THE
TESTIMONY OF THE 17TH CENTURY CHURCH FATHERS CONCERNING THE NEW TESTAMENT
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY (1647 A.D.)
Finally, the Westminster assembly in 1647 adopted a list which has
since been accepted by the Presbyterians of England, Ireland, and America,
the Congregationalists of both countries, and, in short, by the Protestant
evangelical and orthodox churches with which we come in contact in our
daily life in the United States. It is in the famous Westminster
Confession that we find the authority for the current books in our
Christian Protestant Bibles, and is the same as the Catholic list except
that it rejects the Old Testament apocrypha (Schaff, Creeds of
Christendom, iii. 601). The latter was, however, for a long time
printed in an appendix, and some who read this, especially elderly
persons, can remember seeing the apocrypha in the old family Bibles. But
in 1827 the British and Foreign Bible Society decided that it would no
longer circulate those books (Lange, Comm., xv. 56ff., Am. ed.,
1880), the American Bible Society followed its example (Schaff, Bible
Dict., "Apocrypha"), and thus it was that our Bible received
its finishing touch, as we have been accustomed to see it.
Now let us finish this study
as we look at the inescapeable conclusion that these studies have drawn
for us.
- Bet Emet
Ministries
- Craig M. Lyons
Ms.D., D.D., M.Div.
- 902 Cardigan
- Garland, Texas
75040
- 972-4964238
Bennoah1@verizon.net
