An email response to Internetmonk

For the benefit of readers who come over from SolaMom, Everyday Mommy, or Internetmonk.com after reading comments there, here is my email response to Michael Spenser about his quoting my 'Canon' comment on his blog:

Hello Michael,

On a whim I decided to check out your blog today and I was astonished to see that you had written a post that quoted from a comment I had made to Ragamuffin about the Canon on Jules' blog.

I must admit to some chagrin upon seeing my admittedly way over-simplified explanation used as a springboard in that way. Again, my comment was over-simplified and also did not accurately portray my own understanding of the subject, as I was not trying to prove anything except that everyone doesn't agree that the catholics 'gave us' the Canon, etc. I definitely will try in the future to include enough info. to make my viewpoint clear, since a mis-statement apparently can take on a life of it's own in the blog world.

I am definitely not a scholar on the subject, by any means, but neither am I totally ignorant or without curiosity about how the canon was established. I have been reading various sources from the protestant and catholic viewpoints on the historical church for many months, being extremely curious and driven to try to reconcile the different claims and the contrary historical accounts; I can't claim to have solved a controversy that has raged for centuries, but I have begun to understand a little, and have concluded, from what I have learned so far, that the RCC is not the original church as it claims, that it has claimed sole authority without regard to all other valid groups, that it has over the centuries added error upon error even though its core catechisms contain the seeds of truth, that it claims men as RC that were not, that the early centuries that the RC claims as her own are more 'catholic' or transitional than 'Roman' catholic (since practices and doctrines that are specifically RC came in later and gradually).

Here is one of several sources I have read in the past months about the Canon: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_canon_nicole.html. I think this man makes alot of sense.

To clarify, I am not Landmark, and am not familiar with them; since my childhood I have attended, roughly in this order: Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Southern Baptist, various Baptist and nondenominational churches, Methodist, Southern Baptist. Nor am I KJV only, though we are careful about which versions we use; I use the NKJV mainly.

I don't think I have all the answers, and I think we'll all be surprised someday about what we 'know' is right, but I also know that in my limited understanding, I must cling to God's word to correct and guide me. I hope to grow in love and understanding, while holding to the truth of His word.

In Christ,

Jennie (pilgrimsdaughter)