2 PETER 3:10\u201318<\/b><\/p>\n
His [Paul\u2019s] letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction<\/i><\/p>\n
(2 Peter 3:16b niv)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
A common question raised in discussions about the authority and authorship of Scripture is \u201cHow do we know that the books in the canon of Scripture are the right ones?\u201d How we answer this question greatly affects our confidence in the Bible\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n
A canon<\/i> is a standard by which other things are judged. The canon<\/i> of Scripture developed during the first four centuries through a number of councils. The 66 books that now comprise the Bible were finally established as the complete Canon in 397 a.d. at the Third Council of Carthage.<\/p>\n
Prior to this date, even from the latter half of the first century, the various books of the New Testament were in circulation. It is not as if the Bible suddenly appeared in 397. These letters and books had been used by the church for years. However, there developed abuses and controversies over what books were sacred Scripture. And so, the church responded by establishing the final Canon.<\/p>\n
When the councils met, there were more than 2,000 books in contention. Yet, only two books beyond the final Canon were seriously considered: Shepherd of Hermes and 1 Clement. These books were rejected because the authors indicated a clear difference between themselves and the apostles. By their own testimony, they were excluded from sacred Scripture. Of the books that are now in the Canon, some were questioned\u2014for example, Jude, 2 Peter, Hebrews, and the three letters of John. But after much consideration, they were adopted into the final version.<\/p>\n
While it may cause some to be uneasy knowing that the Bible was compiled by fallible men, we can put our confidence in God\u2019s providence and in the methods employed by the early church councils in making their decision. They used three criteria: 1) the book had to be written or endorsed by an apostle; 2) the book had to have been received by the early church from the beginning; and 3) questionable books could not contradict any books of which there was no doubt\u2014conformity was paramount.<\/p>\n
Through these means and the grace of God, we can trust that the right books have been included in the Bible and safeguarded through the ages.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Numbers 7\u20138<\/p>\n
Mark 4:21\u201341<\/p>\n
Consider the confidence New Testament writers put in the canonicity of the Old Testament (Read Luke 24:25\u201345). What does this say about God preserving His Word? What does this say to us about the confidence we should have in the New Testament?<\/p>\n
For further study: Prov. 30:5\u20136 \u2022 Rom. 15:1\u20134 \u2022 Rev. 22:18\u201321<\/i><\/p>\n
wednesday<\/p>\n
february<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2 PETER 3:10\u201318 His [Paul\u2019s] letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16b niv). A common question raised in discussions about the authority and authorship of Scripture is \u201cHow do we know that the books … Continue reading “CANON OF SCRIPTURE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}