The Doctrine of the Cannon

Preliminary & Review

We have recently been discussing the importance of DOCTRINE

1 Timothy 4:16 KJV 1900

16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

We’ve been using the term “doctrine” as an acronym to share what I see to be the eight most important doctrines.

D= Deity of Christ

0 = Original Sin

C = Canon

T = Trinity

R= Resurrection

I = Incarnation

N= New Creation

E = Eschatology

There are three main types of doctrines, they are sometimes referred to by different names depending on who is teaching, but I will call them:

Core

Secondary

Tertiary

Core: doctrines are absolutely essential truths that are necessary to have eternal life or as we might put it in our tradition - make it to heaven.

Secondary: A secondary doctrine is best defined as something that is important to take a stand on but that salvation itself does not hinge on these doctrines. A secondary doctrine would be something that a local church or confessional statement should divide from others but the division on the issue is one among brothers. - https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/primary-or-secondary-importance-some-cautions

Tertiary: These are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and yet keep the closest of fellowship between networks, between churches, and between individual Christians. An example of a tertiary doctrine would be the timing of the rapture during the period of tribulation. http://betweenthetimes.com/index.php/tag/tertiary-doctrines/

Now while some may disagree - most of what I’m presenting in this study would be considered CORE doctrines.

We have already dealt with the Deity of Christ and Original Sin today I want to talk to you about the Canon.

Now when use the term “Canon” I’m not talking about those big hulking guns from the Revolutionary war and Civil War days. I’m talking about the Word of God.

And as a starting place or a text I want to draw your attention to 2 Timothy 3:16 - hopefully you can quote it with me, if you can’t make it there in time...

2 Timothy 3:16 KJV 1900

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Now I have told you many times that this ALL SCRIPTURE used by Paul is referring to all of God’s Word what little new writings they had - we will talk about this in a moment - but primarily the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is an interesting study:

The revelation of God was orally communicated. “The word of the Lord came to Abram” (Gen. 15:1)

Often angles were used to communicate God’s message (Gen. 21:17)

Then God spoke through his prophets (Hebrews 1:1)

Now the Bible claims inspiration - Old & New Testaments.

By inspiration - All Scripture is inspired - is the means by which God revealed truth to the Biblical writers and superintended their thoughts and writings. Using their vocabularies, personalities, writing styles, education, background, and historical research, God enabled the authors to write down the exact words He wanted in the Bible. - Sometimes referred to as Plenary Inspiration.

Now I’m not going to be able to give a complete defense for the authority of the Scriptures tonight - if you have specific questions I can attempt to address those later - but tonight I want to base the authority of the Word of God from a faith standpoint - not blind faith, but a in reality all of the claims of the Bible stand or fall on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. -

Took more than 1,500 years to compile

Approximately 40 different authors

Written primarily in Hebrew and Greek, with occasional Aramaic

Various authors: King, peasants, warriors, priests, patriots and prophets

What they wrote comes to us today in two Testaments containing 66 chapters, broken into 1,189 chapters and 31, 173 verses

Back to our word Canon: Those books which together compose the Holy Scripture. These are those books which were communicated to us by God through inspired writers, carefully preserved, and which become authoritative.

Here is a quick run down of history and times -

500 BC: Completion of All Original Hebrew Manuscripts which make up the 39 Books of the Old Testament.

The Jewish Canon - which is limited to the Old Testament, took place in AD 100 at a rabbinical assembly. (Notice the span of time from the completion of the manuscript to the selection of the Canon)

None of the books written between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament - known as the Apocrypha - are considered by either Jew or Christians to be inspired.

200 BC. Completion of the Septuagint Greek Manuscript (LXX) which contain The 39 Old Testament Books AND 14 Apocrypha Books.

Now to a little of the New Testament:

The church accepted the New Testament Books almost as soon as they were written.

2 Peter 3:16

2 Peter 3:16 KJV 1900

16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Peter call’s Paul’s writings on the same level as Scripture -

Other scriptures like this in the New testament as well.

The Reliability of the N.T.—Bibliographical Test

Objection 1: The N.T. was written 100–200 years after the life of Christ. How do we know we don’t have a distorted picture of his life due to this gap?

Answer:

The N.T. was written within 60 (most books within 30) years of the death of Christ (AD 30).

Evidence:

1. Manuscripts have been found that date within or close to the first century:

One Example: John Ryland Papyrus (dated AD 125; fragment of John found in Egypt). The original manuscript must have been written earlier.

2. Early church fathers (Clement, Ignatius) were quoting many of the N.T. books by around AD 100. The books that were quoted had to be in circulation

at that time.

3. There is no hint that the N.T. writers knew of the destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70) as a fact that had already happened.

4. According to history, PAUL died in the AD mid-60’s. At the end of Acts he is still alive. Therefore, Acts and the books Paul wrote most likely were written by the mid-60s. Luke wrote the book of Luke before he wrote the sequel, Acts. So the book of Luke is even earlier.

Conclusion: There was not time for myth to grow up around the life of Christ.

While we do not have any of the original manuscripts of the New Testament books - we do have more than 5000 copies of the New Testament (either fragments or complete copies)

While there are minor and small manuscript errors none of these affect any doctrinal teachings at all. Most of them are dealing with punctuation and misspellings.

There are 6000 Greek 25,000 other language manuscripts. Compared with ancient writings the Bible has more manuscript evidence than any 10 pieces of classical literature combined.

We are confident and assured we know what the original manuscripts said - we have a reliable copy within our grasp today. “It is the inspired Word of God to the extent that it reflects the original manuscripts.”

One has reasoned this way:

Logical Progression:

1. God is the truth – John 14:6 (“I am the way, the truth, and the life…”)

2. Scripture comes from God - 2 Tim. 3:16 (“All Scripture is given…”

3. God cannot lie – Tit. 1:2 (…God, who cannot lie, promised...)

4. The Holy Spirit guided the writers of Scripture so they did not give their own opinion, but only God’s opinion –2 Peter 1:19-21; therefore, “…prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

5. The Bible, which is God’s Word, is the truth.

While I’m sure more logical and persuasive arguments could and should be made - I think for our setting this will suffice.

Now I base my firm belief on the Word of God as authoritative and authentic because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ being a historical fact - we will deal with that more at a later time.

SO I conclude tonight what Paul wrote to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:16 KJV 1900

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: