In the history of the early Church, the apostles and community leaders quoted a variety of sources to prove their convictions. Many of these were believed to be Scripture by Jews of the time, and others were not. In the Epistle of Jude, for example, we see the author quote two texts in his short letter: a lost section of The Assumption of Moses, which is quoted in verse 9, and a fragmentary quotation of I Enoch 60:1. While both of these books are not in the Bible as we know it today, it has been held by many of us that God can inspire many people to write many things, which may include the Book of Enoch or the Assumption of Moses. And just because something is inspired, doesn't mean it contains no errors. To us, the words inspired and infallible are two different words with two different definitions. We also believe that the Father is still working within all humans that his will be done; to believe that, we must believe that God still doing what he always has done to have his will done, which includes answering prayers, speaking to us through the Bible and the like, and providing revelations to Christians today, which in a sense is still inspiring them to write down their experiences. To that exent, it may be that there are more inspired books and writings out there besides the Bible, and to us, it is very likely.
Now, we don't presume to say that the Bible is being replaced by our teachings; all that we're saying whenever we say that 'the Bible is not the only perfectly inspired book in the world' is that we can't know how much or how little God has revealed to individual people throughout all of history. We know for certain that the Gospels are perfectly inspired as books concerning the life, works, and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; and for us, the truths contained in those texts are all that we will ever build our life upon. They are the cornerstone of the kingdom of heaven. To build on anything else would be to build on sand.
The Martyrion Collection|
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