases. The church councils were, ahem, light on social justice and love

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ for God, for example. For Jesus, they were his key 'kingdom values'. So we ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ have a light touch when it comes to creeds, confessions of faith and so on. They're likely to be correct in what they affirm, but woeful in not affirming the most important tenets of Christian faith (see Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42). And we reinterpret the OT law and prophets inasmuch as they were 'revised/fulfilled' in Christ.

Ken's response:

In this context, another issue on which the early and medieval church councils were, ahem, light (to Use Rowland's phrase), was the canon of scripture. Almost all evangelicals I have discussed the topic with are quite unaware that the earliest council to provide a list of books which wewre to be taken as canonical was the Council of Trent, a Catholic council called to try responding to the Protestant Reformation.

You'll search in vain in the records of earlier councils for such lists: some (contradictory) ones can be found in the writings of the early church historians.

Salaam Ken Smith

-- Dr Ken Smith - Christian, husband, unpaid mathematician, skeptic, ... `In sum, since 1960 creationism has done more than any other issue except abortion to inflame the cultural warfare in American public life.' Mark A. Noll, in "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind"