I personally believe that God works everything out according to His will. Early on He chose to provide His people with Scriptures to document His words to them, and He did the same in the formation of the New Testament church.
That is my long-winded way of saying that I don't believe the Bible is "missing" anything. If an all-powerful, all-knowing God is incapable of sustaining His inspired word (
in just the way that He prefers) among a creation He designed, then such a God would be very weak indeed.
Most times, people who try to claim that the Bible is "missing" do so because the are promoting doctrines and beliefs that are unsupported by or against Scripture. This includes groups like the Mormons and even recent sects such as the Hebrew Israelites. In order to support their unbiblical teachings, they have to claim that the Bible has been somehow perverted or is incomplete.
The Scriptures say that God says He holds His word even higher than His name. Yet, such persons want us to believe that - although God holds His word in such high esteem - He has not provided for a true testimony of that word to survive in tact. This is a ludicrous claim, for it either makes God stupid or powerless.
There are clearly works, books, letters God inspired men to write which are not included in the Scriptures. I Corinthians 5:9 references an earlier letter Paul had written to Corinth which is not included in the Bible. "
I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators." While this letter is "missing" (
meaning no one knows where it is), such by no means makes the Bible deficient.
We must keep in mind the purpose of the Bible. It is not supposed to be a collection of everything God ever inspired. It is the collection of His inspired works that provide the foundation for man to know Him and be reconciled back unto Him. It is the "standard" or measurement by which we define what is true. God says it this way:
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." II Timothy 3:16-17The Bible is also clear that, while the Scripture certainly refers to the Old Testament, God was already starting to designate certain New Testament text as "Scripture."
"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, AS THEY DO ALSO THE OTHER SCRIPTURES, unto their own destruction." II Peter 3:16Here, some of Pauls' writings were already being referenced on the same par with other Scriptures. Why did God choose to include some books/letters and not others? I don't know. But I believe that He did.
Again, that doesn't mean that you cannot receive value or find God's inspiration in other works. But it means that everything needed for man to know and serve God is contained in the Bible. It is more than sufficient for being a testimony of God's word to mankind.
My pastor was once writing a book. I came to a prayer meeting early one day and he was at the computer typing the book. I had never seen such a sad site in all my life (
sorry pastor - in case he is reading this) LOL. He was literally using two fingers to type at a speed which has to be something like .5 words a minute.
Anyway, I said, "
Why don't you have someone else type this out for you?" And he asked, "
How am I supposed to do that when the book is in my head?" I replied, "
I don't know. Maybe you could speak the book out loud into a tape recorder and give the tapes to someone else to transcribe." He thought about this for a moment, then shook his head and said, "
No, I'll just do it like this."
Well, 4 days later, he comes to me, hands me a tape and says, "
Here is the first chapter of the book. If you can type this up and make copies for a few people to read that would be great."
I was like, "
HUH!!!!" I was shocked. I mean, I had made the suggestion but I had sure never volunteered to do it. I had a husband, kids, a full-time job...where was I going to find time to do this? I was two seconds from saying, "
Ummmm, I don't think I can do this." But, I didn't. I just took the tape.
The most amazing thing happened as I began listening to the tape. God literally told me how to organize it, what to call each section, how to divide the chapters. It was the most amazing experience.
At first, I felt self-conscious. I felt that my role was only to type out exactly what my pastor had given me. This was his book, not mine; so I had no right to make any changes or additions. So I started maintaining two copies: one which was a verbatim transcription; and another which was what God told me to write.
Well, clearly that didn't last more than 10 minutes. It was not only too hard, it was senseless. This was not my pastor's work, my work, or anybody's work but God's. So, it made complete sense to transcribe my pastor's recordings as God dictated.
Was that book inspired by God? It sure was. But it is still not Scripture.
So what other books are divinely inspired?
God will have to lead you to and through those by His Spirit. However, understand that no matter what else is written, we know that anything contradicting the Scriptures in error.
"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20Let the Spirit lead you as you read any books, Scripture or otherwise. But know that the Bible is not "missing' anything. Everything needed for salvation is contained therein.