Most interpreters would use apostles' messages to support or deny what Jesus said. Why? Jesus first or them?

Question

I regard what Jesus said as recorded in the Four Gospels to be more authoritative and believed. Well, the last book: Revelation I think should be regarded the same as the Gospels, the reason is obvious, as Jesus was the one who gave the book or messeage or vision to John, the writer. It is suggested that all other books by the apostles should be regarded as guide book for faith only. Because these books have caused much controversies and dissension and even enmity between followers of same faith for Jesus. Would this help to reduce the number of different denominations in Christianity. Christians should focus their faith on Jesus and not use the words of the apostles to justify or regard theirs as the only true faith. In other words, can the bible be recompiled with only 4 gospels and the book of revelation. The rest are to be used as guide book only. What do you say?

Answer 1

yes, i agree that most christian follow saul of tarsus(paul) more than Jesus himself.

Answer 2

The four Gospels spread the Good News. The Epistles are letters from Paul and Peter to the various churches, and some individuals.
They are guidelines for how to walk in Christ. They answer questions we have. They are the inspired word of God, for the messages the epistles gave were bits of wisdom that God wanted the Churches to have.
We don't take the epistles, and pick out what we want to believe and what we don't want to believe. They are inspired by God, and are the truth.
I think what some Christians have problems with are the details of some letters.
For example: In Paul's letter to the Corinthian Church, he instructed for the women to let their hair grow long. Believers today might say "does that mean that it is a sin that women cut their hair?" Hardly. In Corinth, the temple prostitutes of the idol worshipers shaved their heads. Paul instructed the women to let their hair grow long so they would not be mistaken for a temple prostitute.
The opposite is true in Ephesians. The men were instructed to cut their hair short, because the male prostitutes at that time wore long hair.
To understand the epistles, you must gain knowledge of the people and culture of the people to whom the letter was written. This will dismiss any confusion and controversary in them.

I read the Gospels. I read the Epistles. The Gospels teach us who Christ is and how and why we look to Him for salvation.
The epistles are the later teachings.

It is sometimes difficult to walk the life of a Christian in this day and age, and the Epistles are encouraging, answer questions, give comfort and strength.

They are vital. And every word is from God.

Answer 3

Jesus had quoted from the Hebrew scriptures on several occasions. He obviously believed that although written by men they were God-inspired. He also didn't write anything himself as you say yourself in your question, he trusted his apostles to do so, sometimes long after his resurection. For example, John wrote the Apocalypse (~96 AD), the gospel and 1st, 2nd and 3rd of John (~98 AD) around the end of the 1st century AD. I don't see how one or two of them could be more god-inspired than the rest. They had received the Holy Spirit and it is very unlikely that, when writing, they sometimes chose to use it and sometimes not. Even if they wanted to, I don't think God or Jesus would let them do so after going into so much trouble to save us. You shouldn't also forget that all Jesus' desciples who participated in the compilation of the Christian scriptures were part of one religion and the reason for the letters they wrote to the congregations of the time (which are now part of the Biblical canon) was to keep it like that. Therefore, the fact that there are so many christian denominations today is hardly their fault or of their writings. Problems obviously started after the Canon was finished and none of Jesus' desciples was alive to expose real apostasy as it was foretold (Acts 20:29,30 - 2 Thessalonians 2:2,3)

Answer 4

The four gospels were not written by the apostles.

They were written close to the end of the first century long after the apostles were dead and gone. The john who wrote revelations was not the apostle john. He was a poor man kept in prison so long that he simply lost his mind and started to imagine a vengeful God who would punish his captors and anyone like them.

The bible was created 2 centurys later by the roman empire to change the message of Jesus to something that the Romans found more acceptable.

This is why it is often difficult to understand. The message of Jesus on the other hand is elegant and simple to understand. You need to separate the message that Jesus left for us from all of the nonsense that the Romans overlaid it with and it will start to become quite easy to understand.

Don't take my word for any of this. Study biblical history for your self and draw your own conclusions. There are many good books on this subject by some intelligent and thoughtful people. Take advantage of their efforts.

Email if you are interested and I will send so suggested reading material.

Love and blessings.
Don

Answer 5

Friend you got your revelation mess up. Everything the Apostles did or said, was From God giving them a revelation, It did not over-rule what Jesus said, Jesus even prayed father, I pray not for these(APOSTLES) alone, but also for them that shall believe on me through THEIR(APOSTLES) word. In Matt. 28:19 Jesus said to Baptize them in the NAME(SINGULAR) of the Father & the Son & the Holy Ghost, & there was not a one of those Apostles ever baptized that way, None whatsoever throughout the New Testament. Why Because they knew what That one Redemptive name was & it was Lord Jesus Christ, Now do we do what Jesus said in Matt.28:19 or do what the Apostles did & said in Acts 2:38-44 Friend find me one place in the Bible where anyone was bapitzed in those TITLES, Now you said that Jesus gave John the Revelator those visions in Revelations, No he did not, God did. Because you can also find some of what is written in Revelations over in Daniel, That is way before Jesus was even born, So amoug the TRUE BRIDE , we know exactly what the Apostles taught as that being approved By God to be 100% True.

Answer 6

Very good. You are one of the few on the path to enlightenment. You need to do some more research however, because these are not the only words of Jesus left behind. There are literally thousands of other pages of other documents that have been removed by the Vatican and the Holy See over the centuries that you also need to add to the pile of documents and read first.

But in the end, you are correct. You found the key element that Jesus said - the Bible consists of Gods words, Jesus's words, mans interpretation of God and Jesus words, and mans words. There is a way to determine which words are those truly of God, of Jesus and of man. Gods and Jesus's words have nothing of hate or conflict in them, only of love and acceptance. Any words purported to be from God or Jesus that do not fall into these categories were written and added by Man.

So expanding out the commandments to the nearly 40 total commandmants (take the ones given by God and add the ones Jesus said were not written down by Moses and the other ones Jesus says are MORE important than any others), you end up with three sayings:

(1) Ignore the past and the old testament
(2) Jesus already died for any and all sins that anyone of mankind has or ever will do
(3) The only way into heaven is to love everyone equally and totally

And that's it in a nutshell. This is the total sum of what we are supposed to do to live our lives.

Answer 7

because the books were written by the Apostles, it's understood that they should be truthful, and if the information in there weren't truthful, it would have been proven wrong by now, but the fact that the Bible remains the only book in the world that is unchanged and the longest selling best selling book in the world, proves that the information there are correct. besides, no matter if it is written by apostles or commanded by Jesus, the Bible is still God's Word for us. why wont we believe that?

Answer 8

The original followers of Jesus only regarded their hebrew/aramaic version of Matthew as authoritative...nothing else. Do a search on Ebionites.

"Ebionites only accepted an Aramaic version of the Gospel of Matthew, referred to as the Gospel of the Hebrews, as additional scripture. This version of Matthew, critics reported, omitted the first two chapters (on the nativity of Jesus), and started with the baptism of Jesus by John"

Answer 9

Well I believe in all the scriptures. I have never not found anything wrong with them. Most do not follow the scriptures, they have went on traditions of what the church teaches or what they have seen instead of the word of God. There is many people out there that has no clue what the word of God says.

Answer 10

Absolutely totally WRONG and the reason I can say this to you is the Word of God starting with Genesis. The beginning Book of the Bible gives testimony to The Gospels if they are not true throw the book away all of it. I can assure you that they are in agreement with God and his word and each gives testimony to God and his truth and his plan of salvation.

Answer 11

Woah. You're on a whole other level of brainwashing. John was a loon and the 3 other gospels were plagarized from Luke, who never met Jesus.