The Church is the ultimate authority on what texts are canonical. If you reject that authority, then you're not Christian and you reject everything about the faith, including the rest of the Bible because it's a package deal. This means you're operating under a non-Christian worldview where authority is placed elsewhere (like whatever some secularists or new agers think).
Strawmen galore. I can tell you come from a Protestant background and hold the Protestant presuppositions. Makes sense that you became gnostic new ager.
Sure. The one universal, holy and apostolic Church is both a divine and a human, a mystical and a physical historical institution (not an abstraction), established by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second person of the Godhead, here on Earth, following the messianic prophecies of the OT. Christ appointed His apostles as the leaders of His Church and sent the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost (around 33AD). The Church is the living Body of Christ in which all believers are joined and participate in the uncreated divine grace through the sacraments (like baptism, chrismation, eucharist, matrimony).
Thus Church's authority comes from the apostles who pass the Holy Spirit through laying of hands to their successors - the bishops (as seen in Acts). This apostolic succession continues uninterrupted to this day and forms a living tradition from Christ to the bishops and clergy of today. The Church structure is decentralized and synodal and it's headed by Christ and not any particular bishop (as papalists believe).
The Holy Scripture itself is a part of that tradition as is its correct interpretation (because no text interprets itself, but is understood through a paradigm). The totality of the tradition is the deposit of God's revelation to His people - the Christians. The Church tradition is also a continuation of the OT hebrew covenantal tradition of Abraham.
((Bible scholars))
The Church is the ultimate authority on what texts are canonical. If you reject that authority, then you're not Christian and you reject everything about the faith, including the rest of the Bible because it's a package deal. This means you're operating under a non-Christian worldview where authority is placed elsewhere (like whatever some secularists or new agers think).
Strawmen galore. I can tell you come from a Protestant background and hold the Protestant presuppositions. Makes sense that you became gnostic new ager.
Sure. The one universal, holy and apostolic Church is both a divine and a human, a mystical and a physical historical institution (not an abstraction), established by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second person of the Godhead, here on Earth, following the messianic prophecies of the OT. Christ appointed His apostles as the leaders of His Church and sent the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost (around 33AD). The Church is the living Body of Christ in which all believers are joined and participate in the uncreated divine grace through the sacraments (like baptism, chrismation, eucharist, matrimony).
Thus Church's authority comes from the apostles who pass the Holy Spirit through laying of hands to their successors - the bishops (as seen in Acts). This apostolic succession continues uninterrupted to this day and forms a living tradition from Christ to the bishops and clergy of today. The Church structure is decentralized and synodal and it's headed by Christ and not any particular bishop (as papalists believe).
The Holy Scripture itself is a part of that tradition as is its correct interpretation (because no text interprets itself, but is understood through a paradigm). The totality of the tradition is the deposit of God's revelation to His people - the Christians. The Church tradition is also a continuation of the OT hebrew covenantal tradition of Abraham.