Saturday, January 2, 2010

BEGINNINGS, PART 2

     Last time we talked about the Old Testament and the 400 Silent Years. This blog will be about the New Testament. Since blogs are short, these are only an over view, but will give you an accurate thumbnail of both parts of the Scripture.

     The New Testament tells the story of Jesus Christ, the Promised Redeemer and the history of the Church, which He refers to as His Body. The New Testament additionally contains the “rules” for Christian living, and the reason for living in that fashion.

     The whole of God’s Book shows us the progression of god’s plan…no hit or miss here, no mistakes or surprises…from eternity past to Creation to Consummation, to Eternity Future. God knew all that would happen. We might ask here, “why did He bother since He knew man would fail Him and sin, He also knew what it would cost Him in paying the price for that sin and separation in mankind. All I can say is the Love of God prevailed and overshadowed the cost…incomprehensible to us, but true. HE WANTED US! 

The next question to contemplate is this: is the Bible God’s Word and is the Bible we have today reliable and true to the original text? We have already heard 19-20. We can additionally read more in Psa 19 and Psa 119 and Prov 30:5-6. This is clear, God Himself says this Book is His revealed Word to us in his many quotes while here on earth. Here is something else to consider, “The Bible claims ultimate spiritual authority in doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness because it represents the inspired Word of Almighty God. Scripture asserts it’s spiritual sufficiency, so much so that it claims exclusivity for it’s teaching. God’s Word declares itself to be true, therefore trustworthy, these facts are dependant on the fact that the Scriptures are God-given, which guarantees its quality at the Source and in it’s original writing. In the Scripture, the person of God and the Word of God are everywhere interrelated, so much so that whatever is true of the character of God, is true about the nature of God’s Word. God is true, impeccable, and reliable: therefore, so is His Word. What a person thinks about His Word, in reality reflects on what a person thinks about God. Consider these two demands: Deut 8:3…Job 23:12.

     By the early Fourth Century (350 AD), what is referred to as “the Canon of Scripture” was assembled, as we have it today. The various councils that met over Church history did not vote for the Canonicity of a book, but rather recognized (after the fact) what had already been written. Regarding the Old Testament, by the time of Christ all the books had been written and accepted by the Jewish community. The last book, Malachi was complete in 430 BC. By Christ’s time, the Old Testament He used and has been used throughout the centuries since were as we have them today…including leaving out the Apocrypha . These books were added to the end of the OT about 200-150 BC in the Greek translation called the Septuagint and continues to appear in some versions. The main case against their inclusion is that no New Testament writer cited a single passage nor did Jesus affirm any of it as He recognized the Old Testament canon of His era. There are three principles used to validate divine revelation and inspiration:

               1.) Recognized Prophet or Apostle is the author, or

               one associated with them, such as Luke,

               Mark, James, Jude

               2. ) Cannot disagree or contradict previous

               Scripture

               3.) Must have the consensus of the Church

               as an inspired book.

     As to preservation, 1 Peter 1:24b-25 says it all. When the
Dead Sea Scrolls were found and studied, 1947-56, the manuscripts found were from 200-100 BC and said essentially the same things that are in our Old Testament today. There are 5,000 existing manuscripts many dating back to within 25-50 years of the writing of the New Testament. Scholars verify that 99.9% of the original writing reclaimed indicates that what we have is what was originally written. The remaining 2% has no variants affecting any Christian doctrine. The most compelling argument for no future additions to Scripture is the admonition in Rev 22:18-19.

     God is an orderly, consistent God. Nothing is left to chance. This accounts in part to why He is so active in our lives. He4 wants us for His  own, and He does what is necessary to see that is exactly what happens!             

No comments:

Post a Comment