Bible and early Christian writings?

Ehhh this is kinda a confusing question, but i attend a christian college and in one of our Bible classes our teacher told us that in order to understand the Bible correctly, that we do need to interperate it the way they did then. I guess we dont really know 100%, but that Bible class sure did help me learn how to "break down, and read between the lines" of the Bible.

Perhaps the problem is that you are confused about what the early Christian believed?

Heresy was creeping into the church during the first century.

So remember as you read the writings of the early church, not everything you'll be reading will be correct.

The book of Galatians was written because people had fallen away from Christ for teaching that Christians were required to still follow the Law of Moses.

Whoever told you that Christian "are not supposed to read early Christian writings"? Just recently, a copy of the codex (Early Biblical writings) were found. These writings of the codex verify some of the New Testament writings which are 2 thousand years old, with accuracy. Christians are admonished from the Bible to "prove [test] all things" and to "study yourself, approved by God". How can any thinking Christian just limit themselves to certain works of study at the expense of neglecting the rest?

Read them with care, there are untruths mixed in with the truths. But, by reading the early Christian writings a person can see which currently held beliefs are of man not God.

And remember that the writers of the Bible spoke of writings which never made it into our current Bible.

The book of the covenant (Ex 24:4-7)

The book of the wars of the Lord (Num 21:14)

The book of Jasher (Josh 10:13)

The book of the acts of Solomon (1 Kgs 11:41)

The book of Samuel the seer (1 Chr 29:29)

The book of Nathan the prophet (1 Chr 29:29)

The book of Gad the seer (1 Chr 29:29)

The book of Shemaiah the prophet (2 Chr 12:15)

The book of Iddo (2 Chr 12:15; 13:22)

The acts of Abijah (2 Chr 13:22)

The book of Jehu the son of Hanani (2 Chr 20:34)

I think you need to study with an open mind, cross reference, use a good concordance so you can look up important words in their original context of Greek [NT] or Hebrew[OT]. Many people don't know that many English words can translate into three or four different Greek or Hebrew words.

For example, try looking up the work love in Greek and see how many translations you get. I think there are four different levels of love in the Bible. A good scripture to look this up is when Jesus asks Peter a few different times, "Peter, do you love me?" [John 21] Each time Jesus says love, the word love is taken to the next level. Check it out.

Read the writings of the Early Church Fathers. These are the Christians who discovered their religion instantly from the mouths of the Apostles after which handed it on from new release to new release earlier than the canon of New Testament scripture was once even positioned in combination.

You must read ALL the early writings, including the Jewish ones from Jesus's time. They are not all included in the bible. All the messiahs from that time were military messiahs, including Jesus. The gospel writers changed that once Rome destroyed the Jews.

Early Christian writings are what Christianity is today. It's been proven that John, Luke, Matthew, and Mark wrote their gospels. The other gospels of the Gnostics (whom believe that Jesus is a divine spirit) were known by many early Christians to be lies. Saint Iraneus of Lyon claimed the four canonical gospels to be true and he stated this in the early 2nd Century, but Gnostic gospels were written at times in the late 3rd century. They aren't even Christians, and the Council of Nicea in 325 evaluated all of the books that were said to be holy. Because they knew much Christian history, they knew that the gnostic gospels were lies, and the Bishops that worshiped the teaches of modern day Christianity were the ones with the most credibility, as the other sects teached lies.

you actually know it isn't. Logic and historical knowledge lead to the conclusion that the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth were 'massaged' and adulterated to match the ideas the 3rd century and 4th century church fathers had of what He should have said.

History is written by the winners is never more true than when considering the final version of the Catholic bible at, say, 400 A.D.

Whether or not the church fathers arrived at the best possible "Christianity", a religion we can be proud to worship within, or not -- there is little doubt that what we read in the Bible is quite a bit foreign to what the 2nd century Christian believed.

If you read too many of the early Christian writings you'll see that what we consider Christianity now was a late development rather than the original teachings of the apostles. The church doesn't want you to find that out.

EDIT: LOL at Chris, who thinks Catholics follow false doctrine, but believes any book the Catholic Church rejected teaches false doctrine.