How Did We Get the New Testament?

  I recently had someone ask me how we can know that the Bible we have today is complete.  What about the other documents that were written by the Gnostics and others?  We hear a lot about these "lost gospels" of late thanks to the novel by Dan Brown called the Da Vinci Code.  By his own admission, this is fictional work but many have clung to it as fact. Even his fact page in the book as been discredited by historians.  Yet, so many are willing to believe a lie without question, but truth they will question relentlessly.


 So how did we get the New Testament of the Bible?  Again, the following is provided by Ron Rhodes' book "5 Minute Apologetics".


  "The word canon comes from a Greek word meaning "measuring stick."  The word eventually came to be used metaphorically of books that were "measured" and thereby recognized as being God's Word.  The canon of Scripture includes all the biblical books that collectively constitute God's Word.


  Many books written during New Testament times were recognized as being the Word of God during the general time they were written.  In 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul joined an Old and New Testament verse and called them both "collectively" Scripture (Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7).  For a New Testament book to be referred to as Scripture so soon after it was written says volumes about Paul's view of the authority of contemporary New Testament books.


  To be more specific, only 3 years had elapsed between the writing of Luke and 1 Timothy (Luke was written around AD 60; 1 Timothy was written around AD 63).  Yet Paul--himself a "Hebrew of Hebrew"--does not hesitate to place Luke on the same level of authority as the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.


 Further, Peter referred to Paul's writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:16; see also 1 Corinthians 14:37; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).  Paul, of course, wrote most of the books in the New Testament."


  Contrary to those who say no one knew what books belonged in the New Testament canon until a council met centuries later, the Bible itself reveals that many of the New Testatment books were already being recognized as belonging in the canon.


  The Spirit warns us in Revelation 22:18-19 "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll."  Anyone claiming to have new insight or special revelation that contradicts anything written in the manuscripts by the original apostles who had eyewitness accounts and first-hand knowledge---beware!


  The New Testament can be trusted as God's word, but don't take our word for it. Examine and explore for yourself and be ready to defend the next skeptic's question!