Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?
It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.
Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.
We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.
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The canon is the officially recognized list of books deemed to be inspired. Paul's letters, for example, found their way into the canon largely because they were heavily circulated among the churches and understood to be prophetic truth. As one reads them there is a weight they convey. There is really no doubt they are inspired.
Btu what about the instances where an inspired writer quotes from non-canonical material?
Jude
The first we shall consider is Jude 1:14–15:
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
This is a quote from the Book of Enoch 1:9. Clearly Jude was familiar with the Book of Enoch, so much so that he confidently appealed to it as prophetic revelation. But Gotquestions says,
Jude’s quotation does not mean the Book of Enoch is inspired by God or that it should be in the Bible.
If Enoch made a true prophecy as asserted by Jude, how could that not be inspired? Is it then a case of some of the Book of Enoch is inspired (and thus is Scripture) and some of it is not? We are reasonably confident in saying that regarding this one verse, it is inspired.
Titus
Paul in his epistle to Titus gives regard to Epimenides, though he does not elevate him to the status of prophet:
Tit. 1:12-13 Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true.
Nevertheless, including the statement in Scripture makes it Scripture.
1 Corinthians
Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church:
1Co. 7:12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.
Paul regards this statement to not be from the Lord, yet today we would regard this as Scripture. We would say that there is nothing in the Bible that isn't Scripture.
Speculation
We would assent to the canonicity of the whole Bible. The Bible is the sure record of things God has communicated to us. It does not contain everything God has ever said, however, but everything in it is something God wanted us to know.
We see from the above discussion that there are certainly things God has said that are from non-biblical sources. This causes us to wonder, what other things has God said? This question is not limited to these other writings, but also to the gift of prophecy. If we admit that God has spoken outside the Scriptures, then the possibility exists that He still speaks outside of the Scriptures.
Lots of None-Scripture Revelation
We should note that simply because an utterance is inspired does not mean it must become Scripture. To the contrary, we see all sorts of prophecy, miracles, and other supernatural events that didn't make the cut, as it were. For example, some of the great exploits of King Solomon were not deemed worthy of inclusion in the Holy Writ. Readers are directed to the "annals of Solomon," something we do not have today:
1Kg. 11:41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign — all he did and the wisdom he displayed — are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?King Saul prophesied to the extent that the people wondered if he was included among the prophets. However, we don't have any of those prophecies:
1Sa. 10:10-11 When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying. 11 When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?Agabus was a N.T. prophet worthy of special note in the Church. It is interesting that only one of his prophecies was included in the narrative (and a summary of another), while any other prophecies he might have spoken were omitted:
Ac. 21:10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.Agabus' famine prophecy is only a summary, not the actual prophecy:
Ac. 11:27-28 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.There are a number of prophets identified by name in the NT, yet we don't have any prophecies from them. Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen:
Ac. 13:1-2 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”Notice there came forth a prophecy, but the narrative doesn't mention who spoke it.
We also do not have any prophecies from Judas or Silas, even though they said much:
Ac. 15:32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.And these twelve men prophesied, but we don't have a record of their prophecies:
Ac. 19:6-7 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.Philip's daughters prophesied, but that all we know:
Ac. 21:8-9 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.Even Jesus, as critically important are His words and deeds, was subject to editing by the Holy Spirit:
Jn. 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.Conclusion
In the past we have regarded the Bible in a way that created very definite and rigid boundaries. It was "biblical" vs. "not biblical." We have now come to understand that God has not restricted Himself to this book we call the Bible:
He. 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways...
Literally, "...in many portions and in many ways..." The word is polumerós, which is an
adverb from a compound of polus and meros; in many portions, i.e. Variously as to time and agency (piecemeal)...
In the context of the New Testament, it refers to the diverse manners in which God communicated His will and revelation to humanity, particularly through the prophets in the Old Testament.
This "piecemeal" method of revelation, some of which was assembled into our Bible, is noteworthy in that God's revelation exceeds our predetermined boundaries. More than anything, it arouses our wonder and awe that God would do this so that we might know Him.
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