Believers who affair then marry are ongoing adulterers yet still saved ?

[Grailhunter]

Not quite true. Jesus Himself taught the two on the road to Emmaus from the Scriptures:

NKJV Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

The Bereans were commended for checking in the Scriptures the truth of Paul's preaching:

NKJV Act 17:10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Agreed, they did not have the New Testament at that time, but what they did have of the Bible was authritative.

LOL The first bound Bible occurred in the 5th century.
Fathom was saying the church came before the bound Bible.

 

[David Lamb]

LOL The first bound Bible occurred in the 5th century.
Fathom was saying the church came before the bound Bible.

But I was answering Fathom, who had asked: "Which came first, the Bible or the church?" I said that even the earliest churches had a Bible, albeit not complete, because it lacked the New Testament. I don't see that the matter of whether it was bound or not makes any difference. The point is surely that the earliest Christians made use of the authority of the Bible they had. They didn't start inventing new doctrines. If we look at Peter's and Paul's preaching recorded in Acts and the epistles, we see that it is based firmly on what had already been written in The Old Testament. For example:

NKJV Act 7:42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: 'DID YOU OFFER ME SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS AND SACRIFICES DURING FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

1Co 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

 

[Grailhunter]

But I was answering Fathom, who had asked: "Which came first, the Bible or the church?" I said that even the earliest churches had a Bible, albeit not complete, because it lacked the New Testament. I don't see that the matter of whether it was bound or not makes any difference. The point is surely that the earliest Christians made use of the authority of the Bible they had. They didn't start inventing new doctrines. If we look at Peter's and Paul's preaching recorded in Acts and the epistles, we see that it is based firmly on what had already been written in The Old Testament. For example:

NKJV Act 7:42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: 'DID YOU OFFER ME SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS AND SACRIFICES DURING FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

1Co 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

Well the big difference is that Jewish and Christian texts existed in the early church but it was not like most of the Christians had copies. And the church existed before the Apostles wrote the New Testament.

The Christian church functioned mostly by word of mouth....preaching. Even though the first hand written bound Bible was produced by order of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, the public was not allowed to have them. And if they caught you with one they might kill you.

Then came the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century and the Protestant Reform in the 16th century.....people finally got Bibles in their hands if they had the money to buy them.....expensive.

New and different doctrines and beliefs and how they were practiced? Big topic.....
Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians believed and practiced Christianity differently. So the Bible starts out with two distinct denominations.

By the time of the Ecumenical Councils in the 4th century Christianity was a diverse belief.

 

[David Lamb]

Well the big difference is that Jewish and Christian texts existed in the early church but it was not like most of the Christians had copies. And the church existed before the Apostles wrote the New Testament.

The Christian church functioned mostly by word of mouth....preaching. Even though the first hand written bound Bible was produced by order of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, the public was not allowed to have them. And if they caught you with one they might kill you.

Then came the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century and the Protestant Reform in the 16th century.....people finally got Bibles in their hands if they had the money to buy them.....expensive.

New and different doctrines and beliefs and how they were practiced? Big topic.....
Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians believed and practiced Christianity differently. So the Bible starts out with two distinct denominations.

By the time of the Ecumenical Councils in the 4th century Christianity was a diverse belief.

I agree that we should indeed be grateful to God that we have the whole Bible, and that most of us live in regimes where we are not punished for reading or believing it. I don't agree that the New Testament resulted from the early church adding doctrines to what had been revealed in the Old Testament. The apostles preached the same things they had heard directly from Christ Himself.

 

[Grailhunter]

I agree that we should indeed be grateful to God that we have the whole Bible, and that most of us live in regimes where we are not punished for reading or believing it. I don't agree that the New Testament resulted from the early church adding doctrines to what had been revealed in the Old Testament. The apostles preached the same things they had heard directly from Christ Himself.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here.
Doctrines, preachings, and practices.....and the differences. What the Apostles heard from Christ and what they understood is hard to nail down. Some how the Jewish-Christian Apostles thought that Christian should follow the Mosaic Law and sacrifice animals and not allow Gentile-Christians in the Temple. The Gentile-Christians did not follow the Mosaic Law.

 

[David Lamb]

I am not sure what you are trying to say here.
Doctrines, preachings, and practices.....and the differences. What the Apostles heard from Christ and what they understood is hard to nail down. Some how the Jewish-Christian Apostles thought that Christian should follow the Mosaic Law and sacrifice animals and not allow Gentile-Christians in the Temple. The Gentile-Christians did not follow the Mosaic Law.

What I meant (and sorry if I was not clear) was that the early church did not "invent" doctrines which then became encoded in the New Testament. Rather, they sought to spread the gospel Christ had preached. 10 times, Paul refers to the gospel he preached as "the gospel of Christ." For example:

NKJV Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

As John Gill commented on the first phrase of that verse:

"This supposes that some were, though the apostle was not, ashamed of the Gospel; as all such are who hide and conceal it, who have abilities to preach it, and do not: or who preach, but not the Gospel; or who preach the Gospel only in part, who own that in private, they will not preach in public, and use ambiguous words, of doubtful signification, to cover themselves; who blend the Gospel with their own inventions, seek to please men, and live upon popular applause, regard their own interest, and not Christ's, and cannot bear the reproach of his Gospel."