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Diocletian tried to destroy Christian writings
Discovering the Bible,. winner of many awards, is a basic introduction to the Bible but also explores where the Bible came from and how it was passed on to us.
NEW ON DVD
Azusa Street Project. In 1906, William J. Seymour, a one-eyed black pastor, son of a slave, journeyed to Los Angeles, only to be locked out of the church that sent for him. He turned to prayer and God's answer was revival, which shook the foundations of the church, spawned numerous denominations and changed the lives of six million people. [0707]
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t's mind-boggling! The Bible is not one book,
but a library of 66 books written over a 1500-year period in 3 languages
by 40 authors living in 10 different countries. The authors' works include
history, mystery, romance, poetry, prose, and even humor! A cast of 2,930
characters are depicted in 1,551 places. How did this amazing collection
ever come about?
order back issues of this story
God revealed Himself through His Hebrew prophets. The Jews reverenced
the writings of the prophets and carefully preserved them. These sacred
writings became the Scriptures of the first Christians. Christians recognized
these Scriptures contained promises of the coming of Jesus. Inspired writings
from the earliest church were later added to the Hebrew sacred books to
make up a canon of Scripture.
The Greek word canon (quite different from the Latin cannon --
used in warfare!) meant a rule, measuring rod, or standard. By the fourth
century the Christians conclusively recognized that there was a Christian
canon - the collected writings which set forth the standards of Christian
truth as first taught by the apostles. In part, this finalization of the
Christian canon came about because of the rise of various heresies.
Internal Threat
The Gnostic heretic Marcion, about 140 A.D., was the first to make a list
of what books he thought were repositories of the truth. Marcion believed
the God of the Old Testament was evil, so he rejected the entire Old Testament!
He only accepted parts of the gospel of Luke and ten of Paul's epistles
as true. Surprisingly this false teacher was performing a valuable service.
By listing the books he thought were evil and wrong, the church leaders
were forced to carefully consider and confirm what Christian writings
were true and authoritative.
Irenaeus, a church father writing about 180 A.D., and only two generations
from the apostle John, attacked Marcion's Gnostic heresies. Irenaeus affirmed
the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, as true because in them were
the many prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He also used quotations
of many of the New Testament writings to show the error of Marcion's teachings
about the person and salvation work of Jesus Christ.
Throughout the second and third centuries the church fathers constantly
quoted the early apostles and the gospels to explain Christian teaching
to believers and to wage war against heretics. These Scriptures were a
canon or rule to both measure truth and resist error; and the early church
was in strong agreement as to which writings were sacred.
Scriptures Burned
In 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian sponsored the last empire-wide persecution
of the Christians. His edicts demanded that churches be destroyed and
the scriptures burned. Some Christians themselves were burned because
they refused to turn over their sacred books.
Soon after the Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity a legal religion
in 324 A.D., he requested that Eusebius of Caesarea produce 50 copies
of the Scriptures for use in the capital city of Constantinople. Of the
many Christian writings available, Eusebius was to collect only the sacred
ones and combine them into one volume (Some believe Codex Sinaiticus mentioned
in Glimpses issue #55 was among these copies). This is the first
reference to all the writings of the New Testament being brought into
one book. Previous to this, the various writings of the New Testament
were in separate scrolls or smaller collections of writings.
Final Confirmation
Two North African church councils, at Hippo Regius in 393 and at Carthage
in 397, also accepted the 27 books listed by Athanasius as comprising
the New Testament canon. However, neither Eusebius, nor Athanasius, nor
the church councils established the canon of Scripture. As New Testament
scholar F.F. Bruce explained: The New Testament books did not become authoritative
for the church because they were formally included in canonical literature;
on the contrary, the church included them in her canon because she already
regarded them as divinely inspired.
A Sorting Out Process
There were many other Christian writings in circulation in the fourth
century. Some were good reading but obviously not inspired; others
claimed to be inspired but were actually written by heretics and false
teachers. Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria in Egypt was concerned about
the influence these heretical writings were having on his people --
some believers were even preparing astrological charts showing the
stars named after the saints! A number of the false books, such as
the Gospel of Thomas, had names similar to Scripture but were
full of error. Athanasius realized that the best defense against heresy
was a clear understanding of Scripture. In his Easter letter of 367,
Athanasius set before his people "the books included in the Canon
and handed down, and accredited as Divine." Athanasius' list
of the names of the inspired books of the New Testament was the first
list of Biblical books which corresponds exactly to the New Testament
books we have in our Bibles today. In writing about them, Athanasius
said, These are the fountains of salvation, that they who thirst may
be satisfied with the living words they contain. . . Let no man add
to these, neither let him take ought from these. |
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