Christian Trivia: Did Christ come to establish a Church or a Book to live by to the best of our ability ?

Question

What were His words?

Peace Be With You,
Debra

Please understand I am not deriding the Bible nor negating it. I treasure mine and read it daily.

Answer 1

Jesus came, among other purposes, to establish a Church. Matt 16:18: "On this Rock I will build my Church."

Jesus was not interested in writing a book. There is no record of him writing anything other than some words on the ground (John 8:6). The writing was left to the disciples and to the Church. Jesus had more important work: teaching, debating, healing, and suffering.

Jesus was wiser than the fundamentalists. He knew he needed a stronger voice to safeguard his teachings than a book. A book could be (and has been) interpreted to mean just about anything.

Jesus established a Church to proclaim his original message and meaning to the ages.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 2

Christ told his followers to be in Jerusalem so await the outpouring of the Paraclete, the Comforter or Helper -- Christ's spirit on his followers.

His command to them in Matt 28:19 was (simplified) to go baptizing globally while teaching the new disciples to obey his commandments.

From this we can see that he established the New Spiritual Israel, a church if you will, that by divine providence was called 'Christians.'

These Christians assembled the combined written word of God which consists of the OT and the NT. The NT was most certainly completely compiled during the lifetime of the first century apostles and disciples that walked with Jesus.

For this last claim see my homepage Basic Bible Four, subject "The New Testament. -- How was its canon assembled? When?"

Answer 3

Jesus' words to Peter clearly indicate His intention to establish a Church.

Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus mention adding a New Testament to the Jewish canon. The necessity of this move was determined as the Church developed its own body of tradition and recognized the need to set apart the writings of the earliest Church fathers as a foundation of the faith.

Answer 4

well aside from the scriptures others will provide, i offer you this, was the church established first or the bible? as a roman catholic, as i know you are we are aware that the church came first and it is the church that gave us the bible. it is absurd to believe that christ died and left the early believers with no authority to rely on untill the fourth and fifth century until the bible was compiled. the bible refutes any notion of it being the sole source of authority and history proves it. "to be deep into history is to cease to be a protestant"(cardinal newman). ofcourse the bible compliments the church and neither takes away from the worth of the other, they go hand and hand. however the church he established and that gave us the bible was given the authority to interpret it in the office of the magisterium of the roman catholic church. only stands to reason that the church he founded, the only church he founded is the one to interpret it proerly so we are of one belief and truth that will set us free.

Answer 5

He came to establish a Church that would preach the Good News to the world so that people could be saved. The Book is one way of preserving and spreading his teachings, but Book itself does not claim that it is the primary way. No one claimed that until more than 1,500 years after his death.

Answer 6

He came to "seek and save that which is lost". That was his primary task. The Church is made up of those who have been sought and saved. He established his church, by first establishing salvation. Salvation does not come through the church, rather, membership in the church comes through salvation. After we are members of the church, the book that he also established is our guide to life. I think, Debra, that you have created a false dichotomy by pitting one against the other.

Answer 7

I believe that he did both, Debra. Oh yea,
Debra, I asked a question and it is titled :
Has there ever been a time when you felt spiritually or emotionally touched by GOD?
I wanted to let you know about that question
if you might want to maybe answer it. Ok, well
I gotta go. And peace be with you too, Debra!

*Skater Girl*

Answer 8

He definitely came to establish His church. If He came to establish the bible, then I think it would have been accomplished a lot sooner, and the apostles would have made that the emphasis right away, instead of being fishers of men.

Answer 9

Luke 4
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus used a part of Isaiah 61, (which is in the Bible), to say what He came for.

I don't find it trivial that we also have a Bible, or that Jesus used a Septuagint to read from and also to quote from.

Answer 10

He came to get our attention on The Holy Spirit within us. That is why He told us The Holy Spirit would reveal all truth to us. He did not say: after I leave many people will write many things about me, these will be copied over and over again and the copiers will take away from and add to based on their own interpretations. A roman emperor named Constantine will decide to order the largest church in Rome to collect all these writings and decide which ones are inspired by The Holy Spirit and which ones aren't. they will then compile the ones they think reflect what they think is the truth into a single volume and it will be called the holy bible. This bible will be divided into two parts, an old and new testament. There will be an official church doctrine established based on these documents that will cause much confusion and division among all the people who read and try to follow them. This is the best plan we could come up with and it is far from perfect.