Subject: Re: Hebrew and Greek
Date: 12 Nov 1999 06:53:44 GMT
From: Chris Ho-Stuart 
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian
Graeme Hunt < > wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 15:56:13 +1100, Daniel McLean
> < > wrote:

>>It is argued against us of the more liberal persuasion that we
>>should not rely on our own rational processes to decide what is
>>right or wrong, what is true and false, but rather that we should
>>rely on the Bible as that is God’s exclusively revealed truth.
>
> True. The Bible itself claims this. We either believe it or we don’t. 

But the plain fact of the matter is that the bible *doesn’t* claim
this. The bible does not even speak of itself at all. There are
references to “scripture” and “writings”, of course, but
(1)
Though these nearly all refer to writings which are 
now included in the canon, they were all written at a 
time before the biblical canon was defined. It is an 
additional inference NOT present in the bible to set out 
a definition of certain books as being the bible, and 
limiting the notion of scripture to that prescibed set.
(2)
NONE of the references to scripture or writing 
suggest that these are God’s exclusively revealed 
truth. It is a common these in the bible that God can 
speak directly to chosen persons-and hence the witness 
of the bible itself is that God’s revealed truth is 

NOT limited to the bible.
I don’t mind that you personally have reached a 
conclusion that the bible is exclusively God’s 
revealed truth. I simply point out that this conclusion 
is not explcit in the bible itself, and is derived from 
some additional level of interpretation. Hence we can 
positively expect that other believers, including those 
who regard the bible as as definitive for good doctrine, 
will still disagree with you on this particular doctrine 
of exclusivity.

Best wishes-Chris Ho-Stuart