Wow, James. Please remember that it was the Church that produced the Scriptures and not the other way around. The process of salvation occurred before it was recorded and compiled into the Scriptures. “Biblical salvation” is a bit of an oxymoron because you assume that all things start and end with the bible, but again the bible came well after Christian communities had been established.
You want sources? Google is your friend, but I will list a few for you:
http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/artic … icole.html (scroll down to section II Orthodoxy and III Christocentricity. The remarks on this page about the Catholic Church are incorrect in that the OT canon that was originally chosen in 395 was an acceptable Hebrew canon. There was disagreement even amongst Jews as to which books belonged in their own canon and which ones didn’t. Sounds familiar…)
http://users.rcn.com/lanat/biblehistory.htm
http://www.biblestudy.org/question/why- … bible.html
You know that’s a Luther thing, right? Luther had some serious hang ups, namely scruples, which seriously affected his theology. Let us not forget that in Genesis God looked at everything he had made and saw it was good. As God’s creation we are not wretched, but good. In our own doing we have run away from God, but God offers us a way to return, through his son, Jesus.
And no, I do not believe that the Holy Spirit inspired a fractured Church. Jesus prayed for our unity in the garden, why on earth would the Spirit inspire division?
P.S. The doctrine of the trinity isn’t explicit in the Scriptures. Do you still accept that teaching?