Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the holy Scripture, we do understand those Canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.

The Triple J Hottest 100 is a mixture of objective & subjective. Objective inasmuch as it has been voted on by the people, but subjective inasmuch as it is really just about opinions. I can usually find 5 or so songs that I like out of the hundred, but I will also find a bunch that I wouldn’t pay for by themselves, so they languish at the bottom of my iTunes play count, only ever getting a hit if I have my whole set library on shuffle.

If I wanted to convince people that the books that made it into the Bible (referred to as the Canon) have been agreed on by the established church pretty much from the beginning, it would take a lot of work & would be even less interesting (unless you’re into book origins) than most of my blogs. I’m more interested in one idea. For me the importance of the canon comes out of the question of inspiration. That what we have here is God’s word to man, spoken throughout millennia, spoken through different people from different places & experiences, but with a unified, inspired voice!

I think a lot of people find it easier to view the Bible as a bit of a “hottest 100.” It’s just a “best of” from the OT times & a smattering of first Century thoughts to spice it up. If that’s true, then the books of the Canon really carry no more weight than any other educational or inspirational books that you might find. You get this feel from some Bible critics who will say “God is so much more than just what the Bible paints him as (Yep… I agree so far) We can’t take the Bible too seriously because it is just one man’s view of God, and can’t truly capture anything of the transcendent creator”

But you see, that’s what makes the Bible so amazing, is that the awe inspiring, unfathomable God chose to make himself known. He spoke to his people and through his people, so that we might know him, follow him & know how we might live as he would have us. Even more powerfully, for us 2000 years later, in gives us first hand accounts of the work of God’s Son, where God does so much more than inspire his people to write his word, he sends his Son!

I think it’s great for people to gain inspiration from all kinds of other sources, but in the end, the Bible is God’s word. It’s the difference between a fabulous knock off & an original Monet. They can both be beautiful to look at, but only one comes from the Master!