John 16:12-13 (NIV): “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
John 20:30 (NIV): “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.”
John 21:25 (NIV): “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
The funny thing about fundamentalism is that biblical authors tended to shy away from grandiose statements about their writings being a final and complete statement of truth. Even if one biblical author did make such a statement, it wouldn’t apply to the Bible as a whole because each book was written independently. The anthology came later, hundreds of years later.
The Bible as ultimate and final authority comes from the Protestant rebuke of the RCC. They claimed the RCC had gotten away from the basics and made things up. But what the early Protestants and modern fundamentalists fail to acknowledge is the anthology that has come to be known as the Bible was formed by the early orthodox movement. That movement became the Orthodox Church in the eastern, Greek speaking part of the empire and the RCC in the Latin speaking west. There were other Christian books early orthodox Christians rejected. The Bible that we have today is as much Roman Catholic as the sacraments and salvation through faith and works.
And if you’re going to claim the Bible is the literal and inerrant word of God, then I don’t see how you can get around the verses above that make it pretty clear there is more to be told and that more will be revealed at a later date.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”—William Shakespeare
Turns out Shakespeare was being pretty Biblical when he said that.
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