Knowledge of the Canon

My position on the apocrypha and how we know which books should be in the Canon of Scripture was likened to a form of Gnosticism. The idea is that without Rome’s infallible magisterium, we must have some kind of secret knowledge from God that is mystically beamed to us esoterically and is purely subjective.

First the question must be asked. Who is this mystical Magesterium? How did they get this special knowledge? How did they get infallibility?

Aside from those questions, some thoughts came to me the other day while driving the countryside. I would like to use an analogy that may explain something of how God’s people come to recognize the Canon of Scripture.

Let’s say Peter has a disciple named Frank. Frank has been listening to Peter’s Apostolic preaching and doctrine for several years. He follows Peter to a particular church named Remote Church. After establishing the church, Peter goes on a trip back to Jerusalem.

Some time later Peter remembers Frank and the others at Remote. He wishes to instruct them by way of reminder. So he writes a letter, which we call 1 Peter. This letter is received by Frank and is read before the whole church. Since the church regards Peter as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, anything he teaches is considered authoritative as if Christ Himself had said it.

So at this point I must ask, “Does Frank and the rest of the church recognize this as Scripture, or do they need an infallible magisterium to declare that?”

Some time passes and the church of Remote begins to also receive Paul’s letters to the churches. This church knows Paul is an Apostle. They receive his letters as Apostolic doctrine and with the authority of Christ.

Some time later, Peter remembers again this church of Remote and decides to send them a second epistle, which is later named 2 Peter. Peter states in this Second Epistle:

“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Peter specifically refers to Paul’s letters as Scripture. Now were Paul’s Epistles Scripture before Peter said so, or did Peter have to have infallibility to say so? Did the People of God already recognize them as Scripture, or did they wait for an official pronouncement? Even if one says Peter must have told them infallibly, how do we know Peter is right? The question is only pushed back one step.

Now I am not saying God used some purely mystical Gnostic and purely subjective means of bringing the people of God to recognize His Word. But does not the Spirit of God have the ability through the means He has employed in history the objective and subjective means of bringing the people of God His Word?

My argument is simple. If God’s people are able to recognize just one book of the Bible as Scripture without an infallible Magisterium, then the Canon is knowable.