"Third." Trey said, holding three fingers up, "The first-century Christians expected the immediate return of Christ. Because of this, they didn't plan for the long-term future of the Church.
"Fourth. No one church or leader bossed all the others. There were strong and respected leaders among the churches, but Christianity had no supreme bishop who dictated to all the others which books belonged to the canon and which did not.
"Fifth. The early leaders assumed the authority of the Gospels and the apostles. It was considered sufficient to quote the Gospels and apostles, since their authority was self-evident. They did not need a list—inconvenient for us, but not significant for them.
"And, finally, sixth. Only when the heretics attacked the truth was the importance of a canon appreciated. It was not until the mid-second century that the Gnostics and others began writing their own pseudepigrapha (false writing); this prompted orthodox leaders to become alert to the need for stating which books had been recognized across the churches."
"Which was clearly intended by God," Meredith noted in a whisper beside me. "He wanted his Word recorded. He knew how evil the world would be like today. We needed a record of His truth."
"Indeed," was all I could say.
Trey noted, "In the light of all this, the marvel is not how long it took before the majority of the churches acknowledged a completed canon of the New Testament, but how soon after their writing each book was accepted as authoritative."
"God controls everything," I said, nodding.
"So," Trey said, his voice rose. "Let me give you some fun facts about the New Testament Canon."
"There were only ever the four Gospels used by the churches for the life and ministry of Jesus. Other pseudo-gospels were written but these were immediately rejected by the churches across the empire as spurious.
"The Acts of the Apostles and 13 letters of Paul were all accepted without question or hesitation from the earliest records.
"Apart from James, Jude, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation, all other New Testament books had been universally accepted by A.D. 180. Only a few churches hesitated over these seven.
"Well before the close of the first century, Clement of Rome quoted from or referred to more than half the New Testament and claimed that Paul wrote 'in the Spirit' and that his letters were 'Scriptures'.
"Polycarp, who was martyred in A.D. 155, quoted from 16 NT books and referred to them as 'Sacred Scriptures.'
"Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the most able defenders of the faith, around A.D. 180 quoted over 1,000 passages from all but four or five New Testament books, and called them 'the Scriptures' given by the Holy Spirit.
"Tertullian of Carthage, around A.D. 200, was the first serious expositor and used almost all the NT books. They were equated with the Old Testament, and he referred to 'the majesty of our Scriptures.' He clearly possessed a canon almost, if not wholly, identical to ours.
"By A.D. 240, Origen of Alexandria was using all our 27 books, and only those, as Scripture alongside the Old Testament books. And these are just examples of many of the church leaders at this time."
The crowd listened eagerly now. No one gave snide remarks. No one stood to oppose. Not even Calum or Mark. Mark now had his eyes glued on Trey, his eyebrows arched together. Calum's eyes were downcast, but it was evident he was listening intently.
"So, you may be wondering, what made a book 'Scripture'?" Trey began.
"No, we weren't wondering that," Mark said.
"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.