When I hear the word canon I see images of the civil war. But there is a canon that doesn’t use gun powder.

Canon comes from an ancient Egyptian word meaning “reed.” Years ago, reeds were cut and used as measuring sticks. Over time this word “reed” came to mean “standard.” So when someone talks about the canon of Scripture he is talking about the standard for the Christian faith, or more specifically, which books should be in the Bible.  

Christianity is a “book religion.”¹ Since its beginning, the very life of Christianity depended on an authoritative standard written down on paper. This means that the question of the canon of Scripture is an important one.

So how do we know which books should be in the Bible and which ones should not be? This section will seek to answer that question.

How did the Old Testament Canon come together?

The first scriptures recorded were the Ten Commandments (Ex 31:18; 32:16), written by God with His own finger. After Moses blew his lid and smashed the tablets (Ex 32:19) God made him rewrite the Ten Commandments (Ex 34:1, 27-28). From this day on Moses wrote down everything God told him, resulting in the first five books of the Bible (Ex 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Num 33:2; Deut 31:22).

God continued to speak through His prophets, adding to this body of God-breathed truth over a period of 1,000 years (aprox. 1445 b.c. to 445 b.c.), until the “blackout” period of no divine messages from the time of Malachi to the birth of John the Baptist.

God’s prophets made it a habit to write down what God told them in order to preserve His words for years to come. Scripture notes Joshua (Josh 24:26), Samuel (1 Sam 10:25), Ezra (1 Chron 29:29; 2 Chron 20:34), Isaiah (Is 8:1; 30:8), Jeremiah (Jer 30:2; 51:60-64) and Habbakuk (Hab 2:3) recording God’s Word on paper.

How did Moses write all the events of Genesis?

How on earth did Moses write down the events of creation, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph—people who lived several thousand years before he was even conceived? The answer is inspiration. Just like the other prophets, Moses was “carried by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21) to write down exactly what God wanted written. Since God created the multibillion-galaxy universe in six days, I am sure it was no problem for Him to tell Moses how it happened.

How did the New Testament Canon come together?

After 450 years of no messages from God, Gabriel the angel entered the scene and announced the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-20) and Jesus Christ (Luke 1:26-38). About thirty years later, John the Baptist came preaching a baptism of repentance (Luke 3:1-21) followed by Jesus’ three year ministry of teaching, healing and training His disciples. This led to the writing of Matthew, then Luke, and shortly after, the gospel of Mark. During his missionary travels, Paul wrote 13 letters to the planted churches (Rom-Philemon), and other apostles or associates of the apostles wrote letters as well (Heb-Jude). The last books written would be John’s gospel and his three epistles followed by the book of Revelation around a.d. 90. The writing of the New Testament spanned approximately forty-five years (a.d. 45-90).

How did the people in Bible times know if a prophet was really from God?

Two proofs could make or break a prophet’s validity: 1) fulfilled prophecy and 2) miraculous signs. God told the Israelites:

You may say in your heart, “How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?” When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him (Deut 18:21-22).

If the prophet’s prediction failed, he was a charlatan and God would strike him dead (Deut 18:20; cf. Jer 23:25-34; 28:1-17). That’d be an effective environment for ridding the land of false prophets or at least keeping them mute.

Scripture is replete with examples of fulfilled prophecy. All the Old Testament prophets predicted future punishment either upon Israel, Judah or a foreign nation which was fulfilled exactly as prophesied. Daniel predicted the rise and fall of four nations (which happened), not to mention the rejection of Christ and the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, both of which were fulfilled.² Many of the prophets along with King David predicted the first coming of Christ as well.

The other proof of a prophet was miracles. Throughout the history of Scripture, God verified the word of His prophets by signs and wonders (Heb 2:4; 2 Cor 12:12). Consider this:

• Plagues on the Egyptians (Ex 7-11), a snake-turning staff (Ex 4:3), a leprous-turning hand (Ex 4:6-7), the parting of the Red Sea (Ex 14:21), and many other miracles (Ex 15:25; 17:26; Num 16:28-33; 20:11; 21:8) confirmed Moses’ authority as a prophet (Ex 7-11; Ex 19:18-19).
• The parting of the Jordan (Josh 3:14-16), the toppling of the walls of Jericho (Josh 6:20), and the sun standing still (Josh 10:12-13) verified that God was with Joshua who wrote the book with his own name. 
• Samuel, the author of Judges, Ruth, and 1-2 Samuel, called down thunder and rain (1 Sam 12:18). 
• Though as far as we know they did not write any book in the Bible, both Elijah and Elisha’s prophetic messages were accompanied by signs and wonders (1 Kings 17; 18:20-46; 2 Kings 1:9-12; 2:8, 14, 19-22; 13:21). 
• Isaiah healed King Hezekiah of a lethal illness with a cake of figs (2 Kings 20:7) and made a shadow go backwards ten steps (2 Kings 20:11). (During the times of the prophets (Isaiah-Malachi) the greatest evidence of their authority was massive amounts of fulfilled prophecy). 
• Jesus Christ performed more healings and miracles than any human who ever lived.
• The apostles and their close associates healed the sick, raised the dead, exorcised demons, and by the word of their mouth struck dead a deceitful couple (Acts 5), verifying their validity.  

Though we do not have records of every writer of Scripture performing miracles, God accompanied every period of direct revelation with signs and wonders or fulfilled prophecy making it unmistakably clear that the word these prophets spoke was the Word of God:

How do we know that no more books should be added to the Old Testament?

No fewer than nine witnesses affirm that we have the complete canon of the Old Testament.

1) The witness of Malachi. In the very last prophecy of the Old Testament, Prophet Malachi predicts the coming of Elijah, a type (or foreshadow) of John the Baptist (Mal 4:4-6; cf. Matt 11:14; 17:10-12). Both history and the Scriptures tell us that the next prophet who came was John the Baptist. This implies that no new prophets from God showed up after the last book of the Old Testament was written.

2) The witness of the Jews who lived between the Old and New Testaments. After Malachi’s death, the Jews firmly believed that direct messages from God had temporarily stopped. After tearing down the defiled altar, the Jews…

…laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, until there should come a prophet to shew what should be done with them (1 Maccabees 4:46).

During the days of the Maccabees, in the minds of the Jews, the last prophet among them lived long before, which could be none other than the prophet Malachi: 

So was there a great affliction in Israel, the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them (1 Maccabees 9:27).

And they were clearly looking forward to that new prophet:

Also that the Jews and priests were well pleased that Simon should be their governor and high priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet (1 Maccabees 14:41).

3) The witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the 1950’s a Bedouin shepherd of Palestine tossed a rock into a cave resulting in a loud shatter of glass. He went inside and made one of the most important discoveries of Bible history: the Dead Sea Scrolls.³ His rock had shattered a bottle in which one of these scrolls was stored. Of the approximate 800 manuscripts, a sizeable portion of these scrolls are copies of the Old Testament Scriptures. In these manuscripts, every book of the Old Testament (with the exception of Chronicles, Esther and Song of Solomon) is either listed, quoted or commented on as canonical. So far, no evidence indicates that any books from the Apocrypha or any other religious writing were considered canonical by this community. Their writings also reveal that they were waiting for a prophet to bring them the Word of God (1 QS 9.11), further proof that the Old Testament canon had closed.

4) The witness of the Jews during Christ’s ministry. If it was not blatantly obvious that the 39 books of the Old Testament were final and complete, it is hard to imagine why the gospels never once record Christ, His disciples or the Jewish leaders debating which books belonged to the canon. That the Old Testament was complete was so obvious that it was not even a topic up for discussion.

Add to this the fact that the New Testament quotes the Old Testament over 295⁴ times without once quoting a single book of the Apocrypha or any other writings as divinely authoritative, and the case is hard to break that the entire Jewish community believed that the Old Testament was complete.

5) The witness of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave the Law and the Prophets⁵ full status as Scripture by promising they would be fulfilled (Matt 5:17).

He also endorsed the canonicity of the entire Old Testament when he mentioned the murder of Abel and Zechariah (Luke 11:51). Abel’s murder is recorded in Genesis and Zechariah’s in 2 Chronicles. In Christ’s day, the books of the Old Testament were placed in a different order than our modern versions. Genesis was still the first but 2 Chronicles was the very last. By mentioning events found in the first and last books of the Old Testament, Christ recognized the entire Old Testament as a true and accurate account of history. This is very significant, for even though apocryphal books were written long after the events of 2 Chronicles and contained many stories of godly men being murdered, Christ never mentioned one of them.

6) The witness of the New Testament. As mentioned above, the New Testament affirms the canonicity of the Old Testament by quoting it over 295 times. It quotes from all the Old Testament books except for Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. It is significant that the New Testament never quotes the Apocrypha nor any other non-canonical book with the exception of three extra-biblical sources quoted in Jude 14, Titus 1:12 and Acts 17:28.

First, comes the claim that the “Book of Enoch”⁶ is quoted in Jude 14. However, we must remember that Jude wrote under the supervision of the Holy Spirit, therefore, quoting a secular source does not make Jude’s writing un-inspired nor Enoch’s quotation inspired. Even though Jude’s source came from a non-Scriptural book, what Jude wrote and how he applied it was God-breathed Scripture. And although the portion quoted from the Book of Enoch was accurate, this does not make it inspired any more than Billy Graham quoting Al Gore makes Al Gore’s words spiritual.

The other two non-canonical sources come from Paul who quotes an Athenian poet in a sermon (Acts 17:28) and a Cretan poet in a letter (Titus 1:12). In response, it is important to understand that there is a great difference between quoting a source as an authority or quoting a source to illustrate your point. If I am giving a lecture on engine mechanics, I might quote from a seasoned mechanic to give weight to my thesis, whereas I might talk about a 100-piece puzzle as an illustration of my thesis—even though 100-piece puzzles make no contribution to the study of engine mechanics. In a similar way, New Testament writers repeatedly quote the Old Testament as an unassailable authority to support what they are saying or to prove a point they are making. Paul quoted the poets not as authoritative texts but as illustrations of a point he wanted to make, much like a preacher today might quote Albert Einstein or President Theodore Roosevelt to illustrate a Scriptural principle in his sermon. Obviously, this does not make the preacher’s point unbiblical, nor does it mean that Roosevelt or Einstein were Christians.

7) The witness of Josephus. Josephus, a Jew born around A. D. 37 and one of the most prolific historians of the first century history, wrote that no prophet with authority had risen up from the time of Artaxerxes (this would be around the time of Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament) to his present day. Speaking of Old Testament Scriptures he wrote,

And how firmly we [the Jewish people] have given credit to these books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be willingly to die for them (Against Apollion, 1.8).

8) The witness of Jewish rabbis. Ancient Jewish writings inform us that Jewish rabbis agreed that the Holy Spirit had departed from Israel after the death of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (Babylonian Talmud, Yomah, 9b).

9) The witness of the church fathers. The church fathers are the Christian theologians and leaders who lived after the time of the early church from about the 2nd to 5th century. The church fathers unanimously accepted the 39 books of the Old Testament as canonical and even Augustine who included the Apocrypha (a.d. 400) admitted that it was not authoritative.

What about the Apocrypha?

If any books might step up to bat to compete for a place in the Old Testament which would they be? No doubt, the Apocrypha.⁷ The Apocrypha is a collection of Jewish writings composed between the time of Malachi and John the Baptist (more precisely, from 300 b.c. to a.d. 100). Although it was included in the LXX (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), the Jews treated it much like an appendix in a book today and excluded the Apocrypha from the Old Testament canon. Some would argue for acceptance of the Apocrypha because Jerome included the Apocrypha in his Latin Vulgate, yet even he stated that they were not “books of the canon” but merely “books of the church,” useful to believers.⁸ Luther included the Apocrypha in his Bible, but agreed that they were not Scripture but helpful to read—much like someone might read a commentary today.

But this is just historical proof for the exclusion of the Apocrypha from the Old Testament. The strongest argument against its acceptance (not to mention that Christ never referred to it) is that the Apocrypha teaches doctrines in stark disagreement with the rest of the Bible. E. J. Young writes,

There are no marks in these books which would attest a divine origin…both Judith and Tobit contain historical, chronological and geographical errors. The books justify falsehood and deception and make salvation to depend upon works of merit…Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon inculcate [implant] a morality based upon expediency [doing what works regardless of morals]. Wisdom teaches the creation of the world out of pre-existent matter (11:17). Ecclesiasticus teaches that the giving of alms makes atonement for sin (3:30). In Baruch it is said that God hears the prayers of the dead (3:4), and in 1 Maccabees there are historical and geographical errors.⁹

Not until 1546 at the Council of Trent did the Roman Catholic Church officially declare the Apocrypha to be part of the canon. But this decision had nothing to do with preserving the purity of the Scriptures. The council met to decide how to deal with the teachings of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. By welcoming the Apocrypha into the Old Testament canon, the Roman Catholic Church welcomed books that supported their own teachings in direct contrast to the teaching of the Protestant Reformation and the Bible. For example, the Apocrypha encourages praying for the dead and also claims that salvation is not by faith alone but by faith plus works.

How do we know that the writings of the apostles and their associates were the Word of God?

1) The apostles possessed full authority to write Scripture.

Jesus Christ promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would not only bring to mind all that Christ taught them (John 14:26), but many more things that Christ wanted to say:

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 on 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 (John 16:12-14).

This creates the foundation for the writing of the entire New Testament. Being personally commissioned by Christ to proclaim the gospel and lead the church (Matt 28:18-20), the apostles had full authority to write Scripture. When Ananias and Sapphira pretended to tithe the full price of their sold property to the church, Peter rebuked them and said, “You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:4). Lying to an apostle was considered the same as lying to God the Holy Spirit, an authority no human could claim today.

Peter was Christ’s closest disciple and commissioned head of the apostles (Matt 16:18-19); Paul witnessed Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19) and from then on received direct revelations from Christ (1 Cor 2:13; 14:37; 2 Cor 13:3). John, the author of five books of the New Testament, received messages from God through visions of Christ, resulting in the book of Revelation.

2) The apostles endorsed the New Testament books not written by apostles.

Since apostles had the authority to write God-breathed Scripture, this means that twenty-two of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are automatically included in the canon of the New Testament, leaving only five books of the New Testament not written by apostles: Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews,¹⁰ and Jude.¹¹ However, Peter discipled Mark, Paul discipled Luke, Jude was Jesus’ brother, and the author of Hebrews clearly wrote under the authority and supervision of the apostles (cf. Heb 2:1-4). Since the apostles never once rejected these five books, they obviously endorsed them. Had they not, the early church would have long ago cast them out as bogus.

3) Several New Testament books are equated with Old Testament Scripture.

Peter considered Paul’s writings equal to the Old Testament Scriptures (2 Pet 3:15-16) and Paul called Luke’s writings Scripture (1 Tim 5:17-18; cf. Luke 10:7).

How do we know there is no new revelation from God today?

1) No more apostles.

It was to His apostles that Christ gave the authority to write Scriptures and lead the early church (Matt 16:18-19; John 14:26; Acts 1:8). But the apostles did not live forever and with their passing came the close of the era of new revelation from God.¹² However, the apostles did not leave us empty-handed but wrote down their God-breathed teachings and today we have their writings as the authority by which to live.

2) Paul’s exhortation to Timothy.

In his very last letter, 2 Timothy, Paul gave Timothy the pastor no instructions regarding prophecy or receiving direct revelation, but instead, constantly exhorted him to teach and preach the doctrines of Paul and the apostles (2 Tim 4:2). The church at this stage clearly needed no new revelation. The apostles were a dying breed and the church was to hold fast to their writings, not look for new messages from God.

3) The last warning of the New Testament (Rev 22:18-19). John the Apostle writes,

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book (Rev 22:18-19).

Though this warning most clearly applies to the immediate book of Revelation, because God has providentially brought the entire Bible together into one book, I think it is not a stretch to say that this warning applies to all of the Bible as well. The book of Revelation also closes with the expectation of Christ’s return, indicating that this is the next act of divine intervention to expect before any new revelation is given (much like Malachi’s closing prophecy of the coming of Elijah): “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Rev 22:20-21).

4) The New Testament implies no more revelation.

Jude 3 speaks with a certain finality of the faith “once for all handed down to all the saints,” implying that all that was given is now being given by the apostles.

The author of Hebrews reveals his conviction that Christ and the apostles had full authority to proclaim direct revelation (Heb 2:3-4). In 1 Corinthians 2:10 Paul makes a clear distinction between the apostles and his readers, stating “to us [i.e. the apostles] God revealed them [the gospel and doctrine] through the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:10) and he makes the same distinction in 1 Corinthians 14:37-38.

I fully admit that the Bible never directly states that the act of divine revelation ceased with the writing of Revelation, and I also admit that the conclusions above are inferred from the passages rather than bluntly stated. However, when the believer gives honest attention to the apostles’ undeniable authority matched by no one since their time, the rooting of the church in the doctrines of the apostles, and the church’s almost unanimous agreement that no further revelation has come from God for the last 2,000 years (with a few exceptions of heretics and fanatical pockets of extremists), it would be a desperate case to try to assert that God is still adding to His Scriptures, and even more desperate for someone to propose any writing to this level of authority.

James L. Boyer wrote, "There are no revealers of new divine truths today. God has said all He has to say in this book. This book is all the prophet and all the prophecy there is today. There are those who edify the church by expounding the prophecies of this book but they are not prophets."¹³

How do we know what books go in the New Testament?

For years, Christian scholars have discussed, researched and pondered the criteria used by the church from the 2nd to 4th century to determine what New Testament books should be included in the canon. At minimum, general criteria agreed upon includes the following:

1. Apostle authorship or endorsement.

The book had to be written by an apostle or someone closely associated with one. This quickly rules out books like Shepherd of Hermas, the Gospel of Thomas and the Revelation of Paul.^14.

2. Age.

The book must be written during the time of the apostles. This quickly negates any effort to include a book in the canon that was written after the time of the apostles.

3. Doctrinal accuracy.

The book must be in doctrinal agreement with the teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles.

4. Use and acceptance.

The book must be generally accepted and used by the majority of Christians in the age it was written. For example, if someone wrote a book that contradicted the known teaching of Christ and His apostles or that purported a lie or deception, it would have been promptly rejected by the early Christians.

All four of these marks are clearly true of the New Testament books in our Bibles today. However, it must be noted that although these elements most certainly carried impact, the church never met and wrote up these criteria as a litmus test for each book. These principles are simply summations of what the church already believed and understood. This is important to understand.

The church never did and never will hold final authority to say what should be in the Bible and what should not.¹⁵ At the Damasine Council of Rome (a.d. 382) and the third Council of Carthage (a.d. 386) the church could do no more than affirm the books that God had already made obvious were His Word.

And God did this in a very slow and almost imperceptible way as His sovereign Spirit led Christians to know what was true and what was not. In fact, the earliest source we have listing all 27 books of the New Testament together is from a letter of Athanasius in a.d. 367. But bear in mind that from the first century on, the Christians had strong convictions that the books we have today were indeed, the Word of God! “The process of recognition did not establish the canon; it simply vindicated that which had been long since established.”¹⁶

The church never created the canon. The confusion usually starts when people think the canon was not established until councils were held. But what actually brought these councils into action was heretics like Marcion claiming that certain books should not be in the Bible.

Robert Reymond writes, “…the church’s coming to an understanding of which books were to comprise the New Testament canon and to the realization that that canon was complete was a slow, almost imperceptible, process.”¹⁷ On the same line George Salmon notes, “It is a remarkable fact that we have no early interference of Church authority in the making of a Canon; no Council discussed this subject; no formal decisions were made. The Canon seems to have shaped itself…”¹⁸

This is remarkable. The weight of the Scriptures single-handedly crushed all rival books by its own self-authenticating credibility. God’s hand of providence and the power of His Word were too mighty to oppose.

Had Christianity been a man-made religion, no human in his right mind would have used this method for determining the canon of the Scriptures. But as Christians read the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit within them verified that what they read was no ordinary human writing, but an act of God who divinely breathed out His words through the pens of men. Martin H. Franzmann writes,

The New Testament collection has a curiously informal and almost casual sort of history. The book that was destined to remain the sacred book for millions of Christians for century upon century came into the church without fanfare, in a quiet, shuffling sort of way. Its history is not at all what we should expect the history of a sacred book to be. The story of the Book of Mormon is a good example of how man thinks a sacred book should come to man—miraculously, guaranteed by its miraculousness. The canon is a miracle indeed, but a miracle of another sort, a miracle like the incarnation of our Lord, a miracle in servant’s form. Only a God who is really Lord of all history could risk bringing His written word into history in the way the New Testament was actually brought in.¹⁹

In the end, we must ask if we really do believe in a sovereign God of love and mercy who gives us all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). Would God who reigns over every atom in space and who loves us infinitely more than we could love ourselves, leave us without a book of Scripture that we needed for the last 2,000 years? Would God who promised to keep and preserve His words (Ps 12:6), who said His Word will stand forever (Is 40:8), who said not a single letter or stroke will pass away from the Law (Matt 5:18), who said it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than His own words to pass away (Luke 16:17); would God who claims these things fail to perform them? We know not only by our experiences of His continued faithfulness but by the continued fulfilled promises of God’s Word that this cannot be so.

So do we have no more and no less than the full canon of Scripture in our Bibles? The ultimate answer to that question goes back to God’s character. If He really is a sovereign, all-wise, and merciful Creator who loves His people and who values the canon of Scripture so greatly that the cost of adding or subtracting from His Word is damnation (Rev 22:18-19), then we have no reason to doubt that the Bible we hold is the full revelation of God, being all that He wanted to reveal to us.

Since the time of the early church no serious attempt has been made to include or exclude any books of the New Testament we have today. This alone should speak volumes to the sovereign protection of God, who protected His Word as He spoke through Christ, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished (Matt 5:18).

The four criteria outlined above help to reveal the high standard expected of any book that wanted a place in the Book of books, but even these ultimately depend on man’s approval and not God’s. As Gleason L. Archer so wisely comments, “The only true text of canonicity is the testimony of God the Holy Spirit to the authority of His own Word.”²⁰

In the end, it was the Holy Spirit who led the early Christians to know and affirm what was divinely inspired, and what fell below the mark. Wayne Grudem writes,

As we read Scripture the Holy Spirit works to convince us that the books we have in Scripture are all from God and are his words to us. It has been the testimony of Christians throughout the ages that as they read the books of the Bible, the words of Scripture speak to their hearts as no other books do. Day after day, year after year, Christians find that the words of the Bible are indeed the words of God speaking to them with an authority, a power, and a persuasiveness that no other writings possess.²¹

The sixty-six books of the Bible are the books God chose to preserve, and knowing He is as sovereign as He is good, we can trust that He gave us no more and no less than what we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3).

I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much. ~ C.H. Spurgeon ~

Review and Discussion Questions (for a study group):

Review

1. In relation to the Bible, what does “canon” mean? _______________________

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2. What did the prophets of the Old Testament do in order to preserve the messages God gave them?

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3. Since he was born years later, how did Moses write all the events of Genesis?

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4. What were two signs that a prophet was really from God?

1) ___________________

2) ___________________

5. In every era of direct revelation, what has God used to prove that His prophets are speaking His words and not their own?

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6. What are the nine witnesses that no more books are to be added to the Old Testament?
1) _________________________________________________________

2) _________________________________________________________

3) _________________________________________________________

4) _________________________________________________________

5) _________________________________________________________

6) _________________________________________________________

7) _________________________________________________________

8) _________________________________________________________

9) _________________________________________________________

7. True of False: The Jews and church fathers accepted the Apocrypha as part of the Old Testament canon (in other words, as Scripture).

8. In 1546 at the Council of Trent, why did the Roman Catholic Church announce the Apocrypha as part of the Old Testament canon?

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9. Give three reasons why we know we know that the writings of the apostles and their associates were the Word of God.

1) _________________________________________________________

2) _________________________________________________________

3) _________________________________________________________

10. Write out four reasons we know that there is no new revelation from God today.

1) _________________________________________________________

2) _________________________________________________________

3) _________________________________________________________

4) _________________________________________________________

11. Provide four criteria the early church used to determine what books were actually the Word of God.

1) _________________________________________________________

2) _________________________________________________________

3) _________________________________________________________

4) _________________________________________________________

Discussion Questions

1. An unbeliever tells you, “People didn’t decide which books belong in the Bible until almost a.d. 400, so we don’t know if it’s true or not.” How would you respond?

2. Clearly, the coming together of the canon of the Old and New Testaments was not a clean cut process. It almost seemed random and half-hazard. How can we know for sure that what we have is the full and complete Word of God?

3. Why do you think God let the canon of Scripture come together so unofficially?

4. Portions of the Apocrypha contain the history of Israel in between the time of the Old and New Testaments. Should we read these? How much authority do you think these books carry?

5. Someone believes that the gift of prophecy (i.e. direct revelation from God) exists today and that she receives messages from God every now and then. How would you respond to her?

Endnotes

1. Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Word, 1998), 60. 

2. The Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes descended from the line of one of Alexander the Great’s four generals who took over Alexander’s Greek kingdom after his early death. When Antiochus Epiphanes traveled south to make war on Egypt, Roman emissary, Popilius Laenas, intercepted him and told him to return home or he’d face the wrath of Rome (who was quickly gaining power). Antiochus refused, so Popilius drew a circle in the dirt around Antiochus and said, “You will make a decision before you step outside this circle.” Humiliated and angry, Antiochus retreated. On his way home he unleashed his fury on Israel, desecrated the temple, made people exercise in the nude, tortured all who wouldn’t submit, and consequently sparked the famous War of the Maccabees as recorded in the Old Testament apocrypha. These events took place during the “blackout” interval between the Old and New Testaments. 

3. Most of these scrolls are dated approximately a.d. 130-50.4

4. See Roger Nicole, “New Testament Use of the Old Testament,” in Revelation and the Bible, ed. Carl F. H. Henry (London: Tyndale Press, 1959), 137-141.

5. The Jews of Christ’s day used the term, “The Law and the Prophets” to refer to the entire Old Testament.

6. The Books of Enoch is a part of the Pseudepigrapha. It is called this (pseudo = false and pigrapha = writings, thus, false writings) because these books falsely claim authorship they never had, to increase their appearance of authority. 

7. The Apocrypha is made up of the following books: 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with the Epistle of Jeremy, the Song of the three Holy Children, the History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

8. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 57. 

9. E. J. Young quoted by Grudem, 57.  

10. Although no one knows for sure who wrote the book of Hebrews, the author draws a clear distinction between himself and the apostles in chapter 2, “After it [God’s Word] was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb 2:3-4). The “those who heard” who did miracles were the apostles. If the author was an apostle he would have said “we” instead of “them”. 

11. Galatians 1:19 verifies that James was an apostle. 

12. To be an apostle one must have been personally commissioned by Jesus Christ (or commissioned by another apostle who saw Christ) and be able to perform miracles (2 Cor 12:12), something no one has legitimately claimed today. 

13. James L. Boyer quoted by Tim Stafford in "The Pentecostal Gold Standard," Christianity Today (July 2005), 29.

14. The Revelation of Paul was spurious, meaning it was forged. Someone pretending to be Paul wrote it.  

15. The Roman Catholic Church declared the Apocrypha as Scriptures at the Council of Trent in a.d. 1546, but this was far beyond her authority. 

16. Larry Pettegrew, Systematic Theology syllabus, 61. 

17. Reymond, 62.

18. George Salmon quoted by Henry Clarence Thiessen, Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949), 103.

19. Martin H. Franzmann, quoted by Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 69. 

20. Gleason L. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago: Moody, 1994), 85. 

21. Grudem, 66.