Didn't the Church burn books to keep them out of the Bible?

by Matt Slick

Email:  What do you have to say about all the things I hear about how there were so many books burned by the church because it was in accordance to what they wanted. Is there proof that there are really only 66 books of the bible? Proof that there were books that really weren't burned?

Response:  It is easy to make accusations that the church burned books.  The Roman Catholic Church was not in existence until the late 200's early 300's as an organization -- but it did not become as structured and organized until sometime after that.  In addition, we have copies of manuscripts that predate the formation of the Roman Catholic Church.  It was the Christian Church, not the Roman Catholic Church, in the early church councils that recognize what was really Scripture.  Generally speaking, in order to be New Testament scripture, the document had to be written by an apostle or under the direct guiding of an apostle.  The so-called missing books were never written by apostles nor were they written by anyone under the guidance of apostles so they were never supposed to be included in the Bible in the first place.  The early church recognized that these were false writings.