A Canon Based on Probability

Do all Christian young people have questions about the canon of the New Testament? I know I did, especially, “How do we know that the books that we have in our New Testament are the ones that should be there?”

The answer I got used what Michael Kruger (Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books) calls the Criteria of Canonicity model for establishing the authority of the canon. We can trust the canon, I was told, because the books included were written either by apostles or someone close to an apostle.

The argument was, I think, some variation of this one, as explained by Michael Kruger, 

(1) the New Testament can be proved to be generally reliable history … ; (2) the New Testament testifies to the miracle of the resurrection; (3) the resurrection authenticates Jesus as the Son of God; (4) Jesus appointed twelve apostles to be his authoritative witnesses; (5) therefore, books by apostles should be received as authoritative.

I wasn’t satisfied. I never really doubted that the New Testament was as it ought to be, but I wanted solid justification for my belief, and this argument didn’t give me that. I’m not sure I could have explained why, except to say that it wasn’t enough.

Michael Kruger explains the biggest problem with this argument like this:

The … fundamental challenge for this kind of argument is whether it provides a sufficiently sturdy foundation upon which to place our convictions about the validity of the canon. This is a multilayered argument that is open to challenge at numerous stages, [and] presupposes numerous antecedent beliefs (existence of God, miracles, etc.) … . Thus, at best, it provides an argument for canon based only on probability. If the Christian is left with only this probabilistic argument as a reason to believe these books are from God, then some may legitimately question whether it can provide the necessary basis for the conviction of true religious faith. After all, Christians are asked to totally commit their lives to God on the basis of these books.

Thankfully, we have other warrant to believe that the canon of the New Testament is as it should be—the self-authentication of scripture. (That statement begs for an explanation, doesn’t it? Maybe you should buy the book.)

I want to quote more of Canon Revisited as I read, although the argument is complicated, and much of the text isn’t suitable for short quotes. We’ll see what other quotable bits I find.

Linked Together: The Trinity

Credo Magazine
The latest issue of Credo Magazine (pdf) brings together “some of the sharpest thinkers in order to bring our minds back to the beauty, glory, and majesty of our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  The purpose? “[T]o help us think deeper thoughts about how God is one essence and three persons, and what impact the Trinity has on who we are and what we do as believers.”

Here are links to three articles:

• Why a Triune God Is Better Than Any Other (Michael Reeves)
• Salvation—Trinitarian Through and Through (Matthew Barrett)
• The Trinity: The God Behind the Gospel (Fred Sanders)

Teaching Series
Ligonier Ministries has six free videos of R. C. Sproul lecturing on the doctrine of the Trinity. The lectures include:

1. Monotheism
2. The Biblical Witness
3. Early Controversies
4. Fifth-Century Heresies
5. Contradiction vs. Mystery
6. One in Essence, Three in Person

Theological Term of the Week

Beatitudes
The “blessed are” pronouncements made by Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

• From scripture:

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, fortheirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:2-12, ESV)

• From the MacArthur Study Bible notes on Matthew 5:3:

The word [blessed] lit., means “happy, fortunate, blissful.” Here it speaks of more than a surface emotion. Jesus was describing the divinely bestowed well-being that belongs only to the faithful. The Beatitudes demonstrate that the way to heavenly blessedness is antithetical to the worldly path normally followed in pursuit of happiness. The worldly idea is that happiness is found in riches, merriment, abundance, leisure, and such things. The real truth is the very opposite. The Beatitudes give Jesus’ description of the character of true faith.

• From The Good News in Jesus’s Beatitudes (R. W. Glenn):

The context makes it clear that Jesus is describing what happens in a person’s life when they come to understand God’s grace in the gospel (see Matthew 4:23).

• God’s grace in the gospel shows you your moral and spiritual bankruptcy. You must be spirit-poor if the cross is what it took to rescue you.
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you mourn. To know that your sin nailed Jesus to the cross breaks your heart.
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you meek. How can you be touchy and defensive now that you’ve seen Jesus dying for you? There’s nothing in you worth defending.
• God’s grace in the gospel lets you see how hungry and thirsty you are for a righteousness that will open the door to God’s acceptance. Jesus is that righteousness given to you freely as a gift.
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you merciful. How can you choke your neighbor over what they owe you when both hands are already occupied receiving the mercy of Jesus Christ?
• God’s grace in the gospel makes you pure in heart. Knowing that God has accepted you on the basis of Jesus’s blood and righteousness frees you to live honestly before God and people, admitting who you really are and how desperate you are for Christ.
• God’s grace in the gospel leads you to be a peacemaker. Your experience of God’s grace puts so much joy in your heart that you cannot help but tell others how they can be at peace with God.
• And finally, your experience of God’s grace in the gospel will get you persecuted. There is something simultaneously beautiful and repulsive about a gospel-centered life. In the fallen human heart, there is a deep aversion to salvation not based on our own resume — if we didn’t have to earn a seat at the table, it’s not worth much. So when non-Christians hear that all their efforts to make themselves acceptable to God are a galactic waste of time, they’re going to get angry, and we will be the object of that anger.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions.org: What are the Beatitudes?
2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Beatitudes
3. Arthur W. Pink: The Beatitudes
4. John MacArthur: The Beatitudes (audio series)
5. R. W. Glenn: The Beatitudes (audio)

Related term:

• Sermon on the Mount
• Great Commission

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.