The CANON OF THE BIBLE

Why the 66 books of the Bible BELONG in the Bible

The best way to answer that is to divide those books between the Old Testament (First Half of the Bible) and the New Testament (Second Half of the Bible)

IN order to establish how to tell which books belong in the New Testament, we first have to know about the Old Testament because that is directly relevant.

The Old Testament is simply the Canon - The established books of the Jews. They have always been the same books. In the Jewish Canon, those Old Testament books are divided into 22 Books. In the Christian Churches, the Old Testament Jewish Canon is divided into 39 Books.

But the point is that the 22 books of the Jewish Old Testament and the 39 Books of the Old Testament in Christianity are Identical. The Jewish Canon and the Christian Canon of the Old Testament are the same.

The History of the Old Testament Books are well established and the Canon of the Old Testament has always been the same.

Now to the issues of the books of the New Testament.

The first issues is that those books must agree with the Old Testament. Remember Christianity is not a contradiction to Judaism or to the Old Testament, but rather Christianity is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and of the events foretold and predicted in the Old Testament.

Jesus Christ not only claimed to be the Messiah for the world, He claimed to be the JEWISH Messiah, the messiah for the people of Ancient Israel. That matters because the intention of the Books of the Old Testament is to tell the story (the historic record) of the Jews, AND of God and His relationship to mankind. The New Testament ALSO does the same thing. The New Testament makes the same point as the Old Testament:

1) Any system of salvation by human work and effort will not succeed

2) the only hope for us is the offer of eternal salvation that comes through the World Messiah (who is the Jewish Messiah), who is Jesus Christ, who is both a. Part of the Trinity or "Triune-God" and b. the Son of God.

For Gentiles, The New Testament book of Romans makes it clear that those who are Christ- followers (Christians) are those who have been grafted into the Jewish tree of salvation, which came through Jesus Christ.

So the books of the New Testament had to affirm, agree with and be reconciled to the Old Testament. Remember Christians - early Christians - were considered part of Judaism (True Judaism - simply the contents of the Old Testament) until about 90 A.D.

The Jews in Palestine and in the Roman Empire understood very well that Jesus Christ had claimed to be the JEWISH Messiah.

(Classic Judaism was simply the Old Testament. The system of Modern Judaism is a system that is a contradiction to the Old Testament. The Modern System of Judaism takes as its premise that books OUTSIDE of the Bible are to be given MORE weight and More credibility than the Old Testament itself. It is a clever sytem, but designed to perpetuate the authority of some of those Modern Teachers, who have teachings today that was not present in Judaism before the middle ages)

Criteria for a New Testament Book to be included in the Canon [official Bible]

In order to be considered Scripture, The books of the New Testament had to meet certain criteria:

2. Any Book of the New Testament had to be written by someone who not only Knew Jesus Christ, but accepted His authenticity and His message of Salvation through Him.

(Obviously God is not going to have someone who disagrees with God, write the Holy Books which are to be included in the book that God is going to give to HIS followers).

Here is how John (in 1 John) makes his declaration of Allegiance to God, and to Jesus Christ. First John claims to that this is "from the beginning", and then claims that Jesus Christ is the messiah, and then claims to have actually seen and heard him PERSONALLY:

Take a look at the following passage in the New Testament, and notice all of the things that the author of this Biblical book, is sharing with us that he knows, and HOW he obtained that knowledge:

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

So John - The Author of the Gospel of John as well as the Epistle of 1 John explains his own reasons and motives for writing one of the books of the Bible:

Who is the Word of life, about whom John claims in verse 2 - who showed him (John) Eternal life ?

(By the way, we can find the very same claims about Jesus Christ being Pre-existent and the Creator in the first chapter of the GOSPEL of John, where John also talks about Jesus Christ being the exclusive Word. )

How many books that are part of the Apocrypha make the same claims and can substantiate them ? (The answer is none). The books in the New Testament are very rare and unique, and make claims which are very rare, and which place them as being in a unique, holy and inspired category of books. God knows what He wanted to say. There is nothing in the 66 books of the Bible that God did not want placed there. And there is nothing which is Not in the Bible, that God wanted to have included. The 66 Books of the Bible are themselves the evidence and the proof that God exists and cares about each of us.

3. Any Book of the New Testament had to agree with the Old Testament, and in the legitimacy of the established Jewish Canon (the Old Testament).

4. Any Book of the New Testament had to agree with:

Peter refers to the writings of Paul (St. Paul) as being Inspired Scripture

The relationship between the Contents of Old Testament books and New Testament books ...in the Bible.

The relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament is much greater than many people realize today.

If the New Testament passages were to re-quote the Old Testament, and we already know which books belong to the Old Testament, then the re-quoting of those same books in the New Testament, provides us with a method to establish the inspiration of the books in the New Testament.

That means a lot and has many implications. The reason is that depending on which specific book in the New Testament that we are discussing, between 40% to 60% of the books of the New Testament are the OLD Testament requoted INTO the New Testament.

What this means is that the supposed "confusion" or "degree of ambiguity" that exists ABOUT the books of the New Testament...is just a modern Myth.

The conclusion is this: the Gospels are inspired, the works of both Peter and Paul are inspired and known to have been recognized as scripture, and the New Testament books that requote the Old Testament are obviously as inspired as they are in the Old Testament. When we start to put all of those categories of inspired books and inspired content together, that leaves very little of the New Testament in question.

But the point to remember is that the books IN the New Testament are those that we have MANY clear answers to and about - on many levels, in a manner which we do NOT have answers for the books which are the Apocryphal books which are NOT part of the 66 books of the Bible.

Paul Refers to his own message and writings as being Inspired Scripture.

Part III  (upcoming when we have time to post)

The writings of Paul and their inclusion in the Early Canon of the Bible by the Early Christians

The writings of Paul are slightly more complicated to deal with, if only because they are more numerous.

It is really amazing that Peter refers to the writings of Paul as being scripture. That just saves us a great deal of confusion. The writings of Paul in the New Testament are many, being 14 books/Epistles out of the 27 books of the New Testament.

Just in case A Roman Catholic happens to stop by here: 

- Pontifex Maximus - stigmatta - Mother Teresa - Power Grab -

Pope Appoints Cardinal - Apocrypha - Donation of Constantine

Vatican Abuses  

FREE GENEVA BIBLE  NEW TESTAMENT (1560) IN PDF

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Christian Conversions - According to the Bible - Can NEVER be forced.

Any Conversion to Christianity which would be "Forced" would NOT be recognized by God. It is in His True and KIND nature, that those who come to Him and choose to believe in Him, must come to Him OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL.



Don't Let anyone tell you that Christians support Forced Conversions.

That is False. True Christianity is NEVER forced.

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