Constantine had no control over what was in the Bible. He merely commissioned
50 Bibles be copied from the council of Nicea in 325 AD decision.
Peter was the right hand man to Jesus. And he said something very special about
which books of the NT should be accepted.
"And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; even as our
beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written
unto you; As also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things;
in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and unstable distort, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto
their own destruction" (2 Peter 3.15-16).
If all 24,000 copies of the Bible were destroyed by 150 AD, you could still
reproduce the whole Bible from the quotes of the Church Fathers from before 150
AD.
Jesus already had approved the OT Cannon, that is the 39 books in the Old
Testament from citing it, by what He referenced.
Paul is urging you to keep this document so that it is not even a decision of
the council of Nicea to decide upon, "I charge you by the Lord that this
epistle be read unto all the holy brethren" (1 Thess. 5.27).
This is during the lifetime of Paul and Peter. As each NT book was written
they were accepted by the churches, and did not need to wait to 325 AD for the
council of Nicea to decide. How absurd!
Why was the book
The Shepherd of Hermas excluded, for example? Because it taught that we are
saved by works, which disagrees with the books of the NT. All books that are
excluded are excluded for a reason; they followed after the Gospels.
Councils came along and ratified the list of books. No man, pope or council
imposed upon the Church regarding these books, because the council could only
ratify them.
If you feel there is a single book in the NT that should not be there, then show
it and I will show you that you are wrong. If you think a book should have been
included, find it, and let's look at it. You will find with a good
investigation, that it won't belong. For example all the gnostic books each and
every one has a flaw and they all came after the 4 Gospels.
Gnosticism is a parasite trying to feed off of the Christian movement.
These others were going to pursue their agendas as they do every century. The
Gnostics take the Scriptures and they are like a person who takes a beautiful
photograph of a King, and reassembles it to become a fox. That's what the
gnostics do. It's quite evil don't you think?
Constantine tried to destroy some gnostic gospels, but let us be thankful that
some survived so we can expose them for what they are. Christians do not teach
Fahrenheit 451. Constantine is a problem for the Church for he is described as
being affiliated with the Pergamum church period, and
Pergamum means "high tower," an attempt at marrying the Church and the
State.
Papyus, a student of John said John taught him that the 4 Gospels were
originals. Papyus wrote this in 110-120 AD. This is 200 years before
Constantine. The Gospels are already in place, for why would they not be since
they speak of events that were prior! Other Church Fathers up to 150 AD were
continually quoting from all the books of the Bible just as we do today.
According to the British Museum if all 24,000 copies of the Bible were destroyed
at 150 AD, you could reproduce the entire NT from all the quotes by the Church
Fathers except for 8 verses. Wow!
There is no religion in the world that has such grace, love and righteousness
as does Christ to be able to bring us to God which God accepts through His only
begotten Son.
Advice: take a 21 day experiment and read the Gospel of John, by a
chapter a day. Can man make this up? Pray to God as you read and ask Him if this
is real. All of your arguments will become puffs of smoke in the presence of the
Jesus of the NT. You'll never get this from the gnostic Jesus.
Stick with the NT!