With the divine qualities of the canon now established, we can now begin to explore what is known as the apostolic origins of the canon. To understand this, we must first understand certain implications of the Old and New Covenants.
Whenever covenants were enacted between two parties in the Near East, there would be an accompanying set of covenant documents, detailing the stipulations that both parties had to abide by. God’s covenants were the same way.… Read more
In this part of our series on the New Testament canon, we’ll be exploring the first of the three attributes of canonity – the Divine Qualities of the canon. This is seen in Scripture’s beauty, power, and unity.
When we speak of the beauty of Scripture, we are not just talking about literary or rhetorical beauty – we are saying that it is beautiful because it bears the attributes of God, as he is speaking to us through it.… Read more
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a conference on the Trinity at Knox Reformed Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. Speakers included Mr. Anthony Rogers, Dr. Edward Dalcour, and Dr. James White, host of the popular webcast The Dividing Line and accomplished debater on numerous topics including atheism, Islam, Mormonism, and liberal theology. Recorded lectures may all be found here, but I wanted to give a recap of one of the most important lectures, which was Mr.… Read more
With the Catholic and Evangelical models refuted, we must now move on to the biblical understanding of how we can know we have God’s Word – the Self-authenticating Model.
Quite simply, this model states that Scripture itself gives us the standards by which it is authenticated. If we believe that it is the ultimate authority for our lives, then we must naturally conclude that Scripture will also give us the standards by which we may understand it.… Read more
Before we understand how we can know we have God’s Word and understand the history behind it, we must first examine many of the common but false understandings that have been posited throughout history on how we can know we have the canon. How we think we know shows the ultimate authority that we are placing our knowledge in, and sometimes that authority rests on very shaky ground. Here, we will examine the common Catholic and Evangelical understandings of this issue, and the foundational errors that both of them make.… Read more
Last year, I took a course at Reformed Theological Seminary entitled The Origin and Authority of the New Testament Canon, taught by Dr. Michael Kruger. I thought this would be a course more or less on how and why certain books were picked to be in the New Testament and why others like the Gospel of Peter or the Gospel of Thomas were not. Although the history of this was covered, it ended up being so much more than that and revolutionized the way I understood the Bible. … Read more
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