Bible believers may still benefit from some apocryphal writings as historical or devotional materials. The testimony of Jesus and the apostles as well as the mainstream of church history, however, weighs against their being recognized as Scripture. 

When Protestants talk about the Bible they mean the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. To these, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy add several other apocryphal or deuterocanonical books, plus additions to multiple biblical books. Even more apocryphal books exist, but they are not recognized as Scripture by any branch of professing Christianity.
Obviously, at some point choices had to be made about which writings would be recognized as Scripture and which would not. The process of recognizing some books and rejecting others is known as canonization, and the collection of recognized books is known as the canon. No doctrine of Scripture is complete without a discussion of canonization and canonicity.
The word canon was originally the name for a particular kind of straight reed. People would cut this reed to length and use it as a measuring rod. Eventually the word became a metaphor for any standard of measurement. Then it was applied to the collection of things that measured up to the standard. When we talk about the canon of Scripture, we are talking about the collection of writings that measure up to the standard of being recognized as the word of God. To say that a document is canonical is to say that it is God’s word and consequently that it is authoritative for faith and practice.
What is the standard for canonicity? The short answer is inspiration. A writing is canonical if and only if it has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. Properly speaking, human beings can never declare a writing to be canonical. Even the declarations of church councils do not make a document canonical. All they can do is to recognize its canonicity. Its canonicity depends entirely upon whether it has been inspired.
Consequently, discussions about canonicity are really discussions about inspiration. To know which writings are canonical, we must simply discover which writings have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. How can we do that? This question will have different answers depending upon which testament we are asking about.
Read More
Related Posts:

Tragically, Moore, French, Moore, and Keller are far from alone. As I’ve noted multiple times in the past several years, whether “professional Christians,” “Christian celebrities,” pastors and priests, Tucker Carlson, or everyday Christians, for far too long, far too many Christians have sat on the sidelines when it comes to the grave moral issues that demand our attention. Thus, in a matter of just a few short years, we went from a near nationwide rejection of same-sex “marriage” to a widespread — and now often legally enforced — embrace of it.

In one of his monologues last week, Tucker Carlson called Merrick Garland “the weakest attorney general” in American history. Tucker added, “Merrick Garland has presided over the most aggressive attack on civil liberties, in particular, an attack on the practice of traditional Christianity, than any living American has seen.”
Tucker’s comments came on the heels of Garland’s recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the testimony, GOP senators Mike Lee and Josh Hawley confronted the attorney general on the Biden Justice Department’s heavy-handed and disproportionate attacks on American Christians, especially noting the attacks against Christians who protest abortion centers.
The senators highlighted the FBI’s shocking raid of Mark Houck’s home, where 20 to 30 agents with “full SWAT gear, heavily armored vests, ballistic shields, helmets, [and] battering ram” terrorized Mr. Houck, his wife, and their seven children simply because Mr. Houck shoved a pro-abortion extremist who was harassing his 12-year-old son.
Tucker also noted the incident involving Paul Vaughn, a pro-life father of eleven children:
In March of 2021, Paul Vaughn and 10 others were peacefully praying at an abortion clinic in Tennessee. They didn’t damage any property. They hurt no one. More than a year after they dared to do that, to pray, Merrick Garland sent the FBI to terrorize Vaughn and his 11 children at their home…
Paul Vaughn and his co-conspirators now face more than a decade in prison.
After highlighting these gross injustices against American Christians, Tucker makes what I believe is his most important point:
You have to wonder when you see a tape like that, where are so-called Christian leaders? Where’s Russell Moore and all the other breast-beating Christians as that happens, as the U.S. government cracks down on Christianity, on prayer? Silent.
The “People’s Republic of Canada” has been even more hostile to Christians. Things have gotten so bad for Christians in Canada, that in February of last year Senator Hawley reiterated his call for Canada to be placed on a special watch list of religious liberty violators. Hawley’s statements were mostly due to Canada’s then ongoing treatment of Pastor Artur Pawlowski.
A day after Fox News reported on Senator Hawley’s call, in a piece entitled “Free speech and the Bible on global trial,” the Washington Times reported,
Canada’s recently unanimously passed law, C-4, prevents its citizens from spreading Biblical views on marriage and sexuality. Canadian parents, faith leaders, and citizens who hold traditional views of marriage and sexuality will now face up to 5 years of jail time for providing spiritual guidance to those seeking counseling.
Read More
Related Posts:

Written by R.C. Sproul |
Thursday, April 25, 2024
The operative word in Augustine’s view is that regenerating grace is monergistic. It is the work of God alone. Pelagius rejected the doctrine of monergistic grace and replaces it with a view of synergism, which involves a work of cooperation between God and man.

The early part of the fifth century witnessed a serious controversy in the church that is known as the Pelagian controversy. This debate took place principally between the British monk Pelagius and the great theologian of the first millennium, Augustine of Hippo. In the controversy, Pelagius objected strenuously to Augustine’s understanding of the fall, of grace, and of predestination. Pelagius maintained that the fall affected Adam alone and that there was no imputation of guilt or “original sin” to Adam’s progeny. Pelagius insisted that people born after the fall of Adam and Eve retained the capacity to live lives of perfect righteousness unaided by the grace of God. He argued that grace “facilitates” righteousness but is not necessary for it. He categorically rejected Augustine’s understanding that the fall was so severe that it left the descendents of Adam in such a state of moral corruption that they were morally unable to incline themselves to God. The doctrines of Pelagius were condemned by the church in 418 at a synod in Carthage.
Though Pelagianism was rejected by the church, efforts soon emerged to soften the doctrines of Augustine. In the fifth century the leading exponent of such a softening was John Cassian. Cassian, who was the abbot of a monastery in Gaul, together with his fellow monks, completely agreed with the condemnation of Pelagius by the synod in 418, but they objected equally to the strong view of predestination set forth by Augustine. Cassian believed that Augustine had gone too far in his reaction against the heresy of Pelagius and had departed from the teachings of some of the church fathers, especially Tertullian, Ambrose, and Jerome. Cassian said that Augustine’s teaching on predestination “cripples the force of preaching, reproof, and moral energy…plunges men into despair and introduces a certain fatal necessity.” This reaction against the implied fatalism of predestination led Cassian to articulate a position that has since become known popularly as “semi-Pelagianism.” Semi-Pelagianism, as the name implies, suggests a middle ground between Pelagius and Augustine. Though grace facilitates a life of righteousness, Pelagius thought it was not necessary. Cassian argues that grace not only facilitates righteousness, but it is an essential necessity for one to achieve righteousness. The grace that God makes available to people, however, can and is often rejected by them.
Read More
Related Posts: