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Of the Holy Scripture II: Necessity, Canon, and Authority
Westminster Confession 1.1–1.4 says more than that God once inspired writings. It confesses the necessity of written revelation, a defined canon, the exclusion of the Apocrypha, and an authority that rests on God rather than the church. This article tests the strongest…
Why this matched: Matched the title for “Canon”.
The Book of the Covenant: Why God’s Binding Speech Takes Written Form
From Sinai to Josiah’s reform, Scripture presents the covenant word not as a recoverable religious gist but as a written, deposited, read, and guarded document.
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.
Authorized Succession Is Not Textual Corruption
The New Testament fulfills a divinely promised administration; it does not correct a defective Old Testament. Revelation may advance by the Author’s authority, while scribes may not revise it.
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.
From Divine Revelation to Divine Judgment
Westminster Chapter 1 begins with God making himself known and ends with God rendering judgment. Its opening movement is, “It pleased the Lord … to reveal himself”; its closing declaration is that the church must rest in “the Holy Spirit speaking in…
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.
Arbitrariness: The Unproved Decisions Behind the Text
Modern textual criticism possesses evidence, learning, and elaborate tools. The prior question is whether its selection and weighting of that evidence escape mere opinion, relativism, unargued bias, and conjecture.
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.
The Canon Question: Can We Know Which Books Are God’s Word?
Before Scripture can serve as the Church’s rule, the canonical books must be identifiable. The canon question therefore lies beneath every appeal to the written Word of God.
Why this matched: Matched the title for “Canon”.
When the Canons Collide: The Question That Exposes the Method
What happens when the harder reading is also the longer reading? That plain collision opens the deeper question of who has authority to rank the canons and constitute the text of Scripture for the Church.
Why this matched: Matched the title for “Canon”.
Inconsistency: Testing the Canons Against Themselves
The canons of textual criticism often point in different directions. Bahnsen’s inconsistency test asks whether critics apply stable rules or change the weight of the rules as the preferred reading changes.
Why this matched: Matched the title for “Canon”.
What the Church Means by the Canon
The canon is not merely a list of favored books. It is the complete collection God gave as the Church’s permanent rule: divinely constituted, covenantally delivered, providentially preserved, and ecclesiastically received.
Why this matched: Matched the title for “Canon”.
Who Is the Court? Ministerial and Magisterial Textual Criticism
The real divide is not between people who compare manuscripts and people who refuse to do so. It is between textual work that serves Scripture and textual work that functions as the court which constitutes Scripture.
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.
The Question Beneath Every Appeal to Scripture
Every appeal to biblical authority assumes that the Church can identify the writings called Scripture. The doctrine of the canon asks which books are God’s Word and how they can be received with divine certainty.
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.
The Inspiration of Scripture
Robert D. Preus, The Inspiration of Scripture, 2nd ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1957).
Preus investigates seventeenth-century Lutheran dogmaticians on inspiration, authority, and canon. The preface establishes a representative selection of orthodox Lutheran writers and identifies the book’s historical purpose: to correct later accounts that depict the period as merely sterile or mechanical. The study is…
Why this matched: Matched subjects, doctrines, categories, or keywords for “Canon”.