Opponents of Christianity raise challenging questions about the origins, authorship, age, and reliability of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. When the authenticity of the New Testament is questioned, so is the gospel. In this series, Dr. Michael Kruger critiques the most common objections to the canon and presents abundant evidence that these books are the authentic, true, and inspired Word of God. This is a series to help dispel doubts and give you confidence that the right books, and only the right books, are in the Bible.

Opponents of Christianity raise challenging questions about the origins, authorship, age, and reliability of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. When the authenticity of the New Testament is questioned, so is the gospel. In this series, Dr. Michael J. Kruger critiques the most common objections to the canonicity of the New Testament and articulates sound reasons to believe with confidence that the New Testament is the authentic, true, and inspired Word of God.

Did the New Testament canon arise naturally from within the early Christian faith?Were the books written as Scripture, or did they become Scripture by a decision of the second-century church?Why did early Christians have a canon at all?These are the types of questions that led Michael J. Kruger to pick apart modern scholarship’s dominant view that the New Testament is a late creation of the church imposed on books originally written for another purpose. Calling into question this commonly held “extrinsic” view, Kruger here tackles the five most prevalent objections to the classic understanding of a quickly emerging, self-authenticating collection of authoritative scriptures.Already a noted author on the subject of the New Testament canon, Kruger addresses foundational and paradigmatic assumptions of the extrinsic model as he provides powerful rebuttals and further support for the classic, “intrinsic” view. This framework recognizes the canon as the product of internal forces evolving out of the historical essence of Christianity, not a development retroactively imposed by the church upon books written hundreds of years before.Unlike many books written on the emergence of the New Testament canon that ask “when?” or “how?” Kruger focuses this work on the “why?"—exposing weaknesses in the five major tenets of the extrinsic model as he goes. While The Question of Canon scrutinizes today’s popular scholastic view, it also offers an alternative concept to lay a better empirical foundation for biblical canon studies.

This study of the New Testament canon and its authority looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the biblical text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.

How did the books of the Bible come to be recognized as Holy Scripture?Who decided what shape the canon should take?What criteria influenced these decisions?After nearly nineteen centuries the canon of Scripture remains an issue of debate. Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox all have slightly differing collections of documents in their Bibles. Martin Luther, one of the early leaders of the Protestant Reformation, questioned the inclusion of the book of James in the canon. And many Christians today, while confessing the authority of all of Scripture, tend to rely on only a few books and particular themes while ignoring the rest.Scholars have raised many other questions as well. Research into second-century Gnostic texts have led some to argue that politics played a significant role in the formation of the Christian canon. Assessing the influence of ancient communities and a variety of disputes on the final shaping of the canon call for ongoing study.In this significant historical study, F. F. Bruce brings the wisdom of a lifetime of reflection and biblical interpretation to bear on questions and confusion surrounding the Christian canon of Scripture. Adept in both Old and New Testament studies, he brings a rare comprehensive perspective to the task.Though some issues have shifted since the initial publication of this classic book, it remains a significant landmark and touchstone for further studies.

Opponents of Christianity raise challenging questions about the origins, authorship, age, and reliability of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. When the authenticity of the New Testament is questioned, so is the gospel. In this series, Dr. Michael Kruger critiques the most common objections to the canon and presents abundant evidence that these books are the authentic, true, and inspired Word of God. This is a series to help dispel doubts and give you confidence that the right books, and only the right books, are in the Bible.

the warnings of the Synod nor the commands of the delegates of the Most Generous and Powerful States General could make progress with them. The Synod was forced to pursue another way by the order of their Lords and from the custom received from ancient synods. So the Synod examined their teachings on the five points from their writings, confessions, and declarations, some previously issued, others prepared for this Synod.

Through the singular grace of God, with the greatest diligence, faith, and conscience, this Synod achieved the absolute consensus of all and each member, to the glory of God. So, for the integrity of the truth of salvation, the tranquility of consciences, and the peace and well-being of the Dutch church, the Synod decided to promulgate the following judgment. By this judgment it both expounded the true conviction, which agreed to the Word of God about the previously mentioned Five Heads of Doctrine, and rejected the false conviction which differed from the Word of God.

This excerpt is adapted from Saving the Reformation by W. Robert Godfrey.

How did the early church recognize the books of the New Testament as Scripture? In this episode, Barry Cooper examines four signs of a book’s divine authority.

that he might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby lead them without fail to salvation. In other words, it was God’s will that Christ through the blood of the cross (by which he confirmed the new covenant) should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language all those and only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation and given to him by the Father; that he should grant them faith (which, like the Holy Spirit’s other saving gifts, he acquired for them by his death); that he should cleanse them by his blood from all their sins, both original and actual, whether committed before or after their coming to faith; that he should faithfully preserve them to the very end; and that he should finally present them to himself, a glorious people, without spot or wrinkle.

Article 9: The Fulfillment of God’s Plan

This plan, arising out of God’s eternal love for his chosen ones, from the beginning of the world to the present time has been powerfully carried out and will also be carried out in the future, the gates of hell seeking vainly to prevail against it. As a result the chosen are gathered into one, all in their own time, and there is always a church of believers founded on Christ’s blood, a church which steadfastly loves, persistently worships, and—here and in all eternity—praises him as her Savior who laid down his life for her on the cross, as a bridegroom for his bride.

REJECTION OF THE ERRORS

Having set forth the orthodox teaching, the Synod rejects the errors of those

I

Who teach that God the Father appointed his Son to death on the cross without a fixed and definite plan to save anyone by name, so that the necessity, usefulness, and worth of what Christ’s death obtained could have stood intact and altogether perfect, complete and whole, even if the redemption that was obtained had never in actual fact been applied to any individual.

For this assertion is an insult to the wisdom of God the Father and to the merit of Jesus Christ, and it is contrary to Scripture. For the Savior speaks as follows: “I lay down my life for the sheep, and I know them” ( John 10:15, 27). And Isaiah the prophet says concerning the Savior: “When he shall make himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand” (Isa. 53:10). Finally, this undermines the article of the creed in which we confess what we believe concerning the church.

II

Who teach that the purpose of Christ’s death was not to establish in actual fact a new covenant of grace by his blood, but only to acquire for the Father the mere right to enter once more into a covenant with men, whether of grace or of works.

For this conflicts with Scripture, which teaches that Christ “has become the guarantee and mediator” of a better—that is, “a new”—“covenant” (Heb.

On this first episode of Open Book , Stephen Nichols and R.C. Sproul discuss a tattered book, the Council of Trent, and an unlikely pair of roommates.

(3/4.4–5). Only God the Spirit “through the word or ministry of reconciliation” raises His elect to life (3/4.6). We believe because God has made us alive (and not the reverse), but the Spirit makes us alive by working through the administration of the Word; the external proclamation of the Gospel is sincere and the Gospel promise sincere (3/4.8, 11, 17). Those who refuse the Gospel are responsible for their choices, and the regeneration of the elect must be credited only to God’s sovereign grace (3/4.10, 12). God’s sovereignty does not make us “stocks and blocks” because the Spirit works through the Word. It “spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it, that where carnal rebellion and resistance formerly prevailed” (3/4.16).

The fifth head defended the perseverance of the saints. Those to whom He gives the gift of faith, whom He “regenerates by the Holy Spirit, he also delivers from the dominion and slavery of sin” (5.1). Our ongoing struggle with sin gives us reason to humble ourselves and to seek heaven (5.2). Left to ourselves, we would fall away, but grace “mercifully confirms and powerfully preserves” us “even to the end” (5.3). Sometimes believers, such as David, fall into grievous sin and lose the sense of God’s favor, but God preserves them (5.4–5). God never allows His people “to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption” (5.6). Christ “certainly and effectually renews” His people “to repentance, to a sincere and godly sorrow for their sins” (5.7). The Spirit grants assurance to His people not, however, “by any peculiar revelation,” but rather it “springs from faith in God’s promises” (5.10). Assurance of grace does not produce immorality among Christians. Rather, “it renders them much more careful and concerned to continue in the ways of the Lord” (5.13). As the Spirit makes us alive through the preaching of the Gospel, He strengthens our faith and assurance through the sacraments (5.14).

The Canons of Dordt represent a remarkable consensus of conviction among the Reformed churches on essential doctrines. Indeed, the very Reformation was at stake. If God’s favor is conditioned upon anything in us, then we are lost because we are dead in sin. If the Gospel is reconfigured to include our obedience, then it is no longer the Gospel. If atonement is merely hypothetical, if the elect can fall away, then grace is no longer grace.

The synod’s response was careful, pastoral, and firm. The synod concluded that it does not help piety or assurance to make our salvation depend on anything in us. The Gospel is Christ for us. The Canons of Dordt are an inheritance to be treasured, but they are also to be used in our congregations, in our catechism classes, and as an example of how to respond to challenges.

Stowe, Flannery O’Connor — who belongs in any canon of modern literature but who has a new prominence as a major female author) wrote about Christianity! The same is true of many minority authors (Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass). So we have the spectacle of liberal, feminist, politically-correct college classrooms having to wrestle with O’Connor’s depictions of sin and grace, and Wheatley’s evangelical fervor as a freed slave.

The notion that a list of secular writings can constitute a “canon” in the biblical sense probably derives from the nineteenth-century humanist Matthew Arnold’s insistence that literature can replace religion as a guide for life and meaning. It can’t.

The postmodernist critiques of the literary canon make some points. The “Great Books” set from the Encyclopædia Britannica people, edited and chosen by Mortimer Adler, show a strain of thought that has led to constitutional democracy. That is an invaluable tradition, though, that postmodernists are wrong to minimize. But it is true that there can be other “canons” for other strains of Western thought, such as those that gave us conservatism or empirical science. A collection of the Great Christian Books would be worth assembling.

Nevertheless, contrary to the postmodernists, there are objective standards — those that belong to the absolutes of truth, goodness, and beauty — by which books can be measured and which allow some to ace the test of time. Put Shakespeare, Milton, and Austen in a reading list with angry feminist correspondence, political tracts, and multi-cultural mythology and the greatness of the Greats becomes immediately obvious.

Furthermore, the truly great authors of the secular canon resist the attempts to turn their writings into a sacred canon. It may be a mark of their greatness that our culture’s greatest writers often draw on, quote, allude to, and are inspired by the canon of Holy Scripture.

The question of canon asks, How do we know the right books have been included in the Bible? In this lesson, Dr. Sproul explores this question and discusses the scope of the Scriptures and how far the canon of Scripture extends.

Have you ever wondered how the church decided on the twenty-seven books of the New Testament? How do we know the right books got into the canon of Scripture? What criteria did the early church use to decide which books were inspired by God, and which ones were not? In this message, Dr. Sproul explains the criteria the early church used, and how we can be confident in the "Inspiration & Canon of Scripture."

When you read the Bible, what is the nature of the truth of God revealed in it? And once we understand that which was revealed, can we capture the truths of Scripture in our creeds, confessions, and catechisms? These questions give us a taste of the Neo-Orthodox movement. In this message, Dr. Sproul exposes the Neo-Orthodox view of Scripture as he shows the dangerous distinctions that were made concerning the nature of Scripture in the twentieth century.

Why didn’t the Reformers include the Apocrypha or other writings into the Canon of Scripture? How do we know which books belong in the New Testament? Can we be sure that what we have now is the entire New Testament? Considering these questions, Dr. Sproul explains the differences between the written Word of God and mere religious writings, and why we can have confidence in the Scriptures we now have.

A vast number of ancient writings claim to contain truth about the life and teachings of Jesus. For this reason, it is crucial for Christians to be able to offer clear reasons why some ancient writings have a place in the New Testament canon and why others do not. In this lesson, Dr. Kruger presents three distinguishing characteristics that set God’s inspired books apart from all other human writings.

Having made a thorough case for an early and gradual process of canon formation, Dr. Kruger now turns his attention to the authorship of the New Testament. In this lecture, he will examine and critique a misconception about New Testament authorship that is rampant in both Christian and secular circles. As Dr. Kruger points out, a correct understanding of the intention of the authors of the New Testament can help us avoid common and deadly errors in our approach to God’s Word.

Throughout this series, Dr. Kruger has critiqued the prevalent belief that the New Testament canon was invented by the church in the fourth or fifth century. But when did the books of the New Testament start being used as Scripture? In this lesson, Dr. Kruger examines the history of the early church, uncovering substantial evidence that the believers from the period of the New Testament onward were consistently reading, teaching, and relying on the core of the New Testament canon as the Word of God.

Our understanding of when and how the New Testament canon came about is profoundly shaped by our perception of what canon is. In this lecture, Dr. Kruger describes three distinct ways of defining canon and explains how each of these definitions points us toward an important aspect of how God gave His Word to His church.

Opponents of Christianity are launching bold new attacks against the foundation of Christian belief: the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. Directed at the average person and calculated to undermine confidence in the Bible, these popular and destructive ideas about the origins of the New Testament have gained a widespread audience. In this lecture, Dr. Kruger describes these contemporary challenges to Christian belief and explains why Christians cannot afford to allow these challenges to go unanswered.

Critical scholars have popularized the idea that the canon was arbitrarily imposed on Christians in an effort to elevate one form of Christianity above others. Popular as this view has become, it has no historical warrant. In this lecture, Dr. Kruger presents several theological beliefs of the early church that would have naturally and organically led to the formation and adoption of the New Testament canon.

If Scripture is the only infallible rule of faith and practice for the church, then it is vital that we know which books constitute Scripture. There are, after all, many books that claim to be from God or that others claim are from the Lord. How, then, do we identify what the Lord has inspired and what He has not?

Discerning the Old Testament canon is relatively easy, as we have seen. If Jesus is Lord, then we want to have the canon that He followed, and we know that His Old Testament canon was the thirty-nine-book Protestant Old Testament canon.

Things are more complicated when it comes to the New Testament. Yet, church history shows that there was an early consensus about the New Testament canon. Certain books—including the four Gospels, the Pauline Epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, 1 Peter, and 1 John—were universally accepted, with almost no one doubting their Scriptural status. Some early believers, however, had questions about books such as Revelation and 2–3 John. In the end, certain objective factors helped move the church to receive these books as Scripture: they had a credible claim to Apostolic authorship, taught in accord with the other unquestioned books, and were read in churches in all parts of the known world. By the middle of the fourth century A.D., the church had settled on the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and the Protestant Reformers affirmed this canon just as the Roman Catholics did.

Although the aforementioned objective factors regarding the New Testament books were appealed to as the church was discerning the scope of Scripture, the reception of the canon also involved subjective factors as well. Because Scripture is from God Himself and because there is no authority higher than the Lord, the final reason why the church received the canon it did was due to its hearing the voice of God in the pages of the received books. While objective evidences for canonicity are persuasive and necessary, we are finally convinced to receive Scripture as Scripture by the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of His people. John Calvin wrote: "These words [of Scripture] will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted" (Institutes 1.7.4).