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Gnosticism, in essence, was demonstrably diverse and only loosely connected by an overall philosophical framework. As a result, or perhaps because, of this diversity, Gnosticism never formed its own church or groups of churches.
The Heresy of Orthodoxy
The Bauer-Ehrman thesis is invalid. Earliest Christianity was not infested with a plethora of competing heresies (or "Christianities," as Ehrman and other Bauer paragons prefer to call them); it was a largely unified movement that had coalesced around the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah and exalted Lord predicted in the Old Testament. Consequently, the apostles preached Jesus crucified, buried, and risen on the third day according to the Scriptures. There were heretics, for sure, but the trajectory spanning from the Old Testament to Jesus and to the apostles provided a clear and compelling infrastructure and mechanism by which the earliest Christians could judge whether a given teaching conformed to its doctrinal christological core or whether it deviated from it.The Heresy of Orthodoxy
Thus, the Muratorian Fragment does not appear to be establishing or "creating" a canon but is expressly affirming what has already been the case within the early church.The Heresy of Orthodoxy
Thus, any suggestion that the church creates the canon, or that the canon is simply and solely the outcome of a long period of "choosing" by the established church, would not only unduly reverse the biblical and historical order but would have been an idea foreign to the earliest Christians.50 This is why the early church fathers speak consistently of "recognizing"51 or "receiving"52 the books of the New Testament, not creating or picking them.53 In their minds, scriptural authority was not something they could give to these documents but was something that was (they believed) already present in these documents—they were simply receiving what had been "handed down" to them.The Heresy of Orthodoxy
Jude classifies the heretics as "people . . . relying on their dreams" (v. 8), that is, mystics who claimed to enjoy privileged access to esoteric knowledge.The Heresy of Orthodoxy
The church no more gave us the New Testament canon than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity.
The Holy Spirit provides the canon for the church; the church does not establish the canon by her own authority. Does the Spirit do this by new divine revelation? No, by His work among the people of God, in whom He dwells.Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible\'s Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity (p. 109). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The foundation of the certainty of our knowledge of the canon is based upon God's purposes in giving Scripture, not upon the alleged authority of any ecclesiastical body.Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible\'s Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity (p. 107). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
This is why we should call the canon an artifact of revelation: It is not itself an object of revelation, but comes into existence as a by-product of the action itself.Scripture Alone: Exploring the Bible\'s Accuracy, Authority and Authenticity (p. 103). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The appearance of the Montanist sect in Asia Minor around AD 170 brought that question to a head. Montanus and his followers claimed to be prophets with messages from God, but they were rejected on the ground that revelation of that kind had come to an end.God Has Spoken, 143
Whatever in the end compiled this Scripture canonically, it was not simply human sharp-sightedness, but rather Divine providence. Even so... with clear consciousness a second Holy Scripture as such was in view, and that the assignment of such high authority to this or that book was contested, but not the reality of such an authority as such.Sacred Theology, 464
the "Bauer thesis": the view that close study of the major urban centers at the end of the first and early second centuries reveals that early Christianity was characterized by significant doctrinal diversity, so that there was no "orthodoxy" or "heresy" at the inception of Christianity but only diversity-heresy preceded orthodoxy.The Heresy of Orthodoxy
What used to be regarded as heresy is the new orthodoxy of the day, and the only heresy that remains is orthodoxy itself.The Heresy of Orthodoxy
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