I am not sure if posting the following material here is acceptable, if it isn’t excuse me.
I am posting this in the hopes it helps with understanding.
THE NEW TESTAMENT (N T)
The first word of the NT was written about AD50(1Thess),the last word between AD 90-100(Rev), for a total of 27 books, all of which are accepted as canonical and inspired by Catholics and Protestants alike.
The question is, who determined the NT canon of inspired books?
The Bible didn’t fall from heaven preprinted, so where did we get it?
How do we know we can trust every book?
Various bishops developed lists of inspired books:
Mileto, Bishop Sardis, Ad 175
St,Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons,AD185
Eusevius, Bishop of Caesarea, AD325
Pope Damasus in 382,prompted by the Council of Rome, wrote a decree listing the present OT and NT canon of 73 books.
The Council of Hippo(in North Africa) in 393 approved the present OT AND NT canon of 73books
The council of Carthage in 397 approved the same OT and NT canon. This is the council which many Protestants take as the authority for the NT canon books.
Pope St Innocent1 (401-417)in 405, approved the 73-book canon and
Closed the canon of the Bible.
The canon of the Bible was officially determined in the fourth. century by Catholic councils and Catholic popes. Until the canon was decided, there was much debate. The formal Church decision settled the debate for the next 1100years.
Not until the Reformation was there any more debate about the contents of the Bible
Historically, the Catholic Church used her authority to determine which books belonged in the Bible, and to assure us that everything in the Bible is inspired. Apart from the Church, we simply have no way of knowing either truth.
Martin Luther himself admits that Christians owe their Bible to the efforts of the Catholic Church.
[We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists [Catholics]—that they possess the Word of God which we received from them, otherwise we should have known nothing at all about it.]
Luther’s statement supports our argument that without the decisions of the Church, we would not know which books of the Bible are inspired.
St Augustine puts it bluntly
I would put no faith in the Gospels unless the authority of the Catholic Church directed me to do so. St, Augustine recognizes that the only way to determine which books are inspired is to accept the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.
CRUCIAL POINTS
Historically
Code:
The Bible is a Catholic book. The New Testament was written, copied and collected by Catholic Christians. The official canon of the books of the Bible was authoritatively
determined by the Catholic Church in the fourth century. Thus it is from the Catholic Church that the Protestants have a Bible at all.
Logically
Code:
The Church with the authority to determine the infallible Word of God, must have the infallible authority and guidance of the Holy Spirit, As we have seen, apart from the declarations of the Catholic Church, we have absolutely no guarantee that what is in the Bible is the genuine Word of God.
To trust the Bible is to trust the authority of the Church which guarantees the Bible. It is contradictory for Protestants to accept the Bible and yet reject the authority of the Catholic Church that gave it to them.
Logically, Protestants should not quote the Bible as authoritative, for they have no way of determining which books are inspired- unless, of course, they accept the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.
source: San Juan Catholic Seminars