A gracEmail subscriber writes, "Can you recommend a good book that gives an explanation of the authenticity of the Bible, how the canon of scriptures developed and survived into its current form? I grew up being taught and believing in the inerrant accuracy of the Bible in its current form. Now I find myself unsure of this and also frustrated with my inability to give a reasoned explanation about this. * * * Concerning the origin and reliability of the New Testament, two classics hard to beat are F. F. Bruce's The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? and The Canon of Scripture. You … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2012
BIBLE A LIVING WORD
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "Is the Bible a living, breathing, document like the U.S. Constitution, that can be variously interpreted in different times and circumstances? Or is it final, authoritative and absolute, not subject to different interpretation anytime or anywhere?" * * * I confess with the historic Christian church that the Bible is authoritative in all that it teaches. Its affirmations are unchanging: God will always be infinite and personal, faithful but forgiving, merciful and also just. Jesus is always the Son of God, born of a virgin, crucified for our sins, raised from the … [Read more...]
A SAVIOR NOT A SYSTEM
A brother whom God has gifted for special ministry to the divorced and remarried has lately taken on the task of exposing what he considers to be false doctrines creeping into his particular Christian fellowship. However well-intentioned, his misguided efforts in this regard illustrate the harm that can result when a believer attempts to perform ministry outside the sphere of God's calling and personal gifting (2 Cor. 10:15-18). His comments also reveal an unscriptural perspective when reading the Bible -- a focus on a man-made doctrinal system rather than on Jesus Christ our Savior. In his … [Read more...]
CORNERSTONE IS PERSON
A gracEmail subscriber wonders whether we should use the Protestant Bible or the Catholic Bible, since they are not exactly the same. He is concerned that he have the "real" Bible. * * * The Jewish scriptures (our "Old Testament" books) were first written in Hebrew or Aramaic. Beginning about 275 B.C., they were translated into a Greek version called the Septuagint. That Greek version (which New Testament writers primarily used) included several books (called the Apocrypha) not found among the Hebrew scrolls. When Jerome translated the Bible into everyday Latin (the Vulgate) about 400 A.D., … [Read more...]
WHERE’S THE MEAT?
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I see so many churches studying for the 'meat' of the Word of God, showing up Sundays to 'do church,' while not considering that feeding the orphans and widows, clothing the needy and sharing a cold glass of water is what it is all about. How do we make disciples without turning into over-studied yet under-acting professing Christians? How do we build new hearts without turning people into legalistic, arrogant, Bible-thumpers who can only respond with their brains?" * * * The key, I think, is in realizing that God is out to transform people into the likeness … [Read more...]
UNDERSTANDING REVELATION
A gracEmail subscriber in England asks how we can understand the Book of Revelation, when interpreters differ so widely and when this portion of Scripture itself seems so difficult and foreign to modern ears? * * * We will not know fully so long as we live in these mortal bodies. However, we can make much progress in understanding by remembering two important truths about the Bible's final book. First, The name of this book is not "Revelations," but "the Revelation of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:1). The purpose of this series of visions shown to John on the prison island of Patmos was to reveal … [Read more...]
ACTS & HEBREWS STILL NEED STUDY
Someone studying the literature of Alexander Campbell observed that he quoted most often from Acts and Hebrews, and suggested that "our traditional strengths" in the Churches of Christ and the Christian Churches are those two New Testament books. * * * I agree that we have relied heavily on proof-texts from those books. But that is not the same as saying that we have listened carefully for the messages which their respective authors intended to convey, or that we have always communicated those messages in our own preaching and teaching. Acts is Luke's continuation of the story of the … [Read more...]
CHRISTIAN DIFFERENCES AND THE GOSPEL (2)
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I am concerned that people who claim to follow Jesus Christ do not understand the Bible alike on many topics. Are we right and others wrong, or vice-versa? Whoever is wrong cannot be saved." * * * Believers in the first-century Roman house-churches sharply disagreed concerning vegetarianism (illustrative of issues of personal piety) and the observance or non-observance of special days (illustrative of issues of congregational practice). Paul does not simply take sides in these issues. Instead, he points to three fundamental gospel truths which all Christians … [Read more...]
CHRISTIAN DIFFERENCES AND THE GOSPEL (1)
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I am concerned that people who claim to follow Jesus Christ do not understand the Bible alike on many topics. Are we right and others wrong, or vice-versa? Whoever is wrong cannot be saved." * * * What makes you think that our salvation depends on infallible understanding? If that were the case, not one of us would ever be saved. The best we can say is that all Christian believers are right and all are wrong -- just on different topics. Since that is true we will sometimes disagree on how best to please Christ. And Scripture shows us, in Romans chapter 14, how … [Read more...]
70 A.D. AND CHRIST’S RETURN
A gracEmail subscriber heard a preacher say that Jesus Christ returned invisibly and for the last time when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70. This reader asks whether we ought to expect Jesus to return visibly and in person at the end of human history. * * * Indeed we should. Both Scripture and church history tell me that the preacher you heard was mistaken. I will mention but one of many Scriptures. Shortly before Jesus' betrayal, his apostles were admiring the great stones of Herod's Temple. Jesus replied that a time would come when not one stone would be left … [Read more...]
