How do we know the Bible we hold today actually contains God's words—all of them, and only them? In Lesson 26 of Christian Ethics and the Old Testament, Dave Rich works through the doctrine of canonicity and its direct bearing on Christian ethics. If the whole Bible teaches us which acts, attitudes, and attributes receive God's approval, then it matters enormously whether we have the right books.

Rich opens with three definitions of canon—exclusive, functional, and ontological—and argues that the most important one is often overlooked. Books don't become God's Word because the church recognized them. They are God's Word by virtue of what they are. Church recognition follows divine inspiration; it doesn't create it.

From there, Rich builds a case for confidence in the 66-book canon rooted in God's own stated purpose for His Word. If God speaks to accomplish something through His people, He will providentially ensure those people have access to what He has said. The near-unanimous agreement of the church across centuries on the canon—without any centralized authority enforcing it—is itself remarkable evidence of that providence.

Rich also walks through what doesn't belong: the Apocrypha and Deuterocanonical books added by the Council of Trent in 1546, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Gnostic gospels of Mary and Thomas. Each is examined and found wanting. The session closes with reasons to believe the canon is closed—structurally, historically, and textually.