The Canon of Scripture!

This morning would be time to real in my own thoughts and to consider some history.

The Cannon of scripture is complete and we have it at our fingertips, but that was not always the case. Back in the days of King Henry the VIII, it was a time where priests, cardinals and the pope dictated the supposed truths of God to men. Yet what they had to say and teach was full of lies. Obviously we owe all our thanks to God our Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour; yet, men like John Wycliffe were well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible, which it was! With the help of his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, and many other faithful scribes, back in 1380 Wycliffe began his endeavour to produce dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures.

“Johann Gutenburg invented the printing press in 1450 and the first Bible ever printed was in Latin. Then the man William Tyndale was the Captain of the Army of Reformers, and was their spiritual leader. Tyndale holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. “Tyndale was a true scholar and a genius, so fluent in eight languages that it was said one would think any one of them to be his native tongue. He is frequently referred to as the “Architect of the English Language”, (even more so than William Shakespeare) as so many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in our language today.”

“Martin Luther had a small head-start on Tyndale, as Luther declared his intolerance for the Roman Church’s corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door. Luther, who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worms Council in 1521 that was designed to martyr him, would translate the New Testament into German for the first time from the 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament of Erasmus, and publish it in September of 1522. Luther also published a German Pentateuch in 1523, and another edition of the German New Testament in 1529. In the 1530’s he would go on to publish the entire Bible in German.”

“William Tyndale wanted to use the same 1516 Erasmus text as a source to translate and print the New Testament in English for the first time in history. Tyndale showed up on Luther's doorstep in Germany in 1525, and by year's end had translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale had been forced to flee England, because of the wide-spread rumour that his English New Testament project was underway, causing inquisitors and bounty hunters to be constantly on Tyndale's trail to arrest him and prevent his project. God foiled their plans, and in 1525-1526 the Tyndale New Testament became the first printed edition of the scripture in the English language. Subsequent printings of the Tyndale New Testament in the 1530's were often elaborately illustrated.” (www.greatsite.com)

It was at this time in history that men once again began to seek out the truth of God’s Word for themselves. No longer could cultish organisations like the Roman Catholic Church dictate to the masses as the spokesmen of God, God had heard the cries of some but now all had an opportunity to seek out God’s truth for themselves. This was a time of much opposition and many Martyrs died because of their voice and stand for Christ. They are in heaven even now waiting for Christ’s return for the second time, eagerly awaiting their glorified bodies; “If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.” (Revelation 13:10): - It happened back then and it may well happen in our life time once again, God knows the outcome for all!  

It is an easy objective to walk into any book shop and buy a bible, in most democratic countries anyway. Last weekend I went with my 14 year old nephew to buy him a bible. We have the Word of God at our fingertips, but let us never take this for granted as it cost many their lives.

The warfare now has the same objective and that is to keep us from the truth, which is; “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”” (John 14:6)   

Now that we have the bible in front of us what the enemy now seeks to do is to raise up false teachers, those who misrepresent the truth of God’s Word. Those who use what we have in front of us and to twist the truth so that we would believe a lie. However those who have been truly born again and who have received Christ’s Spirit, even if they are hoodwinked for a time, will once again find the true road to the Celestial City. God had set up watchmen to expose those who preach and teach lies. Men like Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, John mac Arthur and John Piper. Then there are blogs like Pyromaniacs that capably challenge the error. There are many more that stand for the truth and it is these voices we must seek out.

We must be like the early Berean Church and examine what is taught. If we look to God the Holy Spirit with a pure motive, “God’s will be done” and not our own agenda’s we will be kept on the right path. God is for us and not against us! What a hope we have in Him!

I will leave us with this thought; “("Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!")”

God help us to take this consideration seriously! All honour, praise, power and dominion belongs to our great King, Jehovah God, now and forever more, Amen.

Signing off

Tyrone