45 BELOW NOTES | October 20, 2019
INTRODUCTION:
“And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best.” Phil. 1:9-10 (NIV)
SO WHAT IS CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE?
Doctrine: The teaching of a set of principles, that are presented for belief and acceptance.
Theology: made up of two Greek words: Theos: God Logos: logic or Word... Theology is basically the study of God as He's revealed in His word.
1 Pet. 3:15 (NKJ) “To be able to give every man answer that asked you a reason, for the hope that is in you."
Theology and biblical doctrine will help us to develop a proper, "Christian World View."
HOW DID WE GET THE BIBLE?
I. THE BIBLE- “ITS NAMES AND TITLES.”
The English word Bible came from the Greek words "biblo" meaning sheet or scroll of writing (Matt. 1:1)...
A derivative of the word "biblos", is the word "biblion", meaning a smaller portion of a larger book. For example...
Luke 4:17 (NKJ) "17 And He was handed the book (biblion, a smaller portion of a much larger book) of the prophet Isaiah.
1.) In ancient times books were written upon biblus or papyrus reed scrolls and from this custom came the Greek name biblos, which eventually became the name that's applied to all the sacred books known as the bible. See: Mark 12:26; Luke 3:4; 20:42; Acts 1:20; 7:42.
2.) The Bible's divided into two separate sections: Old and New Covenants or Testaments" See: Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6,14; Heb. 9:15; 12:2
The word "Testament" simply means "Covenant." A Covenant is the means God used to establish specific grounds for a relationship, between Himself and people.
So for example the Old Covenant or the Old Testament deals with Israel, it's calling, the terms of their relationship with God and it also contains records of Jewish history as a nation. The New Covenant or New Testament is a record of the terms, the history, and the redemptive plan made possible through Christ to the whole world. It also records the formation, the necessity, and the mission of the church.
The Old Covenant was based on man's promises to God, to obey the Law and all of His rules and the New Covenant is based upon, Gods promises to men of faith in Jesus Christ. (Heb 8:7-13)
What we find in church history is that, by the end of the second century both the "Old Covenant" and the "New Covenant" were well established names of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.
3. The bible is called , "Scripture," or Scriptures." The most common name for the Bible was, “The Scriptures.”
(Mark 12:10; 15:28; Luke 4:21; John 2:22; 7:38; 10:35; Rom. 4:3; Gal. 4:30; 2 Pet. 1:20), and "The Scriptures" (Matt. 22:29; Mark 12:24; Luke 24:27; John 5:39; Acts 17:1 1; Rom. 1:2; 2 Tim. 3:15; 2 Pet. 3:16). 4. Then the bible is also called, “the Word of God."
“The Word of God” is the most significant and complete. (Mark 7:13; Rom. 10:17; 2 Cor. 2:17; Heb. 4:12; 1 Thess. 2:13)
• The word of God, is inspired by God...
The Bible teaches us that all scripture is inspired by God, meaning God is the source of all of it...Even though, human beings were involved in the process of recording the scripture...God was in direct control of the entire process...
• If He wanted to hide Himself, we'd never find Him. (1 Cor. 2:9-10; Gal. 3:4-5 Rom. 16:25-26 NASB)
So now, how did the Bible get here?
Three important words which reveal, how the Bible was written and how we understand it. These 3 words are: Revelation, Inspiration, and Illumination
• Revelation: The act of God revealing to the writers mind and spirit about things, that the writer couldn’t have possibly known or learned about, any other way... For example, the story of creation...
• Inspiration: An act of God, where God moved upon a person to write something down...whether they wrote about a truth that was previously unknown, or about truth’s, that everyone was familiar with... These writings could have been about events that occurred within the writers own observations such as Moses and the Exodus or things that the writer wasn't aware of.
The act of inspiration was responsible for all scripture to be written.
2 Tim. 3:16-17 (NKJ) "16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
The word “inspiration” literally means "God-breathed." It is composed of two Greek words - theo = God; and pneo = to breath hard or to blow. The Greek word used here, is a forcible spiritual respiration. A firm, conscious, blowing, or the inbreathing of God into men, putting His words directly within them. So, both the Old Testament and the New Testament are just as much the Word of God as if God spoke every single word out loud in the hearing of every listener face to face. All scriptures is a result of Divine inbreathing, by God.
Definition of Inspiration: Inspiration is the process through which God gave man the Bible. God inspired the hearts of human writers to write down His words. God's words written through these people are perfect, infallible and trustworthy whether they were revealed truth’s or truth's previously known.
Inspiration isn't necessarily verbatim reporting, the Holy Spirit used the memories, the intuitions, the judgments, the personal mannerisms, and the personality of the writers, so that while each of them recorded an event or discourse, they were enabled by the Holy Spirit to do so, with absolute accuracy, without losing their individuality.
• The implication: The Bible is the final authority, because it was written by God. (2 Tim. 3:16)
Inspiration tells us that even though human beings were used, it was ultimately God the Holy Spirit who was in control of the entire process of writing and putting the scripture together.
Theologian, Norman Geisler wrote:
Inspiration does not mean simply that the writer felt enthusiastic, like Handel composing the 'Messiah'. Nor does it mean that the writings are necessarily inspiring, like an uplifting poem. As a process, it refers to the writers and the writings being controlled by God. As a product, it refers to the writings only, as documents that are God’s message."
SO WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Understanding this truth, increases our confidence in the Bible. Obviously, if the Bible is just some manmade document, then it’s no better than the
book of Mormon, the Koran, or any other religious book. But if it's really inspired by God, then you can have confidence in it, you and I can trust His Word, above our own feeling, values, opinion’s, and cultures... When we understand God inbreathed the scripture, we know everything He inbreathed, was consistent with His very nature. (Just like milk, in a cow).
• The Holy Spirit is the author of all scripture.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV) "20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along (Greek: Fero) by the Holy Spirit. "
The Greek word "Fero" means: “to be born along or driven by, controlling the direction of.”
It means to take complete control of. Same Greek word Luke uses in Acts 27:
Acts 27:15 (NIV) "15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven (Fero) along."
You see this fact, throughout the scripture.
Acts 1:16a (NIV) "... the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David..."
Acts 28:25b (NIV) "...the Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the Prophet... "
Ezek. 11:5a (NIV) "Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and he told me to say..." The Bible does not “contain” God's words, it is God's word. God and His word are one.
• Question: CAN THE BIBLE BE WRONG?
Is the Bible "inerrant" (meaning it has no errors), or is it merely an "infallible guide" in matters of faith and religious practice... meaning that what it says about spiritual truths are true but there may be errors in science, geography, and history?
• The Bible is inerrant, it's a perfect book!
Psalms 18:30 (NIV) "30 As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him..."
• Two important words for you to understand is...
1.) “Verbal” meaning God inspired every word not just the ideas! In fact, Jesus often based His entire argument on a single word of a text. (Matt. 5:18, 22:41)
2.) “Plenary” meaning: God inspired all the Bible, not just part. (2 Tim. 3:16).
Some believe that only parts of the Bible are inspired by God...Books like the Song of Solomon, Lamentation and others were just works of men and not inspired in the same way as the other books of the bible.
Augustine said,
"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."
THE BIBLE IS ALWAYS RIGHT! Because the Bible is inspired, it means the bible is authoritative! God's word is to be, our final authority!
• Illumination:
Illumination refers to the influence of the Holy Spirit, that’s common to every believers.
1 Cor. 2:14 (NKJ) " 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." ( See: Matt. 16:17)
There's a vast difference between “a revelation of the mind of God” and “a divine action in the mind of man.” The first is a revelation; the second is illumination.
• The Bible wasn't written by illumination but by inspiration and revelation. You know this is true because, many of the writers of the bible, didn’t fully understand what they had written, even after they wrote it.
We can define Illumination like this...
Illumination: Is the work of the Holy Spirit, of bringing light and understanding, to the word of God, as we read it. It's the means by which we understand the Bible.
Illumination, is a divine action of God in the mind of man.
• The Implication: Every believer, can understand the Bible! (See: Luke 24:13-47)
Luke 24:45 (NKJ) "45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."
• Now, how do we know if the Bible is real? How do we know it truly came from God?
The external evidence is overwhelming: The majority of scholars agree, the Bible is an historical book. Secondly, we have many eyewitness testimonies, of the majority of stories that are recorded in the scripture.
Luke 1:1-4 (NIV) "1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, (Theophilus was the governor of Luke's hometown of Antioch, during the time of Peter.) 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. "
John writes...
1 John 1:1-3 (NIV) " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ."
• Then you have the sheer number of manuscript copies. (Thousands of manuscripts)
The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts, than any other ancient work of literature. With over 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts, and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including; Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic and Armenian. There are over 25,000 New Testament manuscripts to compare and draw information from all of them are within 35-225 years of their original writing.
The New Testament writers originally wrote, is proven to be better preserved, than any other ancient manuscript we have today. In fact, we can be more certain of what we read about Jesus' words and His life, than we can about certain about the writings of Caesar, Plato, Aristotle and Homer. To put that in perspective, there are only 643 copies of Homer's lliad, and that is the most famous book of ancient Greece!
Now one doubts the validity of Julius Caesar’s Gallic wars, but we only have 10 copies of it, and the earliest of those copies, were made 800 plus years, after it was written. Few people doubt Plato’s writing of “The Republic.” It’s a classic written by Plato around 380 B.C.
The earliest copies we have of it are dated 900 A.D., which is a 1,300 year time lag from when he wrote it. There are only seven copies in existence today.
Historian Norman Geisler said: To have such an abundance of copies of the New Testament, from dates within 35 years after their writing, is epic."
• Question: How do we know the bible today, are the same words that came from God?
1.) The short length of time between the original manuscripts, and our first copies of the New Testament. The church was already using these copied manuscripts, during the Apostles lifetime, and many copies were made and sent abroad, while they were still alive.
2.) The extreme care with which the Scriptures were copied.
For example: The Dead Sea Scrolls were discover in the 1940’s in Kumron were over a 1000 years older than any other Old Testament manuscript ever found. And when they compared those manuscripts, to the ones we already had, there was no significant difference.
• Next is the confirmation of places and dates, by archeology. For example, archaeologist William Albright was an unbeliever, who set out to disprove the Historical accuracy of the Bible but when he looked for years into all the evidence he became a believer. He found that everything in the Bible, was historically accurate. There's a great deal of archeological evidence being found all the time....
William Albright, said: "Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a source of history." The Bible is the world's best-selling book. The bible was one of the first major books to be "printed" on a press... (the Gutenberg Bible 1454-55).
Josh McDowell said: "The Bible was written over a period of about 1,500-1800 years in various places, stretching all the way from Babylon (modern day Iran Iraq regions) to Rome. The human authors included over 40 persons from various stations of life: kings, peasants, poets, herdsmen, fishermen, scientists, farmers, priests, physicians, pastors, tentmakers and governors. It was written in the wilderness, in dungeons, inside palaces and prisons, on lonely islands, and in military battles. Yet it speaks with agreement and reliability on hundreds of controversial subjects. It tells one story from beginning to end, God's salvation of man through Jesus Christ. NO PERSON could have possibly conceived of, or written such a work!" A contrast between the Bible, and other so-called "holy book" we have today.
• SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
The Bible: is translated from 24,000 copies of the New Testament alone...with literally millions of people having seen some of these copies. Those copies have been translated by 1,000s of scholars.
The Book of Mormon: is translated from a supposed single original, that's claimed to have been seen and translated by one man: Joseph Smith, who was not an expert in languages. That original was "destroyed." And there are no copies of that original.
The Bible: is written by over 40 different authors spanning over 50 generations and 3 continents. It speaks with agreement on all matters of faith and doctrine.
The Koran: is the writings and record of one man, Mohammed in one place at one point in history. It disagrees on many points with what it considers to be other sacred writings the Old and New Testaments.
The Bible is a complete record of God's revelation of Himself to man.
The Jehovah's Witnesses: use parts of the Bible, to build a case for their preconceived beliefs.
The Bible: provides God's distinct solution to man's problem with sin and focuses on God's work in provable history.
Hindu scriptures: claim all roads lead to the same place and focuses on stories of things that happened in the "celestial realms."
The Bible: is its own best interpreter. It encourages us not to accept the interpretations of man over the truth of Scripture.
Christian Science: accepts Mrs. Eddy's interpretations of Scripture as more authoritative than Scripture itself.
• Thirdly: The personal evidence says that the Bible is a powerful book. Personal Testimonies of people transformed life! The people who were involved in writing scripture were willing to die for what they believed.
Finally: Jesus Himself said, the Bible came from God!
1. He recognized the Holy Spirit as the author of scripture. (Matt. 22:43).
2. He quoted the scriptures as authoritative. (John 5:39).
3. He proclaimed its uniqueness. “Not one jot or title will pass away” (Matt. 5:17,18, John 10:35).
4. He called it the "word of God.” (John 10:35, Mark 7:13)
5. He believed in the prophets. (Matt. 24:5)
6. He believed in Noah. (Lk. 17:26)
7. He believed in Adam and Eve. (Matt. 19 4)
8. He believed in Sodom and Gomorrah. (Matt. 10:15)
9. He believed in Jonah. (Matt. 12:40) Scholars try to convince society that these stories were just pure myth. But Jesus believed in them and He is God.
• The word is “Canon, " What does canon mean? The canon of scripture are the books that belong in the Bible.
The word “Canon” means "measuring stick." The cannon of scripture, is the measuring stick of life... it's the standard for real life.
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE THE RIGHT BOOKS?
1. The testimony of the Bible itself.
• Jesus recognized the Old Testament Canon (Luke 24:44).
• Peter recognized part of the New Testament Canon (II Peter 3:16).
Peter recognized what Paul wrote as being scripture. How much of the New Testament did Paul write? Over half of the New Testament!
• Paul then recognized the “inspiration” of the Old and New Testaments in a single verse. (I Tim. 5:18- Luke 10:7, Det.25:4)
IN FACT...
1 Timothy 5:18 is an amazing verse. In this verse Paul quotes from Deuteronomy in the Old Testament and from Luke in the New Testament, he calls them both Scripture! Luke's gospel was put on the same level of authority as the Book of Deuteronomy, which was written by Moses.
Another fact to consider. I Timothy was written in 63 A.D. Luke's gospel was written just three years earlier... Now what that tells you and I is, within a short 3 year period, Luke's gospel was already recognized as scripture, with the same authority as the Old Testament, by Jewish Christians.
2. The history of the church (The Books of the bible were included in the New Testament on the basis of:
• Apostolic Authority. (Either the book was written by an apostle or it was backed by one)
• Teaching of the Truth. (Anything written in the Bible is consistent with everything else that was already written.
• Confirmation of the early church founders.
The New Testament had "eyewitness" authority behind The Gospels. For instance: Matthew was an Apostle. Mark was a friend of Peter and wrote down Peters account...Luke was a friend of Paul, and John was also an Apostle. Now many people think that the New Testament books were "chosen" by a council of a few people - but that's not true. The Nicaea council did recognize the books of the New Testament (c. 340 A.D.) - but that was after 265 years or more, of these books being used in the churches- The reason a council was formed was because false teachers were trying to add new books to the Bible and discussions concerning the relationship of Christ, to the Father, and the Holy Spirit. It wasn't to pick the books of the bible.
The third reason we know we have the right books is...
3. The power of God (Isaiah 40:8, the word of God lives and abides forever. God wouldn't allow what He'd chosen to stand forever, to be left out! God’s had it all under control, and the books that we have in the Bible are the very ones He wanted in the Bible.