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The Canon of Scripture and Its Origin The clearest example of a sacred Tradition that both Catholics and Protestants accept is the canon of Scripture. The word canon comes from a Greek word that means “rule,” and refers to the Church’s official list of inspired writings. You can find this list in the table of contents of every Catholic or Protestant Bible.The canon of Scripture was first declared in Rome in A.D. 382and was later defined at two Catholic councils in North Africa(Hippo in A.D. 3 …

As the number of Christian books grew, so did the need for the Catholic Church to discern which were truly authoritative, which were merely helpful, and which were positively harmful. This resulted in a process that gradually clarified which books did and didn’t count as Scripture.The guiding principle for Christians was Jesus Christ himself, so the question became which books he would consider authoritative. Since he presented his ministry as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, this …

We’ve seen this movie a hundred times.The man in power feels threatened and uses any means necessary to wipe out those who threaten his power.It’s a story of power, deception, subterfuge, and bloodshed, but ultimately good triumphs over evil.Only it’s not a movie – It’s the story of Herod, the Holy Family, and the Holy innocents.In this excerpt from his book Hostile Witnesses, author Gary Michuta looks at how the actions of King Herod the Great testify to Jesus be …

A Different Kind of Christmas Story At their feet spread the great Egyptian desert, a shadowy ocean of sand rolling southward into Africa. The woman, a pale redhead with dark rings of sorrow under her eyes, had otherwise the look of ease and city life about her. Her child seemed even more incongruous: a scrawny, big-eyed boy, five, perhaps, six years old, with an ominous, unending cough; a dark, mixed-race runt with a head of kinky yet unmistakably Celtic red hair.Most Roman women would have e …