Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Canon

In his book God has Spoken, J. I. Packer argues against the idea that “it was the post-apostolic Church that established the New Testament” canon of Scripture and he gives a very useful illustration. He says: “The Church no more gave us the New Testament canon than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity, by His work of creation, and similarly he gave us the New Testament canon, by inspiring the individual books that make it up.” Of course Isaac Newton did not invent or create gravity – he recognised it by observing an apple falling from a tree (or so we are told). In the same way, mere mortals didn’t determine the extent of the canon – we merely discovered it.

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