TODAY'S DEVOTION ON THE BIBLE
Having dealt with the very significant subject of the canon of Scripture over the last few days, let’s conclude our discussion of this important topic with a summary of what we’ve learned.
The canon of Scripture is the books that comprise our Bible, those that have measured up as divinely inspired and are to serve as the Christian’s standard for faith and practice.
The canonical books were easily deemed divinely inspired shortly after they were written.
The canonical books were not handpicked by prejudice church councils determined to gut the Christian faith of its original diversity and restrict it to a narrow-minded fundamentalism; in fact, they were not picked by church councils at all.
Although the Council of Jamnia—a gathering of Jewish rabbis following the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD—and the Synod of Hippo—an early church council convened in northern Africa in 393 AD—formerly acknowledged the canons of the Old and New Testaments, they were merely acknowledging the books that had been commonly accepted as divinely inspired for centuries.
The non-canonical books are for the most part heretical documents written by heretics in contradiction of the canonical books.
The non-canonical books that have survived till our day—a few in full and many only in fragments—are being used disingenuously by the Bible-bashers of our world to deceive people into questioning the credibility of the Bible.
Finally, and most importantly, don’t you be deceived. Your eternal destiny will be determined by whether or not you believe in the Word of God, not only God’s written Word—the Scripture—but also God’s living Word—His Son, Jesus Christ!
Don Walton
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