The Canon of Scripture is often debated. Many who wish to discredit the Bible claim that books were removed wantonly or to suppress deeper truths. These claims are invalid, the councils that canonized Scripture had a very strict criteria for including and excluding books. Let’s examine them.
I. The first criterium for deciding if a book was to be included in canon of Scripture was authentication. Could the author, say for example Paul, be verified to be the author. This was done through three very brilliant ways, the first was to see if the letter or book was in circulation among the churches and thus trusted by the churches addressed by the author such as Paul to be his handiwork. The second method was to compare the different writings of the writer, again lets use Paul, and see if they sound like the apostle and do they contain patterns of what the writer preached regularly like salvation by grace; if a letter from Paul for example had Paul saying you must be saved by the law when the plethora of his epistles such as Romans, Galatians, Colossians, Ephesians, and more declare salvation is by Grace then the letter that says the law saves is thrown out because it doesn’t match Paul’s theology in his verified other letters. Finally, the texts were dated and if they were within the lifetime of the writer then it confirmed validity once the other two methods proved true.
II. Circulation was a major test to see if a book was worthy of canonization, did the churches in Asia Minor, Palestine, Rome, Greece and more all have the same scrolls? There are thousands and thousands of copies of the New Testament letters and books, and all of them say the same thing. These different churches all had the same Scriptures we have in our Bibles.
It should be noted none of the gnostic gospels, lost books of the bible, deuterocanonical books, and etc were found among the churches that existed in the time of Christ and his apostles.
III. Copies
As just mentioned the books of the Bible we have were copied over and over and circulated among the churches in the time of Jesus and his apostles. These copies that the churches made are books we have, but the odd books like The Gospel of Thomas are not found among the churches, because that gospel is a false gospel that dates later and is the property of heretical gnostics who believe there are seven angels, one of whom they said was Yahweh (A History of the Early Church to 500 A.D., by JWC Wand-former Bishop of London, Chapter V: Gnosticism), when we Christians believe God is a Trinity and is not an angel but created the angels and is greater than they:
“Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.
The Son Is Greater Than the Angels
For God never said to any angel what he said to Jesus:
“You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.”
God also said,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son.”
And when he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said,
“Let all of God’s angels worship him.”
Regarding the angels, he says,
“He sends his angels like the winds,
his servants like flames of fire.”
But to the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.
You rule with a scepter of justice.
You love justice and hate evil.
Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you,
pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”
He also says to the Son,
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth
and made the heavens with your hands.
They will perish, but you remain forever.
They will wear out like old clothing.
You will fold them up like a cloak
and discard them like old clothing.
But you are always the same;
you will live forever.”
And God never said to any of the angels,
“Sit in the place of honor at my right hand
until I humble your enemies,
making them a footstool under your feet.”
Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.” (Hebrews 1:1-14)
IV. Cross Referencing, another major criterium for canonization was if books cross reference: themes, beliefs, and teachings are found in more than one letter or book. For example we have many books that contain Jesus’ title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords, “For, At just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords,” (1 Timothy 3:16) and “They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones.” (Revelation 17:14), and “And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:16). It was crucial to verify if a text had True Christian beliefs, for instance the Gnostic gospels contradict the Synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John which were verified to have been written by the disciples of Jesus such as Matthew and John, and the disciples of Peter and Paul which as John Mark and Luke.
V. Dating
As aforementioned being able to date the books of the Bible is crucial to canonization. For instance Paul’s letters date from 50-70 A.D. only 27 years after Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, meaning the eyewitnesses were still alive to interview. The Four Gospels date from 47-94 A.D. The Apostle John’s gospel is the latest and he explains he only wrote it because the churches begged him to and he felt the other three gospels lacked something.
The New Testament Scriptures date from 47-99 A.D. in the lifetime of Christ’s followers. In contrast the only copy we have of Homer’s The Iliad dates 400yrs after Homer lived, and the books of Buddha are dated as 800yrs after he lived. The books of the New Testament are only 27 years after Christ and are in lifetime of His Disciples! As most historians and anthropologists will tell you, the closer the writings are to the time the author or teacher lived, the more accurate. Only the Bible contains books so close to the time of when things happened.
The lost books and gnostic gospels date much later when deceived cults made forgeries. For instance the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas dates 250 A.D. according to J.R. Porter.
VI. Eyewitnesses, another major way to validate something is true id eyewitnesses. In the case of the four gospels and the epistles, they are eyewitness accounts of people who heard Jesus preach and the events surrounding His life and ministry. As aforementioned, these accounts date close to Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection, unlike Homer, Buddha and Confucius whose purported texts emerge many centuries after they lived.
VII. Theology
Another criterium of a book being included and excluded after the other measures mentioned earlier was applied was does it say anything profound about God or His relationship with humankind? One of the reasons the Apochraphal books were excluded from most canons is they are during 400 years God was silent. Meaning there was no revelations from the Lord in those books.
VIII: Fulfillment
Every word of Scripture in the Old and New Testaments has happened, is happening and will happen as written. A good example of this is that Ling David prophecized centuries before Christ how he’d die, “16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet-
17 I can count all my bones- they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots,” (Psalm 22:16-18”m) and “So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. The Crucifixion So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.” (John 19:16-18, 23). A great example of this for our times is a passage by the apostle Paul who says, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, considering nothing sacred,
heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit (proud), lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Does this not describe our times and what people are like now? Particularly the “lovers of self and considering nothing sacred,” we see how people are selfish and that unborn life (children) isn’t sacred anymore, and even churches are being vandalized.
IX. Redundancy
Another reason a book may be excluded from canon was if it was redundant. The Gospel of John ends with these words, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:24-25). There may be a Gospel of Nathaniel or Thaddeus, but its left out because it says the same thing the Synoptic gospels say and the Gospel of John said, only those Four Gospels we already have in our Bibles says it better. We have to remember that the disciples and early Christians didn’t have our compact Bible, they had to carry scrolls around, and so it helped to shed any that said the same thing and keep only so many. For instance when we choose to print wedding pictures, do you print every single pic? All the pics say the same thing, “you are wed,” but its the ones that capture this best and the memory of what happened that get prioritized.
X: Belief, Spiritual Discernment, and Trust
Finally, we trust the canon of Scripture on the basis of faith (trust). The apostles tell us that the Scriptures we have are trustworthy, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21), “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16), “For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope,” (Romans 15:4), and, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The apostles ask us to trust the Scriptures that have been canonized. After all the criteria to authenticate and verify, we can sense these 66 books are the oracles of God, because we can feel the Lord speaking througj them to us. I have read the Apocryphal books and Lost Books of the Bible and I can tell you that they do not contain the Holy Spirit’s presence, they are interpretations of men. In contrast the 66 Canon was carrfully selected by the sound methods I laid out, such as dating and authenticating authorship and eyewitnesses, but in addition to these scientific and historical methods, the Holy Spirit bears witness in our hearts when we read the 66 Books canon that these are the oracles of God. Whereas the deuterocanonical books and lost books are shrouded in darkness, for example the Book of Mary (150 A.D.) had the hail Mary, and touts Mary as perpetual Virgin who knows she’s going to be a Virgin before the angel Gabriel appears (The Lost Books of the Bible, Chartwell), when the Gospel of Luke (80-110 A.D.) which dates from time of Mary says Mary was surprised when Gabriel tells her she will be a Virgin who gives birth to the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). We also may note Mary declares she is in need of a Savior, “Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord-and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” (Luke 1:46-47), when the Book of Mary tries to turn her into a demigod. I now know the Roman Catholics get much of their Marian beliefs from this corrupt lost book of Mary which dates 150 A.D. when many of heretical beliefs of begin to emerge. In contrast the Gospel of Luke was compiled as early as 80 A.D. when Mary would have still been alive.
We trust that 66 Books are authentic because they fulfill all the criteria I have laid out: historical, scientific, logical, sociological, and spiritual. The churches from the time of Christ and his apostles had scrolls and copies of the books we have! So we can trust that what is contained in Old and New Testaments is sound. Beyond that the Holy Spirit bears witness that the 66 Books are God Breathed.
We can trust that our Bibles are true, any books thrown oit didn’t fit the criteria of authorship, circulation, eyewitness account, dating, and more. Amen.
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