How Do We Know Which Books Should Be in the Bible?

I’m excited as we continue to look into defending our Christian faith through High School Ministry; it’s going to be a fun ride this semester. This past week we dealt with answering the question, “How do we know which books should be in the Bible?” Let’s look at what we went over, here are my notes from that teaching session:

Some assume that early first century Christianity was a war of different books and ideas about Jesus, and the books that in the Bible were those that happened to survived this war. According to this line of thought, our current brand of the Christian faith and our Bible is basically due to a “Survival of the fittest” process, and this Bible we have is the fittest one in existence in comparison to other weaker versions, while many perfectly fine losers exist. This implies that the books of our Bibles have no more merit than many other ancient books rejected by the church about Jesus, such as the Gospel of Thomas or Gospel of Peter. The books of our current Bible were just the luckiest throughout history.

The Problem

How do we know which books should be in the Bible? How do we know that these are the right books instead of the Gospel of Thomas, or the Gospel of Peter?

What is the Canon?

When talking about what books should be in the Bible, people frequently talk about the “Canon.” To be clear, this isn’t referring to a weapon used in battle. So first, I wanted to define this.

Canon

The Codex Sinaiticus is the earliest complete New
Testament from around 330AD 

The list of books that should be considered sacred Scripture.

There are two canons: the Old Testament Canon and the New Testament Canon. Although both provide unique issues in trying to establish their authority, we will primarily deal with the New Testament Canon.

Does having a Canon make sense?
1. I would argue that if God exists, it makes sense that he has objectively and authoritatively revealed himself.

Objective

By this I mean uninfluenced by a persons’ thoughts or feelings. The Bible is objective, it gives straightforward answers to certain questions such as: Who is God? How are we to live? What is wrong with the world? How is what’s wrong with the world being made right?

Authoritative

By this I mean all people, in all times, and in all places should live in line with it and believe what it says. 2 Timothy 3:16 is important for this, it says “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Useful for teaching, reproof, and correction for whom? There is no qualification because Paul assumes what he’s written is authoritative over all. Also, Paul roots Scripture in God, certainly giving Scripture highest authority.

We will be talking about this in the coming weeks in High School Ministry, but there are an overwhelming number of great reasons to think that God exists. It seems strange to me to think that God exists, but he has not objectively and authoritatively revealed himself to his creation. Why would he not reveal to humanity how we are to live, what is wrong with things, and how things can be made right? It only makes sense that God would authoritatively and objectively reveal himself.

2. If Jesus did miracles and rose from death, it only makes sense that his followers have been given authoritative and objective revelation.

We’ll get into this in the coming weeks, but Christian historians teach that there is no better explanation for the testimonies, the life transformations, the prophecies, the people martyred for sharing about Jesus, and the transformation of Jesus’ own family than the than the fact that Jesus died for sins and miraculously rose from death.

Think about it, a man comes who does miracles like no one who has ever existed in the history of the world, this man gets killed and then miraculously rises from death and shows himself to thousands demonstrating his authority. He then returns to God in heaven, and yet we are given no standard by which to think about him and to think about God?

If Jesus did miracles and rose from death, it only makes sense that his followers have been given authoritative and objective revelation, which is the New Testament Canon.

What books have been left out of the New Testament Canon?

1. Early Church Fathers

Why do the early church fathers always look
so goofy?

These books were actually not rejected, instead they were just not included. The early Church Fathers outside of our New Testament would have seen themselves as teachers, not as writing Scripture. Examples include Clement’s Letter to Rome and the Didache. These books are not bad.

2. False Gospels and Books

An example is the Gospel of Peter. However this was never written by Peter, or one of his followers. It was written in the second century long after Peter had died. The reason behind these books is that false teachers wanted to steal the influence the Apostles had to spread false teaching.

5 Facts you should know about the Canon

1.      The New Testament Canon is rooted in the Apostles
The Apostles were the closest followers of Jesus and were given incredible authority by Jesus. Every New Testament book was either written down by an Apostle, or a close follower of an Apostle. The Gospel of Matthew was written by the Apostle Matthew, and history affirms this. The Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, who history affirms as a close follower of Peter. Also, it’s important to note that the Apostles would have been alive and were able to affirm that the church use the right books from the right men.

In fact, the church’s overt dependence on apostolic writings is precisely why we see the amount of rejected books in the second century that were named after apostles.  We have the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Acts of John, and even the Gospel of the Twelve.  The early church valued books from Apostles so much that false teachers had to try and mimic the genuine ones in order to get a hearing.

2.     The New Testament Canon is from the first century

The New Testament Canon contains the earliest Christian writings we possess. Do you want to know what Jesus really taught? You should rely on the books nearest to his life and death. This is critical because New Testament Canon consists of books written when Jesus’ closest followers would have still been alive.

3.     Any existing false books are from the second century or later

The false Gospels and other books were a rejected set of books that taught differing theology from the our New Testament Canon. The problem is that these books weren’t from the time of Jesus’ closest followers or rooted in the Apostles. Why would we treat books written long after the Apostles died as authoritative? Why would we think they were better reflecting the actual teachings of Jesus? His closest followers are all dead when these books were written.

4.     Early on our New Testament Canon was treated as highest authority
In 2 Peter 3:15-16 the Apostle Peter, who was in Jesus’ inner circle, was calling Paul’s writings Scripture, let’s look there. It says,

“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.”

This is only about 35 years after Jesus lived. Did it take hundreds of years for people to think the New Testament was authoritative and Scripture? Nope. Jesus’ closest followers were recognizing this right away.

5.     A different explanation than our introduction is more fitting

I proposed a way of thinking in my introduction, which states that there were a bunch of equal competing books which could have been treated as Scripture, and our Bible won out. But, what seems to be a better explanation is that there was one Jesus, and one set of Apostles who wrote books, which were almost always seen as authoritative. As these were established in the church and the Gospel spread, false books were written to cash in on the authority men like Peter, Thomas, or John had, as this could spread the thinking and theology of pagan religions. Their purpose is to steal the influence of the Christian faith and spread other false theology.

Conclusion

Your Bible is the book we should trust and look to when we want to know what Jesus taught and how we should think about God. It has the earliest books about Jesus, and it’s rooted in His closest followers.  The center of the Bible is this, you were created for God’s glory, but have sinned and rebelled against Him. Instead of God merely leaving man to his own devices and giving man the wrath that he deserves, God sent His Son to live a perfect life that you and I could not live, and to die in our place and for our sins taking the wrath we deserve. Not only did Jesus die, but He rose miraculously from death and ascended into heaven. We are able to trust Jesus and receive eternal life, forgiveness of sins, a new status, and a right relationship with God.