LBCF 1:2-3 - The Forming of Our Canon

Why This Study?

What is the Word of God?

Why do we say that the books that are in our Bible are the Word of God?

Why isn’t the Apocrypha the Word of God?

Why isn’t the Book of Mormon the Word of God?

Why aren’t the Watchtower Writings the Word of God?

These are important and critical questions that you must understand.

These two sections teach that

These Holy Scriptures include the Old and the New Testaments and all the particular books named.

The books called “Apocrypha” form no part of the Sacred Canon.

All the canonical books were divinely inspired, and hence are an infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice.

I was tempted to skip these two sections, or cover them very quickly, but I felt we needed to study this topic.

Have you ever heard of these books?

Maccabees

Book of Enoch

Shepherd of Hermas

Epistle of Barnabas

Why the book of Esther? Why Revelation?

2 Peter 1:16–21 NKJV

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Reading of the Confession

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The Holy Scriptures, or the Word of God written, consist of all the books of the Old and New Testaments. These are:

THE OLD TESTAMENT: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

THE NEW TESTAMENT: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation.

All of these are given by the inspiration of God to be the standard of faith and life.

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The books commonly called the Apocrypha were not given by divine inspiration and so are not part of the canon or standard of the Scriptures. Therefore, they have no authority for the church of God and are not to be recognized or used in any way different from other human writings.

Passages Supporting the Preservation of God’s Word

Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 5:18; 24:35

Isaiah 40:8 NKJV

The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

Matthew 5:18 NKJV

For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Matthew 24:35 NKJV

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

(see also Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33)

Study on the Canon

This study is necessary so you understand why these books and why the others were regarded as different.

Men who wrote Scripture were aware that they wrote the words of God

As men wrote these books, they came to be aware that they had written the Word of God.

The community of the faithful recognized that these books were the Word of God because the Spirit of God caused them to recognize the Master’s voice.

Each new book was added to the collection that Moses had begun. This process went on during the Old Testament times and continued in the New Testament.

We see this process in action in 2 Peter 3:16, where Peter refers to Paul’s letters as already part of the canon (list) of Scripture.

2 Peter 3:16 NKJV

as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

Church History Shows Discernment On Which Books Were Regarded As Scripture

Our current canon of the Bible did not come into existence until the fourth century A.D., specifically 367 A.D.

During the second century A.D., the heretic Marcion produced a list of his approved books of the Bible.

You may remember this same person from early heresies in church history around the Trinity.

Marcion held that the Old Testament God was an evil god of wrath, so he eliminated the Old Testament and those places in the New Testament that favorably referred to the God of the Old Testament.

To answer Marcion, Athanasius responded with which books were accepted by the church as Scripture.

How was this list formed?

For the most part, the church simply listed the books that had always been recognized as the Word of God; this was not by a part of Christianity but all of Christianity.

Questions were raised about a few short New Testament books, like Jude and the letters of John, but the church determined that these were truly Scripture because they had always been recognized as apostolic, and because there was nothing suspicious about their content.

A couple of other books, such as the First Letter of Clement and the Shepherd of Hermas, were proposed for inclusion, but the church did not include them because the authors of these books themselves indicate a clear difference between their authority and the authority of the apostles.

None of the other books in circulation were seriously considered because they were obvious frauds.

Interview with Dr. Robert Plummer on the Canon

https://equip.sbts.edu/video/how-did-we-get-biblical-canon/