Warfield New Testament Canon

A short paper on the canon of the New Testament from B.B.Warfield

Warfield is a theological heavy-weight being highly respected in most serious theological circles. This is a short paper by him on the topic. His argument is that the apostles imposed the New Testament books that we presently have on the infant church as they were instructed by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. This became a kind of sealing by the Apostles of these new books as they were written. See article for his arguments.

Warfield says that the process was not that of a gradually accepting of these books, elevating them slowly from “just good books” to being recognized as Holy Writ. No, these books were immediately after their writing recognized and exalted by the early church as being Holy Scripture, and this pushed them immediately into being esteemed by the early church as equal with the Old Testament. There really was “no process” to speak about.

Simply put, God moved both upon the Apostles and principle people that wrote these books as well as the others in leadership along with the church as a whole to recognize what God had done. The emphasis is not on the recognizing by the church, but on “what God had done”. This is the point here, that God placed them in the canon.

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Warfield, B.B. – New Testament Canon