Canon

Development of the Canon

• No book of the Bible lists the books of the Bible.
• The determination of which writings to treat as inspired, Sacred Scripture and which writings to treat as not intended by God to become part of the Bible is an extra-Biblical decision. This is one of the ways in which the Protestant dogma that truth is to be sought "sola scriptura" falls apart.

The misuse of Scripture

• When Jesus ascended in to Heaven, He left a Body, not a book.
• The word "Bible" as we use it today is not in the Bible!
• No verse in the Bible says "Every teaching of the Church must be backed up by a verse in the Bible." This is an extra-Biblical decision. It is an act of hypocrisy or ignorance. The people who set this as the standard for deciding what may and may not be taught violate the standard in the very act of stating it.
• The doctrine of "Sola Scriptura" is not found in the Scriptures. "Sola scriptura" is a slogan invented by Martin Luther in the 16th century.

Canon-within-a-canon

This is an error that is common among many Protestants. They select some books from the canon of the OT or the NT and neglect others--especially those in the New Testament that reflect "early Catholicism" (Frühkatholizismus): the development of the offices of bishop (episkopos), priest (presbyteros), and deacon (diakonos), sacramental theology, and the excoriation and excommunication of Christian antichrists.

Links

• Canon of the Old Testament
• Canon of the New Testament
• A printable handout on the "Canon of the OT and the NT."
• "Which Books Were in Early Christian Bibles?"
• "The Development of the Canon of the New Testament."