The Present Bible Canon PART II: Whose Is Right??

[Archbishop Trevor 'Elihu' Greene]

In part one, I discussed the Biblical canon and debated along the lines of if the Biblical Canon was closed. This time will be a bit different. I was in a few discussions before and have heard what they teach in many churches and what they teach in many seminary schools: "The Bible canon is 66 books and the books are sealed, with no new revelation to come." Where did we come up with the teaching that there are only 66 books within GOD's Word?

The Church has been physically divided by man's differences, and have fallen into the following categories with the following Biblical Canon:

Protestant Churches: 66 books
Lutheran Churches: 66 books (however, Martin Luther made an attempt to remove the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from the canon)
The Roman Catholic Church, & Eastern Catholic Churches: standard 66 plus the deuterocanonical books
Ethiopic Churches: 81 books (contains Enoch, Jubilees, and three books of the Meqabyan)

...and the list goes on....

Full dogmatic articulations and the closing of the Church Canons were not made until the Council of Trent of 1546 for Roman Catholicism, the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for British Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox.Is it biblical, traditional, or just an assumption? Is it accurate or deceiving?

I guess my question is this: Who decided your Bible's number of books, and was GOD involved in this?

[newview]

"...I like to weigh any book by the Torah & Prophets. That is how we should do it, brother."

I think thats how the elders did way back when.

[newview]

"...This is a matter of revelation and things to come and things that have happened. For starters, people aren't sure as to what happened with the giants of the land; people are not sure about the Heavens that are to come; people are not sure as to what happened with Adam & Eve afterward, or what the very region of Eden is all about..."

See Trevor, I read what Enoch had to say about the giants and Adam and his clothes being kept by Noah and his sons....
Guess what - I still dont know what happened to the Nephilim and Adam and his clothes nor Eve nor the children of Noah after reading Enoch.
And it put me in a very uncomfortable place....I wont read any more.

But that is not to say that the Lord has not built YOU to go ahead and tackle it.
There were scouts that went and checked out the land that would be taken over by the Israelites - those men being Joshua and Caleb. Maybe you are a modern day Joshua or Caleb.
But there were great men of God that already read those books and found them wanting...and thus - not cononized.

I will be praying for you.

[Chaplain Pat Harris]

Newview, Trevor, Hezekiah & James:

I have read your discussions on the other books outside of the canonized 66. I must honestly stand with Newview on the perception of whether or not to read other books outside of the 66. There is too much within the 66 books that I have yet to learn and understand. And although I am firmly rooted and grounded in my salvation, it would be wise for me to stay with the 66 books. If the Lord places it on my heart to seek knowledge outside of the Holy Bible, then so be it. Until then, I have to stay where I am.

But, I'm all for hearing what you and others have and continue to discover within these other books, should you wish to share this information. However, when it comes to talking about salvation, discipleship, obeying commandments, etc., I will speak what "thus saith the Lord" from the Holy Bible.

Blessings & Peace to all of you

[James Pierce]

Chaplain,

Sometimes, in order to learn more, you have to step out of your comfort zone.

[Chaplain Pat Harris]

James,

It's not about stepping out of my comfort zone. I am always learning from the canonized 66 books, and still there is so much more for me to learn from these books.

I am not against anyone who has a desire to study other writings. But as for me, I must stay within the 66 books until the Holy Spirit saids otherwise.

[Archbishop Trevor 'Elihu' Greene]

No prob!

[Rebekah]

@ Chaplain - i agree with you on this. i too feel like i have so much more to learn from the books in the Bible. i did read the Books of Eden and really enjoyed those...but i have decided that i will continue to learn from the Bible itself for now.

[Archbishop Trevor 'Elihu' Greene]

I thank you for the compliment, but there is a problem with it: GOD said to take the land, not send scouts. 40 days of scouting-n-doubting cost them 40 and an entire generation of people the promise land.

Did you at least look up the links that I posted to prove to you that JESUS and the rest of the Apostles quoted Enoch? If not, lets try that again:

http://reluctant-messenger.com/enoch.htm
http://www.stargods.org/EnochQuoted.htm
http://www.stargods.org/EnochQuoted2.htm



"But there were great men of God that already read those books and found them wanting...and thus - not canonized."

I doubt that. The REAL great men of GOD had a different opinion about Enoch's book. The early second century "Epistle of Barnabus" makes much use of the Book of Enoch. Second and Third Century "Church Fathers" like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origin and Clement of Alexandria all make use of the Book of Enoch. Tertullian (160-230 C.E) even called the Book of Enoch "Holy Scripture".

[newview]

As much as I like some of the doctrines of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and Origin and Clement - they also have doctrine that I also disagree with - so they are not the harbinger of all that is straight and right for me.
I dont agree with all that they taught and did and now that you say they drew from Enoch - maybe I can see why now.

[Archbishop Trevor 'Elihu' Greene]

OK, thats fair. What about the Epistle of Barnabas, and Tertullian? What about Jude who gave the most obvious quote in the Bible, and the other Apostles who also quoted Enoch? If thats the case, then you should have a problem with them too.

[newview]

Now see when you bring up Jude - thats where I go MEOWWWWWW...
Because it makes me scratch my head and wonder --->also Peter writing about Jesus preaching to the souls in prison.

But as I say - I have more than enough on my hands with the canonized 66 books.
And those 66 are already too wonderful for me.
Those 'others' bring nothing but confusion.

[Archbishop Trevor 'Elihu' Greene]

Just as long as your head is itchy, I'm cool with that!!

The 66 are dynamic! I am still digging deep and finding treasure good enough to die for! However, I go off to the book of Enoch and the other writings because I learned something from the 66: just like Jeremiah's writings inspired Daniel, Enoch inspired almost all the other Prophets and Apostles after him.