The Apocrypha and the Canon

Why the books of the Apocrypha do Not belong in the Bible

Someone said:

"The Roman Catholic Church are the ones responsible for giving us the Bible in its present form (all 77 books NOT 66 like Luther had when he got done chopping away)"

Our Reply

No, Luther is the first one to formalize the Apocrypha not being in a printed Bible, but those books had previously been demonstrated to have been false many centuries before Luther.

The Apocryphal books:

1. are not historical. They contain Geographical references which do not exist, and write events in history which are known to have not occurred.

2. they have teachings which contradict the rest of the 66 books

3. Those books were never quoted by the apostles in the Bible nor were they referred to as authentic (with the possible exception of 1 verse of Jude which an apocryphal books borrows)

3b Several of those books are attributed to authors...about whom we know did NOT write those books. Therefore the statements of those books are false, therefore they were Not inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore they should be disregarded.

4. Many lists exist of the books of the New Testament at the beginning of Christianity. Almost all of them Only mention in common, the 27 books found today in the New Testament. Though a few may have thought that some apocryphal books might have been inspired, this was not at all a consensus opinion.

5. It was not the Roman Catholic Church that gave us the canon. The Canon was established by the Apostles and Disciples of Christ that established – through the Holy Spirit – which books of the Bible should be In the Bible. That is why you can find some letters of Paul mentioned in the New Testament but not included.

God did not get lost. It is just that some of those letters (of the Apostles that were not included in the Bible) were not to be considered part of scripture. The last living Disciple was John, who lived to around 90-95 A.D. By then the New Testament books Had been written. He and those who had come before him, were the ones who communicated to the Churches established by the Disciples...which books should be included and which ones should not.

The Roman Catholic Church did not exist until after it was financially sponsored by the Roman Empire, sometime AFTER the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Up until that time, Christianity was directed by those who were local pastors, in churches that the disciples had personally established. The Roman Catholic Church is a "Johnny come lately"

The teachings of Christianity pre-date the Roman Catholic church by almost 400 years (the first 400 years of Christianity). Further, the RCC is kind of like the Jehovah’s Witness in their change of doctrines. What a Roman Catholic believed in the 400s (400 A.D) and what a Roman Catholic is taught to believe today...are two entirely Different sets of teachings.

Until the 1500s, the Apocryphal books had never been canonized by Anyone. Even the Roman Catholic Church had never pretended that they were part of Holy Scripture. But when Luther and Calvin began asking questions to find out just why the Roman Catholic Cardinals were making money from indulgences, why was the Pope persecuting Christians (through the Inquisition), and why were these leaders not held accountable by the Local Church [which is what the Bible plainly says], the Roman Catholic leaders knew that they had been caught, and they also knew that they were dealing with very knowledgeable people. Luther was director of a university system that included Ten universities under the Wittenberg University system. 

The Roman Catholic Church faced a dilema. They were not used to being asked to explain anything about the Bible. Normally, they would just declare anyone who questioned them or their authority to be a "heretic", and they would have that person killed. Difficult questions are so...inconvenient.

But Luther forced the Catholic Church theologians to actually answer the questions that he was asking. And the Whole World was watching. so the Roman Catholic Church could not ignore the questions.

The result was that - for the FIRST time in History, the Roman Catholic Church decided to fight Luther, Calvin and the Reformers - with Books that had never been considered part of the Bible.

In other words, Roman Catholic Theologians departed from more than 1000 years of theology, by deciding to canonize (to "accept as scripture") the Apocryphal Books. That decision was made in the 1500s, so that the Roman Catholic Church would then be able to use the Apocryphal books to justify its practices - because those practices could not be justified from the normal 66 books of the Bible that had been used - even by the Roman Catholic Church - until that point.

Predictably, when the Roman Catholic Church amended, changed, and altered its list of "Canonized books" for the Bible - which happened at the Council of Trent, this only increased the realization of the People that it was the Roman Catholic Church that - instead of being faithfull, was innovating new doctrines that were unknown to the Early Christians and even earlier Roman Catholics.

Its not that Luther chopped any books of the Bible out. It is rather that the Roman Catholic Church decided - in those days - to include new books in the Bible and to present those as being part of Holy Scripture. That was not the "innovation" of any Reformers. That was the new theology adopted by the Roman Catholic Church Cardinals.

Next on the Canon: The Apocrypha & Apocryphal Books

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