I haven’t kept up with this thread and don’t have time to catch up this weekend. Is there any specific issue that needs to be addressed? These issues are hard to work out in a discussion forum. It’s best to avoid too much speculative would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. The majority of scholars (not just evangelicals) would agree on several things: The NT text as we have it is very sound. 18 of the 27 NT books were universally accepted from the beginning, and most of the others had early and widespread support. We shouldn’t let the few books in dispute muddy the waters too much. Only 1 or 2 books that didn’t make it into the canon had some measure of widespread support (e.g., Shepherd of Hermes).