The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-J, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 12." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1980. All Rights Reserved.
Question
In the Catholic Bible, there are several books between the Old and New
Testament. And I’m wondering how Christian theological circles look on it and
how do you feel about it?
Answer
Basically you have the Old Testament and the New Testament. And then you have a
series of books known as the Apocrypha. Now these books are books that come from
a specific period of time. The Old Testament canon was closed about 400 BC, the
time of Ezra. The New Testament was opened about 50 AD, so you a period of about
450 years, in which there was no writing. When John the Baptist appeared on the
scene prior to the ministry of Jesus Christ, he was the voice that broke 400
years of silence. But during that 400 year period, all kinds of books appeared
that claimed to be authoritative books authored by God. In fact, you might be
interested to know that there are even many, many such books during the New
Testament era in the 1st century that were written. There was the Gospel of
Peter and all different things: the Coptic Narrative—a lot of books that were
supposedly written by Paul or Peter, and they’re all false. Well, during that
intertestamental period, there were a series of books written. These books were
never accepted by the general church consciousness, because it was apparent they
were not inspired. They are filled with historical error; in other words, their
datings and so forth are wrong, and inconsistent with what we know to be
historical. They are filled with theological error. They are filled with
spiritual and moral error. It is apparent to the most cursory reader of those
books that they don’t match up. And so the church never recognized them at all.
Now, I’m not sure exactly why the Catholic Church inserted them in, but at some
point in time—and I can’t even remember what the council was—they put them back
in to the center of the Bible. But they have never really stood the test of
inspiration. They are not authored by the Apostles. They’re Bel and the
dragon, Ezdras, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Maccabees. They’re not
apostolic writings, and they’re not Old Testament prophets either. So they don’t
fit any of the criteria. And as I say, the quality of the book does not match
the standard of inspired literature.
Question (continued)
Would it go back to the Catholic traditionalism that you spoke of earlier?
Answer (continued)
Yes, oh yes. They inserted them at some point, which at this juncture, I can’t
recall the specific year. But again, you see, the problem with the system—and
keep this in mind—all systems that are deviants of Christianity, build their
system on two basis: the Bible plus something else. OK? If it’s Christian
science, it’s the Bible plus Mary Baker Eddy Patterson Glover Frye—she had a
problem—Mary Baker Eddy. If it’s Mormonism, it’s the Bible plus Joseph Smith.
So it doesn’t matter what it is. It’s the Bible plus Annie Besant, Judge Rutherford, Mr. and Mrs. Fillmore, Madam Blavatsky, somebody—it’s somebody—always the Bible plus, the Bible plus, the Bible plus. And that’s what happened in the Roman system; it was the Bible plus the church councils, plus the traditions, plus the papal bulls and so forth. And whenever you do that, you give to man the right to affirm what is divine truth. You just utterly create chaos.
So Christian scholars today just universally reject the validity of the
Apocrypha as an inspired text. But I might ad, once in a while I’ll quote
something out of there because it does give us insight into the historical
period there. Some of the things that are historical are helpful.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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Email: tony@biblebb.com
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