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Welcome to the Theological Touchpoints podcast. I'm Julian. The focus for this episode is Foundations theology for the everyday Anabaptist. This is now our third episode on the Canon of Scripture. If you haven't listened to the first two episodes, you'll want to do that before continuing with this episode.

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As previously discussed, the question of Canon is how do we know which writings speak for God? This question assumes that God has spoken and that He has done so through a written word. How are Christians, nearly 2,000 years removed from the writing of the New Testament, to know that we have everything God intended us to have and nothing more? Today we will look at the principles of Canon, the tests by which we can recognize which books are truly from God and which are not. In the previous episode we reviewed three ideas which frame our understanding of Canon. First, the Bible itself sets the expectation of Canon. Integral to the formation of the church was the expectation of a compilation of writings known to be from God. Second, our confidence that we have exactly what God intends for us to have is rooted in our understanding of God's own character. God made himself known and He providentially ensured that His revelation in the Bible would be collected and preserved for His church. Third, we must realize that Canonicity is concerned with discovering the Word of God, not with creating it. By determining the Canonicity of a New Testament writing, we are not adding anything to it, but are merely recognizing what it already is. The church has no authority to define what is and is not from God. Rather, god's people are to recognize and embrace those writings which are clearly God's Word by God's objective standards. These standards, these principles, are before us in today's episode.

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What are the tests by which we can know whether or not a man speaks for God? How do we recognize divinely inspired writings and distinguish them from ordinary writings? We have four tests First, apostolicity, second, orthodoxy. Third, universality And fourth, power, and we'll take these in order. So first, apostolicity, or we could also say authority. This is the primary test of whether or not a writing is truly divine. And the question we ask when examining a writing is whether or not this particular writing was written by, or endorsed by, an apostle or a prophet.

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Norman Geisler and William Nix have a book entitled A General Introduction to the Bible, and in that book they explain Apostolicity as being the principle that each book has either Apostolic Authorship or Apostolic Teaching Again, apostolic Authorship that is written by an apostle or Apostolic Teaching endorsed by an apostle, or written by someone who walks so closely with the apostle that that individual wrote on behalf of the apostle. And even though the writing bears, for example, luke's name, the content of the Gospel of Luke is consistent with what the apostle Paul himself taught about the gospel and about who Christ was, and so it had the apostle Paul's stamp of approval, as it were. And this principle of apostolicity is an Old Testament principle and a New Testament principle. The one writing God's words had to be called by God and had to speak with God's own authority. Second, peter 1, 21 says that holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit carried them along, used them, spoke His word through them. In a future episode we'll get into the inspiration of Scripture and we'll talk about this in more detail at that point. But for now, keep in mind that Scripture was written by God through men, and specifically the Holy Spirit speaking through ordinary men called by God for that purpose. So Scripture was given by inspiration of God, inspiration being God speaking through His appointed representatives, through apostles and prophets, and their speaking is recorded for us in the written word, and that is the written word which we recognize as being the biblical canon. But in order for somebody to speak for God, he must be called by God for that purpose, and that is principle again in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the prophets and the apostles were spokesmen for God.

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As we continue talking about apostolicity, we could talk about that in context the Old Testament and the New Testament but really a lot of the debate on canon revolves around the New Testament canon. The Old Testament canon is pretty firmly established and so we will focus primarily on apostolicity and the New Testament canon. We will talk about the actual development of the Old Testament canon and the New Testament canon more in future episodes, but for now, looking at apostolicity specifically, we are going to focus primarily on apostolicity and the New Testament canon. Any theological study needs to be rooted as firmly in Scripture as possible. We should look to Scripture first and foremost to speak on any given issue, and so as we think about apostles and those called by Christ specifically to testify to Him, we see a bit of a progression here.

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First, jesus commissioned the apostles to speak on His behalf when He'd understand that Jesus, being God, did not need anyone to speak on His behalf. But He chose to entrust His message to the apostles and to commission them to witness to the world about who He is and what He has done for His people. So Jesus commissioned the apostles to speak on His behalf. As He was teaching the apostles about their responsibilities and what they were being called to, jesus promised further revelation to the apostles by the Spirit We see this especially in the Gospel of John And so the apostles went out representing Christ. They knew what they were doing. Some will say that the apostles didn't know they were writing Scripture. They were just writing letters to churches, and the churches have imposed things on Scripture and trying to make ordinary writings authoritative. Scripture itself is very clear that the apostles knew that they were writing for God, representing Christ and speaking for God, and so let's look at each of these in a little more detail.

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Jesus commissioned the apostles to speak on His behalf. The term apostle just means sent one, so to be an apostle is to be one sent on behalf of another, sent to represent another. The term apostle is not used in Scripture exclusively of those sent by Christ to testify on His behalf. In the book of Acts, for example, we have certain men sent out who are called apostles. They were sent from the church in order to represent the church.

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The apostle Paul talks about himself as the apostle of Jesus Christ. They're clarifying he's not just one sent, but he is one sent by Jesus, called by Jesus to testify on his behalf. We see this commissioning very clearly in the familiar verse in Matthew 28-19. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Christ, speaking to his apostles before his ascension, he says Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded. You Notice. First Christ reminds them that he in himself has all authority Authority over people, authority over creation, authority to proclaim the truth, to define the truth. But then he vests that authority in his apostles, in those he sent to testify of him on his behalf. And I have all authority, but now I am giving you authority to be my apostles. Go and make disciples.

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The purpose of the apostles is to go into the world and call men to be disciples of Christ. And then the details they are to baptize them and teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. That last phrase especially as we think of the responsibility of the apostle to disciple and that discipling including teaching, but not just general teaching but specifically teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Christ says Teach them what I have taught you. And so we understand that what we're reading in the New Testament is that which Christ taught his apostles, that which he showed them, that which he taught them in preaching and in private interaction with them. And we have things in the epistles that we don't necessarily have chapter and verse for in the gospels, a number of teachings that are present in the rest of the New Testament that don't necessarily flow directly out of what Christ himself said. It harmonizes with Christ says and it explains what Christ taught. But we have doctrine beyond the gospels contained in the epistles. We understand these are the things that Christ taught them and those things which he entrusted to them, which they then testify to in their writings.

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So the apostles are called to teach, to instruct in the truth, and that instruction happens by way of in-person interaction, in the preaching and teaching, publicly and house to house. But then it continues in written scripture as we, even today, read the words of the apostles and are discipled by what they teach us, and that teaching comes with the authority of the apostle and, of course, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So the guiding principle of the church is that which Christ taught his disciples. He taught them, he sent them to teach others. That ministry continues as we are taught by them through the written word. So first Christ called these men to speak on his behalf, and they are his apostles. But what exactly does that position entail? We already talked about going, making disciples, baptizing and teaching them. The emphasis on teaching, especially including verbal instruction, both in-person and through the written word. But not only did Christ commission them to speak out of what he taught them, we learned from the Gospel of John that they also were given a promise of additional revelation by the Spirit John 16, 13 to 14,.

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I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. Christ says there are things you need to know. You aren't ready for them yet, but you will be. And when you are ready, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, will guide you into the truth. He will teach you that which you are not now ready to receive. And so the Holy Spirit worked in the apostles to help them understand not only the events of what happened, but the theological and doctrinal significance of what Christ did in his life and in his death and in his resurrection. He will guide you into the truth, give them understanding of the truth, reveal to them further truth. There's a promise of revelation of future events. He will tell you things to come.

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We have in Paul's epistles, we have in Peter's epistles. We have, especially in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, written by the Apostle John, things that have not yet come to pass, that have been revealed by the Spirit to these apostles in fulfillment of these verses here in John 16. If we go back a couple chapters to John 1426, christ, speaking to his Apostle, says the help or the Holy Spirit who the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. So also in this verse we have the promise of a further instruction. Teach you all things. Teach you everything you need to know about me, about what I've done, about the church, about who you are to be as my people, and we'll bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

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Humans have a fallible memory. The Holy Spirit reminded them, these apostles, of that which they needed to know, about what Christ had taught. We remember the conversations we've had with people, but we don't always remember the full detail of that conversation. The promise here that Christ gives is the Holy Spirit will help you remember the full detail of what I told you, such that you are able to tell others and you are to record that which I said, so others can hear my words as well. And this is what we have in the Gospels, especially The things that Christ said and the things that Christ did are recorded, and they're recorded after the fact.

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But by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, these men were given the ability to remember accurately that which was done and that which was said, such that it could be recorded, and then it has been preserved And now we can know truly what Christ did during His time on the earth through the testimony of the apostles. So in these verses in John 14 and John 16, we see that there are three aspects to the Spirit's revelation to the apostles. The first is the ability to remember what Jesus taught them. The second is further instruction in the truth. So we have a past component ability to remember a present component, a further instruction in the truth, and a future component that there will be the revelation of future events. Again, john, in Revelation also, peter and Paul give us a glimpse into the future, both the things that will happen before Christ's return and also details of Christ's second coming and the future life we will have with Him. Jesus called the apostles. He promised for the revelation to the apostles by the Spirit and the apostles themselves knew what they were doing. They knew they were speaking for God.

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Again, some will say the apostles didn't know what was going on. They were just writing letters to the church and we are abusing these writings to say that these come from God. That doesn't stand the test of what the apostles themselves said. If we look at 1 Corinthians 4, 37, paul says If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord Paul. They are speaking of the immediate context, but also the entire epistle there to the Corinthians. He says These things are the commandments of Christ. I am writing to you but though I am the penman, christ himself is commanding you through me to do these things, to live a certain way Also.

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1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God which also effectively works in you who believe. Apostle Paul says We preach the gospel to you and you recognized that this is not just our word, this is the word of God. God speaks through us. The Apostle Paul says God speaks through me to you. This is not Paul making much of himself, but rather Paul recognizing that to which he had been called and that was to testify to men of Christ.

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Scripture came through men commissioned by Christ to speak on his behalf and filled with his spirit so they may be able to do so effectively and accurately. These men knew their calling and they filled it. But just as the scriptures are canonical because they are inspired, these men are apostles because they were called. No man can claim apostolic authority. God calls apostles, but these men, in humble submission to God's call, filled their role with boldness. The New Testament canon stands on the authority of the apostles, the apostles standing on the authority of Christ, who called them and commissioned them to this responsibility. But as we look at the New Testament canon, there are books in our New Testament that do not bear the signature of an apostle. What do we do with these books Now? we already touched on this previously.

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We talked about apostolic authorship or apostolic teaching. These books, not written by apostles, are still accepted in Scripture because they are consistent with what the apostles themselves were teaching and they were endorsed by them. Mark's gospel is accepted because he worked closely with the apostle Peter. In fact, some call the Gospel of Mark. They call it Peter's gospel because of Peter's influence in the writing of that gospel. Luke, who wrote a gospel and wrote the book of Acts, was closely associated with the apostle Paul and ministered with him for many years, and so his writings would have been checked by Paul and approved by Paul. We have an epistle from James and also from Jude. These were brothers of Christ and so they would have been eyewitnesses to his ministry, those who later came to believe in Christ. And again in these we have writings that are consistent with the other New Testament writings.

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Some of these books, it took longer for them to be accepted, jude in particular, because there's a quote in there from Enoch, which is the Apocrypha Old Testament Apocrypha, and it's the only quote from the Apocrypha that we find in the New Testament. And some, on the basis of that, rejected the book of Jude as being as quoting from something which is not scripture from the Old Testament and therefore invalidating that. But we can understand that quotation not as being an authoritative quote as from scripture, but rather just a historical reference and therefore not necessarily invalidating the book of Jude. And the biblical content of the book of Jude is overwhelmingly consistent with the rest of the New Testament and contains admonitions and exhortations that are necessary for the church. And so it was eventually included in the New Testament canon. There's probably not an epistle that has more questions raised about it than the epistle to the Hebrews.

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The author is unknown. Some will ascribe authorship to the apostle Paul. That's a difficult case to make in my opinion, because the format of the book is different. There is a pattern with the apostle Paul that he puts his name on his epistles as a stamp of, as a mark of authenticity, and we have no such mark on the book of Hebrews. Even the early church people, such as Origins said God alone knows who wrote the book of Hebrews, but the content is consistent with the apostolic teaching. And there are other New Testament error writings of unknown origin. Other writings that were considered are rejected based on their inconsistency versus Hebrews is overwhelmingly consistent with the New Testament. It contains extensive commentary on the Old Testament, explanation of how the Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ, and so many wonderful truths in the book of Hebrews as such that any Christian studying the book sees very clearly in it The clarity and the power and the accuracy of the word of God.

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A shiny forth from the book of Hebrews, and that's such that it is appropriate to accept it in the biblical canon, the principles of canon, the first principle we're looking at here being apostolicity. Was the book written by an apostle or endorsed by an apostle? This is the primary test. Primary test for the canonicity of a book is whether or not its writer was called by God to speak for God. That calling, at least in the New Testament was of the apostles by Christ, those who walked with him, heard him, ministered with him, suffered with him. These were sent out by Christ to testify of him. Apostolicity is therefore the ground of our New Testament canon. Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 2, where he says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, christ himself being the chief cornerstone. That is, christ's life and teaching are the reference point for the rest of the New Testament. All that we have in the New Testament is from Christ through the apostles. They did not invent doctrine. They repeated what they were told. Thus, when Paul writes, he writes for Christ. When Peter writes, he writes for Christ. When Jude writes, he writes for Christ. Christ speaks to us through all of the New Testament, through those he has called to speak for him. Those writings, written by those who spoke for him, are preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures. First test of canonicity was it written by an apostle or endorsed by an apostle? Apostolicity. The second test is consistency, or what we could also call orthodoxy.

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Another question we need to ask when approaching a New Testament writing and analyzing whether or not it deserves a place in the New Testament Scriptures is the question does it agree with other recognized writings from God? Scriptures from God is written by inspiration of God. We believe that when Scripture speaks, god speaks. Scripture is the word of God himself. God cannot lie. Therefore God cannot contradict himself. We have this principle that one Scripture cannot contradict another Scripture. Humans can contradict themselves If we believe that these were merely the collections of especially wise or especially gifted men. We may be okay with some discrepancies, but Scripture is given by God, that is, it is from the mouth of God. Therefore, Scripture cannot contradict Scripture.

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Any writing that may be added to the collection of recognized Scriptures must be in harmony with the rest. That doesn't mean it can't contain additional revelation. In fact, the New Testament is a revelation beyond the Old Testament, making known many things that were previously mysteries. But the New Testament is built on the Old Testament and is in harmony with it. The New Testament does not replace the Old Testament. It does not contradict the Old Testament, but rather is the completion, the fulfillment, the final revelation wherein things that were unclear in the Old Testament are clear in the New Testament and are clearly explained to us.

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The second principle of canon does it agree with other recognized Scriptures? A third principle universality or testimony of the churches. This is another supporting principle. Do the people of God recognize this as being from God? This writing is from God. There were some writings that were circulated in the early church, that were accepted in pockets of the church as Scripture but eventually drifted off into the corners to gather dust and were not included in the biblical canon. By this we're not saying that the books we accept as canonical were never questioned, but simply that God's people are typically inclined to accept them as Scripture. That the rule. On the whole, god's people looking at these writings embraced them as from God rather than rejecting them. God's people familiar with God's word, familiar with the Old Testament, familiar with the recognized writings in the New Testament, continuing to study these other writings and comparing Scripture with Scripture, eventually come to testify that these books are from God. So third principle have God's people recognized this universally or on the whole, have God's people been inclined to accept this book as being Scriptural? Now, there are books that passed this test but failed some of the others We're going to be talking later about the Apocrypha and some of the question books that were written in the New Testament time period and why we should not include those in our copies of the inspired word of God.

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But, for example, the Apocrypha has been accepted by the Catholic Church for centuries as being from God, and that does not necessarily mean it is from God. Just because there is a significant witness somewhere, that does not necessarily make it Scriptural. The Gospel of Thomas, for example, teaches that a woman must become male to enter the kingdom of God. That is in clear contradiction with other scriptures that teach that there's neither male nor female in Christ, but all are one in Christ. The Gospel is available to every single individual, and so a book such as the Gospel of Thomas, which was not written by Thomas, is rejected.

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It is interesting to notice that a number of the writings circulated in the New Testament Church that were false were circulated under the name of an apostle, the Gospel of Thomas being one example, and there was a Gospel of Judas as well, i believe, and that proves that in the early church and in this era of church history, the people as a whole recognized that unless a writing had the authority of an apostle behind it, it was to be rejected, so much so that somebody trying to fabricate a false epistle borrowed an apostle's name, had to borrow an apostle's name or else it'd be written off from the get-go And they were seeking to utilize an apostle's name in order to validate their writings when in fact it was not from that apostle, nor was it from God. So the third test of canonicity regarding individual books did have God's people recognized this writing as being from God on the whole and universally? The fourth test of canonicity is does it have power? Coming out of Hebrews 4, verse 12, which speaks of Scripture as being living and active, living meaning exactly that It is alive. It contains life, but it is living and active. It is at work in the world, doing God's purposes. A Scripture is from God. Therefore it speaks with God's authority, speaks with God's power. God speaks things into existence and declares the truth by his word and defines the truth by his word, and so Scripture itself, being the word of God, is living and active. And so any writing we examine, we should see, we should ask the question does this writing speak with the power of God? Are people's lives changed through this book, through this writing We have also in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23,. Peter speaks of the word of God which lives and abides forever. Again, the word of God lives. It is alive, it is at work and through the word of God people are changed, people are born again, people are sanctified. People are alive. People are alive. People are alive. People are alive. People are born again. People are sanctified. They are given hope, they are brought through difficulty. And that's the power of the word of God working in lives of individuals to sanctify them, to preserve them, to carry them through difficulty suit, to draw them to Christ, draw them to the gospel and so forth. So the word of God has power. Does this writing have power? If it is powerless, it does not deserve a place among the recognized word of God.

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Canonical books speak for God, which means they speak with God's power. Four principles of canon What are the tests we can use to determine whether or not a man speaks for God? First, apostolicity Is this man called by God for this purpose? Secondly, does he speak that which agrees with the rest of Scripture, with the rest of what God has revealed? Third, do God's people accept this Writing is true? And fourth, does this writing have power to change lives? Does it speak with the power of God?

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We read some questions. Hopefully gave some good answers. This is not something we need to be confused on. We have these metrics for identifying the true word of God, and those books which meet the standard do so with flying colors. Some books have been proposed to Scripture which did not make it into the canon, but these may be clearly dismissed based on the aforementioned criteria.

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We'll discuss the details later, but be encouraged for now that we can be confident that we have the word of God in the 66 books preserved in the Bible that you know and love, the 66 books, the word of God contained in them. They are the word of God, from him, through his apostles, by his spirit for his people. We can be confident that we have the word of God truly and in its entirety. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Theological Dutch Poins podcast. This podcast is a production of Sword and Trumpet Ministries. For more information, visit wwwswordandtrumpetorg Or theologicaltouchpointscom. If you have thoughts or questions, you can contact us at podcastattheologicaltouchpointscom. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely And may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.