In the early church,\u00a0many of these “other books”\u00a0were floating around the churches, and contained ideas and teachings which caused problems in these churches. There were numerous controversies about what Christians should believe, how Christians should behave, and who gets to decide both.<\/p>\n

So in an attempt to\u00a0develop unity among all Christians, some of the authorities in the early church gathered together to decide which books should be included in the Bible, and which ones should not.<\/p>\n

They developed what is called the “canon of Scripture.”<\/p>\n

The Meaning of “Canon”<\/h2>\n

“Canon” means “rod” and refers to a measuring rod that was used\u00a0by carpenters and builders. In relation to Scripture, it refers to the rules and standards by which the various letters and documents were measured\u00a0to determine\u00a0whether or not\u00a0they should be accepted and recognized by the church.<\/p>\n

How Scripture was Canonized<\/h2>\n

By about 200 AD, there was a list of about 20 New Testament books which were recognized\u00a0by most church leaders as having the authority and accuracy of Scripture. Seven of the books which we have in our current New Testament which were debated by the early church are: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.<\/p>\n

The final\u00a0list of our currently accepted\u00a027 books was formalized in 397 AD at the Council of Carthage.<\/p>\n

The Rules of Canonicity<\/h2>\n

Curiously, it is difficult to determine which standards and methods the members of this Council used to decide which books to include in the New Testament. Though they left us a list of 27 books recognized as authoritative, they did not leave the list of criteria that they used to make this list.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there are some hints in their writings, and most scholars today believe that some version of the following six criteria were used:<\/p>\n

\n
1. Apostolic – <\/strong>The book must be written by an apostle, or a ministry partner of one.<\/li>\n
2. Orthodox – <\/strong>The book must agree with the the accepted and approved teachings of the church.<\/li>\n
3. Christocentric – <\/strong>The book must focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ, especially in relation to His redemptive work on the cross for the world.<\/li>\n
4. Inspiration – <\/strong>The book must have the qualities and characteristics of the divinely inspired Word of God.<\/li>\n
5. Testimony of the Holy Spirit – <\/strong>The church authorities\u00a0felt the inner witness of the Holy Spirit\u00a0in helping them select certain books.<\/li>\n
6. Acceptance by the Church – <\/strong>The book must already be widely\u00a0accepted and used by the majority of churches.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   As a result of this process, we ended up with the New Testament that we now read, study, and preach. And in case\u00a0you are curious, the process described above only applies to the New Testament. The formation of the Old Testament was completely different, but I will not cover that here.<\/p>\n

   The Canon of\u00a0the New Testament\u00a0still faced challenges over the years. For example, Martin Luther wanted to remove the book of James from the Bible. Some today want to include some of the other books as it seems to them that there were arbitrary and political motivations for the selection of the books.<\/p>\n

   The above information is a summary of\u00a0what I was taught\u00a0in Bible college and Seminary. Tomorrow, I will begin to ask questions about it, and raise issues that I see. Until then, what do you think about this process? Did it need to be done? Was it done correctly? Where the six standards wise? Why or why not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   How did we get our Bible? In the early days of the church, there were more letters and documents than just the 27 in our New Testament. Why are they not included?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[128],"class_list":{"0":"post-6572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-theology-bible","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n