What's with the canon?

Closed canon.

There, I said it. It’s out there. It’s an important idea in Christianity and we need to talk about this a little. The term “closed canon” means simply that the Bible is complete. There will be no new writings added. No more inspired revelation is possible. God’s Word, as collected in the Old and New Testament, is done.

A main reason why the church fathers in the 4^th century selected the books of the New Testament (they accepted the Old Testament as it had been assembled by the Jews) was that the books were written by or closely influenced by an apostle.

That one point forced a closed canon, because once the 12 apostles were dead, no more canonical books could be written.

Why’s this important? The New Testament books were written within a generation of the time of Jesus. Eyewitnesses could read them. If there had been error or exaggeration, many would have protested. Even 300 years later, church fathers felt comfortable that those early texts were accurate reports of Jesus’ life, crucifixion and resurrection.

We don’t have texts pieced together by authors centuries after the fact, trying to separate legend from fact. We have eyewitness reports on the events of Jesus’ day. We have a canon that serves as an unchanging standard.

There are groups that disagree with this position and hold that God continues to give revelation today. They add and subtract from their scripture as their leaders sense new revelation. What was God’s inspired Word 20 years ago is no longer printed in the latest edition of their scriptures. Their foundation keeps changing.

To follow Jesus, we must be clear about our stand on the Word of God. And understanding a closed canon is vital. What is Scripture? Can we stand on it, knowing it's not shifting on us? Is it accurate and useful?

Here’s the apostle Paul’s point of view:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16)