Mr. Guthrie offers several answers as to how he knows. The first is that the Scripture is self-authenticating. Unfortunately for Mr. Guthrie, this is not a position that is wise to take when it comes to determining God’s word.

     If his word is self-authenticating, he must’ve forgotten to turn the self authentication switch on when he was talking to Samuel in 1 Samuel 3 who didn’t know God was talking to him, or in 1 Kings 13 when the man sent to prophesy didn’t know which command from God was authentic. If there was no test, God must’ve been joking around in Deuteronomy 13 and 18 when he offers 2 tests to make sure the words being spoke are from God, mainly if a prediction is false, or an indication to worship other Gods is given. If his word is self-authenticating, we wouldn’t have to test all things and hold fast to what is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21.) Not to mention when reality sets in, the first person to receive God’s self authenticating word would not have been until 367, when a Catholic Bishop finally named the correct canon, and even then it wasn’t official until the Councils later in the century. So when a Protestant claims self authentication, it doesn’t hold when investigated.

     All the evidence from Matthew is easily explained away by the modernists, all the evidence Mr. Guthrie provided can be explained away, it was someone who was close to the Apostle, or knew the system of tax collectors in depth. So the answer still remains, by scripture alone, how we know the Gospel of Matthew is Apostolic, hence God’s word.

     When I mentioned Philemon, I asked what is so apostolic about it. If it’s apostolic because we know who wrote it, then why is Hebrews apostolic? No one knows who wrote it, yet for some reason, it is canonical. It is because of Tradition. Saying it is apostolic because it agrees with previous revelation doesn’t work, as many other works also agree with previous revelation (Didache, Ignatius works). Merely drawing off other books doesn’t help either, as many say Matthew draws off of mark, and John draws off all the previously written Gospels, by that standard, they would have to be dismissed to. So the question remains, from scripture alone, how can we be certain Matthew wrote Matthew? I’ve already shown in many instances, God’s word is not self-authenticating. The question remains, how do we know from sola scriptura who the books mentioned are apostolic?