Chapter 1. Paragraph 2-3: The Canon of Scripture

OUTLINE

OT
NT

INTRODUCTION

2. The Holy Scriptures, or the Word of God written, consist of all the books of the Old and New Testaments. These are:

THE OLD TESTAMENT: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

THE NEW TESTAMENT: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation.

All of these are given by the inspiration of God to be the standard of faith and life.
2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Tim. 5:17-18; 2 Pet. 3:16.

3. The books commonly called the Apocrypha were not given by divine inspiration and so are not part of the canon or standard of the Scriptures. Therefore, they have no authority for the church of God and are not to be recognized or used in any way different from other human writings.

Luke 24:27, 44; Romans 3:2.

God has recorded the saving knowledge of Himself in a book, we call it the Bible, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the 1689 are concerned with the question, ‘Which books should and shouldn’t be in the Bible?’ Paragraph 2 states positively those books which should be considered the Word of God in both the Old and New Testaments, and paragraph 3 states negatively those books that should not be considered part of the Canon of Scripture. Once again the 1689, although addressing historical issues, namely the Roman Catholic Church and its endorsement of the Apocrypha as the Word of God, this is once again an issue relevant to our modern day questions. With the rise of popular conspiracy theories about the missing books of the Bible from sources like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, We have to state the reasons for why certain books should and shouldn’t be in the Bible. We will look at the OT and the Apocrypha, and the NT and the pseudopygrapha.