The Canonicity of Scripture

[00:00:00] Speaker A: So one time when I was in middle school, wonder if anyone has ever had this experience. I was walking to my mom's car. She was picking me up from school, and as I was crawling in the back seat, I noticed that I was in the wrong car. Has anyone else ever done that? Katie's done it. Nobody. Nobody's fessin up. I guess we got, like, probably a good number of homeschool students in here, but you ever crawled into the wrong car? Nobody's ever done that or, like, opened the door. Wow. It happened to you, or are you just making that up? It's happened to you opened the door. [00:00:42] Speaker B: But I haven't gotten in. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was like. I was like, in the midst. I was halfway out, but, okay, so it's happened, right? And you're like, it's jarring, right? Well, I was just thinking about that, and I'm glad I'm not the only person that's ever happened to. This is kind of the surprise that I think we found when we look at how the Roman catholic church has canonized the bible. You see, certain books crept in late in history, and they just let those people, those books stay in their car. They didn't tell them to get out and go find their own car. They let them into scripture. Now, what I'm talking about, I'll be less veiled, is that the Roman Catholic Church has different books in their Bible than us. And that's kind of our topic. Canonicity is, you know, that's the topic we're going to talk about. I know that's a silly way to talk about it, but we'll explain and understand better why the books we have in these bibles in front of us are the correct books. They are inspired by God and any others are not. But let's start with our basics because we got to get warmed up. So let's get warmed up this morning for participating. Let's hear. What is theology, Hank? Study of God. Anything else we like to add, Caleb? Yeah. And how to be more like Christ. As we study God, as we get to know him, then we will necessarily know Christ and become like him. So what have we studied so far? We've been studying the doctrine of scripture, and we're actually on the 7th and final aspect of the doctrine of scripture, the word of God. What are the other six we've done? Inspiration. Authority. Clarity. Clarity. You have a different one. Truthfulness, maybe? Is that what you're thinking of? That is one of them. Truthfulness, the inerrant. Okay, necessity. I'm sorry? [00:03:06] Speaker C: Necessity. [00:03:07] Speaker A: Necessity and sufficiency. Those were together. Necessity and sufficiency. Was that 12345? Have we done them all? Transformative power. That's right. Yeah. It's hard to keep track. I should write them out so I can remember if we said them all. I think that's all of them. Okay, so that's what we've done so far. And now kind of at the end, interestingly, we're talking about. Okay, so we believe. If we believe all these things about the Bible, we want to make sure we're reading the Bible, the actual word of God. Right. So that's what we're doing here. Does anyone know what the word canon means? An important event in your life? I don't know. That might be right. I know there's more than one word. Right. Because it's also a weapon. But that's not what we're talking about. But, okay. What? [00:04:00] Speaker D: It's something that's considered official or like. [00:04:02] Speaker A: A part of the whole of the scripture. Yeah. So when we're talking about the Bible, the canon means it's the Bible to make it into the canon of scripture. It's like the official list. So to say it was declared at a certain point, but the books in the Bible were used well before it was declared by the church. The main idea of our lesson today is this. The first blank is the canon of scripture. So that word we just talked about, the canon of scripture, or the list of which writings belong in the inspired word of God, consists of. How many books? I heard 66. That's correct. I. There are 66 books. That's a good little Bible trivia piece. So let's start here with our first point. We'll make some comparisons. This will help us see what is the difference. What is going on with different versions of the Bible? When I say versions, I mean between roman catholic canon, protestant canon, nothing. Translations, like NIv, eSV. Those have the same books. Okay, so we know there are 66 books. How many are in the Old Testament? Does anybody know that? 39. Yeah, that's right. And so New Testament has 27. There you go. Perfect. How many are in the Roman Catholic New Testament? The Roman Catholic New Testament is 27. It's the exact same. How about the Old Testament? That was a trick question. Anyone, any guesses? No, it's different. It's not 42, but that's close. It's higher. 46. They have 46 books in the Old Testament, 27 in the new. The exact same. In the Old Testament, they have books. Tobit, Judith, wisdom, ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and first and second Maccabees. Plus there are additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. [00:06:26] Speaker E: I know it. [00:06:27] Speaker A: 2020. What, in the New Testament? [00:06:32] Speaker E: Old. [00:06:33] Speaker A: In the old. No, there's 39. Some of them might be confusing because first and second. Now, the Hebrews, they combine the first and second into one big book, but that's not, you know, that's beside the point. Well, I want us to kind of see an example of what is in this. So if you guys would turn to the back of your handout, we're going to look at that first passage, which is from Daniel 14. Daniel in your Bible has twelve chapters. This is from Daniel 14. And now we'll talk about where all of this comes from in a little bit. But I want you guys to listen as. Or actually, can I get. I'll just take two volunteers to read this. Can two volunteers split this up? Can someone read verses 23 through 27? Okay, David. And then can you read the rest, which would be 28 to 30? [00:07:42] Speaker C: There's also a great dragon. Babylonian. [00:07:49] Speaker A: Reverb. [00:07:51] Speaker C: Revere. And the king said to Daniel, you cannot deny that this is a living God. So worship. Daniel said, I will worship the Lord my God, for he is the living God. But if you, o king, will give me permission, I will slay the dragon without sword or cloak. The king said, I give you permission. Then Daniel took pitch, fat and hair and boiled them together to make caves. Made this, which he fed to the dragon. The dragon ate them and burst open. And Daniel said, see what you have been worshipping? [00:08:27] Speaker E: When the Babylonians heard it, they were very indignant and conspired against the king, saying, the king has become a jew. He has destroyed Bel and slain the dragon and slaughtered the priests. Going to the king, they said, hand Daniel over to us or else we will kill you in your household. The king saw that they were pressing him hard. Under compulsion, he handed Daniel over to them. They threw Daniel into the lion's den, and he was there for six days. [00:08:50] Speaker A: Okay, so tell me what you guys thought. What are your impressions? That's pretty insane. It is. Who knew that Daniel slayed a dragon with cakes? Goliath. It took a rock. Dragon just took cakes seriously. Any other impressions, anything that you notice that are just piqued your interest or thoughts, why is it not in the Bible? We will get to that in a little bit. Now, part of it, I think, is that I'm not sure there's clear evidence that this happened. It wasn't removed at any point, contrary to what maybe a roman catholic friend might tell you it was not removed at any point. And I don't know any of corroborating evidence that this happened. I'm not willing to say it didn't happen because I believe the earth was created in six days. I believe Jonah was swallowed by a fish and spit out three days later. I believe a dead man raised to life again. So I have no problem believing that there was a dragon that was slayed, but there's no evidence that it happened. And the Hebrews, I don't believe, ever believed it either. It wasn't in their bible, the Tanakh, which is just the old Testament. It wasn't then and it never has been. So it's kind of odd how it crept in there. Now let's go to that other passage. Second Maccabees 1239 through 45. Can I get a couple more people to volunteer to read this? Ezra, can you read verses 39 to 42? And then, Hank, you can read 43 to the end. [00:10:40] Speaker D: On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchres. Sepulchres of their fathers. Then, under the tunic of every one of the dead, they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. And it became clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge who reveals the things that are hidden. And they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin. They had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. [00:11:33] Speaker B: He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of 2000 cracking Jerusalem to revive for us and offer. In doing this, he acted very well account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been super foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking for this splendid reward that is light up for those who fall sleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thing. Therefore, he made atonement for the dead that they might deliver from sin. [00:12:16] Speaker A: Thank you. What do you guys notice that this passage might teach? Maybe specifically some things that aren't, we don't find elsewhere in the Bible? Yeah, the Roman Catholic teaching and practice of praying for the dead. We don't pray for the dead. We pray for families of the dead, but not for the dead. But because of this addition, it has affected what they believed. Is there anything else? It's a little harder to see. So I'll just say unless anyone has a guess, I think we also see some justification that they would use for the doctrine of purgatory, which states that there's basically a waiting place after one dies where you burn off the excess sins that you committed before entering heaven. So when you are baptized, it removes original sin. But then all the sins you commit afterward must be atoned for somehow, and Christ's death merely gave the ability for them to be atoned. Therefore, you must actually atone for them in purgatory for however many thousands of years. That's another thing that is taken into account here, because they're making offerings, they're praying that their purgatory time might be shortened, knowing that there will be a resurrection. So we see that this isn't unimportant. If this is in the Bible, then there's something to be said for those teachings. But if it's not in the Bible, then they are horribly mistaken, which is obviously what I believe. So let's go on to some affirmations. We'll get into why and how this happened. I just wanted us to compare because we don't often read those, and that is quite all right, but it helps us kind of know where they're coming from. Let's go to second Timothy. So if you flip in your bibles to second Timothy, chapter three. Second Timothy three. Can someone read verses 14 and 15? Anyone? Verses 14 and 15? 2nd Timothy three. Thank you. [00:15:09] Speaker E: 14 and 15. [00:15:10] Speaker A: Yep. [00:15:12] Speaker E: But as for you continuing what you have learned, as I firmly believe, knowing that he, however, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation and for Christ. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Thank you. What are these sacred writings? What do we think he's talking about to tinnity? Something he's been reading since childhood? You have a guess, Kayden? Yeah, I think that's right. The Hebrew Bible, the scripture that Timothy would have grown up hearing and understanding. So we can know that the content of that Bible, what the Jews had handed down, is the same as in our Old Testament Bible. See, the confusion that occurred was that just a few years before Christ was born, there was something called the Septuagint that was written. Now, you may not remember that name, but it's okay. The Septuagint was a translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, into Greek, which was a more common spoken language. So, this is the first translation into Greek. That's what the Septuagint is. But in this translation, those books I listed in the passages we read were included. The Jews had never accepted them into the Tanakh, what they read, and they still have never accepted them into the Tanakh, what they read. But it was in the greek translation. For some reason, the translators decided to put them in. I don't know why. Maybe some scholar knows why, but I couldn't find an answer. And so this is where they find these extra books, which you might hear called the apocrypha. Apocrypha. That can be your word of the day. Try to use it in a sentence at lunch. But we know that this more than just the Hebrews never accepting those passages into their Bible. And that's exactly where we get ours, because our faith comes from the jewish faith, because Christ was a jew. We have several lists from the early church, the first one in 200, 300 years of church history that do not include these books either. They don't. Around the time that the canon, however, was pronounced, so that was in the 300s. So a few hundred years into church history, the church gets together to officially declare. So, just so that everybody's clear which books belong in the canon. Now, we already had the Bible. The scripture existed. These books were being used and read and preached from and studied. They understood that it was the word of God before this council happened. But this council, there were a couple of competing ideas. One guy named Jerome was a historian, and he said, look, these are the books people have been using, and this is the Old Testament handed down from the Hebrews. These other books came from the Septuagint. We can read those if we want, but they should not be taught as scripture. They should not affect our doctrine and our beliefs. Now, he said this, but another historian and theologian named Augustine disagreed, and he ended up winning the opinions. And he claimed that the Holy Spirit not only inspired the Old Testament and the New Testament, but he inspired the people who translated the Old Testament into Greek. Therefore, those extra books would be scripture. But is this true? So, I want to ask you guys that question. Did the Holy Spirit inspire the translators of the Septuagint? Why or why not? Might have to think back to our first inspiration lesson. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. It was. It was a. And it was an addition later on. But that part you said at the beginning where it was, it was inspired and written beforehand. The specific 39 books, they were written beforehand. It was added, and so I don't think it's true. I don't think they inspired the translators. Right. We believe the Bible in its original language is inspired. So even as we read in English, we know that occasionally there could be a word that's a little confusing. But ultimately, we would need to go back to the original language to understand the meaning, because the original language is what was inspired. Translations like ours are good and reliable, but they are technically not the inspired part. It was the original writings. Thankfully, we have a good record of them and good translations, but that's why the translation is not inspired by the spirit. Let's go to another passage that we've seen before, Luke 24. So I don't know if you guys have noticed this. We've gone to a lot of the same passages for these different lessons, and it's like, the more you read these verses, the more different ideas and doctrines come out. So, Luke 24. Look at verse 44. I'll read this one. Luke 24 44. Then Jesus said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. So the law, the prophets, and the writings. What is this referring to? You guys know this. The Old Testament, right? This is a common. The law, the prophets, the writings. That's actually why they call their Bible the Tanakh, because that's a, like a. And what's the word letters that stand for? What acronym? Thank you. An acronym. Couldn't think of the word acronym. T. N k. Torah, law, navi'im, prophet, Katuvim. Writings. The law, the prophets, and the psalms are the writings that's. He's referring to the Hebrew Bible so clearly and so we can know confidently that this Hebrew Bible that we have translated in our bibles is correct. But we also want to know about the New Testament. Even though there's agreement between Roman Catholics and Protestants, we still want to make sure we have the right books, because there are other books written falsely by people claiming to be apostles and such. So we should want to be confident in these 27 two. How do you think the church recognized what books were in the New Testament? When they were deciding and passing things around and they came across a letter, how do you think they decided, is this real or fake? By who wrote it? Yeah. Yeah. So who wrote it is certainly important. Anything else? It's a good answer. That's great. Well, here are basically the two criteria. The first is apostolicity. Apostolicity, which gets at what you were saying. The book had to have been written by an apostle. So an apostle was someone who witnessed the resurrected Jesus and was commissioned by him for service. So we have his eleven or the twelve disciples. They replaced Judas and then Paul. In addition, were apostles, or they had to be close associates or companions, traveling partners of one of the apostles. So, for example, Mark, he was not an apostle, but he was a companion of Peter. And Peter told him the stories that he recorded similarly with Luke and his friendship with Paul. So we see that these close companions were also able to know what Christ would reveal to them through the spirit. The second criterion is antiquity. I know apostolicity, antiquity, two words with A's, basically. Was it written by an apostle or an apostle's friend or what? Is it old? Is it old if it's written today, or if it was written in the early 20th or late 19th century by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith? It's not the Bible, it's an addition. The book had to have been recognized as scripture by the early church. So within the first 100, 150 years, they had to have been passed around and spread. And there has to have been evidence that they were being used in churches and preaching and studying and reading aloud to the congregation. And these 27 books have such evidence. They were being passed around and people were copying them so that other churches could have their own copies, they could read it to the church and be benefited. So they had to be apostolic and old. Basically, newer writing would not have been acceptable because as time goes on, they would get less and less accurate. The first list on the New Testament books that we have officially is from 367. So it took quite a while for it to be recognized because there wasn't a way for mass quick communication. So we have to recognize that it did take a while, but it happened, and we know that the apostles believed this. If you go to second Peter with me. Second Peter, chapter three. Two Peter 315 and 16. Say this, Peter's writing, and count the patience of our lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters. When he speaks in them of these matters, there are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. So we've gone to this verse many times. Peter is saying that Paul even is writing scripture. They understood that what they were writing was inspired. And so that is an example of apostolicity as well as the fact of Mark writing his gospel with Peter's help. But let's go to our third point and ask some questions to kind of help us firm up our understanding. So this is questions. Oh, gotta put an e there. So, our first question, I want to hear from you guys. Can you? And should you read the apocrypha? Remember, those are the Old Testament. Well, the Roman Catholic Old Testament books that we talked about, should we read those? I see a no. Anyone say yes, jonah, do you have a different answer? [00:27:25] Speaker C: I think you could, as long as you're keeping in mind the fact that it is not scripture, you just can't do with the attitude of it. [00:27:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Now, I think the hard part is maybe, how do you do that and make it worthwhile? Now, we did read some of it today, so I hope we're allowed to at least read it a little bit, because we did read two kind of long passages. We read a lot of apocrypha. Maybe don't tell your parents that, but at least give them the context. Okay. So, sure you can. And you can use it for general wisdom. There's some inspiring stories, right? I mean, Daniel slaying a dragon is kind of a cool story. And, you know, I'm sure that there is general wisdom in a lot of them. I admittedly have not read the vast majority of them. So you can, but remember, you shouldn't read them and question your christian beliefs, because those passages cannot and should not form what we believe. But yes, sure, you can read. If you are curious. When I was in seminary, I even had to read false epistles and gospels that people had written in different countries way later claiming to be written by an apostle. And they were bizarre. Okay, so that's our first one. How about this next question? Because, remember, the canon was. Or the first list that was written out of in full wasn't until 367. Now, there were lists, and there's evidence of these different books well before, but the first time they were all put in one list was 367. Was the Holy Spirit active and influential while the church compiled the canon? Yes, yes, yes. It's not a trick question. It's kind of the. Well, yeah, obviously you're going to say that, but it's important, right, if it took this long, but we have no idea of the spirit, and we have no doctrine of the spirit being active in the church and in our lives, then we really, really just have to hope and cross our fingers that we have the right books, but we believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus said in John 14 that the Holy Spirit would teach the apostles all things, that he would help them teach the church and equip churches with the truth. And because we believe that, and we believe that the spirit is active and alive today, that he is gracious to preserve his word so that it will accomplish his purpose. Remember that. Here's another passage, Isaiah. You guys don't have to flip here. I'll just read this real quick. Isaiah 55. We've read this a few times as well. Isaiah 55, ten and eleven. If you want to write it down. Isaiah 55, ten and eleven. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. So, yes, he is gracious to preserve his word. And we believe that the spirit was with the church as they compiled this list and as the copies were made and passed around. And now later, as we've seen these copies that were passed around and have compared them, we see that they're incredibly accurate. Third question in this section. If God allowed the church to accept the apocrypha for 1100 years, from roughly the fifth to the 16th century, how can we Protestants be confident that we have the right Bible? I think it's a little difficult to answer that, because that is 1100 years where technically the official church believed something wrong. That doesn't mean everyone in the church believed something wrong. Of course we don't believe that, but this is a point where we have to recognize that we don't know everything. We just don't. And through history, God repeatedly helps the church clarify what we believe. Right. The church has always believed in the Trinity, but right at the beginning, difficult to articulate. And so some people made mistakes in how they articulated, how the father, the Son, and the spirit are all equally one God. Saying the words was difficult, and so they would argue about it and say, no, you're missing the point or you're skewing this truth about God. And after some controversy, they clarified, and now we have three persons, one being, and we have those words. Before that argument, they had none of those words. After the Reformation, some things were clarified, including how we understand what justification is and who has final authority. Is it the Bible or is it the teachings of the church? Well, we learned and reaffirmed that it is indeed the Bible because people and institutions make mistakes. And so we must recognize that people make mistakes and God corrects us eventually. We should seek to be the word is reformed by the word of God. Even now, we shouldn't presume that we have everything figured out. We should trust that we know what the Bible says, but always be willing for the Bible and God through the spirit to correct us. And that's what he did in the 16th century. He corrected the church's mistake. So we need to accept that humbly. And I think that's kind of the answer that we're looking for. That's how we can be confident, because we know that even though the church erred for 1100 years ish before that, what is the original? What was the before they made that mistake? The church had the right books. It was added in later, and then we got rid of it. And so we didn't take from the Bible. We went back to what it was supposed to be. Now let's go to our resolutions while we still have time. Number four, resolutions. And if you guys have any more questions about any of this stuff, please let me know and I'll try to find answers and, you know, help you. You guys? Yeah. Seriously, because it's kind of a difficult topic, because there's a lot of history involved, and I'm trying not to bore us too much on a Sunday morning because it really is a lot of history. We're not in the Bible as much, but I think this helps us grasp the Bible. Now for our resolutions. Number four, I want to hear from you guys. Based on what we've learned, how can our lives change? How can we apply what we have learned today? You know, so we study theology, who God is, what his word is. How is this supposed to change our lives? Yeah, that's a good one. When you're reading outside of scripture, take it with a grain of salt. Yeah. And I was about to bail you guys out because I do think it's probably one of the harder ones, but we don't want to just study it and not know what to do. So that's one thing. We can read other things, but they shouldn't be the guiding principle of our lives. Even if you really like that book, whatever it might be, or a show or a teacher or whatever it is, if it's not scriptural, it shouldn't change our lives. And so that also means on the other end of it, when we read the Bible, we should really earnestly look and see. Is there some way that God is correcting me as I read this. Is there a command that I've been disobeying that I need to obey? You know what? How is God trying to correct my life? Because we believe that these 66 books in particular are inspired by God and useful. Another way we can apply this is that when you open your Bible, you can be confident that you have the real thing, because a lot of hours of study and argumentation has been spilt over this. In fact, blood has literally been spilt over this. People take it seriously. And we know and can trust from the historical record that we have the right books. And so you can be confident. You don't have to doubt or wonder if this book is as inspired and as important as this book, because they all are. And so that's the other one, I would say. Is there anything else or any other questions before we end? Great. Let's pray and we can go over and worship with the church. Father, thank you for your word. And we praise you that your spirit is faithful to preserve your word to ensure that it accomplishes its purpose, that it is indeed infallible. God, we praise you that we are able to know so much about your word and that your word reveals you. God, we pray that today, as we hear your word read in this church and prayed through and sung and preached God, that you would reform our lives. You would point us to ways that we can live more like Christ. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.