Why Were They Excluded

1
Why Were They Excluded?

• A critique of The History Channels Banned from
  the Bible

2
The Scriptures Teaching on Inspiration

• After Jesus Christ, only certain people were
  promised to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
• His apostles (John 1426 1526 1613).
• Those granted this spiritual gift by apostolic
  authority (1 Corinthians 128-10 Acts 814-15,
  18 Romans 111).
• The apostles were well aware of this principle
  and wrote about it to their readers.
• At one point in time the gospel message was
  hidden, yet through the apostles it was revealed
  (1 Corinthians 24-12 Ephesians 31-7).
• The apostles of Jesus Christ had a trustworthy
  message as eyewitnesses of Jesus on earth
  (Hebrews 23-4 2 Peter 116-20 1 John 11-3).
• Any writing in contradiction or in addition to
  the apostles was to be rejected (2 Corinthians
  46 Galatians 16-9 Revelation 2218-19).
• Such writings were anticipated (2 Timothy
  313-17 42-4).
• The miraculous work of the Holy Spirit was to
  cease when this work was complete (1 Corinthians
  138-13 Jude 3 cf Hebrews 928).

3
The Scriptures Teaching on Inspiration

• So, what does this mean?
• According to Jesus, His apostles and the books
  always accepted (homolougomena)
• The Holy Spirits work in inspiration was only to
  a limited of people for a limited amount of
  time!
• Since it was limited to the apostles and those
  under their authority, it would have ceased soon
  afterwards.
• When divine revelation ceases so does the
  possibility of a divinely-inspired book.
• Notice the differences with the timeframe of the
  canonical vs. non-canonical books!

4
Dating the Books
5
Dating the Books
6
Dating the Books

• How do these dates compare to
• The Life of Adam and Eve (between 100-400 A.D.)
• The Book of Jubilees (150 B.C.period
  intertestamental silence).
• The Book of Enoch (160s BC).
• Thomas Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ
  (late 2nd century).
• The Protoevangelion of James (225 A.D.)
• The Gospel According to Mary (mid-2nd century)
• Gospel of Nicodemus (3rd or 4th century)
• Apocalypse of Peter (after 100 A.D.)
• Testament of Solomon (2nd century)
• The Alphabet of Ben Sira (Middle Ages)
• The Acts of Peter (late 2nd century)
• The Acts of Paul (late 2nd century)
• The Secret Gospel of Mark (2nd century)
• The Gospel of Judas (2nd century at earliest)

7
Principles Governing Canonization

• It is reasonable to want to know about the
  process of canonization.
• The term canon means reed.
• The reed was used as a measuring stick.
• Thus, canon is a fancy way of saying that
  certain books live up to the divine measuring
  stick of approval.
• This was a reasonable task for the early church
• Some were being persecuted for their beliefs.
• Many spurious and fictional writings were
  beginning to be passed around in various
  localities.
• Who wants to die for a belief not truly Gods
  Word?
• Who wants to face eternity believing a lie?
• Now, as we mentionedthe key principle behind
  canonization seems to be apostolic approval.
• See also Ephesians 220 Acts 242
• Yet, what other proof might there be concerning
  the exclusion of these texts and other Apocryphal
  books?

8
Principles Governing Canonization

• Geisler and Nixs A General Introduction to the
  Bible offer ten reasons why the Old Testament
  Apocrypha is rejected.
• Philo, Alexandrian Jewish philosopher (20
  B.C.-A.D. 40), quoted the Old Testament
  prolifically and even recognized the three-fold
  division, but he never quoted from the Apocrypha
  as inspired.
• Josephus (A.D. 30-100), Jewish historian,
  explicitly excludes the Apocrypha, numbering the
  books of the Old Testament as twenty-two.
  Neither does he quote these books as Scripture.
• Jesus and the New Testament writers never once
  quote the Apocrypha although there are hundreds
  ofreferences to almost all of the canonical
  books of the Old Testament.
• The Jewish scholars of Jamnia (A.D. 90) did not
  recognize the Apocrypha.
• No canon or council of the Christian church for
  the first four centuries recognized the Apocrypha
  as inspired.

9
Principles Governing Canonization

• Geisler and Nixs A General Introduction to the
  Bible offer ten reasons why the Old Testament
  Apocrypha is rejected.
• 6. Many of the great Fathers of the early church
  spoke out against the Apocrypha, for example,
  Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius.
• 7. Jerome (340-420), the great scholar and
  translator of the Vulgate, rejected the Apocrypha
  as part of the canon.
• 8. Many Roman Catholic scholars through the
  Reformation period rejected the Apocrypha.
• 9. Luther and the Reformers rejected the
  canonicity of the Apocrypha.
• Not until A.D. 1546, in a polemical action at the
  Counter Reformation Council of Trent, did the
  Apocryphal books receive full canonical status by
  the Roman Catholic Church.
• (pp. 175-176).

10
Principles Governing Canonization

• Josh McDowells The New Evidence That Demands a
  Verdict quotes from Ungers Bible Dictionary
  citing four reasons for exclusion of the Old
  Testament Apocrypha,
• They abound in historical and geographical
  inaccuracies and anachronisms.
• They teach doctrines that are false and foster
  practices that are at variance with inspired
  Scripture.
• They resort to literary types and display an
  artificiality of subject matter and styling out
  of keeping with inspired Scripture.
• They lack the elements that give genuine
  Scripture its divine character, i.e., prophetic
  power and poetic and religious feeling.
• (pp. 29-30).

11
Principles Governing Canonization

• Geisler and Nix also write about the New
  Testament Pseudepigrapha (books rejected by all)
  saying,
• During the first few centuries, numerous books
  of a fanciful and heretical nature arose that are
  neither genuine nor valuable as a whole.
  Eusebius called these totally absurd and
  impious. Virtually no orthodox Father, canon or
  council considered these books to be canonical
  and, so far as the church is concerned, they have
  historical value only, indicating the heretical
  teachings of Gnostic, Docetic and ascetic groups,
  as well as the exaggerated fancy of religious
  lore in the early church. At best, these books
  were revered by some of the cults and referred to
  by some of the orthodox Fathers, but they were
  never considered canonical by the mainstream of
  Christianity (A General Introduction to the
  Bible, p. 199).

12
Principles Governing Canonization

• Among the books listed in the Pseudepigrapha are
  some mentioned in Banned from the Bible
  including
• Thomas Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ
• Protoevangelion of James
• The Gospel of Nicodemus
• The Gospel of Barnabas
• The Acts of Peter
• The Acts of Paul
• The Acts of Philip
• The Lost Epistle to the Corinthians
• The Epistle to the Laodiceans
• The Apocalypse of Peter
• Concerning the Apocryphal books of the New
  Testament Neil Lightfoot writes in How We Got the
  Bible,
• These writings, along with the apocryphal books,
  are sometimes erroneously described as the lost
  books of the Bible, a sensational and misleading
  title because these books were never a part of
  the Bible (p. 123).

13
So, what were the motives of the producers?
14
The Motives of the Producers

• These books are outside of the realm of being
  considered truly inspired and were almost
  unanimously rejected in history.
• Clearly, their evidence is weak
• Their dating of books is obviously too late for
  real consideration.
• Their logic is poor.
• Popularity does not equal inspiration.
• The Left Behind series is popular, but fictional
  and sensationalized.
• The DaVinci Code was popular, but fictional and
  over-hyped.
• Charlton Hestons role in the Ten Commandments
  was popular, but does not take the place of the
  original, inspired text.
• Attaching a first-century name to a 2nd-century
  text is misleading.
• It will increase popularity and curiosity, but
  you still have a counterfeit.
• This type of influence is nothing but scholarly
  name-dropping.
• The classic example is The Gospel of Judasif the
  same text was titled The Gospel of a 4th Century
  Gnostic nobody would pay attentionthats all it
  really is!
• Yet, the easily deceived are fooled into thinking
  a man who HUNG HIMSELF somehow managed to write a
  gospel afterwards!
• So, why do the producers go to the lengths they
  do to air Banned from the Bible?

15
The Motives of the Producers

• The Bible is the best-selling book in the world
  and most often discussed.
• Jews want to discredit the New Testament, Muslims
  want to discredit the whole Bible, and Christians
  want to defend it.
• Thus, who will watch a series titled Banned from
  the Bible?
• If all these groups want to watch, what happens?
• off of commercial ads.
• off of DVD sales.
• off of future programs at The History Channel.
• Create skepticism
• There is obvious bias in the title Banned from
  the Bible.
• It is intended to make one skeptical.
• Yet, it takes more of a leap of faith to believe
  in those banned books than it does to believe
  the canonical books of the Bible!

16
The Motives of the Producers

• Promote a liberal agenda
• This includes the idea of relative truth.
• If there is the possibility that there is more to
  the Bible than what we have, then truth can be
  reshaped and expanded.
• If truth varies, then the popular concept of
  relative truth wins.
• This includes the acceptance of other religious
  groups, such as Islam, Kabbala and Catholicism.
• Several times the Quran is mentioned in this
  documentary as being in agreement with many of
  the cited non-canonical works.
• In fact, this video is very popular among Islamic
  groups and is talked about often on Islamic
  message boards (see whyislam.org).
• The idea is that if these non-canonical books are
  in agreement with Islam then perhaps these
  documents are truly inspired.
• Yet, it most likely proves the oppositethat
  Muhammad was copying the ideas found in the Quran
  out of the fanciful lore of rejected literature!

17
The Motives of the Producers

• For further proof of this position concerning
  Islam notice Goldsacks The Origins of the
  Quran,
• Every reader of the Qur'an knows that it
  contains several references to the Lord Jesus
  Christ, and mentions certain stories connected
  with His birth, some of which are not to be found
  in the genuine Gospels. These stories, like that
  of the palm-tree, can also be traced to
  Apocryphal sources, and show conclusively whence
  Muhammad drew the materials which he afterwards
  recast and embodied in the Qur'an. One of these
  legends has reference to certain miracles said to
  have been performed by Christ in His infancy. One
  allusion to them may be found in Suratu'l-Ma'ida
  (v. 109-110),
• "When God shall say, O Jesus! son of Mary!
  remember My favour upon thee, and upon thy
  mother when I strengthened thee with the Holy
  Spirit that thou shouldest speak unto men in the
  cradle and when grown up. And when I taught thee
  the Scripture and Wisdom and the Law and the
  Gospel, and when thou didst create of clay as it
  were the figure of a bird by my permission, and
  didst breathe thereon, and it became a bird by my
  permission."

18
The Motives of the Producers

• Goldsack goes on to write,
• Now the genuine Gospels have nothing of all
  this on the contrary, it is distinctly stated
  that the first miracle of Jesus was wrought after
  the beginning of His public ministry at thirty
  years of age. In the Injil (John ii. 11) we read,
  "This beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of
  Galilee, and manifested His glory." A reference
  to the spurious Gospel of the Infancy," "The
  Gospel of Thomas the Israelite," and other
  Apocryphal works, however, makes it clear that
  the legend must have been current in Arabia in
  the time of Muhammad. The latter must often have
  heard it repeated by his Christian
  contemporaries, and, imagining it to be part of
  the genuine Gospels, incorporated it into his
  Qur'an. On no other theory can the extraordinary
  likeness between the two narratives be accounted
  for. Let the reader, for example, remembering the
  Qur'an version quoted above, read the following
  from the "Gospel of Thomas the Israelite," a
  spurious and fanciful work of late date which was
  never regarded as inspired by any Christian sect.
  It is there written that "The child Jesus when
  five years of age was playing by the road by a
  dirty stream of running water and having brought
  it all together into ditches immediately made it
  pure and clean, and all this by a single word.
  Then having moistened some earth he made of it
  twelve sparrows, .... Jesus clapping his hands at
  the sparrows cried aloud to them 'Go off.' So
  they clucking flew away.

19
The Motives of the Producers

• He continues,
• The 'Gospel of the Infancy,' another fanciful
  romance, also tells us that when Jesus was in the
  cradle He spoke to His mother, and acquainted her
  with His Divine Mission.
• Much more could be written to show that Muhammad
  was indebted not a little to the heretical
  Christians of his time for the legendary tales
  and religious conceptions which are now found in
  the Qur'an
• http//answering-islam.org.uk/Books/Goldsack/Sourc
  es/index.htm

20
The Motives of the Producers

• The motives of the producers seem to include
• The acceptance of relative truth
• Leading to the acceptance of different religious
  systems.
• Thus, leading to a new system of morality and
  beliefs
• Notice the points emphasized in this video
• Sexuality
• of Cain and Awan in The Life of Adam and Eve,
• angels mating with humans in The Book of Enoch,
• Lilith in The Alphabet of Ben Sira.
• Jesus and the naked man in The Secret Gospel of
  Mark.
• Feminism
• Gospel According to Mary excluded because of
  sexism.
• The characters of Lilith and Thecla were seen as
  too bold in the church because they were strong,
  dominant women in a male-dominated culture.
• No hell
• The Gospel of Nicodemus speaks of hell as being
  here on earth
• This concept is being taught more and more among
  liberal theologians today.

21
Banned from the BibleA Smooth Presentation with
Biting Content

• Romans 1617-18, Now I urge you, brethren, note
  those who cause divisions and offenses contrary
  to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid
  them. For those who are such do not serve our
  Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by
  smooth words and flattering speech deceive the
  hearts of the simple.

22
Believing in the Scriptures is the Sure Way to
Being Prepared for the Judgment!

• 2 Timothy 316-17