Contending for the Faith

I had promised to talk about how some writings were considered not inspired, and therefore not included in the cannon of Scripture. For most of these writings, all one has to do is just read them. For example, here is a short story from a NT apocryphal book, The Acts of John:

“One the first day we arrived at a lonely inn: while we were trying to find a bed for John we saw a curious thing. There was one bed there… not made up; so we spread the cloaks which we were wearing over it, and begged him to lie down on it and take his ease while all the rest of us spelt on the floor. But when he lay down he was troubled by the bugs; as they became more troublesome to him, and it was already midnight, he said to them in the hearing of us all, ‘I tell you, you bugs, to behave yourselves, on and all; you must leave your home for tonight and be quiet in one place and keep your distance from the servants of God.’ While we laughed and went on talking, John went to sleep…

“Now as the day was breaking I got up first… and we saw by the door of the room which we had taken a mass of bugs collected; and as we were astounded at the great number of them, John went on sleeping. And when he woke up we explained to him what we had seen. And he sat up [in] bed and looked at them and said, ‘Since you have behaved yourselves and listened to my correction go [back] to you own place.’ And when he had said this and got up from the bed, the bugs came running from the door towards the bed and climbed up its legs and disappeared in to the joints. Then John said again, ‘This creature listened to a man’s voice and kept to itself and was quiet and obedient; but we who hear the voice of God disobey his commandments and are irresponsible; how long will this go on?’”

Thus we can see why the great majority of the Christian church rejected what are called the apocryphal books: they just don’t measure up to the dignity and good sense of the books already considered canonical.

All scripture is inspired by God , and is profitable. A better translation of 2Timothy 3:16 is “All scripture that is inspired by God is profitable”, etc. Just be sure you keep reading the 66 books that we can trust are inspired!~