Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would help the disciples remember everything He told them and that they had seen. They wrote down what the Holy Spirit inspired them to write and dispersed those writings which they called epistles. As time went on God used humans to spread those epistles sometimes even using evil people to preserve those documents like He has done at times to bring about His will and purposes. An example of how he uses even evil people would be one of Jesus closest associates named Judas.
We are told in Revelation that some of those who preserved those documents have fallen away from their “first love” and risk being removed from the “book of life” but even those were used by God to spread those Epistles so that they were available to people who stayed true. Even the Jewish nation who rejected Christ were still used by God to preserve the Old Testament.
There are those who would like to take credit for themselves and use that to convince people that whatever they teach is the only correct way but we only need to see what happened to the Jews to understand that it’s God who preserves His word even if the people who He uses sometimes aren’t the ones who He “preserves” to the end. We can also read in Revelation 1-3 that those that have “preserved” the written word aren’t necessarily safe for eternity if they add to that word or take away from it.
There’s more that could be said about “where it came from” but that’s pretty much it in a nut shell. Needless to say it’s obvious that it’s dangerous to listen to those who boast and try to take credit away from God for what He does. Hope that helps.
>>how do you KNOW it?<<
Well, we have God’s promise that He would never forsake us and we trust Him. He said “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mark 13:31) and we have seen that to be true to date. Then there is His promise to us that the Holy Spirit would dwell in us. Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
“Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would help the disciples remember everything.....”
some are rather selective about believing what Jesus promised. Jesus also promised to establish a Church and PROMISED the gates of hell would NOT prevail against it.
what does that promise mean? It means the Church would always be here, from 33ad to the end of the age. in addition, it means the Church can’t go “apostate” as Joseph Smith taught ( and judging by their posts, many unbelievers agree with )
so when it comes to the NT canon and any other doctrine, we can confidently look to what the Church teaches and believe it is true. WHY can we do this? Because Jesus PROMISED the Holy Spirit would be sent to lead the Church to all truth. Further, the Holy Spirit calls the Church the pillar of truth.
of course the natural man rejects all this, it is foolishness to him. he rejects Jesus Christ by rejecting his Church, and has a hatred for the Church. the natural man takes delight in being an accuser of the brethern. the natural man believes God is strong enough to preserve the written Word for 2,000 years, but is not strong enough to preserve His Body, the Church for that long. the natural man believes Satan has been able to preserve the Mormon Church for 200 years, but the Holy Spirit could not preserve the Church for 2,000 years. the natural man rejects Jesus Christ gave His authority to teach and baptize to the Church. the natural man only believes in the authority of the man in the mirror, this is the final authority to the natural man.
the natural man ( and woman ) is confused.