What About Other "Holy" Books?

At http://gordon-feil-theology.blogspot.ca/2017/01/okay-so-god-is-there-but-what-makes.html, we discussed what recommends the Bible as the Word of God. But further questions naturally flow from the discussion.

So the Bible has God’s word, but how do we know that the entire Bible is his word?  How do we know that there isn’t manmade composition included with it?

            The answer to this gets back to Y’shuah (Jesus).  Our faith in God and in the Bible as his word begins with him.  When we know that Y’shuah is God and that he is 100% reliable, then we can buy into his theology.  His testimony is that the Old Testament is God’s word.  He says in Luke 24:44 that “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”  This is testimony that all 3 divisions of the Old Testament are accepted by him as his word. 

            The question generally arises from disbelief of some of the more miraculous accounts such as Creation, the Flood, the scattering at Babel, and Joshua’s long day.  What the question misses is that each of these and other accounts are testified to by extra-biblical evidence.  Further, if what I suggested at http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2016/11/what-is-reality.html is correct, then these accounts become even more believable.


So Y’shuah accepted the Old Testament, but the New was canonized amid argument over what books should be in it, so how do we know that the right books were chosen?

            The New Testament canonization only became an issue when folks such as Marcion proclaimed a different one which supported his heretical theology.   The canon was basically handed down by tradition, believer to believer, and it only makes sense that the original people to do this, people who were willing to die for what they believed, determined canonicity based upon whom they knew to have written the books and what the books taught (because they knew what the original apostles had been taught by Y’shuah). 

There was very little dispute over what books are part of the canon, but even if we remove the odd one over which there was some disagreement, such as II Peter or Revelation, it makes little difference to the message of the New Testament. 

If we believe there is a God who cares for us and who is passing his word to us, we have to rely on his providence to direct the process.

What about the holy books of other religions?

    1.     Hindus and Buddhists have literature they view as sacred, but they don’t regard it as infallible.

    2.     Find a book that has changed lives like the Bible. The Koran? How about the Bhagavad Gita? Maybe the Book of Mormon? They may recommend change, but HOW effective are they?

    3.     Work from the known to the unknown.  

                      i.      I KNOW about the resurrection (because I can prove    it). 

                          a.     I know it happened, and

                          b.     I know it happened as Y’shuah predicted: on the third day. 

                     ii.             Y’shuah recommended the scriptures that are now the Bible.

    4.     Since these other books contradict the Bible in some ways, I cannot rely upon them.  My reasons for believing the Bible are also reasons for NOT believing these other books.

    5.     If there are reasons for believing these other books, let’s see them.

    6.     This is not narrow-mindedness.   Being narrow-minded isn’t a function of what you believe, but of how you come to believe it.  “Truth is one, but falsehood is manifold.”

    7.     The Bible’s counsel is at I Th. 5:21: ^“Test all things; hold fast what is good.”