with Robert Prater

We should not let our faith be shaken by the media's recent bombardment of revelations of some ancient writings that some claim to be "lost books of the Bible." There are no lost books. Early Christians were aware of The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and now the most recent, The Gospel of Judas, among others. These books were not lost; they were rejected!

Some mistakenly say that the New Testament was the product of the church and the canon was not recognized until 397 AD at the Council of Carthage. The twenty-seven books we know as the New Testament actually were regarded as authoritative from the time they were written. (See Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27; 1 Tim. 5:18b -which quotes Luke 10:7 as scripture) Early Christian writers were well aware of all twenty seven books. As early as 150 AD Justin Martyr referred to the reading of the "memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the early prophets." It is estimated by Biblical scholars that the whole New Testament could be reconstructed from references from the Early Church Fathers in the second and third centuries. Astonishingly, scholars cite the 36,289 New Testament references from just seven Early Church Fathers.

Early men rejected these books because the people circulating them were heretics and false teachers. (1 Tim. 4:1-5). The early church rejected these books because they were not from one of Christ' inspired apostles or N .T. prophets (See 1 Cor. 2:6-16; 14:37; Eph. 2:20; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 1 Jn. 1:1-4; 4:1-6). They were also not early enough and contradicted the teachings of the New Testament. They also knew that only heretics of the second and third century ever gave any credence to these books.

You can trust the New Testament you have read and studied all your life. It is the real thing. There are no missing books of the New Testament. You have them all and do not need any others. The early church knew which books to recognize as "authentic" and "inspired" by God. We can see why they rejected these books - they were the products of men.

Despite the unprecedented amount of information that we have confirming the Bible's validly, there will always be those trying to destroy the Gospel.

Currently I am preparing and planning to present a special Sunday night sermon later next month to address this critical subject and other related issues in light of the release this summer of Dan Brown's popular fictional book and now movie, "The Da Vinci Code."

--Robert--(robprater@sbcglobal.net)

Dear Central Church, Kevin and I want to thank you for the generous donation. Kevin and I couldn't have done it without your support. We are much closer to our final goal. We still have some to receive, but we are trusting in God. He has supplied so far. We want to thank you again. Kevin and I pray daily for you. Hope all is going great.

Love in Christ, Kevin & Megan Laffoon

(Central makes a small monthly contribution to the support of Kevin in his ministry studies at Harding University. He and Megan are making a mission trip to Greece this summer, and the elders recently contributed $500 to that effort on your behalf.)

I would like to thank everyone for their generous donations for our LTC trip. We had a great time! Once again our kids represented our congregation very well. We should be very proud of them!

Thank you again, Rita

Dear Christian Family, We thank you so much for the prayers, calls, and beautiful cards after my surgery. Also thanks to Rob and Dwyane for coming to the hospital. We love you,

Sarah Lawerance, daughter-in-law of Bill and Diane Lawerance, and wife of Billy Lawerance will have major mandibular surgery on Monday, April 24 at Mercy Health Center. Your prayers are requested.

Gerald (Snuffy) Smith will have knee replacement surgery on Monday, April 24 at Unity Health Center.

Erma Dean Farris will be with her family near Tulsa for several weeks and will have cataract surgery while she's there.

Leoh Roberts was in Midwest Regional Hospital with pneumonia for several days last week and is now at her son's.

Anita Jacques is confined to home with pneumonia right now.

Judy Finch is home after knee replacement surgery.

Clovie Dossey spent some time in ER last Wednesday evening after a fall and was returned to Colonial Estates. She has moved to room 63.

Mary Kelly's mother, Virgie Wallace, was in Midwest Regional at publication time of the Gospel Guide.

It was nice to see and meet Christine Best in our service Sunday. We have been praying for her for some time, and now she is cancer free. She is Martha Chaffin's daughter and lives in Webb City, Missouri.

We extend our very best wishes to Johnnie Belle Case Shackelford who will receive a degree of Master of Humane Letters from Bacone College at the May 6 commencement ceremony. The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at the Muskogee Civic Center at 425 Boston Ave. Sister Shackelford was known as the "Soup Lady" for collecting over a million Campbell Soup labels to buy the college a new van. Her husband, the late Jack Shackelford was minister at Central from 1954 to 1957. Friends wishing to attend the graduation ceremony are invited to sit with the Shackelford family. If you would like to contact sister Shackelford you may do so as follows: Johnnie Bell Shackelford, 231 Douglas St., Apt. 220, Muskogee, OK 74403. Telephone number (918) 683-3340.

Well, another LTC has come and gone. It seems that we can't wait for it to be over, and then it is. Then, we think "oh, that wasn't bad at all". Actually it was good, very good. The young folks that participated in this years LTC represented Central well, and more importantly they represented Christ well. Below are the names of those who participated along with what they did this year:

We also had some of our former youth group members there helping to judge events this year. Thank you Lindsey Perry, Andy Stephens and Matt Stephens. Thank you to all who supported and encouraged the kids this year and always. The coaches, the sponsors, the parents and everyone else, thank you very much! You helped us to learn new ways and sharpen skills to glorify God even more.

Camp applications are available now! I will pass them out this week and post some on the bulletin board. You can also get them from the Burnt Cabin's website: www.burntcabinyouthcamp.com. Our week for church camp this year is June 11-17. Please fill out your application as soon as possible to reserve your spot at Burnt Cabin. For many kids camp is often the highlight of their summer. They have an opportunity to make new friends and get reacquainted with old ones. Our own Robert Prater is our director this year. We always have an excellent balance of Bible study, devotional and worship time and fun. Don't mess around! Get your application in as soon as possible. Fill them out and hand it and your deposit to Me or Robert and we'll make sure your spot is reserved!

"As we trust God to give us wisdom for today's decisions,
He will lead us a step at a time into what He wants us to be doing in the future."
Theodore Epp -- 8^{)