The Canon Question

I have recently come across a succinct explanation of the sola scriptura doctrine under which I was raised. I regret that I was unable to find any helpful clarification from the Southern Baptist website, but the following excerpts from the Westminster Confession of Faith plainly state the doctrine as held by most Protestant Christians.

You can find the full confession here: http://www.pcanet.org/general/cof_contents.htm

I am reacting to only one point today for lack of time, and to keep things readable for those of us with internet attention spans.

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From CHAP. I. - Of the Holy Scripture. of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

2. Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which are these…(then lists the 66 books with which all Protestants are familiar)

This is one concept I had always taken for granted, and, until recently, it did not occur to me to ask what should have been an obvious question: "how do we know which books are 'inspired'?" In all of my Precept Bible studies, I never once read a passage that refers to the other books of the Bible. There is no list in the Bible detailing which books belong there. In fact, there is not even a good description of how to determine which books should be there.

We have the 66 books of the Bible today because a group of Church leaders met in the 4th century to decide which books should be there. In other words, the Church universal exercised its authority to canonize the various texts of the Holy Word. Thus, when we proclaim the notion of sola scriptura, we neglect the original authority of Church leaders that put together that Scripture. In other words, sola scriptura is simply impossible. The very texts of Scripture were canonized by the authority of the Church, making every Scriptural passage - and thereby every interpretation of it - subservient to the authority that proclaimed it to be the Word of God.

I will do my best to examine more points from this section of the Confession in the near future.