|
THE
SCRIPTURES - THE FOUNDATION OF STUDY
Introduction
All religions claim to
worship “God”. They claim to honour Him through
their system of prayers and rituals and rites. How are we to look upon
these claims of the various faiths of the world? Are their claims valid?
Can human beings, of and by themselves, really ‘get in touch with’ God?
Have they really been successful in making contact with THE Supreme Being,
or are they merely worshipping some being whom
they think is God or who may be usurping that honour
and position? Can they know WHAT and WHO God is? Can they really know
what He wants from them, what pleases Him and what does not? Can they truly
worship Him and give Him the honour that is truly
His?
All attend to the
question of good and evil. Some insist that good will finally triumph over
evil, though, in most cases, what this triumph consists of may be rather
vague and nebulous. Others assert that there is an eternal conflict between
good and evil - that this problem cannot, and will never, be resolved -
that neither good nor evil will ever be able to vanquish and eliminate the
other! What IS the truth?
The
Sacred Writings
Each of these ‘faiths’
possesses a set of exclusive ‘holy writings’, or scripture (such as the
Koran of Islam, the Vedas of Hinduism, and the Tipitaka
of Buddhism, and others) which reveals and regulates its worship system.
Since there are so many religions, and such a proliferation of sects under
each umbrella, can all the various sacred writings be right? Which of them
embodies the truth?
The sacred writings of
all religions purport to give instructions to its adherents for right
thinking and behaviour as a response to the
ungodly and irreligious secular environment they find themselves in. Almost
all insist that since whatever wrongs men may do cannot be undone, their
adherents are urged to offset this debit in their personal account with God
through credit earned by a system of good works! Their every success in
this worthy endeavour will qualify them for
special places of honour, though exactly what
these are and when this certification will take place is not very clearly
stated. Is this the truth?
Our
Scriptures
We, believers in God
through Jesus Christ, have our own set of ‘holy writings’ which we call
Scripture. It claims to be God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. It is unique and exclusive through
its claims on Jesus Christ as the Son of God! No other ‘holy writings’
agree with this assertion! So, if this assertion is true, then no other ‘holy
writings’ can rightfully claim to be inspired of God!
We have been called to
be believers through our Scripture. Our human minds cannot even begin to
comprehend God. This fact leaves us with NO choice on the matter. We must
base all our understanding of God on His revelation of Himself in
Scripture.
There are those who consider
revelation to be ‘open’. This means that God continues to reveal
Himself in NEW assertions and truths (which do not appear in our received
Scripture). There are many dangers in this approach. One of the main
problems lies in the fact that since the demise of the apostles, God has
not appointed any set authority to vet and approve the input of prospective
‘new revelation’. Without such a control, there would be no end to ‘additional
revelation’ and the resultant chaos.
As far as we are
concerned, revelation is ‘closed’. This means that we already
have in our possession the complete revelation of God. Any further ‘revelation’
that agrees with what is already extant is redundant, and any which is not
already in our possession is spurious and must be rejected!
When Jesus Christ
walked the earth, He quoted often from the Hebrew scriptures
(written in Hebrew and Aramaic), thereby attesting to their authenticity.
Never once did He criticise the transmission of
the writings. Instead, He even reinforced the authority of the received
writings when He insisted that,
Mt.5:17,18 You should not infer that I came to demolish the law or
the prophets.
I came not to demolish,
but to fulfil.
For verily, I am saying to
you, Till heaven and earth should be passing by,
one iota or one serif
may by no means be passing by from the law
till all should be
occurring.
The
authenticity of the Greek scriptures, which were written after Our Lord’s ascension, is ensured by His intimation
concerning the role of holy spirit in inspiring the New Testament writers
into all truth, enabling them to recall His teachings and works while He
had carried out His ministry on earth (Jn.12:16; Jn.14:25,26). Except for
Paul, whose letters are addressed to believers of the nations, all the New
Testament writers address their messages to the Circumcision
believers.
Peter, James, and John
were the appointed stalwarts for these Circumcision believers and wrote to
them concerning the truth pertaining to their context (Mt.10:5-7; 15:24).
Paul was appointed by
God to be the apostle to the nations and was responsible for the faithful
transmission of God’s revelation to them. Paul
fulfilled his mission and collated his own writings to the nations
(2Tim.4:13), carrying out his responsibility to ‘complete the word of
God’ (Col.1:25). He did write to the Jewish believers in Jesus Christ -
but not as an apostle to the Circumcision, that being the exclusive
privilege of the twelve. Peter, whom Christ appointed as chief of the
twelve apostles, recognised and acknowledged
Paul's writings as part of Scripture, too.
2Pet.3:15,16 ...according as our
beloved brother Paul also writes to you,
according to the wisdom
given to him, as also in all the epistles,
speaking in them
concerning these things,
in which are some
things hard to apprehend,
which the unlearned and
unstable are twisting, as the rest of the scriptures also,
to their own
destruction.
The
evangel 'according to John’ was probably the last book written and
that apostle, who was the last to die, was the most logical person
responsible for editing, collating and arranging the complete Greek
scriptures for posterity (Jn.20:30,31; Jn.21:24,25). When the so-called
'fathers' met to decide which books were to be in the canon, they did not
start from scratch. There were compilations already existing and
their concern was to 'decide' which components to delete and what else to
add.
Translations
There are many
translations of Scripture, which we term ‘versions’, and each is generally
accepted as the ‘Bible’ or Book. But the claim to inspiration is reserved
for the original autographs only! Translations and versions are only
our attempts to transfer the inspired message, written in Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Koinë Greek to our common languages. God
chose these languages for the originals to transmit HIS thoughts and
intentions to humanity. We must conclude that they were, and are,
sufficiently accurate and precise to achieve His objective. To even suggest
that any human language He chooses to use can, in any way, limit GOD
and frustrate His purpose is a sad reflection of our faith in
Him!
Inconsistencies in
translation, careless and loose renderings, and doctrinal biases, for
example, do have a decidedly detrimental effect in the transmission of the
truth from the originals. However, with care, consistency, and increasing
precision, the margin of error can be reduced considerably and we can come
very close to the truth. As such, the selection of an accurate and
consistently translated version, uninhibited by denominational constraints,
becomes vitally important to the believer.
On the subject of God,
Scripture clearly states that God is SPIRIT (Jn.4:24) and, therefore,
cannot be seen (Jn.1:18; 1Jn.4:12), cannot be touched
(Jn.3:8), cannot be measured, cannot be contained (Jer.23:24;
Act.17:24-28; 7:48-50).
This means that no
matter how diligently and how painstakingly he may search, no human being,
using all the faculties God has given him, can of and by himself, find out
God (Job.11:7). Truly, the finite cannot even begin to comprehend the
INFINITE. God declares,
Isa.55:8,9 For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My
ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are
higher than the earth,
so are My ways than your
ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts
The
Revelation of God
There can be one way,
and only one way possible for man come to know “G O D” and the TRUTH of God
- GOD must reveal Himself to His creation. And He does this through
Scripture which is The Word of God (Heb.4:12; 1Pet.1:23)! God’s word is TRUTH (Jn.17:17)! Those who are
worshipping Him must be worshipping Him in spirit and in truth (Jn.4:24)!
We say we worship God;
we say we love God. Can we really mean what we say if we do not appreciate
and treasure His gracious gift that is now in our possession? As
Christians, as people who love God, as people who want to please God,
Scripture is the food for our spirit, for the growth of our spiritual life.
It is the solid nourishment for the mature (Heb.5:12-14).
How much time, then,
should we spend learning from the Scriptures? How much time do we actually
spend on truth and reality through a study of God's word? One hour
in a day? One hour in a week? One hour in a month? One hour in a year? How much
time do we spend ‘doing our own thing’? How much time do we squander on fiction
on television in a day? In a week? In a month? In a year? Where and what
should our priority be?
We say we pray to God
every day! We say we make it a regular item in our daily schedule. We
praise Him, we thank Him, we make our requests, we
intercede for others. Very commendable, of course! But, prayer is a conversation,
a communication, a communion with God! But we seem to prefer
to do the talking and the reminding, the bargaining, the dictating, and the
arm-twisting - and just cannot be bothered to take the time to listen to
what He tells us in His written word! How can we be loving God when we choose not to listen to what He
has to say to us? How can we be obedient when we do not know what to
obey in the first place?
The
Correct Handling of Scripture
Scripture says that the
truth of God’s word sets Christians apart from
the rest of humanity (Jn.17:17)! It should be a much-used manual for truly
Christian living for in it we have ALL that we need to know about God and
about a walk worthy of His calling (Rom.8:14).
2Tim.3:16,17 ‘All Scripture is inspired by God
and is beneficial
for teaching, for exposure,
for correction, for discipline in righteousness,
that the man of God may be
equipped, fitted out for every good act.’ .
And,
just as we must be careful of our daily diet to provide the needed
nourishment for good physical health, we must take even more special care
to make sure we get the correct spiritual diet we need. We have to
handle Scripture with reverence and careful precision, noting contexts, and
faithfully applying what is directed at us. This entails painstaking
dedication and hard work. Scripture directs us to, therefore,
2Tim.2:15
Endeavour
to present yourself to God qualified,
an unashamed worker, correctly
cutting the word of truth.
2Tim.1:13 Have a
pattern of sound words, which you hear from me,
in faith and love which
are in Christ Jesus.
What
Scripture Says
Within Christianity,
there are those who envision a gathering momentum in the conversion of
people to Christ especially in the ‘end times’. They are confident that the
Christian ‘gospel of the kingdom’ will continue to convert more and more
people and thereby cause a worldwide improvement in human behaviour. They believe that the ‘gospel’ will act like
leaven on mankind, working from within the ranks of humanity, to prepare
the world for the setting up of the kingdom of God
on the earth when Christ comes to rule!
Scripture, however,
predicts an escalating deterioration of morals and ethics as the years go
by and especially ‘in the last days’ which, it says, will be ‘perilous
periods’ (2Tim.3:1-9) in which ‘wicked men and swindlers shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived’ (2Tim.3:13)! It predicts
that some will be withdrawing from the faith in their acceptance of ‘teachings
of demons’ (1Tim.4:1)! Only Scripture can tell us how to discriminate
between the truth and all the error that abounds.
We are told to
establish in our minds that GOD has done everything that needs to be
done for all sinners for salvation (Rom.3:21-23; Gal.2:16) - that there
is nothing we could have done, or can now do, to qualify for
salvation (Eph.2:8-10)! This was achieved by God in the cross of
Christ when Jesus, His Beloved Son, died for ALL (1Tim.2:5-7)! Jesus said, ‘It
is finished!’, His mission has been
accomplished (Jn.19:30); He has died for ALL sinners (Rom.5:6-8,19;
2Cor.5:14; 1Tim.1:15)!
Scripture speaks of GOD’s righteousness (not our
righteousness) that is being manifested in the work of salvation (Rom.3:21)
when the merit of the faith of Jesus Christ (not our faith), which
He displayed in His absolute obedience to His God and Father especially at
the cross (Phil.2:5-8), is being given by GOD to ALL since ALL are in need
of it, being sinners (Rom.3:21-23)! We, being sinners, are not qualified to
mediate our own case. God recognises only ONE
Mediator, Whom HE has appointed, to mediate for Him and for us - ‘a Man,
Christ Jesus, Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for ALL’
(1Tim.2:5,6)!
To those who are not
being called to salvation now, 'the word of the cross is stupidity,…' (1Cor.1:18). This good news of salvation through
Christ is not acceptable to them because 'the god of this eon blinds the
apprehensions' so that the evangel does not shine through to dispel the
darkness that imprisons them (2Cor.4:3,4). They
continually seek to gratify their own senses and remain 'soulish' and are, therefore, 'unable to receive
those things which are of the spirit of God' (1Cor.2:14). They can only
walk according to the dictates of the ‘chief of the jurisdiction of the
air, the spirit now operating in the sons of stubbornness’, as ‘children
of indignation’ (Eph.2:2,3)!
We who are being called
now have been given GOD’s guarantee of
salvation through His gift of His spirit which makes its home in us
and also seals us until our deliverance (Eph.1:13,14),
when our Lord comes for us (1Thes.4:17)!
With this privilege
comes our Christian accountability to ensure that God’s message is being delivered in sincerity and
truth, according to the Scriptures; that our entreaty is not out of
deception, uncleanness, or guile - and not as pleasing men, but God
(1Thes.2:2-4). We must be ‘bringing the evangel, not in wisdom of word,
lest the cross of Christ may be made void’ (1Cor.1:17), and ‘not
with the persuasive words of human wisdom, according to the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.’ (1Cor.2:4,5).
We claim we are saved,
we assert we are going to heaven! How do we really know these as promises
of God? Have we really taken the trouble to check up on the Scriptures to
see for ourselves that God is actually promising us these?
Or are we satisfied just because ‘somebody’ said so? Is everything that ‘somebody
says' actually taught in the Scriptures? If that is true, how do we
account for the confusion and the many sects and denominations within
Christianity? Can they all be believing the same
doctrines? Can we show a friend who asks ‘What do you believe in?’ a faithful answer from the Scriptures
(1Pet.3:15)?
Satan misapplied
Scripture in his unsuccessful effort to tempt Our Lord at the commencement
of His ministry. Our Lord’s defence
was to parry these attacks with the truth - with Scripture correctly
used (Mt.4:1-11)! Adam, on the other hand, succumbed to Satan’s deceptive handling of God’s
words (Gen.3:1-7)! Should we be so naïve as to imagine that the Adversary
would discard this proven strategy against others of Adam’s
progeny - especially when most of us have only a cursory knowledge and a
rather distorted grasp of God’s truth? Following
the example of our Lord, we must defend ourselves from the spiritual
onslaught of Satan by correctly applying Scripture!
Scripture warns that in
these times, there is a very great danger of false teachings
surreptitiously creeping in and leading us astray (1Tim.4:1). It insists
that the majority, not the minority, of teachers teach error, ‘peddling
the word of God’ (2Cor.2:17), and ‘adulterating the word of God’
(2Cor.4:2), using ‘flattering expressions’ and putting on ‘a
pretence for greed’, ‘seeking glory from men’ (1Thes.2:5,6)! There are those who will come ‘despoiling you
through philosophy and empty seduction, in accord with human tradition’
(Col.2:8). That they ‘may be beguiling you with persuasive words’
(Col.2:4), ‘seducing you with empty words,’ (Eph.5:6-8) and making
error attractive and convincing through ‘wisely made myths’
(2Pet.1:16)
God warns us to beware
of such ‘false apostles, fraudulent workers, who are being transfigured
into apostles of Christ’ and appear ‘as dispensers of righteousness’
(2Cor.11:13-15), ‘who are coming to you in sheep’s
clothing, yet inside they are rapacious wolves’ (Mt.7:15),
twisting the Scripture for their own ends (2Pet.3:15,16), 'speaking
perverse things to pull away disciples after themselves' (Act.20:30),
advancing ‘the teachings of demons in the hypocrisy of false expressions’
(1Tim.4:1)! These teachers are more ‘fond of their own gratification
rather than fond of God; having a form of devoutness, yet denying its power’
(2Tim.3:4,5). They can only generate a following
deserving of the saying,
Mk.7:6,7 ‘This people with their lips is honouring Me,
Yet their heart is
away at a distance from Me.
In vain are they
revering Me, Teaching
for teachings the directions of men!’
(see also Isa.29:13)
Jer.5:31 The prophets have prophesied falsely,
And the priests bear rule by
their means,
And My people have
loved it so,…
Let us
remind ourselves that Scripture forewarns us of the fact that these false
and deceptive teachings are to come from the MAJORITY (Gk: hoi polloi,
the many) of teachers (2Cor.2:17)! It follows that, through the
centuries since Scripture was completed, much of the understanding
of the truth has become subject to contamination and distortion. It falls
upon our own shoulders, therefore, to be extraordinarily careful in our
reception and acceptance of doctrine that is purportedly scriptural.
We should know for ourselves that what we do believe in is, in fact,
the truth of Scripture. This is a time fraught with danger from powerful
and cunning forces that have been at work since the time of the apostles
(2Thes.2:7). The focus of our efforts should be,
Eph,4:12-14 toward the adjusting
of the saints for the work of dispensing,
for the upbuilding of the body of Christ, unto the end
that
we should all
attain to the unity of the faith and of the realization of the son of
God,
to a mature man, to
the measure of the stature of the complement of the Christ,
that we may by no means
still be minors, surging hither and thither
and being carried about by
every wind of teaching, by human caprice,
by craftiness with a view
to the systematizing of the deception.
We cannot
afford to retard our spiritual growth! We must not allow men to dictate to
us what we should believe in. Because of the insidious contamination out of
the wisdom of the world, there is always the danger of a distortion of the
truth. We must measure their wise pronouncements against the truth of
Scripture (Rom.6:16)! We must be ever-vigilant, ever-prepared, against the
wiles and the cunning strategy of the Enemy, protecting ourselves with the
whole armour of God.
Eph.6:10-17 For the rest, brethren mine,
be invigorated in the
Lord and in the
might of His strength.
Put on the panoply
of God,
to enable you to stand up
to the stratagems of the Adversary,
for it is not ours to
wrestle with blood and flesh,
but with the
sovereignties, with the authorities,
with the world-mights of this darkness,
with the
spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials.
Therefore take up the
panoply of God
that you may be enabled to
withstand in the wicked day,
and having effected all,
to stand.
Stand, then, girded about
your loins with truth,
with the cuirass of righteousness
put on.
and your feet sandaled
with the readiness of the evangel of peace;
with all taking up the
large shield of faith,
by which you will be able
to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the wicked one.
And receive the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the
spirit, which is a declaration of God.
April 2001
Back to:
Main
menu of articles
|
