The Problem of Canon

Coming up next on Renewing Your Mind. Why these books and no other books in our new Testaments. Remember thought about it and I'm sure you have any conflict to the content pages of your test when you realize it at all others. 27 books and an adjustment delivered on on you asking 126 books 28 books. As Christians, everything we know and trust about our faith is based on the Bible and much of her theology comes from the New Testament, but opponents of Christianity raise challenging questions about the origins authorship and reliability of those 27 New Testament books this week on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. Michael Kruger provides us with an abundance of evidence that the right books are there. Well let me begin by this welcoming of a series of discussions on origin of the New Testament canon, its authority, so glad you could join us and be here for this. This is a topic that's been near and dear to my heart for number of years, both in terms of my writing and research and speaking and talking topic.

I'm convinced has a lot of importance for the church and even for the individual Christian. I want to begin this first session and really our whole series in a rather unusual spot. I want to begin by talking about Mohammed Ali. Now I know is we begin a discussion of the necessity canon. I mentioned Mohammed Ali I know what's going through your mind you're thinking or so while we talk about the boxer Mohammed Ali talk about the origins of the Bible, the origins of the New Testament canon will not talk about the boxer, Dolly want talk about the shepherd, Mohammed Ali in 1945 there was a shepherd by the name of Mohammed Ali, who lived outside this little town called nag Hammadi Egypt and one year.

He was digging in the ground for fertilizer near his farm and he made what might be one of the greatest and most unexpected archaeological discoveries of the modern world there. Mohammed Ali was that day digging in the ground and his trouble hit something hard and he started to uncover the dirt and peel away the layers and he found this earthenware jar and he thought for a moment, all his dreams had come true right that he bought man maybe in here is treasurer goal or silver repose out this jar and is thinking about breaking it open. It was like some scene out of a movie and Riley's about to break it open. His brother was there stops and says I don't.

Don't break it open the writing evil genie inside Microsoft's is the bay back and forth about the stone door and finally said okay will open it up as they break the jar open and inside they don't find gold.

I don't find silver or jewels. In fact, Mohammed Ali was profoundly disappointed because only found inside the jar were books dusty old Maureen books Mohammed Ali ended up selling them some antiquities dealer, not even realizing what he had found.

But if you'd only known that day. What you discovered it would've absolutely changed his life because what he discovered was more valuable than any pile of gold refine because of Mohammed Ali found that day. Which he didn't know was what later came to be known as the Gnostic Gospels. He had in fact found 13 books 13 we call codices that held 52 individual stories and 52 individual writings in these told stories of Jesus that were radically different than the stories that you and I are used to told stories about Jesus, but had a very different feel about my different tone and different theology at the center of his Gnostic Gospels was on the most famous book you've heard about it, known as the Gospel of Thomas. If you read the Gospel of Thomas.

He would say wow this at first glance sounds like Jesus but then it doesn't sound like Jesus. Because the Jesus and the gospel. Thomas actually talks not so much about how we can be saved from our sins, but really how we can, save ourselves and we can save ourselves just to having higher knowledge the Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas doesn't really talk about his own divinity talks really about our divinity and how we can be divine, just like God. If you were to read the gospel. Thomas, you ask a lot of questions, you would wonder what happened in this version of Jesus and why haven't I heard about this version of Jesus and who read this book in what should we do with a book like this and vibration.

We will always books that Mohammed Ali found that day. Now if you were to ask those questions, you'd be asking the very same question that scholars and asking for for generations now, and that even like folks asking that is which will truly do belong our Bibles and how I know the books on the gospel. Thomas don't belong our Bibles and and after all, there's always other writings, there is at least some Christians read and they thought maybe were important books or should we add them to our new Testaments, should we not add them to our new Testaments. Should we think that those are valid versions of the story of Jesus to do or what we do with these books that whole phenomenon that whole problem raised by what Mohammed Ali discovered in 1945 and I'm calling the problem of Canon okay the problem of Canon is really the topic of our first session today because the problem canon gets at this question of why these books and no other books in our new Testaments when you thought about it and I'm sure you have any conflict to the content pages of your new test when you realize it. If you added all others. 27 books and an adjustment to never dawned on you'd asked for 126 books 28 books. What about looks like the gospel. Thomas is just as valid as St. John or Luke or maybe those should be out in, should be in now.

If you think about from among those kinds of questions are very obvious and basic and normal to ask, and scholars have realized that that's a bit of a problem for Christianity if I decided scholars that have notice that critical scholars have especially noticed that what they've done is a decided that hey if you want to attack Christianity.

This is a great spot to do it right. If you want to challenge the validity of the Bible. Let's do it here because they don't think Christians actually have an answer those questions.

I don't think that we can know which books belong in which books down fact, they would say to us as believers that really your belief in these 27 books as opposed to others is a bit of a blind leap of faith. You Christians can believe it. If you want. There's no reason I think that you're really right about these books of interest to Sean the dark and could be Thomas. It could be always other books. How do you know anyway so some scholars have called this the Achilles' heel of Christianity. This is our bidding vulnerability. So were told. Now all the right, and what I mean by this is the right in this way if we don't have answer the question of how we know what we have confidence of these are the right 27 books that does raise a question for Christianity. I mean how can we talk about the message of the New Testament. If there is no New Testament or lease. No coherent boundaries of the New Testament would talk about the message that we read in our Bibles.

If we can justify the sort of circumference in the scope of our Bibles. And if we don't have a New Testament which you have a New Testament theology New Testament theology would have a gospel message, and when he realizes the critics are right in one way, if we don't have some answer to why these books are not other books in this in some sense become the Achilles' heel of the Christian faith.

And so the whole point of this series together with you is to begin to answer that question to build answer about problem will explain why we believe these books and no others.

I'm convinced this is a critical issue for the church.

I suppose someone might argue, well, look, you know why we worry about what scholars say mean the person imputing. They believe the why militias leave the issue alone. I wish it were that easy is not that easy. Here's why. One of things that happen in recent years. Is it scholars have begun writing not just for other scholars. If you notice this, but scholars have begun writing for people at light level out in the world's all the many of the books are now becoming popular level books in the writing more stuff on the Internet, blogs, and you realize the issue just won't go away because they're trying to target the average person. Christians need to have a good answer to these questions is no reason it won't go away though is not just because scholars writing for laypeople now there's other issues behind the issue of Canon and actually what I want to do with the rest of our first session today as I want to lay out three other issues going on that are steaming this issue of Canon. You can look at it like this. These are three factors in play in the scholarly world that are exacerbating the problem right there. Continue to make Canon issue and generate discussions and so someone says will, by golly, it's been what, 1500 years since the church supposedly decided these things. How could it not be resolved in answer is that three things met Ray tell you three things keep popping up that keep raising the issue again again in people's minds because her think of this as three tributaries feeding a bigger river. Okay you want to know why your river has such a high level of water will easy tributaries feeding into it right in there making it run really fast. That's what's going on so I use this on as a layout.

These three factors. This is still in why the problem is a problem for the church… Walk through these three factors one at a time when the first is this. There's been a number of doubts raised over the last few generations about the authorship of New Testament books number of doubts raised over the years about the authorship of New Testament books. Now you and I don't think much about this right when you read a book and you see a name attached to it.

You're like me, you assume that the name attached was the name of the author right so when you look at the gospel of John a look at that first patient says the gospel of John, you rightly think wallet was written by John the apostle, the son of Zebedee. He's the author of this, but scholars are being asked questions about that and they begin to say will John wrote that you know John wrote John and roommate Heidi know Margaret Markin how you know who these people were and they begun to raise questions about how and whether we can be sure about the authorship of New Testament books, but actually there challenge goes deeper than that. They're not just asking how we know what the authors of these books are they're actually suggesting that a number of the books in our Bibles are new Testaments are actually forgeries of the words is not just that we don't know the author is, but they argue we have reason to think that the authors are people pretending to be someone they're not. So for example when you look at the book of Ephesians that we think Paul wrote scholars they will abundantly right that Paul didn't write that all federal some pretending to be Paul wrote Ephesians writing in Paul's name was a forgery. Another example this is second Peter some scholars look at second Peter say well yeah you think Peter is a computer, but was really Peter some forger pretending to be Peter and this is become one of the main sort of thing. Scholars want to talk about. It's a bit of a of a dripping faucet right just keeps going drip drip drip.

The issue keeps coming up again and again is a recent book that came out on this topic by Bart Harmon. Now if you don't know Barton's name will him to mention his name several times for Don Borman is a professor at UNC Chapel Hill act actually hands me my alma mater. He's probably one the most prolific criticizes of Christianity today he finds all kinds of reasons not to bleed Christianity in the Canon.

How is he one of his favorite issues.

He wrote a book over the last couple years and this is the title of the book, listen to the title. This is book is called forged riding in the name of God in the subtitles. This why the Bible's authors are not who we think they are now when you hear that title that probably kinda raises some concerns right you're probably think that Telcom bothers me. The one thing about the title, authors are not who we think they are well within. Who are these people and why should I think that I should listen to them if their forgers up there forger is molding their liars and their lawyers why books in my Bible. You can see the title like that is designed to stir doubts within believers and this is one of the things that's making the Canon issue be an issue. Think about the kid issue. Just why these books are no others, but this is one of the tributaries it's feeding it because as soon as you start asking a question about whether these are the right authors is another. When asked what is the right books right would you do if you found out the second Peter was forced to do it consciously probably booted out of the Canon then you think yourself.

But I will have the authority to bed anyway and so this is a weird position to be a book that's a mechanical thing should be there when I do with that. And this raises all kinds of doubts. This is one of the factors that keeps coming up again and again. Now the purpose of our first session here is not to answer all these objections were to do that.

Little by little in different ways throughout our time together and so I know your mind you're thinking yourself. Will you just all this now it will give us the answer right now what I can do that. I want you to understand that this is one of the tributaries feeding that river if there is doubts about New Testament authors, there's gonna be doubts about the can write they go hand-in-hand in a second factor that's feeding this discussion of Canon. Another thing that's been true. Doing the drumbeat here that makes people doubt whether we have the right books so the first was just the question of who wrote these books authorship second thing that's happened that's feeding the debate is the discovery of more and more apocryphal books.

The discovery of more more apocryphal books now use the word apocryphal, not so worded people get confused by maybe think of the books in our Bibles at the Roman Catholic Church as and we down. That's called apocryphal, but that's not how I'm using the word here apocryphal, just simply means hidden in the say that you are talking about apocryphal books or hidden books just a way of talking about books that kinda looked like her New Testament books but never made it our Bibles. An example of that is the book we just talked about a moment ago, which is the Gospel of Thomas Wright as an example of an apocryphal New Testament book. It's a book that sorta looks like New Testament books talks about Jesus. You think maybe someone somewhere thought this was scripture but never made it into the final New Testament. That's an apocryphal book and here's the thing we should realize were continuing to find one more of these in the archaeological excavations that are happening around the world. In fact in the last hundred years we have found about a great number of these books, particularly in Egypt. Archaeological investigations are going on and cover new manuscripts and lo and behold they find stories of Jesus that no one's ever heard about. There's an archaeological dig right now going on in Egypt that's been going on in the same site for over 100 years. Think about that for a moment was really in the late 1800s couple Oxford scholars found the lost city of Oxford trinkets in Egypt. Now there's a fun work for you oxo rank us in later and take that home and impress your friends about smart you are, you're not oxo rank us oxo Rakas is a lawsuit in Egypt and they discovered in the late 1800s and what they found was the old furtive garbage dump of the city were they throughout old manuscripts. Imagine us the last hundred plus years they've been doing nothing triggers, but uncovering ancient walls, books, and many of the books that we know about now were lost books that we discovered oxo rank us and we discovered other places to every time one is lost books gets found.

People start asking the question again why these books, why not these books and why the books that we have in our Bibles now mention the gospel. Thomas mentioned a few other examples of these lost books in my entry new one is known as the Gospel of Peter, and I think Juan was it was written by Peter. I can assure you it was not written by Peter lobbies, lost books, took on titles and apostles to give themselves some credibility right, but also Peter tells the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.

But does it in a very bizarre strained way. Otherwise Gospels that is the Gospel of Mary, which supposedly is private revelations given to Mary Magdalene by Jesus. We found some a description of the Gospel of Mary three manuscripts. The Gospel of Mary with years.

One of these Gospels as soon as the gospel of Judas.

This is interesting right you're thinking about a guy who betrayed Jesus. Apparently the gospel you might think wow that he died right there afterwards in your you raise a good question right that take place will course wasn't really written by Judas was purportedly his writings and so on. There is even in the last three years, a so-called gospel of Jesus, his wife and this was a gospel that purported to talk about Jesus being married I was finishing about back Gospels, it became out later that actually was a modern forgery is actually forged by modern individual trying to put off the gospel as an agent tax knocking on and on. Here's the point. Every time there's archaeological discovery raises the issue that doesn't bother with. This will be the last one is always anymore.

It was a machinist every time there's one it's on the news unknown on the web on a blog in the newspaper and people come to me may come your pastor and say what we do these books and this is why Christians have to have an answer for this problem.

It's a vision over the years only books have been written on these lost books and Nelson have these provocative titles.

Review examples here book came out a number of years ago and the title of the book was called the five Gospels century time) you hear anything else for Gospels right now to Mark, Luke and John bit to visit for the gospel which was the fifth gospel. You might wonder why it's Thomas case you're wondering give Dave a way that big surprise there. I know about the canal not long ago called lost Christianity's section title right lost Christianity think about implications that title it's astounding that there's other Christianity's implicitly other books that go with those Christianity is that have been forgotten that if only we could uncover those you could know what the real history of Christianity really was fairly provocative and intriguing. Another title that came out in recent years. In the book that was entitled forgotten Scriptures allow that title forgotten Scriptures implies that there Scriptures which is debatable. Certainly right in their forgotten Scriptures saw. Here's the Scripture you never knew existed, and if only now you read my book and you can know all the churches and in forgotten and now we know what Jesus was really like. You can see were these books are going in all of those generate doubts and God's people in your mind in my mind about whether these books that we have our Canon are really the right ones leads us to 1/3 factor our final factor will talk about in the session at least for why the Canon issue keeps children growing. This is the third tributary. That's the influence of a scholar by the name of Walter Bauer.

So I tell you about Walter Bauer moment. I know that name is a mean anything to you, Walter Bauer, Walter Bauer is actually a German scholar who wrote a very famous book in 1934 in Germany and in the book was called orthodoxy and heresy in earliest Christianity. Now when Bauer wrote the book. No one paid much attention. In fact, when Bauer wrote that book if you thought about the artist holding 1934 people in Germany want think about Walter Bauer okay and I can 34 there think about is getting Adolf Hitler would just become the fear of Germany so Bauer wrote this book in obscurity and only noticed it fast for a number years and in 1971 was translated in English and suddenly everyone took notice. In fact, knowing they took notice, but Bauer's book was like this bomb going off on the playground of biblical scholarship people think wow this is a radical idea what what would Bauer say in this book. Here's the essence of power in this book and everyone senses just been parroting back Bauer Bauer and this bloke argued very simple thesis which is at the earliest centuries of Christianity.

In those centuries Christianity was wildly diverse, wildly diverse and when he says diverse. He doesn't mean ethnically or racially diverse. Those are the types of topics in our modern-day right is not what Bauer is talking about when he says it early Christianity was wildly diverse he means theologically diverse. Bauer argued Bauer argue that in early Christianity, there was massive theological disagreement.

Everybody had their own view of everything Christians disagreed about all kinds of stuff Christians disagree about whether creation was good or evil. They didn't always agree the question how many gods were there.

We didn't always agree question of whether the God of the Old Testament was good or evil.

Didn't always agree question of who was Jesus wasn't God was a man was he a mix they didn't agree what it took to be saved.

How did salvation happen. They didn't agree what you say from what Christians in the breeze, said Bauer and they all disagreed and refined out over the mantle who could claim to be authentic Christianity is the point. Bauer says that we live in earliest centuries, there was really no such thing as Christianity is, as Christianity sees plural allusion group climate question fighting out for the real banner of being the authentic Christian faith. And here's the kicker. Each one of these groups have their own books and collection books.

So says Bauer. You think the Canon you have now a special note was just the books of the theological victors. The theological winners. If another group in one intervene in one of the center books and women of the difference hundred one illuminati reading Luke 11 reading the gospel. Philip and I really enjoy that evening the gospel Thomas and he wouldn't even know anything different. In other words, the can you have a just a big historical accident now will be done in this first session. I laid out for use three different tributaries now one sense you're going to take away from this first session, a bit of angst and that's intentional you're probably thinking you give us all the problems and solutions right. Here's when you realize want you to feel the problem of Canon, Canon is a challenge.

The church has to answer and I lay out those three tributaries for you to know that it's not good to go away and if we don't have an answer, then we cannot say we have a coherent New Testament we don't have a coherent New Testament we don't have a coherent Adesso message we wanted just a message and will have a gospel message what's at stake. Then the very gospel he preached each and believe my prayer is that these sessions would help you all listening to recover some level of awareness of the issue and assurance of the truth of God's word in the likeness of these books in our Canon and an ability to articulate that to world religions to be a world that's in doubt, starting with other believers who will listen about why these books are the right books. There is a concentrated effort to undermine our confidence in the Bible and unfortunately those efforts have gained a widespread audience today know that I've heard some of the skeptical challenges that the Dr. Michael Kruger talked about today on Renewing Your Mind. Perhaps you have as well and would like to be better prepared to respond to those challenges. That's why I highly recommend Dr. Kruger series to you for further study. There are six messages on one DVD and will send it to you for your donation of any amount to leader ministries. You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343 or you can make your request and give your gift online at Renewing Your Mind.or by the way, Dr. Kruger is president of reformed theological seminary in Charlotte North Carolina. It is well known for his work on the New Testament Canon will be featuring other lessons from his series, should this week here on Renewing Your Mind. But again, if you like to order the entire series. Just call us at 800-435-4343 and for your gift of any amount will be glad to send it your way. We do hope that this daily outreach of leader ministries is a source of encouragement to you. Our goal is to help you grow in your knowledge of God's holiness through the study of his word. One of the many ways to listen is to sign up to receive a link to each days program in your email inbox. You can do that by going to Renewing Your Mind.work tomorrow. Dr. Kruger response to some of the other challenges to the reliability of Scripture, people make statements such as there was no Canon Christianity until the century citizen scholar willing her famous pastor say this only go we were not in a church in evangelical churches don't conversation with no Canon until the fifth century thinking myself that's not quite accurate. I know what you mean by I hope you make place to join us Tuesday for renewing your body