Monday Madness: Without the Bible

So what did people do during the couple of hundred years before the new testament was written? What did the people do during the several hundred years before the printing press was invented? What did people do during the time when they couldn't afford the bible becasue they were poor? What then?

(Perhaps you should ask these questions over at the Team Pyro blog if you genuinely want to learn something far deeper than what I can articulate.)
If you are sincere in your questions, here is a brief summary of answers that can be explained in much greater detail at the provided link below (take a deep breath), ...since the Bible was Divinely inspired and Divinely brought together, this is the way that our sovereign God has chosen to communicate Truth, such as the gospel of the glory of Christ, the weight of our filthy sinfulness provided through the reality of our inability to keep God's holy law, which in turn displays our need for Christ as Saviour and then the immense and unfathomable riches of Christ to those that believe; God's precious and knowable and applicable Truth is, by the grace of God alone, the source of wisdom that leads to the only way of salvation, an undeserved and unearned gift, through faith alone, which thus then provides the "inexhaustible ways of seeing and knowing and enjoying Christ."

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.-- Romans 15:4

Lisa

Lisa,

For the most part, I agree with you regarding the nature of the Bible. However, your post suggests that the Bible is some sort of necessary nourishment for belivers. If this is the case, what did those believers who didn't have the Bible do, starve?

Scott,
All I can tell you is that God is sovereign and I am not. I know there are many in persecuted countries today that would die and probably have died for even one page out of the Word of God. Yes, I could see that those who perhaps profess to believe and are without the Word of God would starve... God's Word speaks of being necessary nourishment. But then I also must rest in God's sovereign will. He is good and will never withold anything good from His children... and sometimes what is good is hard and painful.
There are answers to questions like yours that I do not have the answer to. But I love and trust the Lord. I love His Word and I am thankful that I freely have it to study... and my heart hurts for those who do not have this freedom. My heart hurts for those who profess to be Christians, have the freedom to study and read His Word and yet prefer to listen to a milky sermon thinking that is enough to feed upon. My heart hurts for those who hate the God I love, who do not have that peace that passes all understanding, that true joy in spite of circumstances.

But by the mercy of God alone I am His adopted child. It is an undeserved honor that I really cannot fully comprehend. And I am sorry I do not have a theologian type answer for you. I am sure there is someone who has perhaps written on such things, explained them far better than I. I know that the site I gave a link to in my previous comment has some excellent stuff to feed upon... always with a Berean mindset.

Sincerely and to God be ALL the glory,
Lisa

Scott--

My only question is what would we have as nourishment if we didn't have the printed Bible?

Scott,
Because it appears that you might have an opinion on your own question, why don't you tell me what you think the answer to your question is and then I will go from there.

Sincerely,
Lisa

Here's where I start with this question: it has an information problem.

Scott: if I can prove to you that at least 3 of the Gospels and half of the letters of Paul were written by 70 AD, will you have a moment to reconsider your question?

I think the question has a grain of usefulness in it, but it's not the grain Scott thinks it has.

For the record, I'll bet that we cannot list any period in time after Moses in which the People of God did not have His word upon which to lean.

Scott,
Mr. Turk really is far more equipped to answer your question than I am.

Sincerely,
Lisa

I knew this would happen. 2 Scotts, confusion. Ugh! My question, "What would we have as nourishment without the word?" is really directed at the "other Scott". The fact that there are peoples with no written Bible also made me think about the importance of our missionaries work in the area of Bible translation.

I will henceforth be know as "the original Scott". I was at the Ligonier conference last year and ran into another Scott Welch in the bookstore line. That was interesting. Anyway, my point in asking my question was sarcastic. Without the written Scriptures we would have NO source of nousishment from God. We could not hear from Him.

Interesting... there are 2 different Scotts here. Silly me. I could have figured that out if I checked the IP's and e-mails. I'll have to contact the other Scott.

OK. "Hundreds of years" Scott -- any input?

On the dating of the gospels. I think a case can be made that all four of them were pre-AD 70. Some prominent liberal scholars (like John A.T. Robinson) are even saying that they believe the entire New Testament was written prior to AD 70 (due to the fact that no mention of the destruction of the temple is mentioned, an event that would not likely go ignored). I don't believe there was ever a time when the church did not have written Scriptures. The earliest New Testament manuscripts go back to ca. 125. Therefore, these letters were in circulation almost from the beginning.

OK. Then I don't understand the first question in this comment thread.

I'm with Robinson, btw.