The Origin of the Western Five

[gbausc]

Shlama Akhay Yaaqub & Paul,

Yaaqub wrote:

I'm not going to sit here and judge them. They made the choice to include what their tradition and what they probably believed Holy Spirit lead them to do.

Why not?

He that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no man.

1 Cor. 2:15 Surely we can judge whether someone is correct or incorrect in certain matters, or that a certain book was written by God or not, if we have The Spirit of God in us.

Would you not judge a man to be incorrect and seriously misguided who called himself a follower of Yeshua and yet believed only in a few portions of Luke's Gospel & 10 mutilated epistles of Shlikha Paul as scripture and nothing else? Marcion the Gnostic was such a man in the second century.

Judging of the correct canon cannot be subjective, but is a spiritual operation of The Spirit. We are commanded not to believe every spirit and not to be deceived by false writings (1 John 4:1-3; 2 Thess. 2:1-3). If we are to hold to the truth, we must reject the error that opposes it, no matter who or how many
hold to that error. I am not challenging the salvation of those who hold an incorrect canon. I am simply saying that they are misled in holding an incorrect canon. Inasmuch as they hold to a book which is not of God as inspired by Him, they will be deceived to some extant by that belief and by that book. If they deny the divinity of a God written book, they are deceived by that denial and will lack the benefit of belief in, and the Divine wisdom of that God written book.

Such false faith is displeasing to God and detrimental to our spiritual condition and our entire being. We cannot be truly whole without the whole truth. "But whenever The Spirit of The Truth comes, he will lead you into the whole truth, for he will not speak of his own will, but he shall speak whatever he shall hear and he shall reveal the future to you."John 16:13 - My translation


Paul wrote:

The CoE takes no official position on any of the "western five." They simply never made it into the canon of our scripture.

That means that the COE does not say that those books are not inspired by God, n'est ce pas?
I do not condemn the COE for its position. I am glad they encourage their people to read those books and that sermons are preached from them. I simply believe they should obtain those books in Gwynn's critical edition, study them carefully & prayerfully, and then update and revise the canon, seeing that they are apostolic and Divine. There are no heresies in those books, and the book of Revelation gives a fitting and perfect conclusion to the entire Bible of 66 books. All sin, evil and death, which originated in the beginning as recorded in Genesis, are destroyed and Gods' kingdom shall rule over all forever:
Rev. 21
1.And I saw new Heavens and a new Earth, for the former Heavens and the former Earth had departed, and the Sea was no more.
2.And I saw The Holy City, New Jerusalem, descending from Heaven from beside God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3.And I heard a great voice from Heaven that said, "Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with the children of men, and he dwells with them and they shall be his people and the same God is with them and shall be their God.
4.And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and from now on there shall not be death, neither grieving, nor clamor, neither shall there be disease again, for His sake*.
(* Greek has ???for the first things departed.???, instead of ???for his sake.???The last two Aramaic words "el aphyah"-???for His sake??? could be misconstrued as ???its former went???. aphyah ??????before it??? & el ???from elal ??????to enter???,???go about???. It is very poor translation, nevertheless.)

5.And I walked and he who sat on the throne said to me, "Behold, I make all things new." And he said to me, "Write: ???These words are trustworthy and true."
6.And he said to me, "They are done. I am Alap and I am Tau, The Source and The Fulfillment. I shall give to the thirsty one from the fountain of the water of life without charge.???
7.???And he who is victorious shall inherit these things, and I shall be his God and he will be my son.???

And then the great Gospel invitation:
22:16. I, Yeshua, have sent my Angel to testify these things among you before the assemblies. I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Root and The Offspring of David, and his Companion, and The Bright Morning Star.???

(No Greek ms. has ???& his Companion???. This is a totally uncontrived and very poignant description of our Lord???s relationship to David. It speaks for the originality of the reading by its own merits.)

17.???And The Spirit and The Bride are saying, ???Come???, and let him who hears, say, ???Come???, and let him who thirsts* come and take the water of life without charge.???


But there is a word of warning after that:
18.???I testify to everyone who hears the word of the prophecy of this book: Whoever will add to these things, God shall place upon him the plagues that are written in this book.???
19.???And whoever subtracts from the words of the Scripture of this prophecy, God shall subtract his part from The Tree of Life and from The Holy City, those things which are written in this book.???
20.And when he testified these things, he said, ???Yes*, I am coming soon.??? ???Come, LORD JEHOVAH Yeshua.???

We must take this more seriously. God is no respecter of persons, of churches or denominations.
If we keep His commandments in Exodus yet break them in Revelation, we cannot plead : "Well my church did not believe in that book as inspired." How far will that get us?

14."Blessings to those who are doing his Commandments; their authority shall be over The Tree of Life, and they shall enter The City by the gates.???
(-All from my translation of The Crawford ms.)

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." John 8:32


Amen & Amen

Dave