The Word:

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The Word The Same Yesterday, Today and Forever
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Questions to consider

• Do I trust the Bible?
• Why do I trust it?
• Whats at stake?

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Whats at stake?

1. Is it a true account of origins?
2. Is it a true account of purpose?
3. Is it a true account of destiny?
4. Did God reveal Himself, His plans and purposes to
   man?
5. Is Jesus Christ who He said He was?
6. Is sin real?
7. Do I really sin?
8. Am I saved from a perfect, holy and righteous
   God?
9. Do I have an eternal future in His presence?

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How do we know which books should be included in
the New Testament? How did the early church
decide what was Scripture and what was not? What
were their criteria? How do we know that our
four Gospels should be there rather than, say,
the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Barnabas or
some other work?
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Canonicity The New Testament
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Canon, from the Greek word kanon, means rule or
standard
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Question Is the New Testament a collection of
authoritative books or an authoritative
collection of books? In other words, were the 27
books of the New Testament discovered to be
authoritative because of their intrinsic worth,
or were they determined to be authoritative by
some other authority?
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Quote from our culture Eventually, four
Gospels and twenty-three other texts were
canonized (declared to be Holy Scriptures) into a
Bible. This did not occur, however, until the
sixth century. --
Dan Burnstein, Secrets of
the Code, 116
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Quote from our culture It is a remarkable fact
that although nearly all modern forms of
Christianity do not question the texts included
in the New Testament, in the first four centuries
every single document was at some time or other
branded as either heretical or forged!
--Timothy Freke and
Peter Gandy, The
Jesus Mysteries, 224
10
Quotes from our culture More than eighty
gospels were considered for the New Testament, an
yet only a relative few were chosen for
inclusion---Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among
them. --- Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code,
231 The early church needed to convince the
world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine
being. Therefore, any gospels that described
earthly aspects of Jesus life had to be omitted
from the Bible. --- Dan Brown, The Da Vinci
Code, 244
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Criteria Used

1. Apostolicity Was a book written by an apostle
   or an apostles associate?
2. Orthodoxy Did it conform to the teachings of
   other books known to be written by apostles?
3. Catholicity Was it accepted early and by a
   majority of churches?

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Criteria Used

• IMPORTANT!!
• Age was of importance.
• If a book was perceived
• to have been written after
• the time of the apostles, it
• was categorically
• rejected. The emphasis
• was not in bringing books
• into the canon, but
• keeping them out.

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QuestionWhen was the first canon list assembled?

• A.D. 140 by Marcion

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Marcion (the heretic)

• Marcion was a Docetist (i.e. one that believed
  Christ only appeared to be human, which was
  compatible with a Gnostic belief system)
• Anti-Semitic
• Denied that the OT was Scripture
• Denied Jesus was the Son of the OT God, but
  rather the Son of the good God of the NT
• Only used Gospel of Luke, which he heavily edited
• Only used 10 of Pauls letters (also, edited)

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Related considerations of the heresy

• Prompted the church to formalize a list
  (collections were in circulation Pauls
  letters, the Gospels)
• Why werent works such as the Gospel of Thomas or
  the Gospel of Mary or the Acts of Peter included
  in Marcions canon?

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Think about this question!

• Why werent works such as
• the Gospel of Thomas or the
• Gospel of Mary or the Acts
• of Peter included in Marcions
• canon? In other words, if Marcion
• wanted to insert early Gnostic
• teaching into the genuine
• gospels/letters being circulated
• among the churches, then why not
• use the Gnostic writings themselves
• instead of editing what was circulating at
• the time?
• COULD IT BE THAT
• THESE WRITINGS WERENT
• EVEN AROUND YET?!

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• Before the end of the second century, a
  canon of Scripture had been decided upon which
  included
• The four Gospels (Matt., Mark, Luke and John)
• Pauls thirteen letters
• The book of Acts
• 1Peter
• 1John
• Hebrews (East)
• Revelation (many circles)

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• Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-340) discussed
  at length the attitudes of still earlier church
  fathers, Clement and Origen concerning the canon
  of Scripture and the then disputed books, which
  were
• James
• Jude
• 2Peter
• 2John
• 3John

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Forgeries

• 3Corinthians forgery
• Gospel of Peter forgery
• Letter to the Laodiceans -forgery
• Letter to the Alexandrians - forgery

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Death Blow to the Gnostic Gospels
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5 Points of the Death Blow

• Recent productions no stamp of antiquity
• Gnostic tendencies or full-blown Gnostic
• Non-narrative JCs teaching w/out context
• Severe embellishments
• Self-consciously promoted their claim to
  apostolic authorship
• But even though we, or an angel from
  heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to
  that which we have preached to you, let him be
  accursed. As we have said before, so I say again
  now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel
  contrary to that which you received, let him be
  accursed. Gal. 18, 9

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5 Points of the Death Blow

• Recent productions no stamp of antiquity
• Gnostic tendencies or full-blown Gnostic
• Non-narrative JCs teaching w/out context
• Severe embellishments
• Self-consciously promoted their claim to
  apostolic authorship
• But even though we, or an angel from
  heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to
  that which we have preached to you, let him be
  accursed. As we have said before, so I say again
  now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel
  contrary to that which you received, let him be
  accursed. Gal. 18, 9

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It was from this book that material in this
presentation was excerpted. I highly recommend
this to anyone who is interested in this subject
(and we all should be)
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especially since things like this keep showing
up on the racks!
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Canonicity The Old Testament
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The only true test of canonicity is the
testimony of God the Holy Spirit to the authority
of His own Word. Gleason
Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 85
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If God exists, how could we know anything about
Him?
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He would have to reveal Himself
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The writers of the Scriptures say that He has
done that very thing.

• The Lord commanded
• God said
• The Lord spoke
• The Lord said
• 500 times

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Your word (s) 42 times
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The Historical Fact of the Jewish Nation

• Here before us we see the great outstanding
  objective fact of the Jewish nation. The Old
  Testament, as we have it, is at once the means
  and the record of their national life. It rose
  with them, grew with them, formed them, and at
  the same time witnessed against them, and it is
  to the Jews alone we look for the earliest
  testimony to the Old Testament canon.
• In the face of these historic facts, it is
  not too much to say that the trustworthiness of
  the Old Testament is wholly in accord with the
  historic growth and position of the Jewish
  people. And so we can test the Old Testament by
  the history of the Jews and find it in entire
  agreeement with all that we know of Hebrew
  national life.
• 
  -- W. H. Griffith
  Thomas
• 
  How We Got Our
  Bible, 29, 30

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The Tripartite Division of the Hebrew Canon

• Law Torah (or, Pentateuch)
• Prophets Former Prophets (Josh., Judges,
  12Sam., 12Kings) Latter-Major Prophets (Is.,
  Jer., Ezek., 12 Minor Prophs)
• Writings Poetry Wisdom (Ps., Prov., Job)
  Rolls (Song, Ruth, Lam., Esth.) Historical
  (Dan., Ez., Neh., 12Chron.)
• 
  

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Jesus Use of the Scriptures

• Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none
  of you carries out the Law.
  
• John 719
• Do not think I came to abolish the Law or the
  Prophets
• Matt. 517
• that all things which are written about Me
  in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the
  Psalms must be fulfilled.
• Luke 2444

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that upon you may fall the guilt of all the
righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah,


Matt. 2335