How do we know that the New Testament books we have are indeed part of the canon, are written by those claimed to have written them, and are truly inspired?
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Your question is an exceedingly practical for every Christian. If Scripture is our guide for faith and life—and we stake our eternal life on what it tells us—we want to make sure that we are paying attention to the very words of God himself. In both Old and New Testament times many books claimed inspiration that were not included in the canon.
So how do we know that the Old Testament and New Testament Church accurately evaluated which books God had given by inspiration?
For the Old Testament canon we have an advantage. The canon of the Old Testament was firmly set before the time of Christ. If the Old Testament church had either included books in the canon that were not inspired, or excluded books that were, Jesus would not have been silent about such a dangerous situation. Yet we have no word of correction from his mouth.
Instead, we have powerful confirmations from Jesus that they got it right. For example, in Luke 24:44, Jesus told the disciples on the first Easter evening, "Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." What is fascinating is that Jesus uses the threefold division of the books of the Old Testament canon that was common among the Jews at that time. Or consider also his words in John 5:39. As he taught some Jews, he made this statement, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me." By speaking of the "Scriptures," Jesus uses the single comprehensive name for the Old Testament canon and urges them to go back to those books to find their witness to him.
We don’t have the same direct confirmation from Jesus’ mouth after the New Testament canon was gathered. Yet God didn’t leave the church in the dark. The books God intended for the New Testament canon were all written before the death of the last surviving apostle, John. This "disciple whom Jesus loved" was of inestimable value to the early church in sorting out authentic inspired writings from counterfeits.
However, the most powerful testimony that the books we have are the books God intended us to have, is the powerful testimony of the books themselves. The books of the Bible have the power within themselves to establish their inspiration. As the writer to the Hebrews tells us, "The word of God is living and active" (Hebrews 4:12). Jesus tells us why that is so, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63). The power of the Spirit is always at work in and through God’s inspired words. He who gave that Word to the apostles and prophets still inhabits it so that it has the power to "make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15).
Behind all of this is the faithfulness of God. God’s love for fallen humanity was so great that he took upon himself our flesh and blood, allowed himself to be crushed for our sin under his own judgment, and then rose from the dead with a victory to be freely offered to all. Surely the God who loved us with this "everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3) would not fail to make sure we received his inspired words that make that salvation available to us. Such is awesome faithfulness of our saving God.
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I have always believed the Holy Bible to be without error and inspired by God. Does this also hold true for the book of Revelation?
All of Scripture is inspired and inerrant (2 Tim. 3:16). This includes the book of Revelation since Revelation 22:18-19 says that God will judge anyone who adds or subtracts anything from this book.
Just because the book of Revelation uses many symbols and allegories to teach spiritual truths doesn't mean it is any less inspired. When Jesus says, "I am the Vine," he wants us to think of him, not as an actual grapevine with leaves on him, but that he gives spiritual life to people just like a grapevine gives life to the leaves and helps produce grapes as fruit. The many symbols in the book of Revelation teach spiritual truths in the same way. The pictures of suffering and death in the world remind us that we enter heaven only after we have passed through the many tribulations of this life. The many pictures of heaven in Revelation remind us that the glory of heaven can't be compared with anything we have in this life.
All of the book of Revelation is inspired and is to be interpreted in keeping with its symbolic language just like Psalm 23 or the metaphors and parables that Jesus spoke.
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When the apostle Paul was imprisoned, why did Roman authorities allow him to write letters that clearly taught Christian theology, which Rome was so opposed to?
The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen who had not been convicted of any of the charges that the chief priests and leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem had brought against him because of his faith in Christ (Acts 23:27, Acts 25:25, Acts 26:32). When Paul discovered that his life was in danger (Acts 23:12-14), he appealed his case to Rome. He arrived in Rome in the custody of a centurion, but his status was like house arrest or similar to the position of a person on bail (Acts 28:16, 30). Paul had considerable freedom on the journey to Rome as well (Acts 27:3, Acts 28:7-8, 13-14). Thus, although Paul was under guard during this period, he was permitted to write the letters we know as Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon to his Christian friends. Later, when Paul was imprisoned under Emperor Nero, he wrote only one letter that we have in the New Testament, 2 Timothy.
It appears that Paul's first trial ended in acquittal and release. There was not yet any systematic, organized persecution of Christians. Even later when there was, local authorities often looked the other way. Systematic, organized persecution of Christians was a later thing.
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Paul's letters in the New Testament lay good rules for the church, but how do we know that these are God's ideas and not just Paul's? In his letters he uses phrases such as "I forbid." Shouldn't it be God who is forbidding the action?
The letters written by the apostles were not their own words but words taught them by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13). No one ever decided on his own to write a book of the Bible (2 Peter 1:21), but the Holy Spirit led each of them to speak God's Word as he guided them ("carried them along," 2 Peter 1:21) so that none of the books of the Bible would be a writer's own interpretation of things (2 Peter 1:20). Thus all of Scripture was written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit ("God breathed,"2 Timothy 3:16). Each of the writers of the Bible, also each of the apostles who wrote letters, spoke in these letters with "the wisdom God gave him" (2 Peter 3:15-16). For this reason, if an apostle wrote "I forbid you," that also was Christ speaking through him (2 Corinthians 13:3). Therefore, John says about the letter called Revelation that anyone who adds to or subtracts from anything written in this letter will be judged by God (Revelation 22:18,19). What John said about Revelation is also true of every other book of the Bible because they are all God's words as the Holy Spirit guided the men to write. This is exactly what Jesus promised the apostles when he told them that after he ascended he would send the Spirit to them as their Counselor who would live with them, be in them, and teach them all things (John 14:16,17; John 14:26).
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Do any of the writers of the books of the New Testament have any other known writings that are not part of the Bible?
We know of at least one such writing. Paul says in Colossians 4:16 that the Colossians should also read the letter to the Laodiceans.
John said in his gospel (John 20:30) that there were many more things he could have written.
But 2 Peter 1:20-21 reminds us that it was not entirely the writer's decision to write and how much he would write. Every author of a book of the Bible was moved to write by the Holy Spirit and wrote only what the Spirit guided him to write.
A good example of this is Revelation 10:4. John thought he was supposed to write down everything he saw in the vision God was giving him, but here he is told not to write something down. So the New Testament writers may have written other things, but only what the Holy Spirit wanted to be included in the Bible was included.
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