Reasons against including the Apocrypha

Protestants raise the following points against raising the apocryphal books to the level of the Old Testament canon:

Jewish writers wrote the apocryphal books, but Jews themselves have never considered the Apocrypha to be part of their canon.

Jesus never quotes or alludes to the apocryphal books.

New Testament references don’t indicate divine authority. Although the New Testament does include a couple references to apocryphal books, it never quotes them as scripture. For that matter, the New Testament also alludes to Greek pagan writings, but these references didn’t mean that the apostles believed them to be the Word of God.

Although some early Christian leaders referenced the apocryphal books, each of the major Christian “fathers” before Augustine didn’t treat them as inspired.

No church listing of the Old Testament canon included the apocryphal books until after A.D. 325.

Protestants believe that Christians at the Council of Trent, where they officially canonized 11 of the 14 apocryphal books in the 16^th century, perhaps had mixed motives in the canonization process. The Council rejected an apocryphal book that supported the Protestant stance against the practice of praying for the dead, but included a book that supported the pro-Catholic position on purgatory. (See Chapter 9 for more on the issue of purgatory.)

 

In the end, no matter which perspective Christians subscribe to concerning the Apocrypha, they should keep the following points in mind. First, none of the core teachings of Christianity are contained in these debatable books. Christians universally accept the New Testament and core Old Testament books. Second, disputable matters that the Apocrypha causes are perhaps best left as side issues. So Christians should, as the old saying goes, “Major on the majors and minor on the minors.” 

Reading the Bible Appropriately

If you ask people where in their house they keep a Bible, you get some revealing answers. Some people, who think of their Bible much like a favourite pair of worn slippers, rattle off a response right away. Others have to think about their answer for a minute, but then they tell you which shelf they last put it on. A final group, however, has a different response: They talk about a quest to find their Bible much like Indiana Jones would tell of the trials of excavating a long lost, ancient artefact. 

Earlier in this chapter, I talk about that Bible on your bookshelf (or perhaps buried under rubble), but in this section I dust off the cover and open it up. I also show you several issues to keep in mind as you start to read what Christians call the written Word of God. One of the most important ideas to note is that Christians believe it’s way more than just a good book – it’s God’s message to humanity. 

Believing the Bible is inspired

Christians who believe in historical and biblical Christianity (refer to the Introduction for an explanation) say that the Bible is the inspired Word of God; in modern times, however, the inspired tag often gets a sceptical glance. Many intellectuals say that the Bible is an ordinary human book – its writings have good moral value, but people shouldn’t treat them as actually having come from God’s mouth. This is the perspective of so-called liberal Christians, who I discuss more in Chapter 11. 

But, frankly, the Christian faith is completely dependent on the Bible’s divine authority and reliability. That’s because everyone upon whom the Christian faith is based assumes the scriptures to be true and bases his teachings on this fact. If folks like Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, David, and Isaiah were wrong on this issue, then Christianity has no credibility, no legs to stand on. In other words, traditional, historical Christianity puts all its eggs into the inspired basket: If the Bible is inspired, then people must treat its commands and teachings seriously. But if it’s just a book of human ideas, then it may have some nice ideas to live by, but it’s not something to base your life on. 

Inspiration refers to the way that the Holy Spirit supernaturally guided the biblical authors to write, giving them special revelations from God. The Bible never discloses exactly how the Holy Spirit inspired the authors, but don’t think of it as a mechanical process. The authors didn’t simply become zombies and allow the Holy Spirit to take bodily control of them. Instead, by exploring the style of the books, you can see that the Holy Spirit clearly worked through each author’s unique writing talents, styles, and experiences. 

At the same time, the Bible indicates on several occasions that the words the authors used have significance. On more than one occasion, biblical authors make the point that God is concerned not only with broad concepts, but with the words being written as well. Exodus 24:4 says that Moses wrote down everything the Lord said. The prophet Jeremiah reported that God told him, “Do not omit a word.” Jesus himself pointed to particular Old Testament words when he said, “It is written” (Matthew 4:4, 7, and 10), a phrase that the New Testament authors reiterate dozens of times.

Most biblical Christians believe that every major spiritual concept taught in the Bible is invariably tied to an actual historical event. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, introduced sin into the world through a deliberate act. A worldwide flood, survived only by Noah and his family, demonstrated the first major judgment of sin. Jesus’ actual death and factual resurrection confirm the message of salvation he taught. And a specific event on Pentecost (described in Acts 2) inaugurated the coming of the Holy Spirit to guide Christians. Other Christians, though claiming that the Bible is inspired and reliable, allow for the possibility that some of the Old Testament stories are allegorical in nature rather than actual history.