Was there a ring of authority to the book? The book would say “Thus said the Lord”. God could have revealed Himself in any number of ways. God has chosen to primarily reveal about Himself in a book. In the more didactic (teaching) literature there is divine pronouncement about what believers should do.

God does not like people messing with his book. See Revelation 22:19. Mess with God’s book and God will mess with your eternity. Here are three modern dangers to the Bible:-

• The emphasis on study notes over the original text. The notes in the Bible become as important as the original text.
• The marketing of the package. A type of Bible for different types of people.
• Readability over reliability. We translate the Bible into paraphrases. You can’t dumb down the Bible.

Was it written by a man of God? This was the reason some books were held back for a several years. If it was written by the Apostle Paul it would be included. Inspired books come only through Spirit-moved men known as prophets (2 Peter 1:20-21). The Word of God is given to His people only through His prophets. Every biblical author had a prophetic gift or function, even if he was not a prophet by occupation (Hebrews 1:1)..

Is the book consistent with the rest of the Bible’s understanding of God? This is why there is no contradictions in the Bible. This is why the Apocryphal books were rejected. They taught things which were not in keeping with the rest of the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church only declared them to be Scripture at the Council of Trent (1546). Here are five reasons for rejecting the Apocryphal books:-

• They were written during a period (ca. 400-50 BC) in which Israel did not have inspired prophets declaring the word of the Lord — as some of these books themselves say.
• They contain doctrinal ideas, such as praying for the dead, which either contradict the undisputed books of the Bible or at best cannot be found anywhere in the Bible.
• None of these books are ever quoted as Scripture in the New Testament or acknowledged by Jesus or any of the apostles as such.
• At least some of the Fathers treated these books as less than Scripture, notably Jerome.
• The Jewish people did not and still do not recognise them as Scripture.

Was the book alive and active? See Acts 4:12 and Hebrews 4:12. “The word of God is alive and powerful”. As a result it can be used “for teaching, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Word of God changes people lives. Was this true of each book?

The apostle Paul revealed that the dynamic ability of inspired writings was involved in the acceptance of all Scripture as 2 Timothy 3: 16-17 indicates. He said to Timothy, “The holy scriptures … are able to make thee wise unto salvation” (v. 15, KJV). Elsewhere, Peter speaks of the edifying and evangelising power of the Word (1 Peter 1:23; 2:2).

Other messages and books were rejected because they held out false hope (1 Kings 22:6-8) or rang a false alarm (2 Thessalonians 2:2). Thus, they were not conducive to building up the believer in the truth of Christ. Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). False teaching never liberates; only the truth has emancipating power.

Some biblical books, such as Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes, were questioned because they were thought by some to lack this dynamic edifying power. Once they were convinced that the Song was not sensual but deeply spiritual and that Ecclesiastes was not skeptical and pessimistic but positive and edifying (e.g., 12:9-10), then there remained little doubt as to their canonicity.

Was the book accepted by the early church? The early church would circulate those books which were accepted as inspired. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

The books of Moses were immediately accepted by the people of God. They were collected, quoted, preserved, and even imposed on future generations. Paul’s epistles were immediately received by the churches to whom they were addressed (1 Thessalonians 2:13) and even by other apostles (2 Peter 3:16). Some writings were immediately rejected by the people of God as lacking divine authority (2 Thessalonians 2:2). False prophets (Matthew 7:21-23) and lying spirits were to be tested and rejected (1 John 4:1-3), as indicated in many instances within the Bible itself (Jeremiah 5:2; 14:14).

This principle of acceptance led some to question for a time certain biblical books such as 2 and 3 John. Their private nature and limited circulation being what it was, it is understandable that there would be some reluctance to accept them until they were assured that the books were received by the first-century people of God as from the apostle John.

It is almost needless to add that not everyone gave even initial recognition to a prophet’s message. God vindicated His prophets against those who rejected them (e.g., 1 Kings 22:1-38) and, when challenged, He designated who His people were. When the authority of Moses was challenged by Korah and others, the earth opened and swallowed them alive (Numbers 16). The role of the people of God was decisive in the recognition of the Word of God. God determined the authority of the books of the canon, but the people of God were called upon to discover which books were authoritative and which were not. To assist them in this discovery were these five tests of canonicity.