The sermon by Eric Bechler examines the Apocrypha's role and legitimacy within the canon of Scripture, based on the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689. It argues that the Apocrypha, a set of books not of divine inspiration, should not be included in the canon as they lack authority and are comparable to human writings. The sermon discusses historical contexts, like the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, that incorporated the Apocrypha. However, it emphasizes reasons for exclusion: the Apocrypha was not written in Hebrew, lacks claims of divine inspiration, and contains historical inaccuracies and doctrinal inconsistencies with accepted Scripture. The sermon asserts the importance of a true canon for maintaining correct faith and obedience, cautioning against false teachings and emphasizing the need for discernment through the Holy Spirit.

Our reading today from the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 comes again from chapter one of the Holy Scriptures today, paragraph three. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon or rule of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority to the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings. The focus of chapter one is of the Holy Scriptures. In the first paragraph we believe and they are described as a closed system of truth, complete, sufficient, certain, and infallible for all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. They contain all the spiritual truth God intended to reveal.

The second paragraph we covered listed out the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, 66 books total, given by the inspiration of God, their God breathes to be the rule of faith and life Last week. I mentioned that the Catholic Church in the Eastern Orthodox churches include the apocrypha in their canon of scripture This week. We'll take a look a closer look at what is called the Apocrypha. What is the Apocrypha and why should we care? Let's answer the second question first.

Why should we care? This is about the Word of God, The Holy Scriptures. This is our rule of faith in life. This is our measure, our standard against what we hold up all thoughts, words, and actions. How did Satan first attack mankind?

He asked Eve, did God really say? Genesis 3 1 without having confidence a certainty of what is included in the scriptures How could we know God's son? How could we know God's will we could be led astray? By false teaching or even lead others astray. So you see any discussions about what should or should not be in the canon of Scripture is a really big deal.

So where do we turn to find out what should be in the canon of Scripture? We turn to the Jews because to them were committed the oracles of God, Romans 3-2. John Gill explains this. The law of Moses and the writings of the prophets, the instructions of the ceremonial institutions of the ceremonial laws and the prophecies of the Messiah in a gospel church state. In a word all the books of the Old Testament which are called so because they are of divine inspiration and contain the mind and will of God and are infallible and authoritative.

It was the privilege and profit of the Jews that they were entrusted with them when other nations were not. So back again to what is the Apocrypha. Apocrypha comes from an ancient Greek word meaning hidden or hidden things. It refers to a collection of books written largely in the intertestamental period from around the third century BC up to roughly the second century AD. They provide some important historical information or background of the Jews during the 400 years, silent years between Malachi and Matthew.

So how many are there? For the Roman Catholic Church they include 12 books or editions. Tobit, Judas, editions to the book of Esther, the wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the letter of Jeremiah, the prayer of Azariah and the song of the three holy children, the history of Susanna, Belle and the dragon, the first and second Maccabees. The Eastern Orthodox churches add three more books to their canon of scripture, the prayer of Manasseh and 1st and 2nd Esdras. Where did they come from?

We first see these show up in the Septuagint. Alexandria, Egypt held a great library and was the center for the Alexandrian or Hellenistic Jews, the Greek-speaking Jews. As the Jewish population grew, there was a need to put the scriptures into the common language of the people, which was Greek at that time. It was from this group and this need that we get to Septuagint, which is, again, the Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original biblical Hebrew. It is assumed that these translators had access to much older copies of the Hebrew text than we have at this time.

It is here in the Septuagint that we find the apocryphal writings. When Jerome later translated the Bible into Latin, he used not only the Hebrew text, but also the Septuagint, which is what brought the apocryphal writings into the Latin Vulgate. One commentary states in Jerome's prologues he described those books or portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical. He called them apocrypha but they are found in all complete manuscripts and editions of the Latin Vulgate. Dr.

Sproul states, the great library of Alexandria where Philo and others worked was a cultural center for Hellenistic Jews. The canon of Alexandrian Jews included the Apocrypha and historical evidence indicates that the Palestinian canon used by the Jews in Israel did not contain the Apocrypha. From the reformer's perspective, the original Jewish canon was the Palestinian canon, not the Alexandrian canon. Despite Jerome's statement in his prologues and in response to the Reformation, the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1546 AD confirmed nearly all the Vulgate, which includes the Apocrypha as canonical. Martin Luther's 1535 Bible was the first to separate the Apocrypha from the Old and New Testament and place it in between with a note that these books are not divinely inspired.

The Geneva Bible followed suit in 1599, and actually the 1611 King James Bible included the Apocrypha, similarly including, similar to Luther's, until his 1885 release. And I would emphasize that all of these Bibles which place the Apocrypha in between the testaments made it clear that these were not part of the canon of scripture and were strictly for historical use. One commentary in support of the Apocrypha in the Canon states, early Christians viewed the Septuagint as more than accurate. They saw it as spirit-led. Church fathers like Augustine said The translators of the Septuagint were not only learned but inspired as prophets who find that in the city of God, Book 1843.

Irenaeus echoed this writing, God Himself prepared and gave this interpretation through the seventy elders against heresies, one of his documents. Even Justin Martyr in his dialogue with Trifo asserted that the Septuagint was the true text and accused Jewish scribes of altering the Hebrew to hide prophecies about Christ. So what are our reasons for not including these into the canon of Scripture? There are many discussions that you can find on the internet or in books, many papers detailing all the ins and outs of this. I'll try to summarize or provide a summary of concerns which should satisfy, at least for our purposes here.

Number one, it is generally accepted and included, we see it in paragraph eight of this chapter of our confession, that the Old Testament in Hebrew, which was the native language of the people of God of old, and the New Testament in Greek, which at the time of the writing it was most generally known to the nations, being immediately inspired by God and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages and therefore authentic. The books of the Apocrypha were written in the Greek language, not in the Hebrew, which was alone used by the inspired historians, poets, or prophets of the Old Testament. Number two, we hold that the original texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek given by the Holy Spirit through the prophets and apostles are inspired or God-breathed, infallible, and inerrant. Translations fall into a different category. Dr.

R. Scott Clark explains, we should distinguish between the act of translation and the inspiration of scripture. No translators, even those who translated the Hebrew and Aramaic scriptures into Greek, to give us the Septuagint, were inspired. Jerome and the others who made Latin translations were not inspired and neither were those who did the King James Version or the NIV or the ESV translations. They did not see themselves as inspired in their work of translation.

The Scriptures, however, were inspired as they were given through the prophets and the apostles. Number three, not one of the writers lay any claim to inspiration. In fact in 1st Maccabees 448 it indicates that there were no prophets at that time. It quotes until until a prophet should appear and in 1st Maccabees 927 since the time prophets ceased to appear among them Nowhere do we find it is written, God said, or scriptures say. Peter tells us no prophecy of scripture comes from one's own interpretation, for no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but man spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter chapter one, 20 through 21.

Number four, these books were never acknowledged as sacred scriptures by the Jews to whom the oracles of God were committed, and therefore were never sanctioned by our Lord. Josephus states, we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us disagreeing from and contradicting one another, but only 22 books which contain the records of all the past times, which are justly believed to be defined. Since the Jews combined certain books into one scroll or book, there can in the Hebrew Bible there's only 22 books. This correlates to our 39 books in the Old Testament. Number five, although numerous early church fathers referred to the Apocrypha or quoted from these books, None of them were ever quoted by Christ or the Apostles nor is there a single word found in the New Testament from which it can be inferred that such books were divine.

Number six, there are also historical errors in the Apocrypha. For example, Tobit claims to have been alive when Jeroboam revolted in 931 BC and when Assyria conquered Israel in 722 BC. These two events were separated by over 200 years, and yet the total lifespan of Tobit was 158 years. Tobit won 3 through 5 in 1411. Also in Judith mistakenly identifies Nebuchadnezzar as the king of the Assyrians, when in fact he was the king of Babylon or the Chaldeans.

Number seven, we find in the Apocrypha doctrines in variance with the Bible some examples. Tobit 12.9 states that alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. But the Bible states that the blood of Christ, Jesus Christ his son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1.7. Wisdom, the book of wisdom chapter 8, 19 and 20.

For I was a witty child and had a good spirit. Yea, rather being good, I came into a body, undefiled. However, the Bible teaches that all are born with original sin. Through one man's offense judgment came to all men by one man's disobedience. Many were made sinners." Romans 5, 18, and 19.

There is none righteous, no not one. Romans 3, 10. The author of Wisdom believes he was an exception. And in 2nd Maccabees 12, 39 through 46, we find teaching of prayers for the dead. The writer to the Hebrews tells us just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment in Hebrews 927.

Here we understand that no no change in one's spiritual condition can be made following his death either by himself or through the efforts of others. If you remember our discussion from last week, we see a different picture in the support for all the 66 books included in the Protestant canon of Scripture. In summary, we believe that the books commonly called the Apocrypha, whether those by the Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox churches are not part of the true canon of Scripture and are thus of no authority to the Church of God, nor are they to be approved or made use of more than any other human writing. Although they provide historical background of the Jews between the testaments, which can be helpful, they are not God breathed and should not be considered infallible or authoritative. Again, why should we care?

Why is this important? It's very important. We must not be deceived or else we will fall to false teachings, or worse, lead others astray. John tells us in his first epistle, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. First John 4.1.

We must be discerning, and we must pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance, amen.