THE TRUSTWORTHY WORD

SUMMER QUARTER COUPLES/FAMILY CLASS - 2011

THE FOURTH QUESTION

Are you sure Constantine and church councils didnt put together the canon to support their own positions of power?
But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep... The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." John 10:2-5 (ESV). Christians accept the 66 books of the Bible as canonical. Canon is from the Greek kanon, meaning cane or reed (we would say ruler, yardstick, or measuring tape). A canonical book has measured up as genuinely inspired & so is accepted as authoritative. The canon of Scripture is closed. A thorough presentation of the complicated path from 1st Century to the near universal acceptance of the 66 books by Christians all over the world is beyond the scope of this study. We can sum it up simply by looking at the process in four stages: (1) The early church accepted the closed OT canon as authoritative Scripture (2Tim3:16-17). There were living people with supernatural teaching gifts from the Spirit. Through them the NT was being written, but there was no complete NT. (2) The early, post-apostolic church quickly lost its inspired teachers & relied on NT Scriptures. There was scattered disagreement about some of the 27, but there was widespread acceptance of all of them. There was little acceptance writings of (e.g.

ARE YOU SURE?

Are you sure Constantine and church councils didnt put together the canon to support their own positions of power?
How much did Constantine have to do with establishing the Biblical canon? What role did the church councils have in finalizing the canon? Which books were universally accepted before the councils & which ones were disputed? Do the 1st Century writings seem to leave room for latter day revelations? Constantine called the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) mainly because he feared disputes within the church over Arianism (belief that Jesus was a created being) would cause disorder within the empire. The council had nothing to do with deciding canon issues.

WE AFFIRM THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE IS CLOSED, & AS GOD INTENDED. NO COUNCIL OF MEN ARBITRARILY DECIDED

pseudepigraphal

Gospel of Judas) except among heretical groups (e.g. Gnostics) & broad rejection of them by leaders with the best apostolic roots. A few accepted NT apocryphal books (e.g. Origen/Shepherd of Hermas) as inspired, (3) During the centuries prior to Constantine legalizing Christianity, & the century after it, unity grew among Christians & through resulting meetings of the minds, consensus about the 27 books of the NT was finalized. (4) From then until now weve had the closed canon, but that doesnt mean all our problems are over!

WHAT BOOKS TO
INCLUDE, BUT THE CHURCH ACCEPTED ANY WRITING KNOWN TO BE INSPIRED AS AUTHORITATIVE FROM THE START.

Are you sure?