Theology 9: A 300-year Process

A 300-year process

John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

There are 66 books in the Bible. How do we even know which ones belong? What about the Gospel of Thomas? The Gospel of Judas? Who decided what goes in? It seems kind of fishy to me…

This is another topic I challenge you to investigate then talk to me about.

Early Christians regarded most of the New Testament as God’s Word right away: The 4 Gospels, Paul’s letters, 1 John, 1 Peter, etc. From the earliest lists we have, there was never any doubt.

There were some questions about a few, like 2 Peter, 2-3 John, Hebrews, Jude, Revelation. The early Christian church then spent 300 years discussing whether or not they were actually God’s Word. How long have you spent on a decision? A couple of days? Maybe a couple of weeks? A year??? After 300 years the Church recognized these books as God’s Word.

            EVEN IF you threw out these “questionable” books, no teaching would change. God’s Word is about Jesus. The books of God’s Word tell us that Jesus is God’s chosen servant, the Son of God. These books proclaim that he was born a man in our place, suffered and died on a cross for our sin, and physically rose to give us eternal life. In his name alone, we have life.