beleivingThomas-

You wrote:

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Or must we wait until the 325 AD council of Nicaea, requested by Constantine? At this council, allegedly 300 plus bishops gathered to determine which books were inspired and should be included as canon and to reject those writings not found to stand up to the test of canonicity.

This caught my eye because my father-in-law (who doesn't believe in the Bible as the Word of God) about 3 years ago said this same thing to me about the Council of Nicea. And I questioned this myself thinking that it just didn't sound right that the NT canon was put together just at one council. It just didn't sound right. Well this started me on my own reading of exactly some of the questions you have. I read these books: "The Canon of Scripture" by F.F. Bruce and "The Canon of the New Testament" by Bruce M. Metzger. (You can order them through Amazon) I recommend these to you because they will tell you exactly how the NT (and OT in Bruce's book) canon came together. And they both specifically discuss the issue of the canon being closed and when it was closed. It was very eye opening to me and alas my feelings were right that the canon did not just come together at the council. In fact the first council to lay down any limits to canon was the coundil of Hippo in 393. And in reading these books and other research I have yet to find that the NT canon was chosen at the Council of Nicea in 325. Where is this coming from??

Could you tell me where you got that information from - that the canon was chosen at the Council of Nicea??? I am really curious. Do you have a quote from somewhere?? What book or source did this come from??

Janean