C. The Apocrypha

The Apocrypha refers to 7 Old Testament books plus portions of other books, that are accepted by the Roman Catholic Church as being inspired, but are rejected as uninspired by non-Catholics. Consider these observations regarding the inspiration of the Apocrypha.

There is no disagreement as to which books belong in the New Testament.

The disagreement concerns only Old Testament books. But God’s commands for today are in the New Testament, not in the Old. So the Apocrypha are of little doctrinal significance. A person can surely learn the truth about how to be saved by studying the Catholic Bible, provided he obeys the text of the New Testament, not the Old Testament (and certainly not the uninspired footnotes that the Catholic church has added.)

The Hebrew Old Testament, as accepted by Jews both today and in Jesus' day, rejects the inspiration of the Apocrypha.

This fact is also undisputed. For example, Catholic Bibles plainly admit the following in the introduction to the apocryphal book of 1 Machabees: “Jews and Protestants do not regard these books as Sacred Scripture…” (quoted from the St. Joseph New Catholic Edition).

But remember that Jesus and His apostles used the Old Testament as the Jews of Palestine accepted it. They taught Jews from the Jewish Scriptures and corrected the Jews on every point in which the Jews erred, but they never once disagreed with them about what books they accepted in the Scriptures. Clearly Jesus and His apostles agreed with the Jews about which books to accept in the Old Testament. And the Apocrypha were not included.

Jesus and His apostles repeatedly quoted Old Testament books, but they never quoted nor appealed to the authority of any of the apocryphal books.

Even the Catholic Church did not officially require Catholics to accept the Apocrypha as canonical until the Council of Trent in 1546 AD.

The Catholic Dictionary by Addis and Arnold (pp. 107-110), while claiming that the books are canonical, yet admits the following facts: (1) The tradition of Palestinian Jews in Jesus' time did not accept the Apocrypha (remember, Jesus was a Palestinian Jew who lived and taught among Palestinian Jews). (2) Church "fathers" held various views on the issue, and at least one Catholic council held the books to be non-canonical. (3) Finally the Council of Trent declared the books must be accepted as "sacred and canonical" under penalty of anathema.

Much more evidence exists, but this is sufficient to show that the Apocrypha should not be viewed as true Scripture. And again there is no question about what books should be included in the New Testament, which we must obey to be saved.

Conclusion

God’s word has been preserved for us today in a form that is complete and reliable. Our faith in the preservation of the Bible should be based on the promise of God that He would preserve His word. He has demonstrated throughout history that He has kept His promises and will continue to do so.

We should appeal to the Scriptures as our only infallible source of God’s will. We ought to study them diligently, obey their precepts, and teach others to do the same. If this has not been your attitude toward the Bible, we urge you to begin now to study and obey it.