The Bible Part 2
11 Tim 3v16, 17
All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The three most basic Christian truths
1.God actually exists.
2.He has revealed Himself in a way that is understandable to people.
3.His revelation has been preserved for us in the Bible
All Scripture is inspired by God
2 Peter 1:20,21.
Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.
For prophecy never had it’s origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is a very old book.
Because the Bible comes to us fresh and applicable to the problems we currently face, we often fail to remember just how old it actually is.
The books of the New Testament were written between 55 and 96AD. Between AD100 and 200, they were collected and read in the Churches.
This can be seen , for example in the writings of Irenaeus of Lyons (AD130-200) He mentions all the books of the New Testament except for 3 (Hebrews, 2 Peter & 3 John)
The canon of the Scriptures.
Over the next 100 years these books were carefully examined and compared with spurious writing, like the “fake gospel falsely attributed to Thomas.”
Only those which were penned by the Apostles or were a direct by-product of an Apostle’s input (like Mark, which is based on Peter’s account of the life of Jesus) were accepted as authoritative.
The canon of the Scriptures
Tertullian one of the early church fathers wrote in about 200AD:
”We Christians are forbidden to introduce anything on our own authority, or to choose what someone else introduces on his own authority. Our authorities are the Lord’s Apostles, and they in turn chose to introduce nothing on their own authority. They faithfully passed on to the nations the teaching which they had received from Christ.”
The canon of the Scriptures
In the early centuries of the church, Christians were sometimes put to death for possessing copies of Scripture. Because of this persecution, the question soon came up, “What books are worth dying for?”
Some books may have contained accurate information, but were they inspired as stated in 2 Tim 3:16?
The canon of the Scriptures
The New Testament books were incorporated into the Bible because Christians accepted that they were a permanent, written form of God’s revelation. God had spoken through their human authors to teach people what to believe and how to behave.
The canon of the Scriptures.
No single Church council was responsible for collecting and proclaiming the list of books which made up the New Testament. The choice was made by a consensus among Christians over about 300 years.
The Holy Spirit witnessed to them what was inspired and the choice was made by the early Church and ratified by the 3rd Council of Carthage in AD397.
The canon of the Scriptures.
Church councils played a role in publicly recognizing the canon of Scripture, but often an individual Church or groups of Churches recognized a book or letter as inspired from it’s writing.
Colossians 4:16. After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the Church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter to Laodicea.
The book of Isaiah – The mini-Bible
Isaiah has 66 chapters.
The first 39 Chapters of Isaiah relate primarily to Israel.
The last 27 Chapters of Isaiah relate to a single special servant of Yahweh. The Messiah
The Bible has 66 books.
The Old Testament has 39 books dealing with Israel.
In a nutshell that is what the 27 books of the New Testament are about.
The canon of the Scriptures.
There are exactly 66 generations from Adam to Christ and right in the middle {33 generations} is King David, 27 listed in Matthew plus the 6 missing generations from 2 Chronicles.
10 generations from Adam to Noah.
10 generations from Noah to Abraham.
14 generations from Abraham to King David.
14 generations from King David to the exile.
3 (2 Chronicles 21:4 - 26:23 gives 3 generations missing between Jehoram & Uzziah)
3 (2Chronicles 36:1-9 gives the 3 missing generations between Josiah & Jeconiah)
14 generations from the exile to Christ.
You may say that’s 68 but Adam was the first and Christ the last Adam, separated by 66 generations.
The canon of the Scriptures
Throughout the early centuries of the Church, few books were ever disputed and the list was basically settled by AD303
By uncanonical books we mean those books not included in the canon such as the Apocrypha, the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabus.
The Apocrypha.
The Roman Catholic Church did not officially canonise the Apocrypha until the Council of Trent (AD1546).
This was in part due to the fact that
The Apocrypha contained material which supported certain Catholic doctrines, such as purgatory, praying for the dead, and the treasury of merit.
The Apocrypha.
The Apocrapha contains offensive material unbecoming of God’s authorship.
Ecclesiasticus 25:19. Any iniquity is insignificant compared to a wife’s iniquity.
Ecclesiasticus 25:24. From a woman sin had it’s beginning, because of her we all die.
Ecclesiasticus 22:3. It is a disgrace to be the Father of an undisciplined, and the birth of a daughter is a loss.
Apostolic authority
Matthew 16:19.
Iwill give to you the “Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Binding and loosing.
Binding and loosing was something that the Jews were familiar with, it was a practice of the Pharisees to bind and loose, that is to declare certain things forbidden and certain things allowed.
The Jews who converted to Christianity had been governed by the Law of Moses and Jesus was giving the Apostles the “Authority to declare what was allowed and what was forbidden.”
Binding and loosing.
Acts 15:28,29.
Here we see binding and loosing as the Apostles send out Judas, Silas, Paul and Barnabas to give believers instructions regarding the dispute in Antioch that had arisen regarding the teaching requiring those who converted to Christ, to be circumcised.
Binding and Loosing.
Acts 15:28,29.
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements
“You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You do well to avoid these things.”
Binding and loosing.
In Acts 15:28,29. we have seen how the early church was loosed from the law of circumcision, and bound to not eat meat offered to idols, not to engage in sexually immorality.
Rom 8. Paul makes the criteria of eating meat offered to idols, the believers conscience, and been careful not to cause a fellow believer with different convictions to stumble. (Further loosing them in this regard.)
Binding and loosing
Binding Satan and demons is supposedly done by modern charismatic Christians on the basis of Matthew 16:19. This is not what this scripture is referring to, and is not something Jesus or his disciples practiced. Instead we are told..
James 4:7. Submit yourselves then to God, resist the Devil and he will flee from you.
The Bible is God’s Revelation to man
The greatest revelation of God to man is the Bible.
1Cor 6:1. Paul speaks of the Apostles as “Stewards of the mysteries of God.”
But Revelation is not enough, even Satan knows Scripture and when he tempted Jesus, he said “it is written” yet Satan was taken by surprise by what happened at Calvary.
God’s Revelation to man.
1Cor2:6-8.
We do however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature….
None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Satan thought he could outsmart God, others have been deceived to think the same.
God’s Revelation to man.
Ephesians 3:8-10.
This grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
His intent was that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
Satan now knows the gospel
Revelation however is not enough
Illumination.
Beyond the pages of the Bible is God himself, this is not a rule book, but God revealing Himself.
1 Cor2:11-16.
…. we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ….. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned……
Illumination.
Mark 4:11-12.
The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding”
Illumination.
Mark 4:21-25.
Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead don’t you put it on it stand? For what is hidden is meant to be disclosed and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought into the open. If anyone has ears to hear , let him hear. Consider carefully what you hear, he continued. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
Illumination.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ….
V6 For God who said “Let the light shine out of darkness,” has made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Illumination is not enough.
John 3:19.
This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but men preferred the darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.
2 Peter 1 :19.
And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Appropriation.
John 12:42,43
Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him.
But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the Synagogue for they loved praise from men more than praise from God
Appropriation.
Romans 10:8-10.
The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith we are proclaiming.
That if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Appropriation.
Revelation:
Jesus is “A Saviour.”
Illumination:
Jesus is “The Saviour.”
Appropriation:
Jesus is “My Saviour.”