Chosen topic: The Apocrypha

The Apocrypha is a set of books written between around 400 B.C. and the time of Christ. The term
itself, “apocrypha”, means “hidden”, originally due to the connotation that these books contain ideas and
revelations that are too grand to be made accessible to the public, but later on the term “apocrypha”
became taken negatively, as these books are also from questionable origin and have doubtful canonicity
with regards to the rest of the Scripture. These books include 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith among many
others. The groups of people who do not consider Apocrypha canon call this set of books as Apocrypha,
while those that consider these books as canon call them “deuterocanonicals”, or “belonging to the
second canon”.

Matt Slick, the writer of the powerpoint reference file provided for the activity, states the fact
that the apocrypha was not acknowledge by Jesus nor any of the apostles as inspired. Jesus has not
referenced the apocryphal books even once, not even when He was pertaining to the span of the Scripture
(as is in Luke 11:51). He also posits that the Roman Catholic Church declared some of the apocryphal
books as canon, not due to proper contemplation or divine inspiration, but due to the Roman Catholic
Church’s wish to fulfill its own agenda, which is to invalidate the teaching of Martin Luther; that is,
salvation by grace can be received through faith alone. The book of Tobith carries messages with the
theme of salvation by works, which serves as a good argument against the claim of salvation by faith
alone.

As I am not a biblical scholar by any means, I admit that I cannot provide objective
counterarguments nor solid evidence against the position of Mr. Matt Slick, who I presume to be someone
with greater knowledge than myself with regards to this topic. All I can provide is my own opinion and
reflection, based from my limited knowledge.

To start off, this topic took me by surprises, as this is new information to me. I had no idea that
the deuterocanonical books as I have known them today are as controversial as they actually are, all the
more of the fact that these books aren’t considered to be divinely inspired. Despite this, I do not believe
that the deuterocanonical books need be rejected from the canon as the Roman Catholic Church has
deemed it to be. God’s Word is revealed to us in many various ways, even in ways that we least expect
them to be coming from. Drawing God’s Word out of something is good in itself, even when that thing is
not exactly divine in nature. In my personal opinion, same can be said of the apocryphal books, even when
they are not exactly considered divinely inspired, surely, the Roman Catholic Church has pored through
the content of each of these books and deemed the ones they canonized as containing messages that are
in line with Jesus’ teachings. Granted, there could be errors in it, yet I believe the part does not represent
the whole. The Catholicism teaches, “that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and the
observance of the Commandments," (CCC 2068), yet it has not mentioned of doing works of charity or
anything of the sort. Salvation by works as a theme is one that Jesus spoke and acted out, if my
understanding is right. Surely, the Pharisees are men who lived with faith, received baptism and observed
the Commandments, yet Jesus rebuked them, as Jesus rebuked the rich young man who has lived a life
following the commandments but cannot give up his riches to the poor, and to follow Him.

The best course of action for us as disciples of Christ, is not to focus on the technicalities and other
whatnot, we can leave that up to the biblical experts, but to follow the message that Christ has left us. As
Christians, we can read up more on the Word of God found in our Bible, but we should also make sure
that we live our lives in the way that Jesus did; living for others, despite everything else.