Posted on 02/28/2015 5:16:22 PM PST by RnMomof7
Have you ever looked at your Bible and wondered, “Why do we regard these 66 books, and no others, as comprising the inspired Word of God?”
That is a critically important question, since there are many today who would deny that these 66 books truly make up the complete canon of Scripture.
The Roman Catholic Church, for example, claims that the Apocryphal books which were written during the inter-testamental period (between the Old and New Testaments) ought to be included in the Bible. Cult groups like the Mormons want to add their own books to the Bible—things like the Book of Mormon, The Doctrines and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. And then there are popular books and movies, like The Da Vinci Code from several years back, that claim later Christians (like Constantine) determined what was in the Bible centuries after these books were written.
So, how do we know that “all Scripture” consists of these 66 books? How do we know that the Bible we hold in our hands is the complete Word of God?
There are a number of ways we could answer such questions; in fact, we could spend weeks studying the doctrine of canonicity, carefully walking through all of the relevant biblical and historical details. And there are many wonderful books available that can guide you through that wealth of information.
But in this post, I want to give you a simple answer that I think will be helpful – because it gets to the heart of the whole matter. This answer takes less than 30 seconds to articulate, yet I have found it to be the ultimate answer for just about every question related to the doctrine of canonicity.
It is simply this:
We believe in the 39 books of the Old Testament, because the Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the Old Testament. And we believe in the 27 books of the New Testament, because the Lord Jesus Christ authorized His apostles to write the New Testament.
The doctrine of canonicity ultimately comes back to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If we believe in Him and submit to His authority, then we will simultaneously believe in and submit to His Word. Because He affirmed the Old Testament canon, we also affirm it. Because He authorized His apostles to write the New Testament, we likewise embrace it as well.
Thus, it was not the Catholic church that determined the canon. Constantine did not determine the canon. Joseph Smith certainly did not determine the canon. No, it is the authority of Christ Himself, the Lord of the church and the incarnate Son of God, on which the canon of Scripture rests.
The Old Testament Canon
When it comes to the Old Testament, Jesus Christ affirmed the Jewish canon of His day—consisting of the very same content that is in our Old Testaments today.
A study of the gospels shows that, throughout His ministry, Jesus affirmed the Old Testament in its entirety (Matthew 5:17–18)—including its historical reliability (cf. Matthew 10:15; 19:3–5; 12:40; 24:38–39), prophetic accuracy (Matthew 26:54), sufficiency (Luke 16:31), unity (Luke 24:27, 44), inerrancy (Matthew 22:29; John 17:17), infallibility (John 10:35), and authority (Matthew 21:13, 16, 42).
He affirmed the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets and all that was written in them; clearly seeing the Old Testament Scriptures as the Word of God (Matt. 15:16; Mark 7:13; Luke 3:2; 5:1; etc.).
Significantly, the first century Jews did not consider the Apocryphal books to be canonical. And neither did Jesus. He accepted the canon of the Jews as being the complete Old Testament. He never affirms or cites the Apocryphal books – and neither do any of the other writers of the New Testament.
(Now, I’m sure some of you are immediately wondering about Jude’s reference to the Book of Enoch … but the Book of Enoch is not part of the Apocrypha. It was simply a well-known piece of Jewish literature at that time period, which Jude cited for the purpose of giving an illustration, just like Paul cited pagan poets on Mars Hill in Acts 17.)
But if you are ever wondering, “Why don’t Protestants accept the Apocrypha?” the ultimate answer is that Jesus never affirmed it as being part of Scripture. And neither did the apostles.
Many of the early church fathers did not regard the Apocryphal books as being canonical either. They considered them to be helpful for the edification of the church, but they did not see them as authoritative. Even the fifth-century scholar Jerome (who translated the Latin Vulgate — which became the standard Roman Catholic version of the Middle Ages) acknowledged that the Apocraphyl books were not to be regarded as authoritative.
So we accept the canonicity of the Old Testament on the basis of our Lord’s authoritative affirmation of it. And we reject the canonicity of the Apocryphal books based on the absence of His affirmation of those inter-testamental writings.
The New Testament Canon
What about the New Testament? Well, the same principle applies. Our Lord not only affirmed the Jewish canon of the Old Testament, He also promised that He would give additional revelation to His church through His authorized representatives—namely, the Apostles.
Jesus made this point explicit in John 14–16. On the night before his death, Jesus said to His disciples:
John 14:25–26 – “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
That last line is especially significant for the doctrine of canonicity. What did Jesus promise His apostles? That the Holy Spirit would help them remember all the things that Jesus had said to them.
That is an amazing promise! And where do we find the fulfillment of that promise? We find it in the four gospel accounts—where the things that our Lord did and said are perfectly recorded for us.
Two chapters later, in the same context, our Lord promises the apostles that He will give them additional revelation through the Holy Spirit:
John 16:12–15 – “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
Where is that additional revelation found? It is found in the New Testament epistles, wherein the Spirit of Christ guided the apostles to provide the church with inspired truth.
The New Testament, then, was pre-authenticated by Christ Himself, as He authorized the Apostles to be His witnesses in the world (Matthew 28:18–19; Acts 1:8). We embrace and submit to the New Testament writings, then, because they were penned by Christ’s authorized representatives, being inspired by the Holy Spirit in the same way as the Old Testament prophets.
With that in mind we could go book-by-book through the New Testament, and we will find that it meets this criteria.
• The Gospels of Matthew & John were both written by Apostles.
• The Gospel of Mark is a record of the memoirs of the Apostle Peter, written by Mark under Peter’s apostolic authority.
• The Gospel of Luke (and the book of Acts) were both the product of a careful investigation and eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:2), research that would have included Apostolic sources. Moreover, as the companion of the Apostle Paul, Luke wrote under Paul’s Apostolic oversight. (Paul even affirms Luke 10:7 as part of the Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18.)
• The Pauline Epistles (Romans–Philemon) were all written by the Apostle Paul.
• The authorship of Hebrews is unknown, but many in church history believed it to have been also written by Paul. If not penned by Paul himself, it was clearly written by someone closely associated with Paul’s ministry—and therefore, by extension, under his apostolic authority.
• The General Epistles (the letters of James, Peter, and John) were all written by Apostles.
• The Epistle of Jude was written by the half-brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3) who operated under the apostolic oversight of his brother James (cf. Jude 1).
• And finally, the book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John.
For every book of the New Testament, we can demonstrate that the book was written under apostolic authority—either by an apostle or someone closely linked to their apostolic ministry. Thus, we submit to these books because they come from Christ’s authorized representatives. In submitting to them, we are submitting to the Lord Himself.
The reason the canon is closed is because there are no longer any apostles in the church today, and have not been since the end of the first century.
So … why these 66 books? Because God inspired them! They are His divine revelation. And Christ confirmed that fact. He affirmed the Old Testament canon, and He authorized the New Testament canon (cf. Hebrews 1:1–2).
The authority of the Lord Jesus Himself, then, is the basis for our confidence in the fact that the Bible we hold in our hands is indeed “All Scripture.”
PING
Then why not the Gospel of Thomas?
Which bible?
Ha! Because the Catholic Church said so and 1500 years later some protesters pulled the Apocryphal made other changes and went their own way. 500 years later, some guy that doesn’t fully know history writes this article.
You, again...
Let me suggest book #67:
“How to Win Friends and Influence People”
The Gnostic Gospels is a collection of about 52 ancient texts based upon the teachings of several spiritual leaders, written from the 2nd to the 4th century AD. The sayings of the Gospel of Thomas, compiled circa 140, may include some traditions even older than some of the gospels of the New Testament, possibly as early as the second half of the first century.[1] These gospels are not part of the standard Biblical canon of any mainstream Christian denomination, and as such are part of what is called the New Testament apocrypha. Recent novels, films, and video games that refer to the gospels have increased public interest.[2][3]
The word gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "knowledge", which is often used in Greek philosophy in a manner more consistent with the English "enlightenment". Some scholars continue to maintain traditional dating for the emergence of Gnostic philosophy and religious movements.[4] It is now generally believed that Gnosticism was a Jewish movement which emerged directly in reaction to Christianity.[5] The name Christian gnostics came to represent a segment of the Early Christian community that believed that salvation lay not in faith in Christ, but in psychic or pneumatic souls learning to free themselves from the material world via the revelation.[6] According to this tradition, the answers to spiritual questions are to be found within, not without.
The documents which comprise the collection of gnostic gospels were not discovered at a single time, but rather as a series of finds. The Nag Hammadi Library was discovered accidentally by two farmers in December 1945 and was named for the area in Egypt where it had been hidden for centuries.[7] Other documents included in what are now known as the gnostic gospels were found at different times and locations, such as the Gospel of Mary, which was recovered in 1896 as part of the Akhmim Codex and published in 1955. Some documents were duplicated in different finds, and others, such as with the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, only one copy is currently known to exist. Although the manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi are generally dated to the 4th century, there is some debate regarding the original composition of the texts. A wide range and the majority of scholars date authorship of the Gnostic gospel of Nag Hammadi to the 2nd and 3rd century.[8] Scholars with a focus on Christianity tend to date the gospels mentioned by Irenaeus to the 2nd century, and the gospels mentioned solely by Jerome to the 4th century[citation needed]. The traditional dating of the gospels derives primarily from this division. Other scholars with a deeper focus on pagan and Jewish literature of the period tend to date primarily based on the type of the work[citation needed]:
The only book which to me seems not to belong is the Book of Job.
On the other hand, people a lot smarter than me included it so I must be wrong.
bkmrk
Thanks again.
or the 3rd book of Corinthians, the Gospel of Judas, etc...
I am confused, help me understand. Are you saying the Bible was canonized by the Catholic Church?
Who are the protesters? The Protestants? What changes to the Bible did they make?
This guy does not know history? What is his particular lack of history?
These are genuine, sincere questions.
Weeks?
Really?
How about a lifetime re-inventing the wheel?
Many very learned and respected individuals have done that. If one has a lot of free time, and nothing else to do (besides throw religious hand grenades just for fun) how about just taking advantage of the existing body of work, both pro and con?
I really won't live long enough to learn all the ancient languages necessary to "persuade" myself first hand. I have neither the need nor the time to go there.
Ya know what is really funny is that right before I reverted to the Catholic Church I used to say stupid stuff like this all the time. Please keep it up that will make your return so much sweeter. Praying for you and the rest of the fallen.
ping
If you want a really good Bible Study, tune into Freeper left that other site’s “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” threads every day. Included are pictures, scriptures, and a short summary. I am going back to review all of the posts under that title. It has been such a blessing. Just type in “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” and you will see what I mean. What a wonderful experience.
Ping for AM
Paul quoted from Job in both Romans 11:35 and 1 Corinthians 3:19. James 5:11 refers to Job as an example of perseverance. And in Ezekiel 14:14, Job is mentioned along with Noah and Daniel. Those are a few reasons I believe it’s both historically true and inspired.
My pastor preached a series on Job over a period of six months or so. It was one of the most beneficial studies I’ve ever been through. It ended more than a year ago and people in my congregation are still discussing it. If you want to understand Satan and how the world system operates, study Job.
“How to Win Friends and Influence People”
Not needed.
The Gospel of John is replete with how to love your neighbor and how God gives His love.
Are you saying you came home to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church?
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