Dr Paul Allen

Why these 66 books? What about “all the other books”? The Apocrypha? Pseudepigrapha? The Gospels of Thomas, Peter, and Judas? Why didn’t they make it in? Says who? People told me things like, “Yeah, a bunch of guys in the fourth century got together and decided what to include and exclude from the Bible . You can’t really trust it.” I didn’t know what to think. Recently we began a series addressing fundamental questions surrounding the Bible. What is it? Where did we get it? Who decided what would, and would not be, in the Bible? How can it be said that the 66 books alone are the inerrant , infallible words of God ? These questions concern the topic of bibliology. First,  we studied the topic of revelation , answering the question, “What is the Bible?” From there,  looked at inspiration , answering the question, “Where did the Bible come from?” Then, we observed the logical conclusion, namely, that  the 66 books of the Bible are the inerrant and infallible  words of God.

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).     Nicea was concerned with how Christians should articulate their beliefs about the divinity of Jesus.    Thus it was the birthplace of the Nicean creed. When people discover that Nicea did not decide the canon, the follow up question is usually, “Which council did decide the canon?”     Surely we could not have a canon without some sort of authoritative, official act of the church by which it was

Have you ever looked at your Bible and wondered, “Why do we regard these 66 books, and no others, as comprising the inspired Word of God?” That is a critically important question, since there are many today who would deny that these 66 books truly make up the complete canon of Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, claims that the Apocryphal books which were written during the inter-testamental period (between the Old and New Testaments) ought to be included in the Bible. Cult groups like the Mormons want to add their own books to the Bible—things like the  Book of Mormon ,  The Doctrines and Covenants , and  The Pearl of Great Price . And then there are popular books and movies, like  The Da Vinci Code  from several years back, that claim later Christians (like Constantine) determined what was in the Bible centuries after these books were  written. So, how do we know that “all Scripture” consists of these 66 books? How do we know that the Bible we hold in our h