Who Decided Which Books Should Be in the Bible?

Apologetics

Who Decided Which Books Should Be in the Bible?

25 min

Apologetics

Who Decided Which Books Should Be in the Bible?

25 min

Episode 114 Show Notes

Who Decided Which Books Should Be in the Bible?

From the Show

Who decided which books should be in the Bible?

I’ve been immersed in reading the so-called gnostic gospels, these are the false gospels of the second and third centuries. I’ve seen for myself, they are nothing like the authentic gospels; they’re not interested in history, they deny the resurrection of the body, they’re heretical gospels. The early church fathers recognized that and even before they came up with a list of the 27 books [of the New Testament], people like Clement in Rome and Irenaeus in the second century, Justin in the late second century, they’re all quoting from the 27 books of the New Testament and saying these are scripture. In fact, you can go all the way back to 2nd Peter 3:16, where Peter refers to Paul’s letters as scripture.

When you watch the History Channel or the Discovery Channel around Easter or Christmas, they have these people who come on and say, ‘it was only canonized at the Council of Nicea in 325,’ but that just isn’t true. There is an unbroken chain from the Church Fathers immediately after the apostles quoting from these 27 books of the New Testament as scripture, as if they’re walking around with the New Testament, in addition to the Old Testament, in their hand. — Michael Horton

Questions in this Episode

1. Jessica writes, “I have heard people talk about salvation as having a past, present, and future aspects so that we could say that a person has been saved in the past, is being saved in the moment, and will be saved in the future. I feel like I don’t really have a grasp on what this means. Can you explain it?”

2. What would Jesus think of the Multisite church model? In our area it seems like there is a growing number of churches that are expanding and planting new churches and in doing so they maintain one teaching pastor and meet at multi-sites that meet across the city. I wonder if there are any downsides to this. What are the perks to that and what are some of the downsides to that could come with that kind of model?

3. Is original sin biblical?

4. How and when was it decided which books ended up in the Bible?

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Michael Horton (Ph.D., Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Coventry University) is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Sola Media.

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