Why You Can Rely on the Canon
I want to thank Matt Smethurst over at The Gospel Coalition for posting my interview on the NT Canon with Mark Mellinger. I gave this interview back in April when I was at the TGC national conference participating on a panel discussion on the authority of Scripture (for that discussion, see here).
Mark and I had a fun and lively discussion on why the NT canon is reliable. Here it is:
[iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/65324716″ width=”400″ height=”300″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen]… Continue reading...
Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #10: “Early Christians Believed that Canonical Books were Self-Authenticating.”
Note: for the complete series see here.
How do we know which books are from God, and which are not? There are many answers to that question, some of which we have covered in prior posts. Certainly the apostolic origins of a book can help identify it as being from God (see post here). And, the church’s overall consensus on a book can be part of how we identity it as being from God (see post here).
But, it is interesting to note that the early church fathers, while agreeing that apostolicity and church-reception are fundamentally important, also appealed to another factor that is often overlooked in … Continue reading...
TGC Panel Discussion on the Authority of Scripture
Back in April, I participated in a panel discussion at The Gospel Coalition national conference, moderated by Justin Taylor. The topic was the authority and reliability of Scripture, and included a number of RTS professors such as John Currid, Chuck Hill, and Bruce Baugus.
Below I have included the video of this discussion. I think it is a stimulating and wide-ranging discussion covering a variety of issues such as archaeology, manuscripts, and textual criticism. Enjoy!
[iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/66750397?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=610000″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen]
Having Confidence in the Scriptures – Gospel Coalition 2013 – April 8, 2013 from RTS Orlando on Vimeo.… Continue reading...
Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #9: “Christians Did Disagree about the Canonicity of Some NT Books”
Note: for the full series, see here.
When it comes to basic facts that all Christians should know about the canon, it is important that we recognize that the development of the canon was not always neat and tidy. It was not a pristine, problem-free process where everyone agreed on everything right from the outset.
On the contrary, the history of the canon is, at points, quite tumultuous. Some Christians received books that were later rejected and regarded as apocryphal (this was discussed in an earlier post). More than this, there was disagreement at times even over some canonical books.
For instance, Origen mentions that books like 2 … Continue reading...
Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #8: “The NT Canon Was Not Decided at Nicea—Nor Any Other Church Council.”
Note: Full blog series can be found here.
For whatever set of reasons, there is a widespread belief out there (internet, popular books) that the New Testament canon was decided at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD—under the conspiratorial influence of Constantine. The fact that this claim was made in Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code shows how widespread it really is. Brown did not make up this belief; he simply used it in his book.
The problem with this belief, however, is that it is patently false. The Council of Nicea had nothing to do with the formation of the New Testament canon (nor did Constantine).… Continue reading...