Dear Jonathan:

Sorry about the delay in answering. I had a computer crash and am just now back online.

It is true that the first official list of canonical scriptures for the New Testament was not made until the 4th century. There were many epistles distributed among the churches in the early years. This is the reason the church had to sit down and decide which of these epistles were inspired Scripture and which were not.

The once-and-for-all infallible declaration of the Church on the Canon of the Bible was not until the 16th century at the Council of Trent. The reason for this late date is that the accepted Canon was not in dispute from the 4th century until the 16th century. Then Martin Luther called into question the Canon of both the Old and New Testaments. Luther succeeded in riping out of the Old Testament seven books that had been part of the Old Testament since the beginning of the Church. Although Luther wanted to rip out the books of James, Hebrews, and Revelations he did not succeed in that vandalism.

Because of the controversy presented by the Protestants the Church had to make a definitive and once-in-for-all declaration.

As stated in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

The idea of a complete and clear-cut canon of the New Testament existing from the beginning, that is from Apostolic times, has no foundation in history. The Canon of the New Testament, like that of the Old, is the result of a development, of a process at once stimulated by disputes with doubters, both within and without the Church, and retarded by certain obscurities and natural hesitations, and which did not reach its final term until the dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council.

This is what makes the Protestant notion of sola scriptura so ridiculous. There was no New Testament for decades after the death and resurrection of Christ. The first letter that was eventually declare to be Scripture was written, if I remember correctly, around A.D. 47 or thereabouts. The last letter of the New Testament was written around A.D. 96. So the writings that we consider the New Testament were not complete until around A.D. 96. But, there were other letters passed around too so in A.D. 96 the faithful had no way of knowing which were inspired and which were not.

What were Christians to do in the first, second, and third century when the Canon of the New Testament was not certain? How would sola scriptura work when we don't know for sure which is the genuine Scripture?

The solution to this of course is the Church. The Bible says the CHURCH is the pillar and foundation of truth, not the Bible. (1 Tim 3:15). The Church did not come from the Bible, the Bible came from the Church.

Since we have the Church, the faithful were able to know and live the truth even though the Biblical canon had not been settled yet. If someday all the bibles in the world were destroyed it would not matter -- we still have the Church.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary