This is one of the best books I’ve read anywhere on any topic, period. But this is a must read for anyone into apologetics. I’ve been into presuppositional apologetics for years and have often wondered, “I know my final authority is God, and that all other perspectives are lost in absurdity, but how in the world do I defend what God has revealed to us in Scripture without appealing to an outside authority such as history or church tradition?” Well, this book has answered my question. Using the “Self-Authenticating Model” Kruger gives assurance and apologetic fire-power to every believer. Here are some chosen quotes from the book as well as a diagram of Kruger’s “Self-Authenticating Model.”
“The fundamental problem with the canon-within-the-canon approach is that it subjects the Scripture to a standard outside itself, namely, whatever criteria scholars set up to evaluate its truthfulness.”
“J. I. Packer sums it up well: ‘The Church no more gave us the New Testament canon than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity . . . Newton did not create gravity but recognized it.’”
“History alone cannot answer the question of what the canon finally is; theology alone can do that.”
“The fact that proximate, human decisions played a role in the development of the canon does not rule out the possibility that ultimate, divine activity also played a role.”
“What is needed, then, is a canonical model that does not ground the New Testament canon in an external authority, but seeks to ground the canon in the only place it could be grounded, its own authority.”
