A bible question for Protestants please.

[JJ2006]

Hi There! I have a Bible quesion that I have so far not been able to answer however I try. Hopefully one of the Protestants on here will know this.

So, to shamelessly abridge history - back in the 1500s Martin Luther said YUK! This Pope is nonesense! IN FACT: *POPES* are nonesense. Let's just go with the bible on it's own from now on then, shall we?

And the low and behold, there are Protestants.

But.

The decisions as to which books floating around to become the bible... and which were just apocryphal... were totally make by popes!

So - do Protestants consider popes to have been legitimate up to a point? Or do they figure that God wouldn't have let such an important matter be screwed up and so he divinely inspired those guys on this issue even though he wasn't inspiring them on other areas of the faith?

I'm looking for answers here - but I'm more looking for the word or the phrase for the concept. I'm sure there are all kinds of books and things about this - and maybe there are schisms among protestants on this issue - but I don't know what this concept is *called*.

Can anyone help me out?

[jno]

Catholic and Protestant bibles are different.

[Skreecheeboy]

Luther got rid of some of the books in the bible, it wasn't just about ditching the pope. The themes of pergatory and providence were booted out which were only designed, Luthor argued, to enrich and empower the churches.

[jake-the-peg]

You have rather hit on the Achilles heal of Protestant thought.

The rejection of a formal priesthood and concentration purely on scripture brings into question the authority of that "cannon" or standard set of scriptures.

It's easy in religions where one person provides the text supposedly through a divine agent. Either you believe in the divine agent or you don't.

But in Judaism or Christianty there is so much else. Not only are there the old apocrapful books but there are newly discovered Gnostic Gospells like the Gospells according to Mary Magdalean and most interestingly the Gospel according to Thomas.

I say most interesting because of the 114 sayings attributed to Jesus in this some are echoed in the other Gospels whilst others are not to be found elsewhere.

This sort of thing is not so much a problem for t he more Liberal wings of Christianity who see the bible as in need of interpretation and open to question in some areas but for those who believe in the literal truth of every thing in the bible they tend to resort to the same sort of dogma Popes relied on - "it's the word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit don't you dare question it" and that sort of thing.

And so the cycle repeats itself

[beso]

Like any of the many offshoot religions around the world someone wanted to be the boss of the thoughts and decide what the followers should believe in.

Complete rubbish or abridged rubbish it makes no difference. The Bible belongs in the bin.

[mammie]

why is it that nearly every religion has a male figurehead are they afraid a woman might bring so sense to it all