There Must Be Something More

106 | John 1:12

"Well, I'm still going to tell you, anyway," Trey shot back. The crowd snickered. Mark rolled his eyes.

"Oh, Mark," Alex said, shaking her head.

"At first, the churches had no need to define what made a book special and equal to the Old Testament Scriptures. If the letter came from Paul or Peter, that was sufficient. However, it was not long before others began writing additional letters and gospels either to fill the gaps or to propagate their own ideas. Some tests became necessary, and during the first two hundred years, five tests were used at various times.

"First in our list. Apostolic—does it come from an apostle?

"The first Christians asked, 'Was it written by an apostle or under the direction of an apostle?' They expected this just as the Jews had expected theirs to be underwritten by the prophets. Paul was insistent that his readers should be reassured that the letters they received actually came from his pen (e.g., 2 Thessalonians 3:17).

"Second. Authentic—does it have the ring of truth?

"The authoritative voice of the prophets, 'This is what the Lord says,' is matched by the apostles' claim to write not the words of men but the words of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13). It was the internal witness of the texts themselves that was strong evidence of canonicity.

"Third. Ancient—has it been used from the earliest times?

"Most of the false writings were rejected simply because they were too new to be apostolic. Early in the fourth century, Athanasius listed the New Testament canon as we know it today and claimed that these were the books 'received by us through tradition as belonging to the Canon.'

"Fourth. Accepted—are most of the churches using it?

"Since, as we have seen, it took time for letters to circulate among the churches, it is all the more significant that 23 of the 27 books were almost universally accepted well before the middle of the second century. When tradition carries the weight of the overwhelming majority of churches throughout the widely scattered Christian communities across the vast Roman Empire, with no one church controlling the beliefs of all the others, it has to be taken seriously.

"Fifth. Accurate—does it conform to the orthodox teaching of the churches?

"There was widespread agreement among the churches across the empire as to the content of the Christian message. Irenaeus asked the question whether a particular writing was consistent with what the churches taught. This is what ruled out so much of the heretical material immediately."

When I looked beside me, Alex was gone. I turned my head from left to right, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, where's Alex?" I asked.

Meredith gave me a clueless shrug. "Probably went to go to the bathroom."

"To end this lecture," Trey said, smiling wistfully. "I'm going to end with one final message. Our final appeal is not to man, not even to the early church leaders, but to God, who by His Holy Spirit has put His seal upon the New Testament. By their spiritual content and by the claim of their human writers, the 27 books of our New Testament form part of the 'God-breathed' Scripture.

"It is perfectly correct to allow this divine intervention to guard the process by which eventually all the canonical books—and no others—were accepted.

"The idea of the final canon being an accident, and that any number of books could have ended up in the Bible, ignores the evident unity and provable accuracy of the whole collection of 27 books.

"Bruce Metzger expressed it well: 'There are, in fact, no historical data that prevent one from acquiescing in the conviction held by the Church Universal that, despite the very human factors . . . in the production, preservation, and collection of the books of the New Testament, the whole process can also be rightly characterized as the result of divine overruling.'

"A belief in the authority and inerrancy of Scripture is bound to a belief in the divine preservation of the canon. The God who 'breathed out' (2 Timothy 3:16) His word into the minds of the writers ensured that those books, and no others, formed part of the completed canon of the Bible."

Trey cleared his throat, his eyes scanned the crowd. "Now, if you're one of the people who just realized the accuracy of the Bible and its books, then you're probably also one of the people who just believed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"The Word of God says in John 1:12, 'Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

"There's a pattern for salvation. First is believe, then receive, then become.

"Maybe you're one of the people right now who just believed the gospel, but have not yet received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I would like to ask you to come up front so I can lead you in a prayer of receiving."

I smiled and looked at the crowd. No one came up front. My heart dropped.

Mark stood to leave.

"I'd like to say something!" Alex snatched the mic from Trey's hand. She stood beside him, her knees observably shaking.

Mark's eyes grew wide in surprise. Calum stood up in amazement.

"I'd like to tell you what really happened to me during the last lecture. And why I can say God is real as you and me." Alex said.

I smiled. God truly worked in mysterious ways.

Disclaimer: This info was taken from the article by Brian H. Edwards entitled "Why 66?" In the answersingenesis.org website.