43
Q.
Why haven’t any new books been added?
Marcia Ford
Who is...
?
Marcia Ford
I’m a journalist who relies on phone
interviews, but I hate talking on the phone.A.
There are several reasons why new books have not been added to
the Bible, the fi rst and foremost of which is the prevailing belief
that in the sixty-six books of the Bible, God has provided all that
we need to know to believe in God and to guide our lives. A second reason is
“the apostolic principle,” that is, that the books of the New Testament must be
related to the life or ministry of an apostle. This simply has not been possible
since the second century. Based on the second reason alone, there would be no
chance that new books would be added to the canon of scripture.
There’s also the warning in Revelation 22:18–19, which applies to the
book of Revelation but which many have expanded to apply to the entire
Bible. It warns people not to add to or subtract from “the words of this book.”
But even many of those who apply those verses to just the book of Revelation
would never presume to alter the Bible as a whole.
Remember, too, that there’s no longer any central church authority that
could make such a decision. As scattered as the early church was, Jesus’ fol-
lowers were nonetheless in communication with each other and with the bish-
ops who essentially placed their stamp of approval on the books the churches
were already using—books that now compose the New Testament. There is no
such authority in place today.
Joshua Toulouse
Who is...
?
Joshua Toulouse
I refuse to dance, not because I’m bad at it but because
once I was dancing in the back of a moving pickup truck
and got thrown out and dragged by said pickup truck.A.
The process of fi nalizing the books in the Bible took hundreds of
years and was by no means an overnight decision. But since the
canon was ratifi ed in the year 397 in Carthage, the matter has been