Canon Wars: A response to Michael J. Kruger

From the Introduction:

A YouTube video by Dr. Michael Kruger, president of Reformed Theological Seminary, was posted on February 19, 2023, addressing "7 Misconceptions about Canon." This was a live event for the Christ Covenant Church of Atlanta, GA. The video was posted under the title, "How did we get the Bible?" There was a second live Q&A video. Kruger has authored several books on the canon of the New Testament in which he argues that a New Testament book became canonical as soon as its ink dried, because God intended that book for the New Testament canon. Since God had made New Testament documents to be covenantally self-authenticating, the church's job was to recognize the books God had already chosen; the church most certainly did not choose the canon or make any book canonical. In the video, Kruger dispels what he calls "7 Misconceptions" about the New Testament canon.

I will say up front that I applaud Kruger's efforts in reworking and restating a defense of the classic Reformed view (in the lineage of B. B. Warfield) of the biblical canon: the best redrafting and redirecting of that classic defense to date. That said, I cannot count myself as a proponent either of that defense (although, in my youth and early training, I was inducted into a similar view), or of Kruger's revisions, or many of his conclusions; nor can I recommend them as the best options for the church at large or for individual Bible readers.

For my part, I think Kruger is fundamentally wrong and should not be followed on the question of canon. I do not accept that his approach and positions best represent the facts and claims of the biblical texts themselves. For that reason, I wish to distance myself from (and to critique) Kruger's representation of them. I hope my critique will be received as friendly, gracious, and fair, as well as reasonable, direct, and worthy of consideration.

The effort, here, is to offer a substantive response to Kruger's position as offered in the above mentioned speech, and including references to three of his books on canon. They will be noted as we get to them and are also listed on the final reference section.