Category Archives: The Bible

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February 5, 2016

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Christian living, The Bible

How do I know if God is speaking?

Many people experience the sensation of a spiritual force speaking to them outside the normal senses of man. Many religious people have had the experience of being in communication with God. The challenge facing those who think they may have heard God speaking is the uncertainty of rightly interpreting the source of those influences. The ability to distinguish between the voice of God and one’s own sinful longings. How does one separate the voice of God from the urgings of one’s own flesh and from evil temptations?

I am a strict cessationist, stricter even than many of my fellow cessationists. A cessationist is one that believes, among other things, God is no longer giving new revelation to man. God stopped talking directly to men when the Bible was completed and now speaks exclusively through His Word. He does not guide men through dreams, visions or voices. He guides men through the Bible. This does not deny the work of the Holy Spirit to give a person understanding of the meaning of the Bible nor the work of the Spirit to convict of sin and apply the Bible to the individual’s life. The Holy Spirit’s work takes place through a renovation of the heart and mind not through promptings or inner impressions.

God is speaking when you read and rightly understand His Word. His voice is clear and unmistakable. All other voices are ambiguous and leave the individual attempting to navigate a maze of pitfalls in the attempt to determine whether or not a voice is of God. Our own senses are very easily deceived. Mr. Scrooge was right on target when he argued with Marley’s ghost about the gullibility of the senses. “A little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!” The unreliability of our senses, especially the internal impressions, makes it paramount that Christian’s have an accurate scale by which to measure out the true value of our sensations.

When reading the Bible there is no doubt about its source. The will of God is clear in the Bible. You know God is speaking when you read His Word. When you obey what He says in His Word you will know His power, His care and His guidance over your life. This will never fail. Though there may be times when you do not perceive the Lord to be as close as at other times, He will remain true to His promises. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Let me offer some closing thoughts for those who are now mad because I have seemingly denied the working of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous guidance of the Father in your life. Though you may believe God speaks in ways outside His Word, never imagine that He speaks without His Word. One cannot neglect the Word for a sensation of a conversation. One cannot let inner promptings guide him down a path that contradicts the plain commands of the Bible. God never speaks without His Word. Do not allow an experience or the desire for an experience to be more important than God’s Word. Remember the words of Peter, “We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed; as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” (2 Peter 1:19)

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January 13, 2016

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The Bible

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How do Christians explain the genocide passages in the Bible?

I want to answer a follow up question to last week’s article about Christianity and violence. If the Bible teaches all men should love one another then why do Deuteronomy 7:1-6 and Deuteronomy 20:17-18 tell us that God commanded the Israelites to wipe out entire groups of people? This is a significant question. Some have attempted to get around these difficult passages by saying they mean something else. That is a tempting but unacceptable solution to the problem. If the passages in question do not mean God commanded utter destruction of entire tribes, then it is impossible to determine any real meaning from those passages. A natural reading leads to one inevitable conclusion. God commanded the nation of Israel to eradicate entire tribes of people.

God is not evil for decreeing the destruction of a people or nation. As the Creator, Kign and Judge of all humanity, God has the authority to execute judgment how and when He wishes. When God created Adam and Eve, He warned them the consequence of disobedience would be death (Genesis 2:17). On the day man sinned God condemned all humanity to death. Everyone who dies does so because God has decreed the destruction of all humanity. Later in human history, God destroyed all but eight people. In the flood God put to death millions, possibly hundreds of millions, of men, women, children and infants. Still later God destroyed two major cities and their surrounding villages. He wiped Sodom and Gomorrah off the map, killing all but three people. In the days to come God will once again pour out His judgment on humanity. During the time of the Tribulation, billions of people will be killed by the catastrophic judgments of God. God is the Creator, King and Judge of all humanity. He is righteous in executing judgment on men. Though it is disconcerting to consider the justice and wrath of God, we cannot attribute evil to God for exercising His just wrath.

We are disturbed by the commands for Israel to destroy the tribes of Canaan because God is commanding a nation, an army and its individual soldiers to put to death women and children, even infants. The troubling question is how can a loving God command His people to kill non-combatants and to annihilate a whole group of people? Though the command to the Israelites is extreme, it is not out of keeping with the character of God. Since the days of Noah God has used men as His instruments of justice. He appointed governments to be ministers of the sword. He gave to governments the responsibility of executing capital punishment.

Israel was a nation uniquely set apart by God. They were a holy people unto the Lord. They were a nation governed by unique laws, given a unique territory and holding a genuine national identity. God’s use of a nation to bring judgment upon another nation is not contrary to His character. Passages like Isaiah 45 shows that God uses nations as a means of bringing punishment upon other nations. To begin to understand these passages, one must consider the nations under God’s condemnation. The nations inhabiting Canaan were extremely wicked. They were idolaters routinely practicing a wide variety of immoral sex acts as part of their worship of false gods. They offered human sacrifices and even killed their children at the altars of their false gods. They were demon worshipers serving devils that they imagined to be real gods. God in His justice determined to destroy these nations because of their awful depravity.

In the end we must be content to trust the justice of God. Israel was not acting out of malice or a mistaken sense of racial superiority. No megalomaniacal tyrant decreed Israel destroy the nations so he could elevate his prestige. No self-declared superman demanded Israel exterminate all those he deemed inferior. Israel did not devise this course on her own. The nation was following the command of an all wise, just God. Israel was acting under the command of God as the agent of God’s justice. We naturally cringe at the thought of the death of so many. The wages of sin are terrible and passages like this bring home the enormity of sin’s hideousness. We must let the truths of God’s holiness, justice, goodness and wisdom give comfort to our troubled hearts. We must remember that the Judge of all the earth will always do right.

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January 9, 2016

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Christian living, Christianity, Life Questions, The Bible

Does Christianity promote violence and hatred?

The recent upswing of Islamic terrorism has brought violence in the name of Allah to the front of many people’s minds. For some this is also a time to resurrect claims that Christianity is a religion of violence and hatred. Some do this out of a general hatred of all religions asserting that religion is the greatest cause of war and violence. Some do this in an attempt to defend Islam by pointing out that Christianity has some infamous events in its own history. Does Christianity promote hatred and violence? Is the Bible full of hate and genocide?

The Bible does not lack wars, violence, murder and many other despicable evils. However, a description of violence is not the same as a prescription for violence. If this were the case one could argue that history books promote violence and hatred. To argue Christianity causes violence one has to show that Christianity either commands hatred between men, that the commands are based in hatred for people, or that the teachings will inevitably result in hatred. One can not simply point to violent passages in the Bible and say that Christianity is hateful. One must show that the Bible promotes violence. This is no easy claim to make.

The Bible includes many examples of wretched behavior. Even more, throughout Christian history men have done evil things in the name of Christianity. Yet these historic examples do not prove Christianity is hateful. Such examples prove a very different claim. The examples of violence in the Bible and history support a central tenet of Biblical teaching: humanity is hatefilled because man has rebelled against His Creator.

The teaching of the Bible is that the heart of man is the source of all hatred and violence. Titus 3 says, “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient . . . living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” The Bible also teaches the worst wickedness of man is not only the result of his own natural bent toward sin, but it is also the result of rebellion against God. When man rejects the God of the Bible for a god of his own creation, the result is that God lets man go into all manner of great wickedness (Rom 1). The claim of the Bible is that man apart from God turns to great violence and all manner of acts of hatred. Religion is not the root of anger and violence among men. The rejection of the God of the Bible aggravates the violent heart of men.

The Bible teaches an ethic that is contrary to violence. Those who have committed violent acts in the name of God have done son despite clear Bible teaching to the contrary. The Bible commands over and over again to love one another. In the book of Genesis God repeatedly condemns the violence of men. In the law to Israel God commands they are to love one another. The importance of love for one another is a major theme throughout the Old and New Testaments. The moral principles of the Bible are built on the basic principle of love, love for God and love for others. The Bible does not promote war, violence, hatred or racism. All such evils are the result of man’s sinful nature, not the teaching of Scripture.

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October 30, 2015

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The Bible

Do we have any of the original Biblical writings?

Most of the books of the Bible were written on parchments (processed animal skins). These parchments were rolled into cylinders for storage and transports. The apostles and prophets wrote on these scrolls and distributed the scroll to the intended readers. The human authors of the Bible knew they were writing the Word of God and most of those who received the writings knew they were Scriptures. As a result, the original writings were carefully copied, spread to others and some of the copies carefully preserved. The youngest book of the Bible is over 1,900 years old. Through the passage of time, the original writings have been lost to use, wear and in some cases intentional destruction. We have none of the parchments written by the hands of any of the apostles and prophets.

The absence of the originals should not cause any concern for Christians. The absence of the originals provides no grounds to question the authenticity of the Bible. The fact is, at least in the New Testament, most churches never handled the original. For example, the letters written by Paul would be carried by a special messenger to a specific church. The letter would be read to the entire church. Sometimes a copy would be made and kept in the receiving church. The original would then be sent on to another church. Sometimes the original would be kept in one church and copies made to be sent off to other churches in the region. As time passed the originals were lost or simply fell apart from time and use. The originals and first copies were carefully copied, passed on to still more churches and handed down from one generation to the next. The absence of originals is no problem for the church because of the existence of thousands of carefully made copies.

We have great confidence that the copies available to us today are accurate reflections of the originals. The men who copied the books of the Bible were not careless. The majority of the copyists believed the Bible to be God’s Word and were diligent to accurately copy the words of God. One of the greatest evidences of the care and accuracy of the copyists was found with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered the oldest known copies of the Old Testament were dated at around 1,000 years after Christ. The Dead Sea Scrolls are from the century before Jesus. Over 1,000 years of copying separate the two groups, yet the copies were 95% identical (which in a book of well over half a million words is astounding). The vast majority of the 5% differences were obvious spelling errors and similar readily apparent scribal mistakes. Though we have none of the originals, we have incredibly accurate copies of the Bible carefully passed down to us from previous generations of believers.

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October 23, 2015

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God, The Bible

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What does Jehovah mean?

The name Jehovah is probably familiar to many who attend church on a regular basis. Even those who do not attend church may be aware of it because of a visit from a couple Jehovah’s Witnesses. Though the word may be familiar, it is not necessarily understood. What exactly is Jehovah? The simple answer is that Jehovah is the proper name of the God of the Bible. Ancient religions had gods such as Zeus, Odin or Ra. Modern religions have gods like Allah or Vishnu. The title “god” is a generic title that is applied to all deities in all religions. To distinguish one deity from another, many of them had specific names. The God of the Bible tells us His name to distinguish Himself from all other deities. The name of God has come down to us today as Jehovah.

The name Jehovah is found early in the Bible, it’s first use being in Genesis 2. Jehovah is found throughout the book of Genesis, but in Exodus 3 God explains the significance of His name. For generations the nation of Israel was enslaved in the land of Egypt. God spoke to Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh and request permission for the Israelites to leave the country. In response, Moses asked God what he should tell the Israelites when they asked who sent him. The Israelites were in a land that worshiped hundreds of gods. When Moses informed them God had sent him to deliver them, they would naturally want to know which particular god was doing the sending. “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:14) God says His name is “I AM”. The name “I AM” is the word that has been translated into English as Jehovah. Jehovah means “I AM”.

The simple definition is not a full explanation of the name Jehovah. In telling Moses who He is, God is telling Moses something important about His nature. Jehovah, or I AM, is a declaration that God is eternal. He is not “I was” or “I will be”. He is I AM. He is changeless. What He is now He always has been and always will be. He is self existent. He simply is. He does not owe His existence to another god before Him. He is not dependent on some outside agency. He exists because He is God who has always existed. The name Jehovah declares the eternal, changeless, self-existent nature of God.

Of course, when God spoke to Moses He did so in Hebrew. The name He gave to Moses would have been written in Hebrew, which is quite different from English. A close English approximation of the Hebrew word is YHWH. The word Jehovah is a rough English transliteration and pronunciation of the Hebrew name. Though some people make a big deal out of saying Yahweh instead of Jehovah, the English translation is a legitimate and proper use of God’s name. Most English translations of the Bible translate YHWH as LORD, and print the name a little differently to inform the reader that the original is speaking of Jehovah. Any time a Bible translation has the word Lord in all capital letters, it is indicating the name Jehovah. Jehovah is the proper name for the God of the Bible, a name that distinguishes Him from all the false gods and that declares to man His infinite nature.

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October 14, 2015

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Current Events, The Bible

What about Aliens?

It seems that every few months there is another announcement of evidence of water on extra terrestrial bodies. The most recent one being the discovery of what appears to be an ancient lake bed on Mars. This announcement has more or less coincided with the release of a major movie about an astronaut stranded on Mars. The prospect of life somewhere besides earth is tantalizing. Astronomers spend huge amounts of time looking for evidence of life on other planets. Since water is key to life on this planet the search for life similar to that found on earth starts with the search for water. Many hope we will find life out there somewhere, many are convinced life exists elsewhere in the universe and a few believe extra terrestrial life has found us.

With the widespread allure of alien life, what is a Biblical framework from which to think about life originating somewhere other than earth? The Bible’s creation account must still guide the Christian’s life and thinking. Many who accept evolutionary explanations of life think there must be life elsewhere. The sheer magnitude of the universe and vast number of stars has convinced some that extra terrestrial life is a certainty. The Biblical perspective is silent about any physical life outside of earth. The Bible is not silent about the origin of all life. The creation of all life happened because of the decree of God. Any life in the universe exists because it was created by God during the six days of creation. All Biblical references to the creation of life only describe the creation of life on earth. Admittedly, this is not conclusive that God did not create any kind of life anywhere else, but the only creation of life that God reveals to man is that of life on earth.

The Bible also declares the entire universe has been cursed by man’s sin. Romans 8 says “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” This means that any life found in the universe is going to be suffering under the curse of sin. Utopia and the salvation of civilization will never be found off planet. This also means that man has a very unique position in the whole of creation. Genesis 1 and 2 announce this with the declaration that man was created in the image of God and given dominion over the earth. Romans 8 shows just how far that uniqueness extends. Because of man’s sin, all 32 billion light years of the universe are cursed. If there is life elsewhere, it labors under the curse of sin and longs for the time when Christ will make all things new. If there is life elsewhere, man still has a unique position among all creation. In the next article we’ll consider some questions of what effect the discovery of alien life would have have on this Biblical world view.

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June 17, 2015

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Christianity, The Bible

Where do things like the Gospel of Thomas fit into Christianity?

The Bible is made up of sixty-six books, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. Recent years have seen an increased interest in ancient books like the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas is one of fifty-two books known as the gnostic gospels. The Gnostic gospels were all written sometime between 100-300 A.D. and generally claim to have been written by apostles or other individuals who had close relationships with Jesus. Other well known gnostic writings include The Gospe of Judas, The Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Phillip. The collection of gnostic gospels cannot be summarized easier because have many different themes and purposes. Some claim to reveal information about Jesus’ life not discussed in the New Testament. Some claim to present a different perspective on Jesus’ ministry that the New Testament writers wanted to keep hidden. Some claim to offer a new angle on the events recorded in the New Testament gospels, interpreting the episodes in Jesus’ life according to Gnostic beliefs.

Since many of the gnostic gospels claim to give factual information about Jesus and His disciples that was not included in the New Testament, how does the Christian view these books? They have no legitimate claim to be the Word of God. They make fraudulent claims about their authorship. They make factual statements that contradict the New Testament. They teach doctrines contrary to the doctrines of the Bible. No gnostic gospel was ever recognized as God’s Word by any ancient Christian church.

The gnostic gospels are not Scripture, but do they offer some historical insight like some Apocryphal books? The length of time between the life of Jesus and the writing of the gnostic gospel (at least one hundred years) means the information included is less trustworthy than that found in the New Testament. The unique historical claims of the gnostic gospels have no confirming evidence in other historical records. A number of the gnostic gospels present historical details that are clearly fallacious (like those found in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas). Some of them, like the Gospel of Judas, rewrite history to present an account that supports gnostic theology.

The gnostic gospels are books written by men promoting a body of beliefs contradictory to the New Testament. The books make claims based on the imaginations and theological errors of the gnostic heresy. These books are intentional fabrications. They offer much insight into gnostic theology but they provide no useful information about the early life, the personal life or the secret life of Jesus. A quick comparison between any of the most popular gnostic gospels and any of the New Testament gospels will reveal an obvious difference. The gnostic gospels read like poor imitations of the New Testament or feeble attempts to create epic mythology. The gnostic gospels are unreliable as anything but historical curiosities. They are not Scripture and offer nothing to aid the understanding of the life of Jesus or to promote true, Biblical theology.

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April 22, 2015

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Creation, Genesis, The Bible

Why is Creation so important?

On the last two Sundays of March the Everlasting Truths broadcast team aired two hours of discussion about Biblical creationism. Biblical creationism is the belief that the account of creation found in Genesis 1 and 2 is an accurate record of historical events that occurred as described in those two chapters. To some, this may seem to be a lot of time invested in something that is, at most, of secondary importance. If science has discovered life evolved as a product of chance mutations occurring over millions of years, why should Christians get in a lather and say that science is wrong? At first glance creation may seem to be unimportant in view of larger message of the Bible. In reality, the creation account of Genesis is vital to the rest of the Bible. A misunderstanding at the beginning threatens a correct understanding of the rest of the Bible.

A misunderstanding of the account of creation has profound impact on how views the Bible (and how one views the Bible has a profound impacton how one interprets the creation passages) and how one thinks about Jesus. Not that everyone who misunderstands Genesis will have a wrong understanding about Jesus and the Bible, but the logically consistent result of a rejected or wrongly understood Genesis is a wrong understanding of the Bible. Genesis is foundational to the rest of the Bible’s teachings. A wrong understanding of Genesis leaves the Christian with a weak foundation on which to build a Biblical theology. Without a sound Genesis foundation the Christian is forced to construct extra-Biblical buttresses and supports to uphold certain other doctrines.

Despite some arguments to the contrary, no grammatical or contextual reasons exist to conclude Genesis 1 and 2 are intended to be anything but historical fact. The words chosen and the structure of the verses show an obvious intent to declare a historical event. The later chapters of Genesis continue to communicate historical realities with the purpose of connecting the events of thousands of years ago to present day readers. The book of Genesis was written to provide the historical background of sin and the people of God. The book of Genesis was written as part of the basic foundational information needed for a right understanding of God and His plan to deliver men.

The events of Genesis 1 and 2 have an intentional connection to the rest of the history of Genesis. To doubt the creation accounts historical accuracy or to reframe it as an allegory leaves no rational basis for concluding any of the rest of Genesis is not also allegorical. If creation did not occur as described, did man sin as described? What about the flood of Noah, did that happen or is it an allegory for something else? How about the events at the Tower of Babel? Did the world rebel against God (again) and suffer God’s punishment of confusing language and dispersing the family groups, or is it a symbol of something else? If Babel in Genesis 11 is allegory, is Abraham in Genesis 12 also allegory? What about Isaac and Jacob? Is all the history of Genesis, the first 50 chapters of the Bible, just a massive picture of some other reality?

This same question also affects the rest of the Bible. When the Bible describes impossible historical events, are those just allegorical accounts that do not communicate genuine facts? If the plain language of Genesis 1 and 2 can be discarded because it is difficult, conflicts with prevailing scientific knowledge and is scorned by most of the American elite, then what reasonable basis does anyone have to keep any of the other difficult, unpopular truths of the Bible. It is no exaggeration to say that a rejection of Biblical creationism leaves one without the sound foundation necessary to accept the rest of the Bible as true. At best, the reader’s acceptance becomes an arbitrary decision based upon the individual’s subjective conclusion of the importance of a Biblical feature.

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March 13, 2015

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Genesis, The Bible

How does the Bible explain cavemen?

In preparation for our two part radio series on Creation and Evolution, I am using March to answer some common questions about creationism. Be sure to tune in to the broadcast at noon on March 22, 2015 to hear part one in which our pastor’s round table tackles the topic of evolution.

Some of the most common objections to Biblical Creationism (the belief that God created everything out of nothing in six days less than ten thousand years ago) come from mistaken ideas about extinct animals and paleolithic people. Because evolution asserts that hominids progressively increased in vertical mobility and intellectual capacity, cavemen are often seen as a knuckle drugging, monosyllabic phenomena unexplainable by the Bible. What does the Bible say about cavemen? Can the Bible explain cavemen?

The Bible does not specifically mention cavemen (though it does talk about several men who lived in caves at some time in their lives). Cavemen as we think of them were not described until the modern model of evolution advanced the speculations of a connected chain of increasingly intelligent hominids.

Though the Bible is silent about cavemen in particular, it does describe an event which would have forced a large portion of the human population to live in very primitive conditions. This event would have driven many people away from their cities to settle difficult regions of the world. In Genesis 11 the Bible tells of a time a couple hundred years after the flood when mankind joined together in rebellion against God. God punished man’s rebellion by causing every family group to speak a language different and then by scattering the families across the world.

These people groups traveled through inhospitable regions and then settled areas still recovering from the devastation of the flood. The sudden loss of connection with the rest of humanity would have resulted in many vital skills and technology being lost to each family. Modern examples may help guide our thinking here. Were the farmers who planted Kansas and Nebraska intellectually inferior because they lived in sod huts? Were the Indians who roamed America less intelligent because they lived in tents of animal hide and only had bow and arrow weapons? We have somehow equated technological advancement with great intellect. We assume because a people were living in caves and wearing furs (though their clothing choices is a bit of an assumption as well) they must have been dumber than we are. These people were not stupid, but rather pioneers in a post-apocalyptic world.

The cavemen were not biological inferiors who had to eventually give way to more evolved homo sapiens. The reality is “cavemen” are genetically human. Typically we consider Neanderthals (or Neandertals if you’re committed to keeping up with the popular spelling) and Cro-Magnon are consider cavemen. Both groups are readily identifiable as humans. They fall well within the normal variations for a people group, and both could live in our world today without attracting any particular attention. They were men and women created by God in His image who survived in a difficult world still reeling in the aftermath of Noah’s flood.

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February 16, 2015

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Christianity, Church, The Bible

How was it decided what books were included in the New Testament?

From the very beginning of the church, the groups and people who received letters from the apostles recognized those writings as inspired by God. This was true of both the Old and New Testament. Prior to Jesus, the writings of the prophets were received as the Word of God. After Jesus the writings of the apostles were received as the Word of God. The individual churches who received a particular writing knew it was from God. Those writings were then passed around among the churches. In fact, several books of the Bible were not written to individual churches but to entire people groups or several churches in a particular region (for example, Matthew, Mark, John, Colossians, Hebrews, James, John, Peter, Jude, Revelation). Some letters were written to individuals, which were then shared with a single church and then passed on to other churches. (such as, Luke, Acts, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, 2 & 3 John).

The churches recognized these letters as inspired by God from the very beginning. This is made plain in 2 Peter 3:16. Peter says that Paul’s writings are sometimes hard to understand, and those who are unstable twist Paul’s Words, just like they do the other Scriptures. Peter considers Paul’s writings the Word of God, even though they are at times difficult to understand. In Paul’s letter to Timothy he quotes the gospel of Luke and declares it is Scripture. In 1 Thessalonians Paul claims his writings are the Word of God. The apostles knew they were writing God’s Word and they knew that other writings of the apostles were inspired Scripture.

Because of the way in which the New Testament was written and distributed, there were times when false letters claiming to be apostolic were passed around the church. Because the writings of the apostles were sent to churches spread across widespread regions of the Roman empire some churches did not receive copies of certain books until decades after the books had been written. At that later point, and often without apostolic oversight, churches and groups of churches had to be able to decide between the true Biblical books and those which were false. To help make this determination, the church identified several criteria to identify genuine Biblical books.

First, the book had to have apostolic authority. For a book to be Scriptures it was to have been written by an apostle or under the direct supervision of an apostle. Second, the book could not contradict books already recognized as Biblical. Third, everything contained in the writing had to be true. Nothing inspired by God would contain errors or fraudulent claims. Any book found to be erroneous was rejected as not genuine Scripture. Last, the book had to have already been accepted by the church. A writing that was not recognized in any church as Biblical could not suddenly be elevated to be upheld as Biblical. The writing had to be accepted as Biblical by those who received it before it could be accepted as Biblical by the church at large.

At no point in history did anyone have an official meeting with all the possible books in front of them and decide if those books were going to be considered as Biblical. History tells us a few specific books of the Bible were not recognized by all the church until later and after much consideration. Many false books were rejected by the church, on the local and regional levels. In the end the formation of the New Testament was not the result of men deciding which books belonged, but of God moving holy men to write His Word. The churches that received His Word recognized the marks of authentic, Divine truth and acknowledged such writings to be the Bible.