Man Added Books to the Bible?
In this simple study, we look at the "doctrine" of canon - or in other words - what books should be in the Bible? Can we trust that what's in the Bible should be there and what's excluded should be excluded?
Several other religions and even sects of Christianity have vastly different opinions. However, if we take the Bible at its own word, it will give us all the insight we need to both interpret it and understand what should/shouldn't be in there. In fact, while many other religions will cite the Bible to prop up their own claims, they must also subvert its authority in order to claim some of that credibility for their prophet to teach new, unbiblical doctrines (and make them sound like they are the Biblical ones).
Without further ado, in note format - what do we believe about the Canon and why?
PLEASE NOTE: We are entering this study with basic Christian assumptions - more information on all of these can be found on other blog posts on this page as well as on my youtube channel, where we delve into "Systematic Theology for Non-Christians," taking a playlist for each of the doctrines and trying to teach through as much of the material as possible. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0aQrnlTv_P_cp1vNHJ6jA
The Whole Canon[1]?
·
Presuppositions
o
Christ existed
o
Trinity is true
o
The Bible is inspired[2]
o
God preserved the Word He inspired[3]
o
Scripture is harmonious (as it’s all inspired by
the same God)
o
God creates canon by inspiring some writings,
and not others.[4]
(see footnote, b/c the canon is not something that the “Church” must determine
– it exists) – 1 Cor. 10:11, Rom. 15:4
o
God has a purpose for the Bible’s existence –
Luke 24:13-35, Rom. 15:4
·
Problems for us to Answer
o
How do we know we have ALL the Bible (see
footnote #4)
o
How do we know ALL the Bible is actually
Scripture
·
Challenges against our views
o
Islam[5],
Mormonism[6],
etc. claim the Scripture is corrupted.[7]
o
Secularism claims that there is either no God or
that God didn’t really inspire Scripture.
o
People claim the Catholic church defined the
canon, or that the gospels were a product of the Council of Nicaea.[8] Even Martin Luther tried to remove various
books because he saw them as going against Sola
Fide[9]
·
Why Care?
o
“Earnestly contend for the faith.” Jude 1:3
§
Content-wise
§
Cultural ideas opposed must be fought against
(so we need to have an apologetic) – see 1 Peter. 3:15
o
There are fake Scriptures – 2 Thes. 2:2
·
Things to
note[10]
o
The number of books can legitimately change
because of how OT books were combined back in the day – Minor Prophets,
etc. 39 and 27 (OT and NT, respectively)
if you add apocrypha, it bulks us to 74 (which we don’t accept)
o
OT canon[11]
was established (ended with 2 Chronicles) by the time of Christ.[12]
§
Books were laid up in the temple
§
We can look at history and look for canon lists
from men like Athanasius… but how do we know?
o
God’s knowledge of the Canon is active – He
created; ours is passive – we receive it.
We do not create the canon, we simply accept it as it exists.[13]
§
Remember: God wants us to know His Scripture.
§
God’s people will recognize the prophetic voice.
[1]
The word “Canon” literally means “rule,” or standard against which something is
judged or measured. It can be used to
mean an authoritative listing of books or works. The canon of our Bible covers about 66 books.
[2] 2
Tim. 3:16, because of it, then 2 Tim. 4:2 (be instant in season, etc, because
God breathed out the Word)
[3]
Theopneustos, “God Breathed” (Strong’s Greek: 2315) – see http://mindrenewers.com/2012/02/18/the-meaning-of-theopneustos/
for a fairly good explanation of this word in the context of its use in 2 Tim.
3:16.
[4] In
other words, Canon is a product of revelation, an “artifact” that comes into
existence because God inspired something.
In even other words – God knows exactly what He wrote – that is
the canon. How do we know that we have
everything God wrote? Answer: because He
wants us to know and have what He’s given to us. This is a theological approach to something
people often explore historically.
[5]
Qur’an 5:41, see “What Every
Christian Needs to Know about the Qur’an” for an investigation of why the
Muslims can’t really defend this well.
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMZVqoxS3QQ
[6]
Mormon Article of Faith #8: “We Believe the Bible to
be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the
Book of Mormon to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly.”
[7] See
the “Islamic Dilemma” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2_0Z62-GO8 … in short, see Qur’an 29:46 “We believe in
what has been revealed to us and in what has been revealed to you, our God and
your God is one, and to Him we submit.”
Also, Qur’an 3:3-4 “He has revealed to you the book with truth,
verifying that which is before it, and he revealed the Torah and the Gospel
(injil) aforetime, a guidance for people, and he sent the Qur’an.” Why could Allah not protect the first two
books he sent down? No one can change
Allah’s words – Qur’an 18:27 – “None … can change His words.” The Qur’an is self-refuting, saying that the
Torah and Injil are corrupted, but that they aren’t. See Qur’an 7:157 – “Muhammad is mentioned in
the Scriptures” also Qur’an 5:27 – “let the people of the gospel judge by what
Allah hath revealed therein. If any do
fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better
than) those who rebel.” Quran 5:68 “Say:
‘O people of the book! You have no ground to stand upon unless you stand fast
by the Torah, the Gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your
Lord.” Again, this presents both the
dangers of a corrupted text as well as the difficulty the Qur’an has in
explaining the “fact” that the Bible is corrupt.
[8] No
church can determine canon – the church is the pillar and ground of the truth,
and many churches have varied on the specific books of the Bible. April of 1546 is the dogmatic declaration of
the books making up the canon. Many
others before then had near-or-complete lists of canon. The canon exists whether a church, or “the”
church recognizes it. (again, see
footnote 4)
[10]
See http://www.ccel.org/contrib/exec_outlines/bible/bible_03.htm
for an investigation of various canon information, both historical and
practical ways we know how people recognized what is part of God’s canon and
what isn’t.
[11]
Perhaps the best question that was asked pertaining to the OT canon as related
to the reception of the NT canon is now known as the “White Question.” It goes a little like this, “How did the
Godly Jewish believer know that Isaiah and 2 Chronicles were Scripture prior to
the coming of Christ?” Catholics try to
claim they are responsible for the canon we have. They try to answer it by saying “they didn’t,
can’t outside the pope.” Jesus held men
accountable to the Scripture (Matthew 22:29 references this), so therefore they
must have known it was. Some have
claimed Urim and Thummim – go to the high priest and find out… (Magic 8 ball
answer). There is no extra-biblical,
supernatural revelation telling us what is canon or not.
[12]
Notice: the Pharisees and Jesus never argued about what was Scripture – they
both clearly already knew by the time of Christ.
[13]
This is a point of contention with Catholics, as they deny sola Scriptura, that is, they deny that Scripture alone is the
source of faith and practice, as they see themselves as the determiners of the
canon. (for instance, the the Council of
Trent, in 1546 AD, officially added the Apocrypha to the Canon). http://www.bible.ca/catholic-questions.htm
; http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showmessage.asp?number=438095
ß from Catholic
perspective toward end
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