well, to stir things up a bit... who can tell me where the 1st collected works of the bible was? And who can tell me why the Pauline letters found their way into the new testament?
And I disagree that God told people exactly what to write. True that God revealed Himself in many ways, and true that much of the OT is from prophets who were told what to say and write, but there's things that don't exactly follow that description. Furthermore, most scripture in the New Testament actually comes from Paul's personal writings to different people/Christian communities. There is nothing to indicate that he ever intended to write anything that would find its way into the bible, nor is there anything that indicates that he spoke as directly instructed or revealed by God. This is why there is a very important distinction between "inspiration" and "dictation."
When something is "Inspired," it is written as coming from the author, but by necessity is guided by the Holy Spirit. The Muslims believe that the Quran is "dictated", meaning that an angel spoke to Mohamad and told him EXACTLY what to write down. We as Christians should not follow that train of thought because there is NOTHING in our history, tradition or theology that indicates that. God lets the author write, but God guides the writer, not giving him a word for word dialogue, but speaking through the meaning of the words and preventing any doctrinal errors. Nor can any individual simply interpret the meaning accurately 100% of the time without the proper guidance (and it is presumptuous to assume that the Holy Spirit guides your interpretation 100%... why else are there so many friggin' denominations of Christian?). So ask yourselves these questions and you'll find that there's more than meets the eye. For the record, I AM a devout follower of Christ, so don't think I mean to instill doubt, but I AM trying to get you all to think critically instead of agreeing to everything you hear simply because it sounds like it supports your particular Faith.
