How Was Canonicity Determined?

Having dealt with the matter of where infants end up when they die or are murdered by being aborted, some folks might ask how I know the books of the Bible are the genuine Word of God. Canonicity is the science of determining which books are actual God-breathed scriptures. Here are the factors which compilers of the Bible used to choose the New Testament books.

Firstly, the manuscripts must be either by somebody who was with Christ during his earthly sojourn or a close associate of that person. John and Matthew were Christ's disciples, as was Peter. Others, such as Mark, Luke, and James were friends of Jesus' apostles.

Secondly, the writings had to agree with what Christ and his apostles preached. During the second and third centuries A.D., people began writing down their own ideas and passing them off as the manuscripts of Barnabas, Judas, Thomas, and other disciples. Not only were these writings too recent for Canonicity but they disagreed with what Christ said.

Since "canon" means measuring stick, the composition of these books were recognized by their style. The best example of a different writing style from the original author is in Mark chapter sixteen, from verse nine to twenty. Mark apparently received his account from Peter and wrote it in a brief and breathless style. Notice how the eleven final verses are so different in character from the rest of the gospel. What they teach is true but somebody obviously tacked them onto the gospel of Mark.

I could write more on this topic but it would become rather boring for most readers. Suffice it to say that the Bible books weren't altered at any time by a central ecclesiastical authority but have been recovered from many copies which circulated at the time.

I'll be dealing in depth on this subject in my next book which I call You Think You're Going to Heaven? People need to know that God's Word hasn't been tampered with but is an exact autograph of what was written during its history.

What About Purgatory and Limbo?

In my previous post, I wrote about the destination of dead infant souls. Some folks might object that either purgatory or limbo is where those spirits go. Does the Word of God really teach those doctrines?

When people compiled all the sacred writings into one book, The Bible, they used rules of canonicity. That means that every book had to adhere to a certain standard before it could be included in the Bible. I'll deal with this further in my next post.

Meanwhile, I need to explain that the seven apocryphal books in the Catholic Bible don't meet the canonical standards. They were written between Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament. These cover the doings in Israel but aren't part of the cannon of scripture as determined by the Reformers.

Nowhere in the sixty-six canonical books of Scripture does purgatory or any sort of holding area appear. As the Apostle Paul plainly stated in 2 Corinthians 5:8 (KJV), "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

Furthermore, Paul knew that he would be immediately with Christ at his death. As he wrote in Philippians 1:23 (KJV), "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:"

And what is the fate of sinners? The parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter sixteen shows that the rich man went to hell and Lazarus went to be with Abraham. There was no spiritual waiting room mentioned. Neither can we buy people out of this unbiblical holding cell. That is a man-made doctrine and foreign to what the Bible declares.

In my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven?, I intend to explain in depth about the instantaneous transportation of our spirits to hell or heaven. The Bible, which we must consult in all matters of doctrine, is our measuring rod and all things must be compared with what  it says.