The Importance of the Canon of Scripture
We are currently looking at the concept of the canon of Scripture. Last week we defined what is meant by ‘the canon of Scripture’ – “the list of books that have been recognized as being inspired by God and which therefore belong in the Bible.” This week I want to look at why it is important that we have a canon of Scripture.
There are two reasons we need a canon of Scripture. The first one is that God Himself commands that we do not add to or detract from His words. For example, in Deuteronomy 4:2 we read “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.” God is here warning the people through Moses that they must mark out carefully what God has spoken and what He has not spoken. They must neither add to it (adding any commands or words God did not speak) nor subtract from it (leaving our commands or words which God did speak). We are given a similar warning in Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6 Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” The wise man tells us that every Word of God is flawless (since they are inspired by Him), and thus there is safety in God’s Words. However, this means that we must not add to God’s Words, or He will rebuke us. Thus, God Himself has commanded us in the Scripture to carefully mark out what words have come from God and what words are only of human origin. Thus, we must develop a canon of Scripture to delineate those words which are inspired by God and therefore perfect and authoritative from other words which, while they may be wise and helpful, are of human origin and therefore are not part of Scripture and are therefore judged by the Word of God.
The second reason, which is less important than the first, is that logic and rational thought demand a canon of Scripture. Once we know that God has spoken, logic demands that we carefully and accurately determine what words are actually from God, and what words are of merely human origin.
Thus, it is critical that we determine which books are part of the canon of Scripture. In coming posts, we will look first at the Old Testament canon, and then at the New Testament canon.
In Christ,
Bret