For those Sola Scriptura Christians what did the early Christian Church do before the Bible?

Christians who don't agree are not Catholics, and no matter how many times it is pointed out regarding the Early Church Fathers (and some of them directly learned from apostles) and practices, their minds are made up.

"The Church Fathers believed in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, honoured Mary, had elaborate ceremonies, believed in Purgatory, respected the Church hierarchy, baptized babies, recognized Peter as the Rock, built the Church upon him with successors and followed a rich tradition of Christianity. That was the Christianity of the early days of Christianity and that is the Catholic Church of today."

"Apostolic Fathers are those before 200A.D. and who were directly influenced or taught by the apostles. They include: Clement (d. 97) Bishop of Rome and Catholics believe third successor to Peter as Pope, Ignatius, (50-107), and Polycarp (69-155), Justin Martyr (100-165), St. Irenaeus (130-202), Cyprian (210-258) The Early Chruch Fathers lived between 200 and 800 A.D."

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/early_church_fat...

In addition to the other posters: The Old Testament, The Septuagint [translated from Hebrew to Greek somewhere 250 BC] was in placed at that time, used even before Jesus' time. The New Testament was written 35-100 AD and translated to latin by St Jerome, sometimes 400 AD. It is still on parchments and read in the church, or preached orally. So, there IS NO NEW TESTAMENTS IN A BOOK/BIBLE FORM AT THAT TIME compiled with Septuagint.' Bible alone' theory is not in existence at that time as there is NO BOOK to call bible. It was the use of Oral Tradition up until 1400 when the 'compiled book form bible' finally hit the printing press.

In other words, it took the Catholic Church about 400 years of gathering, editing, and sorting the ancient manuscripts and got printed in 1400. There were also a lot of uninspired writings [apocryphal books] that were floating around that were not cannonized.

There were all the scriptures from what is known as the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament (which is what they refer to as "Scripture" in the NT). There were writings at that time (the letters) and some copies were made. There were 7 Christian Churches as the time Revelation was written.

So during the 1st century, there wasn't a lot of copies being passed around, because they didn't have the technology to easily copy anything. It had to be all done by hand. Which was fine because there were only 7 churches. However, the congregation didn't have bibles.

In fact, for centuries, anything that needed copied had to be copied by hand. For many years, scripture (what became the bible) was copied by monks and was all done by hand. Therefore, there was no mass production of bibles that were distributed to the congregation up until around 1440 AD when the printing press was invented in Western Europe. So for many years Christianity was taught and passed on through Sacred Tradition and by word of mouth, using scripture to demonstrate those teachings and traditions.

"Sola Scriptura" is a modern day fundamentalist teaching that came about by flawed reasoning. Some of whom (like Chris) will even go so far as to change history to fit their beliefs.

christian always had the bible: the Old testament

but Christians looked to the Church to decide not only what would become the new Testament but also what books belonged to the Old

Christians learned the oral and living Apostolic Tradition and they interpreted the Old testament through this as did the authors of the New Testament

The living Apostolic Tradition through which we answer today's questions ( like cloning, abortion,nuclear war, etc)and interpret the Bible is still speaking through the Catholic Church that gave us the new Testament

The Early Church was never sola scriptura nor were the Apostles or the Patristic Church, etc SS is a fairly recent doctrinal novelty

and it is not really practiced by SS supporters who always use the Bible under the light of some sort of tradition and magisterium(teaching office)

In response to the appalling response from Chris--and a handful of others who have either never passed 8th-grade history or are choosing to ignore it--the Bible as we know it today was NOT "compiled" as of 96 AD. That's absurd. Several of the books of the New Testament weren't even written yet in 96 AD; and if you'd gone to any follower of Christ at that time asking to see a "Bible", they would've looked at you funny... because it didn't exist yet.

The Old Testament existed back then, along with Jewish tradition; being that most Christians at the time were former Jews or recently descended from Jews, Jewish culture and tradition was what guided many of the beliefs and practices of the new faith. That's why Catholic/Orthodox mass and other ceremonies so closely resemble those of Jewish synagogues, as anyone who has attended both a synagogue and a Catholic mass can easily tell you.

The New Testament was compiled, and combined, with the Old Testament to create what is now the Bible in the 4th century, after the bishops and scholars of the Roman Catholic church convened to agree on what books would be put into the compilation, based on the teachings and consistency of each book and how it fit with the doctrine and tradition of the Church at that time. The Bible as it is today, therefore, would not exist without the traditions of the Catholic Church and the agreement of that council, 1600 years ago.

Acts 1:6 They therefore who were come together, asked him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7 But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power: 8 But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.

....................................................

Saint Andrew - Asia Minor, Greece, and possibly in areas of modern Russia and Poland.

Saint Bartholomew - Asia Minor, Ethiopia, India and Armenia.

Saint James the Greater - Samaria, Judea, and Spain.

Saint John - Asia Minor, Jerusalem, Samaria, Ephesus

Saint Jude - Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia

Saint Matthias - Judea, Cappadocia, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Saint Matthew - Palestine, Ethiopia

Saint Philip - Greece and Asia Minor.

Saint Simon the Zealot - Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iberia

Saint Simon Peter - Palestine, Syria, and Rome

Saint Thomas - Parthia (western Asia), Persia and India

Saint Paul - Greece, Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor, Rome, and Spain

http://faithofthefathersearlychurchfathers.blogspo...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Even though they preached in different areas which evolved into different rites or rituals of worship, these rites all include the Mass and Seven Sacraments:

"When the apostles brought the Gospel to the major cultural centers of their day the essential elements of religious practice were inculturated into those cultures. This means that the essential elements were clothed in the symbols and trappings of the particular people, so that the rituals conveyed the desired spiritual meaning to that culture. In this way the Church becomes all things to all men that some might be saved (1 Cor. 9:22). "

"There are three major groupings of Rites based on this initial transmission of the faith, the Roman, the Antiochian (Syria) and the Alexandrian (Egypt). Later on the Byzantine derived as a major Rite from the Antiochian, under the influence of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom. From these four derive the over 20 liturgical Rites present in the Church today."

"• Malankarese – Catholics from the South of India evangelized by St. Thomas, uses the West Syriac liturgy."

"The Church of Alexandria in Egypt was one of the original centers of Christianity, since like Rome and Antioch it had a large Jewish population which was the initial object of apostolic evangelization. Its Liturgy is attributed to St. Mark the Evangelist, and shows the later influence of the Byzantine Liturgy, in addition to its unique elements."

http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/catholic_rites_...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By the way, that Bible that the Catholic Church copied by hand down through the centuries through the monasteries has 73 books. The following video shows a 1611 facsimile of the King James Bible with a calander of saints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k0UV2Zi5X0

This is a pdf summary of Dr. Brant Pitre Origin of the Bible series.

http://www.brantpitre.com/documents/printable_outl...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It still makes no sense to me how a group can take books out of the Bible and then say they will go by Scripture Alone? Didn't they like the books that recommended praying for the dead, or for the intercession of saints? That says much about them.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Catholic Teachings are set out like a city on a hill:

The Compendium is the short version of all Catholic beliefs and is here:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/docum...

The Bible and Catechism are here:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/index.htm

Mistoday, Pray the Rosary Daily for Peace

I see the fundies still know very little of bible history and seem to think the first christians ran around with a bible in there hands.The first christians were swamped with various letters and writings all claiming to be from the Apostles. So with all the conflicting writings and beliefs it took the Church 400 yrs to finally be able to decipher truth from fiction. Still the bible was not finalized as complete with all in it that was left by the Apostles until the 15th century only to have a Hundred yrs later for the Protestants to remove 7 books. Thus the very reason we know which writings belonged to the Apostles was by Tradition and kept and protected by the Church the Holy Catholic Church. I know the Protestants do not like knowing the true History of the Bible as it sheds the light of truth on the Catholic Church. It always gets me how the Catholic Church fought and died for it's teachings and the Bible refusing to change to appease man such as abortion and yet the very people whose churches bend with the times to compromise there former beliefs accuse us of being in Apostasy.But one final note even today there are different versions of the Bible such as the Syrian Church and the Coptics bible.

The Bible has always existed in one form or another since the time of Moses. From 1500 BC until the time of Christ, there was only the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Psalms of the OT (Torah). The NT was added after Christ was resurrected. The early Christians read from the OT, which prophesied the first coming of Christ. The NT is made up of the Gospel eyewitness accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Christ, and the letters of the early church leaders to the new Christian churches of Asia Minor.

Letters were written across many churches and some have survived. People met in small groups often hidden from the authorities. The Catholic church did establish a formal system for learning and preaching, since the only ones who could read and write were the monks educated in the abbeys. That was good and served a great need of the flock. What broke the tradition was the corruption of the church in later centuries and that made the church less authoritative and trustworthy.

You will never get an honest answer from them, because if they actually read history, they wouldn't be Protestant. And yes, Chris is a Protestant.

Chris preaches a false gospel of easy believism that leads to eternal torment. Very often, pastors who promote this false doctrine are lost men themselves, which helps to explain why they would be willing to promote such a soul-damming false doctrine. They remain Satan's "goats" instead of Christ's "sheep", on the road to Hell and not on the way to Heaven

In the last days there will be many false teachers. The one specific false teaching is easy believism. The biggest poison in churches today is easy believism. Easy believism is the idea that you can repeat a little prayer after someone and be saved without ever repenting of sin, as Chris has said many times. He says you can rape, murder, pillage, whatever, and still be saved. A LIE!!

First, easy believist always use a “simple plan” followed by the “sinner’s prayer”. They lead a person through a series of logical things to get them to say yes, similar to what a used car dealer does to get you to buy a car. Once they have the person convinced they then “close” the deal by saying “repeat this prayer after me.” The car dealer says sign here on the dotted line. Some easy believist tracts also have the dotted line close. The easy believist just led a soul to hell. The used car dealer just unloaded a car. The problem is that with a used car, you can return it if it is a lemon. The false profession generally fools someone for life until they drop off into hell. Repeating a prayer not from the heart just gives mental assent not saving faith. They think they can continue in their sins, because they prayed a prayer and now have fire insurance. In the Bible, there is never an instance of anyone being led in the “sinner’s prayer.” That by itself should raise red flags about such a man made technique.

Next, another sign of easy believism is they teach you don’t have to repent of sin to be saved. This is the center point of the easy believism heresy. A third sign of easy believism is that they only tell half the truth. They preach if you are saved you go to heaven, God will bless you, God wants what is best for you. Basically, if you want a life of roses then just come to Jesus. They leave out the truth that coming to Jesus Christ will cost you. First, you must leave your sins at the cross. It may cost you your friends, your family, your job (say you were a bartender), etc. We are told to take up our cross and follow Him. Coming to Jesus is not without a cost. The world will hate us even as it hated our Master Jesus Christ. The truth is that when we are saved there is a cost, but it is worth it.