Expert: Cooper P. Abrams III - 7/5/2006

Question
Well, since it was that "corrupt" church pf bishops and Popes and works salvation that decided which books belong in the Bible some 400 or so years after Christ, then how can you trust the Bible? If the church of that time was guided by the Holy Spirit in choosing which books belong in the Bible, then when did the Holy Spirit leave that church?

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Followup To

Question -
How would you answer a Catholic who says that his Church is the only one with legitimacy because it can trace its origins, bishop by bishop, back to the Apostles and the early church, while Protestantism can only be traced back to 1517 at the earliest? The Catholic would say that Protestantism makes a liar of Christ, who wanted us to all be one, who established a church and who promised that He would be with us always and that the gates of hell would not prevail against that church He established? Connected with that idea is that Sola Sciptura is the cause of religious anarchy and that it, and Sola Fide, are nowhere found in the early church. How would you respond to that?

Answer -
Hi Orion,

    The Roman Catholic Church will deny this, but the Roman Church can only trace its official history back to 313 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion.  In 395 AD, Emperor Contantius "Christianized" Rome and made the worship of idols punishable by death. By 400 AD, the Emperor Theodosius had declared Christianity the only state religion of the Roman Empire.   The Bishop of Rome before this time was never considered the head of all the churches in the world.  However, with Rome as the world rule, the church in Rome under Roman domination it saw itself as the head of all churches.   With the power, favor and money of the Roman government behind the Bishop of Rome, he became a pope assumed the the head of the Catholic church.      
      Many churches outside of Rome by this time had come under the domination of the Rome government and its money and power. These churches compromised God’s word and began to accept Roman state money and authority over them and in doing so they ceased from being biblical New Testament churches.

     When the Roman Emperor declared Christianity the religion of Rome, he in mass "converted" hordes of pagans which made up the Empire.  Pagan temples became the meetinghouses for "Christians." Rome, then hired unregenerate pagan priests as "Christian" ministers.   The influx of these falsely converted pagans is one reason Roman Catholicism came to have so many idolatrous and pagan beliefs.

     However, in the midst of all this apostasy, which was the founded the Roman Catholic church, there were groups of Christians who were never a part of the "Christianization" of the Roman Empire.  These New Testament believers rejected every attempt to include them in with the other churches who compromised and accepted the Roman government's money, rule and authority.    These churches instead patterned themselves after the New Testament example and reject any hierarchy or outside authority over the local congregation.     The followed the New Testament teachings and example of what a local assembly should be and they governed themselves and remained autonomous and independent of an “catholic” or universal church. The Roman church persecuted these biblical church and murdered hundreds of thousands of them because they would not submit to the Pope.   I have an article at to what is a biblical New Testament church at http://bible-truth.org/church.htm which explains what the Bible teaches.

         The over the years the growth of so many false and idolatrous practices caused some within the Catholic church such as Martin Luther to rebel, and to try to "reform" the Catholic church. This was the birth of Protestant churches. Although, many Protestants returned in part to a belief in the Bible as their authority for their faith and practice, not one of them EVER completely left all the doctrinal errors and false teachings of the apostate Roman Catholic church. There is not one Protestant church that is doctrinally pure following the example and polity of the New Testament.

         Protestants have never accepted the principle of separation of church and state. In Europe, Protestant churches are "state" churches and supported to some degree by government imposed taxes. In Germany, the state church is Lutheran and in England, the Anglican church, France, the Roman Catholic Church, etc.  

Answer
Hi Again,
    It was not a group of corrupted church officials and popes, or anyone else  that decided which book of the Bible were inspired of God.    The canonization of the Bible was not the work of any men, but rather it was recognized by men.   These 66 books show themselves to be inspired of God by their content and not because some man said they were.     No one or group made the canon.  The word "canon" means a "reed" which was used as a measuring stick.   Thus  the term canon refers to measuring of sixty-six books of the Bible which are found to “measure up” to being inspired of God.   The contents of these 66 books themselves showed that they were inspired of God and men recognized they were God’s word. .

       The canon was accepted by men who recognized the uniqueness, unity  and continuity of the sixty six books of the Bible.  They saw the unity of these sixty-six books and recognized each of their oneness and they all had a common quality.   They all showed themselves as being inspired of God.     Most people who criticize the canonization of Scripture do not understand this and that leads to false conclusions, mainly that the Roman Emperor Constantine, and the bishops at the Nicene council in 312 AD or that the RCC church established or decide the canonical books.   That is a false and misinformed conclusion.   There was no Roman Catholic Church ruling Christianity before Constantine, because Christianity was an illegal religion and an underground practice.  It was not until  over a hundred years later that the Bishop of Rome assumed the role of head of the churches.       Second, the council at Nicene addressed the confusion, brought by heretics such as the gnostics, over Arianism and the date of the Easter.   It used the New Testament Scriptures as the authority to settle the matter showing that from the 1st Century the canon was accepted as being God’s word and completely authoritarian.

   Many other books were in circulation and they did not meet this high standard and therefore men recognized that they were spurious and not inspired.   These books lacked the unity and the analogy with the true books of the Bible.   They all contained false doctrines and were not even written by the men, that supposedly wrote them.    Let me state it again....in the 4th Century church men "recognized" by examining the contents of each of the sixty-six book...and  accepted them.   There were not “making” the canon, but following the long standing acceptance of what Christians had since the 1st Century had known...that these 66 books were God’s inspired word.   What they did was accept what was common knowledge from the 1st Century.   There were some who questioned several of the books such at the Book of Revelation, but these books stood the test and were fully accepted.

     Yes, there were many groups of those who called themselves "Christians" but you cannot say they were all doctrinally sound.    Even a cursory look at the teachings of many of these groups shows they held false doctrines, some even to denying the Deity of Jesus Christ.     The Gnostics were an example of such a group as were many others.    They were the one's writing the spurious "gospels" such as were found a Nag Hammadi.   All these faked "gospels" including the Apocrypha were rejected and shown not to be  inspired of God and labeled as fakes.

  As to your question about the Holy Spirit “leaving” the church....I am not sure what you mean?    The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of these 66 books at 2 Peter 1:21 states.   He since illuminates the minds and hearts of those who read the Word of God so they can spiritually understand and apply it to a believer’s life (1 Cor. 2:10-16).     The Word of God itself testifies and gives evidence of its inspiration and authenticity.   We are not told to pray or to seek the Holy Spirit to authenticate these 66 books as being inspired and God’s very word.   1 Peter 1:21 states plainly believers to accept God’s word as truth.   The contents of the Bible itself authenticate itself as being God’s word.  Thus God authenticates His word Himself.   The Holy Spirit indwells the believer and thus gives him/her the spiritual nature to understand and apply God’s word.

  Hope this helps you understand this matter.

Cooper Abrams
Romans 12:1-2