SO, WHY SHOULD I EVEN BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE?
As an Evangelical, I asked this question but never found many satisfying answers. The Bible just "was" and that was that. Case closed. This is a good question that doesn't really get asked enough. After all, the Bible didn't just fall out of the sky.
No one wakes up in the morning and just decides that the Bible is the true, inspired Word of God. That's something taught and received as a "given" in our society because we have received the Bible as a "tradition." After all, why not accept the Vedas, the Qur'an, the Tao Te Ching, the Book of Mormon, or the Pali Canon? These are all considered to be inspired religious texts by different religious groups.
WHICH BOOKS BELONG IN THE BIBLE? HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONES?
Problem: Without an outside authority, there is no way to objectively determine which books belong in the Canon of Scripture. In other words, the Bible doesn't tell you in the Bible which books belong in the Bible. There is no inspired table of contents page. So, one has to rely on something other than scripture to determine the correct list of books. Why not 34 books in the New Testament rather than 27? Why not include the Didache or the Shepherd of Hermas?
So, since we have to have an authority outside of Scripture to determine which books were inspired, which church decided the Canon? It wasn't 21st century non-denominationalism and none of the Protestant denominations existed prior to the Reformation in the 16th century, which gives us a 1500 year history gap. So, that leaves us with two options prior to the Reformation: the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church (both of which claim to be Catholic, by the way, as in "universal"). Both of these churches were one church prior to 1054 A.D. in the first millennium. It was the Church.
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT
1) Was an illegitimate 4th century Papacy guided by the Holy Spirit to produce a legitimate and correct Bible? If the answer is yes, then why do you trust a Catholic council from the 4th century that determined the list of books in the Bible?
2) If the Catholic Church correctly recognized and officially canonized the Bible in the 4th century, why is it that the very next day, the Catholic Church was totally wrong about everything else? How can it be so right about the Bible but so wrong about everything else?
3) What if the Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit to determine the correct books of the Bible is right about some other stuff too?
These questions made me come to the realization that I couldn't reject the Catholic Church on the one hand but accept its authority every time I opened my Bible on the other hand. If Catholicism was wrong but officially declared the correct, inspired books of the Bible, then how can I even trust the Bible?
If Catholicism is wrong on the Canon of Scripture, then all of Christianity has an incorrect Bible.
Augustine, in writing against the Manichaeans in 388 A.D., said:
"For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church."
In other words, if the Catholic Church that was led by the Holy Spirit in correctly canonizing the books of the Bible, then I am actually indirectly accepting a decision of the Catholic Church every time I open my Bible.
**Timeline of when the Bible we have today was formed in the 4th century**
39th Festal Letter of Athanasius in 367 A.D.
Athanasius was the Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, and wrote 45 letters during the Easter season. It was in his 39th Festal Letter that we see the complete list of the 27 books of the New Testament that we have today. He is known as "Athanasius Contra Mundum" which means "Athanasius against the World."
Athanasius is known as the defender of the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea. He is honored as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church because he lived before the East-West schism in 1054 A.D. Athanasius defined the 27 books that we have today in the New Testament here in his letter in 367 A.D.
Council of Rome under Pope Damasus I in 382 A.D.
39th Festal Letter of Athanasius in 367 A.D.
Athanasius was the Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, and wrote 45 letters during the Easter season. It was in his 39th Festal Letter that we see the complete list of the 27 books of the New Testament that we have today. He is known as "Athanasius Contra Mundum" which means "Athanasius against the World."
Athanasius is known as the defender of the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea. He is honored as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church because he lived before the East-West schism in 1054 A.D. Athanasius defined the 27 books that we have today in the New Testament here in his letter in 367 A.D.
Council of Rome under Pope Damasus I in 382 A.D.
This council defined the canon of the Old and New Testaments. Pope Damasus I then commissioned Jerome to translate the Old and New Testaments into Latin, becoming known as the Latin Vulgate.
Synod of Hippo in 393 A.D.
This synod in North Africa ratified the same list of books.
Council of Carthage in 397 A.D. under Saint Augustine
This council defined the same list of books that would become the Bible.
Pope Innocent I in 405 A.D. sends out a list of the books of the Bible
The Pope sent out the same list of books to Exsuperius, Bishop of Toulouse.
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