Please forgive my writing if it does not make all that much sense, I am writing this as my two year old competes for my attention
Each of the writers of scripture was made up of different people with different backgrounds (social, political, maybe even gender) and had often entirely different literary backgrounds. The fact that the Bible exists, and has throughout the centuries, is a true miracle to say the least. Not to mention the fact that writing was an extremely expensive and time-consuming process.
The text that Norm mentioned in his post comes from a text called The Lost Bible, I have read some of it and have it in my collection unfortunately I cannot locate it at the moment. Norm’s comment brings about a very important point that, I believe, may be the heart of the issue. It is a documented fact that not all of the early writings where included in the Bible, why would that be so? Just as today, there were a multitude of false teachers and Jesus warned his disciples of this fact.
Matthew 7:15-20, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Some ancient works were not saved through neglect, some were not powerful enough to outsmart the forces of destruction that was prevalent in the time and some writings were purposely and deliberately excluded. I believe that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are and were every bit as involved in the exclusion of texts from the Bible as they were in the inclusion of the inspired texts of the Bible. The early church had a multitude of challenges and one of them was the competing, false, texts. Many of these texts (Gnostic texts) were written along side the authentic texts, with respect to the canonical Gospels. That said it would be fascinating to go back through time to see how the texts were included in the Bible to see if what I have studied in my history books lines up with actual history.
To combat the problem of the false texts a group of people (actually two groups) formed and called themselves the orthodox, a word made up of Greek words for “straight” and “praise” or “worship”. They also took on the name “catholic” meaning “universal” despite the fact that there was no universal version of Christianity. They were the ones claiming to get God’s worship straight, in the proper way. They emerged as the dominant body of the church. As history shows, they also eventually became the two great branches of the Medieval church. This is the group who ratified the canon and was responsible for preserving the text we have today. This was an amazing feat of accomplishment when we consider the fact that these two groups are known for their corruption particularly during the middle ages. This goes to show that God more often than not moves in this world in spite of us rather than through our cooperation. God is bigger than our corruption and our mistakes. Because of the immensity of God there is no way, at least in my mind that the Bible is not the inspired word of God – in fact it is a miracle that it even exists and is a Testament of the wonder of God!