>>706991
God didn't "leave" the Bible, He inspired the authors who wrote the source texts that were later compiled at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 and called the Bible, as well as, potentially, other texts. But God didn't directly give us the Bible. God gave us His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave us His Church. His Church was given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The writings that became the New Testament (Gospels, Acts, Epistles, et cetera) were written by Apostles and disciples of His Church for the benefit of the Church. The Old Testament's value insofar as Christianity is concerned is to serve as a record of prophecies and stories foretelling Christ and the history of Covenants leading up to Christ for the sake of context. Only when rampant heresies, particularly the Arian heresy, challenged the Church was the Bible compiled from numerous writings, some of which were considered for inclusion but were rejected. The Church came first, the Bible serves the Church as a library of liturgy and sacred records. It's divine, holy, beautiful, deep in wisdom and richness, the crown jewels born out of tradition, but it wasn't given directly by God as the one and only means of knowing Him. Only Protestant heretics think the Bible suddenly dropped out of the sky as "the big book of all things Gawd y'all."
All this being said, I appreciate that you are less obstinate than most Protestants I have met and I wish you well in your endeavor here. You are a good man for wanting to learn more about God.