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Originally Posted by *AQuietPlace*
I've been thinking about this lately. The Bible being easily attainable by every person with a checkbook is a fairly recent development. For much of history, your average person did not have access to the written word of God.
What did those people do? How did they know God's plan and desires? They had to depend upon their leadership to proclaim the word of God to them. What if the leadership was wrong? They had no way of finding out.
Now, we insist that teaching line up to the word of God. We read it for ourselves. If the teaching isn't in the Bible, we can see that. But what if we didn't HAVE a Bible??
What about the time period after The Trinity and baptism in the titles became the Christian norm? How could your average person know that this wasn't the biblical method?
Many, many people in the past could not even read. How were these people to know if they were being told correctly? What if they were NOT told correctly? Were they doomed to hell because they could not read?
Why did God allow such a long time period to exist when the common man had no access to the Bible?
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I really do not want to sound condescending at all. Read the New testament. All those people only had access to hearing an occasional OT schroll being read. None of the writers of the NT had a Gideon NT from school. So different folks in the NT heard what was written as it was spoken.
Acts 2 If the people heard Peter, that is all they heard until someone else repeated something they heard.
The printing press was invented for the sole purpose of duplicating the bible. I have 2 relatives that have translated the bible into different languages. several languages were not written. So they took sounds and converted them to letters and taught reading. Until then all they had was orally presented scripture. Catholics had it in Latin. So they heard the latin and were told what the latin meant. In the last6 Century they were allowed to have an english or translated version. At one point some men died for translating the catholic Latin version from Latin.
I can also use them as an example of drift or migration in doctrine if it is transferred via oral repitition.
I will half way sorta answer one of your questions. If we use the word "Hear" it has more profund emphasis to the illerate since that is all they have. I sometimes teach home bible studies and substitute the word "obey" for the word Hearing. If you do not obey the bible, that goes back to a lack of hearing or listening.
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Why did God allow such a long time
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period to exist when the common man had no access to the Bible
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Wrong question. Why did MAN so long disobey
Luke 24:47 and not deliberately go forth and teach repentence and remission of sins. From the moment he left the tomb HE "allowed" spreading the word. It is man that felt conviction and man that didn't witness door to door.
God called me. One lady I witnessed to had known I was teaching a bible study next door. I followed up 2 times to teach her and she actually came to church a few times after her mother died. I didn't follow up one or 2 more times and I didn't pray enough for her and she died also. Lack of fervor or zeal on my part in no way indicates a short comeing on her part of God's part for that matter. I had another bible study in a dificult home situation. I gave up after a few cancellations. I know her husband was lurking and listening around the corner in a bedroom. He died last summer. I gave up too soon.
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