S3 E8 TRANSCRIPT
THE CONSEQUENCES OF A CLOSED CANON
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:
THE CONSEQUENCES OF A CLOSED CANON
In the last episode we discussed how we got the collection of 66 books we read in the Bible. These books are the books used to rule the church, and this list of books makes up the canon of Scripture.
OPEN OR CLOSED?
The question we now need to answer is this, “Can more books be added to the Bible?” In other words, is the canon open to receive more books, or is it closed and destined to always remain the 66 books we have today?
And this is a fair question because the canon grew over time. Is there any reason why it should not just keep growing?
One thing we see in the Bible itself, are verses where God warns us not to tamper with his words. For example, in Deuteronomy 4:2, Moses cautioned the Israelites against changing what had been written. Here is what Moses said:
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.
Deuteronomy 4:2 ESV
And yet, clearly more books were written after Moses issued this warning. Of course, we understand that the caution, as written, applied only to the writings of Moses. We see the same thing in the book of Revelation which says:
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Revelation 22:18-19 ESV
Again, this warning strictly applies to the book of Revelation. But the principle is clear…adding to or subtracting from the word of God is risky business.
Ever since the canon was established, most Christians have stood by the belief that the canon is closed. That is certainly the stance I take as a pastor in a Foursquare church, and as far as I know, this is the official stance taken by all mainline Protestant churches.
There are many reasons for this, but the main reason rests on the work of Jesus on the cross. The redemptive work of Jesus through his death and resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost created a turning point in history. The words of Jesus and his Apostles put a close to one era and ushered in another. Trying to add more to the Bible would be like saying the work of Jesus was not enough.
Even if an ancient document were found professing to be written by one of the Apostles, there would be no reason to include it in the canon. First, it would be nearly impossible to prove the authorship at this late date. If it disagreed with the current canon, it would be discarded. And if it agreed, it would not be necessary.
In fact, if it had something incredible in it, we would have to question why God withheld it from his Church. Remember, in our last episode we mentioned that we recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in establishing the canon. There is no reason to believe that the Holy Spirit has withheld any writing of necessity from us.
A CLOSED CANON REJECTS SOME BELIEF SYSTEMS
Having a closed canon may not seem that important, but it has significant consequences. One of the consequences, is that many belief systems are automatically rejected by Christians who believe the canon is closed.
Before I explain how that works, I want to reemphasize something I said in the very first Spirit-Led Hope episode. One of my goals in this podcast is to be kind to anyone who may believe differently than I do. I have no intention of bashing anyone whose beliefs are different than mine. That does not mean that I consider all faith systems to be equally true, I just believe we can lovingly agree to disagree.
I am going to mention some other faiths to demonstrate the consequences of a closed canon. If you are an adherent to one of these religions or beliefs, I hope that what I say will help you to understand why I, or others like me, cannot believe the way you do. Again, we will lovingly agree to disagree.
THE CANON IS FULLY VISIBLE
One of the properties of the Christian canon is that it is fully visible. In other words, it is possible to identify the manuscripts, versions, and documents that supply the foundation of the contents in our Bibles. Even though I use an English translation, I can ascertain the material upon which my English translation is based. If you ask, many Bible publishers will identify their source material and often supply the names of the translators.
The complete visibility of the canon has a way of revealing doctrinal differences between some beliefs. For example, I live a few blocks away from a Kingdom Hall and have had many opportunities to speak to people who are Jehovah Witnesses.
You may already know that Jehovah Witnesses have their own Bible translation. It is called the New World Translation. This translation is used to support their doctrinal beliefs which differ significantly from most Christian denominations. For example, Jehovah Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity. And you can see this as early as the second verse of the Bible. Here is what my ESV translation says for Genesis 1:2:
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2 ESV
In this verse, it is important to note that the “Spirit of God” is capitalized because it refers to a person. But here is what the New World Translation reads for the same verse:
“Now the earth was formless and desolate, and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep, and God’s active force was moving about over the surface of the waters.”
What we see right away is that the New World Translation depersonalizes the Holy Spirit and turns him into an impersonal active force. But is this justified? And this is where the visibility of a closed canon comes into play.
We can look at the oldest Hebrew manuscripts and determine that the New World Translation is incorrect. And this is objectively provable because translations of the Hebrew by secular scholars do not agree with the New World Translation. In other words, secular scholars are not motivated to side with any religious system. And their work does not support the text of the Jehovah Witness bible.
This is just one of many examples in the New World Translation. The full visibility of a closed canon exposes alterations that can lead to significant doctrinal differences. When my Jehovah Witness friends and neighbors want to know why I believe differently than they do, the closed canon of Scripture is one of the reasons.
THE CANON CONTAINS EVERYTHING
Another property of a closed canon is that it is considered complete. I know this is obvious, but it is very significant. What this means is that all the text must be considered. If you are looking at a specific topic, you should consider every verse which is related. You must be careful not to pick only the verses which support your ideas if you have a preconceived viewpoint.
I once offered to help a man while his car was in the shop. Often, we would drive together for over an hour, and he loved to talk. This gentleman was a Oneness Pentecostal. Oneness Pentecostals deny the existence of the Trinity and believe in something known as modalism. With modalism, there is only Jesus, and he can manifest as the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. There are no longer three distinct Persons in the Godhead.
This man based his belief on a voice he heard when he was younger. He was in a room by himself when he heard an audible voice say, “I am one.” He was so shocked that this convinced him of the truth of Oneness Pentecostal doctrine.
On our drives, it felt like he made it his goal to convert me over to Oneness theology. He began to quote verse after verse that supported his view. He knew those scriptures forwards and backwards. Oneness doctrine is often called “Jesus only,” and he would quote verses from the book of Acts where people were baptized only in the name of Jesus.
But if I started to ask him about the Great Commission in Matthew that says to baptize people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he would literally start talking over me because that verse did not cleanly support his view. He did that whenever I pointed out verses that supported a belief in the Trinity.
And this is something that we must not do. God gave us every verse for a reason, and it’s not our call to ignore any of them, even if they are uncomfortable. There are many verses in the Bible that I do not like. But it is when I wrestle with them that I learn something more about God, or myself.
The closed canon is complete, and it is meant for us in its entirety. We must not cherry-pick and choose the verses we want and ignore the rest.
THE CANON IS STABLE
Another consequence of a closed canon is that it is stable. What I mean by this is that we do not have to worry that God is fickle and tomorrow he is going to tell us something different. I do not go to bed thanking God that he saved me by his grace and worry that I will wake up with a need to earn his love. I can rest securely in his words recorded in the Bible. The closed canon allows us to be secure in its stability.
In 1997 the book, “The Messengers” was released. This book is a biography of the late Nick Bunick who claimed to have been visited by angels. Under hypnotherapy, Nick revealed himself as a reincarnation of the Apostle Paul.
The book was successful, and it caused quite a stir. However, the book is riddled with statements that are not supported in the Bible. Bunick’s portrayal of Jesus, the disciples, and Paul, creates a picture that is unrecognizable to anyone who has read the Bible. Much of what he says is in direct conflict. For example, according to Bunick speaking as Paul, he had nothing to do with the death of Stephen.
What the book does, is present a New Age philosophy far different from Christianity. It tells a story of messages from angels and a reincarnated Paul. Anyone with a limited knowledge of the Bible could become very confused if they read “The Messengers” as something equal to Scripture.
However, the closed canon of Scripture makes this kind of confusion unnecessary. This is because the Bible is internally consistent and stable.
As a side note, there is an interesting verse within the Bible that speaks to the very heart of “The Messengers.” It is a verse that many people might overlook. It is found in the book of Galatians. Paul is writing to the Galatians, and he is concerned they are following others and have started to wander from the truth. He writes this:
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8 ESV
This 2000-year-old verse is fascinating because the premise of “The Messengers” is that angels and a reincarnated Paul are conveying a story opposite of what the real Paul taught. This is exactly what Galatians 1:8 is talking about.
If you believe in the New Age philosophies taught in “The Messengers” I hope this helps you see why the closed canon of Scripture means that you and I will respectfully need to agree to disagree.
NOTHING CAN BE ADDED OR SUBTRACTED TO THE CANON
For a final example of the consequences of a closed canon, let us take a quick look at Mormonism. According to the 2020 Mormon Church’s statistics, there are around 17 million Latter Day Saints in the world today. That is a lot of members!
We could spend dozens of episodes looking at unique LDS teachings, but what I want us to briefly consider in this episode are the scriptures used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I know I said this earlier, but a consequence of a closed canon is that nothing can be added to it or subtracted from it. However, the LDS Church has added three additional books to be used alongside the Bible. These are known as the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
If you believe the canon is closed, then you automatically reject these books and do not consider their contents as part of your faith. If you are a Latter-day Saint, then you are basically saying that you believe the canon is open and consider the contents of these three books as canonical.
In the last episode, I described some of the tests used to determine whether a book should be added to the canon of Scripture. You may recall that it was important to look at the author of the book, the historical and general accuracy, consistency with prior accepted books, and signs of inspiration.
It is an interesting exercise to subject these three books to the tests used for inclusion in the canon. At least for me, even if the canon were open, I see compelling reasons not to accept them. But that is a moot point, because I believe the canon is closed. If you are one of my many friends in the LDS Church, a consequence of the closed canon is that we have differences in our holy books which affects our beliefs.
REVELATION AND ILLUMINATION
I want to end this episode by talking about what a closed canon does not mean. Several years ago, I had lunch with a couple who were multi-generational Latter-Day Saints. They became very animated when they were talking about an advantage of what they believed over what I believed.
They stressed that they had something I did not…a living prophet who could bring fresh revelation from God. And this was very important to them, and I assume very important to many members of the LDS Church.
I think there can be a belief, that a closed canon dooms Christians to follow a stagnant book that is outdated and irrelevant. But that is simply not true.
Christians understand that the indwelling Holy Spirit, the very Spirit who inspired the Bible, illuminates Scripture in a way that makes the Bible living and active. The Holy Spirit takes what we read and increases our understanding so that what we read is fresh and life giving. Through the written word we grow in our relationship with God, we grow in faith, our minds are renewed, and the Church is strengthened. Closed does not mean dead.
I am not going to go into it now, but Pentecostals such as myself, also understand that Spirit-filled followers of Jesus can function in the gift of prophecy, or even occupy the office of the prophet. But to be clear, these types of prophecy are not the same as what we see in the LDS Church.
Both the gift and the office are subject to the Holy Spirit and the inspired words of the Bible. Nothing said through these prophetic means can ever contradict, add, or subtract, to what is written in the Bible. These prophetic words are ways in which the Holy Spirit encourages the Church and builds it up. But these words never create new doctrine and are always viewed through the lens of Scripture.
If you want to know more about the gift of prophecy, please listen to Season 1 where I cover it in detail.
CLOSING
In our next episode, we are reaching the end of Season 3, and we will end the Season by looking at the need to be led by both our intellect and the Holy Spirit.
As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please email me at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com.
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As we end this episode…
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Until next episode, take care.
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