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Canon Came Before Catholic

Councils

The fall of Constantinople came in 1453. This singular event of historyhad a profound impact on the world. It was Bayozid 1st whosuccessfully defended the great city of Constantinople in 1391-1397.

The persistent drive of the invader, however, saw the great capitolfall and its inhabitants utterly defeated.

Many scholars had made their home and work in this ancient Greek speakingempire. These men of learning fled westward away from the ravages of the newlyfallen empire. Their direction was Europe (and this is beyond dispute) and theirpossessions were their Greek learning and many manuscripts of the Scriptures.

(See William Muir, "Our Grand Old Bible," Morgan and Scott Ltd.: 1921, p.36). It isthis fact of history that prompted the beauty of the statement, "Greece rose from

the grave with the New Testament in her hand." Now God, in a single event ofhistory, made it possible for the treasures of the Word of God to be made publicin mass production. Not in the weak texts of the Roman Latin text, but Greek,

and at that the Greek of the Received Text Manuscripts. "So much was this thecase, that for the ordinary Romanist theologian, Greek became for a time the

language of the heretic." (See Muir, p.36).

Some have assumed without proof that the Roman Catholic Church gave the Bibleto the world. Their statements are completely unsupported by facts. Statements

such as, "If you can accept the Bible or any part of it as the inspired Word of God,you can do so only because the Catholic Church says it is." (See the booklet: "TheBible Is A Catholic Book," Knights of Columbus; St.Louis, p.4). Such statements as

"The New Testament writings were never meant to be the sole and final authority

for Christs revealed truth" and "And all of the books of the New Testament werewritten by Catholics" are good examples of wishful thinking that has never and

shall never be substantiated.

Too many people too willing to remain ignorant and unwilling to be informedcling to the false idea that the Bible as we have it was never recognized as such

until centuries after the death of all the apostles when official church councils

met to determine the canon of Scripture. Any person with a reasonable attitudefor honesty will find history has no evidence in even the smallest detail that the

Catholic Councils gave the Bible to the world. Dr. Flournoy, the author of ascholarly work on the canon of the Scriptures, is said to have noted concerningdocuments he found, "That the canon of the New testament just as we have it,

especially as it applies to the Gospels, was the original and only canon, it beingfreely quoted by men living in the latter part of the first and the first part of thesecond century, who recognize the books as standing on a plane of authority notshared by any other books. And Dr. Harnack, the great German critic and

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theologian of modern times, not prejudiced in favor of evangelical Christianity,

to say the least, testifies, that as regards the text of the gospels we mayconclude that about the year 160 it ran just as it runs now." (See J.M. Grey,"Primers Of The Faith," London: Fleming H. Revell Co.; 1906, pp.95,96).

When a serious student of history takes note of the countries, persons, and books

used by early Christians, he can form a sphere of information which will enablehim to accurately judge the books which were accepted as Scripture. Ignatius of

Antioch, who was martyred about 116, knew our New Testament for he knew theEpistles of Paul. Matthew and John were his favorite gospels. Polycarp of Smyrna

(69-155 A.D.). had the book of Matthew, Paul's Epistles, I John, and possibly thebook of Acts. The didache (120 A.D.) uses Matthew and Luke with most of theother N.T. books. Melito of Sardis (2nd century) quotes from all the N.T. books

but James, Jude, II John, and III John. Lucian of Antioch was martyred in 312. Hehad a version of the N.T. with all books but II Peter, II & III John, and Jude.

Clement of Alexandria (155-215) used all the N.T. books but James, II Peter, andIII John. Others as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Marcion the Gnostic, Cyril,Tatian, and many other early figures of Church history give abundant proof thatthe N.T. as we have it today was generally accepted among all areas. (See H.C.

Thiessen, "Introduction To The New Testament," Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.;

Grand Rapids, 1962, pp.6-24).

Some have made very dubious statements concerning the formation of the canon.Grey gives an account that reaches beyond all imagination: "Some of the laterenemies of the faith have tried to prove that we Christians did not get our Bible

till the fourth century. They have said there was a church council about that timein the city of Nice, France, one of whose purposes was to make a Bible. There

had been many books floating around, claiming to be inspired, and nobody knewwhich were and which were not inspired. Copies of all these books were collected

at the time of this council and placed under the communion table in the church.then the bishops gathered around the table and prayed that in some way theinspired books might be indicated from the uninspired, and as they prayed, a

number of the books were supernaturally raised from underneath the table andplaced on top of it." (See Grey, pp.99-100). Thiessen in his introduction to the

N.T. gives historical proof that these early councils actually had nothing to dowith forming a canon. The earliest council which can be accepted is that of 397

and 419. (op. cit. pp. 25-26). This shows the N.T. had been used nearly 300 yearsbefore these "Johnny-come-lately" councils claimed to have put the Bible

together.

When a presumptuous individual claims for his church the exclusive authority for

making the N.T. Canon, you can take a long laugh on firm ground at the folly ofignorance.

Hail Mary! Hail Satan!

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Ye Must Be Born Again! | You Need HIS Righteousness!

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