How the books of the Bible came to be recognized as Holy Scripture?
How the books of the Bible received its authority?
What is Bible Canon?
Is it any Church Authority or a Bible Society declaring these books as Holy Scripture?

An enthusiastic Bible student is often very keen to know these facts.
We give below a brief study on this interesting subject and for an extensive and elaborative study, we suggest you to visit following external link: How we got our Bible. www.biblebb.com/files/howbible.htm

To simplify the understanding of this canonicity, let us distinguish it in this way:-

The canonicity of a book was determined by God and it was discovered by man!
God gave the books of the Bible its spiritual authority immediately when it was written; and
Man recognized its authority gradually in the course of time!!

 The word Canon is derived from the Greek word “Kanon” which means, a ruler, a rod or a measuring unit.

In Christian context, let us define the word Canon, as the list of books acknowledged by the Church as the documents of the divine revelation.   The term Canon, in reference to the books of scripture, was first used by Athanasius in AD 367.

Factors contributing to the determination of the Canonicity of the books;

1. Tradition: The well-established tradition that many of the books came from Moses or one of the other acknowledged prophets.
2. Spiritual authority of the books themselves — as they were used in public or private reading and in exposition.
3. Recognition in the Temple/Church as sacred books
4. Conviction of leaders and people – The opinions of religious leaders and common convictions of the people about the books were considered.
5. Jesus and the Apostles. For Christians, there was the additional consideration that Jesus himself and His apostles in the pages of the New Testament, often refer to the Jewish scriptures in general, and to many of the individual books as having the authority of God.

Old Testament Canonisation

The Old Testament Canonical period was from BC 1445 to 430 BC when the last book of Malachi was written.

God asked Moses to write His instructions in a book and recite it to Joshua (Exodus 17:14 & 34:27)

What Moses had written was known as Books of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7)

God’s endorsement was upon these books when God asked Joshua to mediate it (Joshua 1:8)

Joshua made copy of these Covenants on the stones upon the Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:32)

Copies of these books were made to Kings for reading and the Chronicles of Kings proves they have accepted it as the word of God. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

Moreover the Kings and prophets were used to keep a chronicle of the events and God’s revelations and there were officials in the palaces and temples to do this job.  (2 Chronicles 26:22; 35:26,   Esther 2:23, 6:1) Etc.

The Prophets accepted it as the word of God.  (Daniel 9:11, Malachi 4:4)

This written Word of God was thus bequeathed from generation to generation.
Traditionally since more than 3500 years, these writings were recognized as sacred and God inspired.

Before the time of Jesus, the Old Testament books were thus gradually canonized and accepted as God inspired.  The Septuagint (Greek) translation (BC 294-289)  of the Old Testament was made about 3 centuries before Christ and when this translation was through, it was taken into granted that the canonisation of the Old Testament was completed.

Good evidence exists in New Testament, quoting from the Old Testament books throughout as God inspired books.

Jesus Christ himself acknowledged the canonicity of the Old Testament books which comprises of the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Book of Psalm. (In Luke 24:44 the resurrected Jesus says: “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled).

The Council of Jamnia (AD 90), had reaffirmed those Old Testament books as God inspired.

New Testament  Canonisation

The time period of New Testament Canonicity was shorter than Old Testament period, which were written between AD 45- AD 95.    The term New Testament, as the Christian Scripture, was first used by Tertullian, the Christian Writer in c. AD190.

Early church had collected the writings of the apostles and prophets which were considered valuable and worthy of preservation.

None of the authors of the New Testament books were mentioned that they were adding anything to the existing Old Testament books.  So whatever they have written were accepted as new revelations and instructions from God.

Evidences from the New Testament writings that these were God inspired.

1)  2 Timothy: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

2)  Thessalonians  “I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren” (1 Thessalonians 5:27). In 2:13 Paul also states that the Thessalonians accepted his message “not as the word of men” but as “the word of God.”

3)  1 Corinthians:  “…the things I write to you are the Lord’s commandment” (1 Cor. 14:37).

4)  Colossians:  Paul’s letter to the Colossians was to be read in other churches (Colossians 4:16).

5)  Revelation:  Blessings are promised to all who read and heed the words of the prophecy given to the apostle John (Rev. 1:3).

6) The Book of Revelation was also to be spread throughout the “seven churches” (Rev. 1:11).

7)  1 Timothy:  In 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7 as “Scripture.”
Thus, Paul saw Luke’s Gospel as Scripture and saw this New Testament Gospel on equal par with
the Old Testament Pentateuch.

8) 2 Peter: In 2 Peter 3:15-16, Peter refers to Paul’s letters as part of the “the
Scriptures.” Since Peter’s letter is a general one it implies that widespread knowledge of
Paul’s letters was known before A. D. 70.

The Process of Canonization.

During the period of AD 96 to AD 150, the oral tradition of the church and the then Church fathers, namely, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius etc. accepted the writings of the Apostles as God inspired. The Church fathers made clear distinction between their own writings and the inspired apostolic writings.

During the period of AD150 to AD 190, most of the books were accepted as God inspired.
20 books out of 27 were immediately accepted by the church fathers as God inspired.

Questions were raised on remaining 7 books concerning the following:

Hebrew :           Author’s name was not mentioned
2 Peter :            The language was slightly different than 1 Peter
James & Jude: Authors did not say they were Apostles but they introduced themselves as
Servant of God.
2^nd & 3^rd John:  The author introduced himself as an Elder and not as an Apostle.
Revelation:      Questioned because of its special apocalyptic nature of content.

By the beginning of the 4^th century, these 7 books were further scrutinized by the church fathers and added to the other 20 and thus the 27 books were unanimously and universally accepted as God inspired.

The Bishop of Alexandria Athanasius (AD296-373) gave the first full and final declaration on the extent of both Old and New Testament canons. The twenty-seven books he listed as New Testament Canon are the same twenty-seven books in our Bibles today. He said, “Let no one add to these; let nothing be taken away.”

The First Christian Council of Nice convened by Constantine in AD 325, the Council of Hippo in AD 393 and finally the Carthage Council in AD 397 had reaffirmed the canonization of New Testament books as God Inspired and the New Testament Canon was closed.

It is worth noticing that there were many other books and writings produced during the silent period (400 years between Old Testament & New Testament)  and thereafter, but those books did not merit the God inspiration and were not included in the canonization process.  This clearly shows that the Holy Spirit was in control of this process of canonization of the Word of God.

By Pr. P.C.Xaviour

The post Bible Canon appeared first on The Indian Pentecostal Church of God.

As a Christian, we are very familiar with the word Gospel.
Every Christian talks about Gospel.  There are Gospel meeting, Gospel outreach, Gospel music, Gospel sermon, Gospel evening and so on. But what all these gossip about the Gospel?!

The word Gospel derived from the Old English ‘gud-spell’ i.e.  ‘gud’ (good) and ‘spell’ (word).
So the word meaning is ‘good word or good news or good tidings’.

It is a word-to-word translation of the Greek word ‘euangelion’.
i.e. ‘eu’ means, ‘good or well’ and ‘angeleo’ means ‘message/messenger’.

The Greek word ‘euangelion’ is the source of  ‘evangelium’ in Latin and ‘evangelism’ in English.

So the ‘Gospel’ is good news for us to ‘go & spell’ to others!
What is this good news all about to go and spell others?

The night when Jesus was born, the angles appeared to the Shepherds and told the Good News that “today in the city of David there has been born for you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

It was, and is, certainly good news because the whole mankind was in need of this Saviour and the Jews in particular were waiting for the birth of their Saviour. (Luke 2:38)

It is the good tidings of the Kingdom of God and salvation through Christ, to be received by faith.

The word Gospel does not appear in Old Testament.
In New Testament alone, the word appears 98 times as the Good News to mankind.
The first four books of the New Testament are known as Gospels which contains the good news of the birth of Jesus, His ministry, His expiatory death, burial and resurrection and ascension.

The Gospel is described as:

The Gospel of God (Romans 1:1)
The Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16)
The Gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4)
The Gospel of your salvation (Ephesians 1:13)
The Gospel of peace (Ephesians 6.15)
The everlasting Gospel (Revelation 14:6)

Paul says:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16)
He was proud to believe it as a man (Acts 27.25)
To confess it as a Christian (Romans 10:9-10)
To proclaim it as a witness (Acts 22;15)
To content for it as a good soldier (Philippians 1;27)
And to suffer and die for it as a martyr (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

Because Paul continue saying:
“I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has                been entrusted to me until that day“ (2 Timothy 1:12)

The source of Gospel:

From where does the Gospel come from?
The gospel comes from God Himself.
It’s a Gospel of God and the Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:1 & 16).
As it is from God Himself, it is perfect and does not require amendment or revision.
It is the revelation of God Himself to man as His final word.

The Subject of Gospel:

What is the Gospel about?
Its all about Jesus Christ (Romans 1:3-4)
It says Christ was crucified for our sins (1 Colossians 15;1-3)
It says Christ was raised from the dead (1 Colossians 15:4,
It says Christ is coming again to judge the world (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)

It is the good news of a Loving God who sent His only Son Jesus Christ to this world to die on the cross for the redemption of man’s sin.

Having done this on the cross, God raised Him from the dead and He is now seated at His right hand and He will come again to fetch His saints.  (Hebrews 7 &.25-26)

The sufficiency of the gospel:

Because of Adam’s disobedience, the mankind is fallen and gone away from God.
He needs to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5;20)
He needs to be forgiven (Colossians 2:13)
He needs to be justified (Romans 5:1)

And Gospel is the instrument of God’s power that brings salvation to all who believe in it.
There is no sin that the Blood of Jesus cannot be washed; and
There is no sinner that the Gospel cannot be saved.

The message of Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing;
But to those who are being saved – it is the power of God! (1 Corinthians. 1:18)

The Importance of Gospel

1. It is something important Jesus wanted everyone to hear : Mark 16:15-16
2. It reveals God’s righteousness : Romans 1;17
3. It reveals God’s love towards man: John 3:16
4. It is God’s power unto salvation for everyone who believes: Romans 1:16, 1 Col 15:1-2
5. Eternal destruction for those who do not believe Gospel : 2 The 1:7-10
6. For those who obey the Gospel, eternal life is promised: Heb 5:9, Romans 6.22-23

The Scope of the Gospel

The Gospel is for “everyone”
There is no age barrier;
There is no sex barrier;
There is no cultural barrier;
There is no social barrier
There is no national barrier.
God loves everybody; and
Lord Jesus can save anybody! (Isaiah 55:1)

Simplicity of the Gospel

 If you admit yourself as a sinner, then you are qualified for salvation.
This salvation in the Gospel is free for a sinner and is very simple to attain.

The Word of God tells that you are a sinner and your heart whispers that you are a sinner
(Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3;23)  – ADMIT IT !

The Word of God tells that HE put your sin on Christ and was crucified in your place
(Isaiah 53:5-6); 1 Peter 2:24) – ACKNOWLEDGE IT !!

The Word of God tells that HE raised Jesus Christ from the dead and all who believe in Him are justified (Romans 4;25)  –   ACCEPT IT  !!!

The Word of God tells that by faith, you are saved:
(John 1:12, John 3:16, John 3:36, Acts 16:30-31) Romans 10:9-10; Acts 28: 24) –  BELIEVE IT !!!!

Have faith in the Word of God;
Have faith in the Gospel;
Have faith in the saving power of the blood of Jesus.

“The righteous man shall live by faith” Romans 1:17

The way you believe your parents;
The way you believe your spouse;
The way you believe your children;
The way you believe your friend;

                                             Just believe Jesus!

Without questioning;
Without ambiguity;
Without suspicions;
Without any reservation in your heart;
And experience the joy of salvation; and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit!

Once you are saved and your consciousness confirms that you are a child of God and you experience being a new creation with the joy of salvation in your heart; just go and speak to others about this free gift of salvation that you found in the Gospel.

Remember!

Those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus…,
will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.
(2 Thessalonians1:8/9/10)

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