Janean,
Pilgrim suggested I read the following source which I quote from:
from B.B. Warfield's "The Formation of the Canon of the New Testament":
The Canon of the New Testament was completed when the last authoritative book was given to any church by the apostles, and that was when John wrote the Apocalypse, about A.D. 98.
So Warfield agrees with my first question that I proposed that scriptural Canon as we now have it was complete upon John's writing of the book of the Apocalypse (the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John). This occured around A.D. 98 according to Warfield.
Now as to the council of Nicaea of 325. It has catholic documentation or perhaps more correctly, is a meeting that was called by the Roman emporer, Constantine. You can read a reference to the 325 meeting at this site and please excuse that fact that it has overtones of Roman catholicism, I surely do not endorse any Roman catholic dogma:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11044a.htmIf you click on the link to the Arian heresy, you will discover that this guy, Arian apparently taught against the divinity of Jesus Christ. It was reportedly in reaction to this heresy (apparently a form of gnosticism) that Constantine, the Roman emporer requested the meeting of a council in 325 AD in Nicaea of Bythinia to counter this devisive doctrine. It might have been a secondary purpose for the bishops who gathered to decide and establish an "official" (according to Roman catholicism) accepted canon for the New Testament books.
It looks like we don't need to put a lot of stock in this meeting as it was an "after the fact" event. According to Warfield, whose work I quoted from above, the New Testaments books were added gradually to Scripture and they became part of the accepted "canon" the moment they were received by the churches (hearers).
Their reception was mixed with faith in the hearers. So there was really no need to convene a council or require that a panel of mortal men with humanly assigned authority decide what constituted "canon". This would be an insult to the Spirit of grace who had dictated these words by inspiration to the apostles and their friends.
Warfield also mentions as I did, that Luke did not have this so called 'apostolic authority' because he was not an apostle. However, his gospel is accepted by believers just as the other three gospels are accepted as divinely inspired works.
So, let's see what others say to my recent "instruction" as I learn precept upon precept.
The Lord bless!
