How many books should be in the Bible?
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The labels ‘old testament’ and ‘new testament’ are not inspired labels
The labels ‘old testament’ and ‘new testament’ are man-made misleading additions to the Bible. These labels are contrary to the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have eliminated them from the Bible
The Epistle of James fails the Apostolic test, we have eliminated it
Secondly, Luther believed James could not be apostolic due to its content. In the first place James never once mentions the death or resurrection of Christ, the very heart of the gospel. Luther explains,
Now it is the office of a true apostle to preach of the Passion and resurrection and office of Christ, and to lay the foundation for faith in him, as Christ himself says in John 15[:27], “You shall bear witness to me.” All the genuine sacred books agree in this, that all of them preach and inculcate Christ.… But James does nothing more than drive to the law and to its works.15
In the NT an apostle is one sent to deliver a message given by the sender (John 13:16). And so, Christ sent the apostles into the world to deliver a message he entrusted to them (John 20:21; Gal 1:1). Essential to this task was being a witness of the resurrected Christ (1 Cor 9:1; 15:5–8). In order to safeguard the accuracy of Christ’s message, he promised that the Spirit would lead the apostles into all truth (John 16:13; 1 Cor 2:13), which is tantamount to the doctrine of inspiration. Given this understanding of the place of the apostles, the only way their message could exist for all future believers (John 17:20) was to commit it to writing (John 20:31; 2 Pet 1:12–15). Hence, the criterion to include writings in the NT is apostolicity. And this includes the writings of apostolic co-workers in conjunction with an apostle. For example, Silas and Timothy co-author 1 and 2 Thessalonians with Paul (1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:1). And the teaching these three propagate is the word of God (1 Thess 2:13), has the authority of Christ (1 Thess 4:2), is to be believed and obeyed (2 Thess 2:15), and when neglected leads to excommunication (2 Thess 3:6, 14). Not only is the criterion of apostles and their co-workers found in the NT itself, it is taught in early church fathers like Irenaeus and Tertullian.22 For example, Tertullian says,
THE RECORDS OF THE PROPHETS: The Law, the Prophets and the Writings
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deutronomy
- Joshua
- Judges
- Ruth
- I Samuel
- II Samuel
- I Kings
- II Kings
- Ezra
- Nehemiah
- Psalms
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Hosea
- Amos
- Joel
- Micah
- Jonah
- Nahum
- Obadiah
- Habbakuk
- Haggai
- Zephaniah
- Zachariah
- Malachi
THE RECORDS OF THE APOSTLES: The Gospel, the Apostles and the Revelation
- I Luke
- II Luke
- Revelation