The Importance of Historical Inquiry

Using the historical critical method, I can figure out what the Old Testament can was at the time of Jesus. And then use more historical inquiry to reconstruct the original texts of those books. So far so good, no need to invoke infallible tradition. But this straightforward logic comes to its halt when it comes to the New Testament. We cannot create an equality of authority between the Old Testament and New Testament without adding some kind of divine sanction to our historic New Testament canon. This is where we have to consider these specific gifts that Jesus Christ gave to his apostles and the church.