welcome to the story.

Part Three William Herndon: I need to reply to something so...I will just say all this discussion has been interesting, and cause a lot of thought. The Bible is God's Word and we have to put our trust in Him to guide us at all times. I have been learning about the construction of the Bible in Sunday school and it is pretty neat. We must trust that God allowed the books he wanted in, and kept others out. I am not really saying much more than this, it is just interesting that if you wold have asked the early church members what books were holy writings there would have been more books than we have today. Maybe they were weeded out for a purpose, but one in particular seems pretty interesting to me called (Misspelled I am sure) didica, it was full of doctrine which seem pretty in line. Eli Sanders: It is called the Didache... the teachings of the twelve... I'm no expert, but it might be a 2nd century doc. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas were considered legit by some ancient Churches as well... You are going to find that MANY ancient non-canonical epistles were used in public liturgy and private worship in the early Church. It is also revealing to learn that most churches (lower case) only possessed fragments or scraps of gospels or epistles. Owning a complete manuscript was rare, but not uncommon. For a good reference on Church History and the Canon, see "Church History in Plain Language" by Bruce L. Shelley. Me: "It is also revealing to learn that most churches (lower case) only possessed fragments or scraps of gospels or epistles. Owning a complete manuscript was rare, but not uncommon." That's what I was saying. Only the wealthy and the priests had Bibles up until the 1600s. And only until the middle 1800s did the "common man" get to interpret the Bible how he felt "led" (and I use that term loosely) too. So let's look at when the lower case church started going down hill. About the time that everybody started interpreting a passage a million different ways. Because each individual got to interpret it the way they saw fit. So what you got . . . was the biggest onslaught of heretical teachings in all of church history. When did all the denominational division begin? After everybody got their own Bible and started disagreeing with the interpretations. The Reformers did a good job of bringing down the perverted authority structure that was in place, but they didn't go far enough in restoring it to its original structure that the first 400 years of church fathers used (pre-Constantine). But I know that's not Southern Baptist thinking Mr. Coleman. Jerry Coleman: You are right about one thing, I do not agree with your statements, and neiter does history. For you to say or want to go back to pre Constantine Christianity, shows me you do not not very much about church history, and your statement that after the Bible was placed into the individual hands was the biggest onslaught of heretical teachings in all of church History....my my my...the period of pre Constantine would fit that discription. Josh what happened to Christianity after the Bible was distributed to the people. Did it decline, or dit it increase? Can you answer that question? Which one of the denominations are going to hell....the Baptist, the Methodist, which ones are so heritical that they miss the Blood of Jesus? You know that not Southern Baptist thinking either....its just plain history.