The Old Preacher

Viewing the World through God's Word

Month: April 2017 (Page 2 of 2)

Things Are Not As They Seem

April 17, 2017 /

Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  It looked to the cross-bystanders that God had forsaken him.  Maybe so, but things are not as they seem.

Jesus (unrecognizable) approached disciples on Emmaus Road and asked what things they were discussing.  They replied . . .

“The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”  Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”” (Luke 24:19-26).

They had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. But he was crucified, buried.  Now his body was missing.  Hope in him had died with him.   But things are not as they seem.

He had said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).  He promised, “ . . . whoever believes in me will never die” (John 11:26).  The Jews exclaimed to him, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death” (John 8:52).  Yet we do suffer and die and our body is buried.  But things are not as they seem.

He ascended into heaven with this promise echoing in disciples’ ears: “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3).  But 2000 years have slipped by.  The world grinds on as always.  We wonder if he’ll ever come for us.  But things are not as they seem.

Yesterday we celebrated Christ’s resurrection.  Triumphant gatherings all over the world.  “Holy parties” rejoicing in Christ conquering death.

But now, Easter Sunday 2017 is history.  Instruments have been closed or cased.  Microphones have gone silent.  Resurrection songs won’t be sung for another year.  Back to work.  To school.  To paying bills.  Enduring illness.  Coping with tragedy, too.

The week after Easter, it looks for all the world that it had never come.  This is reality.  The workaday world.  Weekends of chores.  And worship gatherings.  But we sing a little less triumphantly.  We cringe as suffering and death holds the upper hand.  We walk with a bit less confidence–the tread of the battle-worn, not the tread of the triumphant.  Silently, we wish for Easter year round, not just one of 365.

But things are not as they seem.

I played the trumpet in our high school orchestra.  Occasionally, we performed a concert.  Rehearsals filled the days leading up to the big event.  The nearer the date, the more disciplined the practice.  Then came the “dress rehearsal”.  We were to take our seats, adopt a serious demeanor, and hold and play our instruments as if this was “the real thing”.

Easter Sunday is like that. Oh, we’re celebrating “for real”.  That triumphant worship was indeed an end in itself.  To worship the risen Christ on such a gloriously victorious note has great value.  But things are not as they seem.

When we gathered yesterday, we weren’t just a community of Christians celebrating Christ conquering the grave.  At the same time, we were worshipers rehearsing for the concert, for the big day when death will be swallowed up in victory.  Last Sunday we weren’t just looking back to an empty grave.  We were looking forward to globally empty graves.

“Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain
(1 Corinthians 15:50-58).

Things are not as they seem . . . for now.

 




 

Sunday

April 14, 2017 /

Dawn hadn’t yet broken the horizon when Mary Magdalene retraced her steps toward the tomb.  She had watched Joseph and Nicodemus bury her crucified Lord on Friday.  Still, she stepped carefully:  the gray darkness cast trees and rocks into unrecognizable shapes.

Her mind was blank with sadness too heavy to form thoughts.  It was the third day since his death.  Would the grief ever leave?  She peered ahead toward the new tomb.  With little light from the heavens—though there seemed an uncanny joy in the air—she thought the entrance-stone had been rolled away.  She quickened her pace and brushed at her eyes:  his tomb did stand open.

Panicked, she ran for Peter and John.  “They’ve taken the Lord from the tomb!  Where could they have put him?”, she blurted.  Her words propelled the sleepy men from the house.  Fear of authorities forgotten:  they ran through city streets, past Golgotha Hill, into the burial garden.  Who could have taken Jesus’ body?  And why?

John outran Peter.  He bent under the low tomb entrance, saw linen strips lying where Jesus’ body should have been.  Peter, panting past John now, pushed inside.  Linen burial strips and head cloth neatly laid aside.  But no body, just as Mary said.  Who?  Why?  And why leave burial cloths behind?  Bewildered, but with nothing to be done, they scrambled slowly from the empty tomb and walked away.  They spoke not a word to Mary who, by now, had returned.  What, after all, was to be said? Their Lord, humiliated by crucifixion, was now desecrated in death.

Mary wept, peering inside once more, as if a grieving look would return the corpse.  And the tomb wasn’t empty!  Two angels sat where Jesus’ body had lain.  “Woman, why are you crying?”  Between sobs, Mary replied:  “They’ve taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”

The angels stayed silent, as if waiting for—what?  Mary turned from them then, sensing another presence behind her.  The gardener.  “Woman, why are you crying?”  The repeated question momentarily struck her as strange.  This was a burial ground.  People wept at such a place.  But quickly she dismissed the thought as tears fell.  “Who is it you are looking for?”

Maybe the gardener had moved Jesus’ body.  “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you’ve put him, and I’ll go get him.”

He told her of no place.  Instead, he spoke her name:  “Mary.”  Suddenly, a scene of him driving out seven demons from her flashed before her crying eyes.  And scenes of traveling the countryside with him and the other women as he forgave sinners, cleansed lepers, even–yes–raised the dead.

His voice.  It drew her toward him.  It transformed her mournful tears into breathtaking joy.  She reached for him, then, to hold on to him, to never let him go again.  He had been brutally crucified and sadly buried in a tomb.  But, his body hadn’t been cruelly taken from her.

He was alive!

Death was beaten.  The grave was empty.  Nothing was impossible now.

And Sunday’s sun broke the horizon.




 

 

 

 

Friday

April 13, 2017 /

What thoughts slogged through their minds as the two men carefully lowered Jesus’ battered body from the bloody cross?

Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, though secretly because he feared reprisal from the Jewish authorities.  So it demanded great courage—perhaps as a final act of open devotion he wished now he had taken before—to approach the Roman governor, Pilate, and ask permission to remove Jesus’ body.  Thus, Joseph came, grieving and guilty, for this final act of love.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, came also.  He had first approached Jesus at night, sure that this miracle-working teacher was from God.  Now, on Golgotha’s hill,  he neared the lifeless body of the one who had spoken mysteriously of a second birth by the Spirit. If only the Spirit would come now!  With him, Nicodemus dragged a hundred pounds of burial myrrh and aloes.

Joseph pulled a soldier’s ladder across the hard ground and leaned it on the cross beam.  Nicodemus found another and did the same on the beam’s other end.  They secured Jesus’ body to the cross with a rope, then set about prying the spikes to set his hands free.  His arms dropped harshly to his sides and his body sagged in death; but the rope held.  They wondered how agonizing his pain had been—not knowing the world’s sin had weighed infinitely more.

By the time they’d released his nailed feet, their tears fell freely.  How could men treat another man so cruelly?  How could the Redeemer—or so they had thought—be imprisoned by nails to die?  What might Pilate do now that he knew they were his followers?  What would happen to their dreams that had died with him?

By the time they were hoisting Jesus’ body down from the cross, clouds scurried over the horizon and blotted out the setting sun.  They recalled the earlier eerie darkness.  His cry—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—echoed again in their minds.  The men were sweating, but chills ran down their spines–as if they stood on ground desecrated by mankind’s sin and sanctified by God’s judgment.

A garden lay nearby.  In it awaited a new tomb in which no one had been laid. The men’s arms ached as their feet plodded with the full weight of their master’s body.  Heavier were their hearts.

Weeping was no more, replaced by a sadness that ran more deeply than tears.  They were determined to offer an act of love, as much as possible a burial fit for a king who had welcomed outcasts, forgave sinners, healed the sick, raised the already dead.

With hearts as dark as the approaching night, they tenderly washed his wounds, wishing with each stroke, they, like him, could heal them.  They applied the burial spices and wrapped his body in burial cloth.  He was prepared now.  But the men hesitated, dreading the final act.  Jesus had to be buried before sundown, but they delayed, hoping life lay hidden and he would awake.

But now, prodded by the disappearing sun, they bore his body inside the tomb.  Tears returned as they laid him in place.  Again they stilled, wanting to beg forgiveness for their fear, longing to express their undying devotion, though afraid to speak and ignorant of words.

Silently, then, they bent under the low entrance and stepped outside.  They must secure his tomb, protect his body, seal it as holy;but both dreaded closing him off to the realm of the dead.  Finally, both strode at once.  Grabbing the stone, they rolled it in place, sealing in their Lord to the death they loathed.

Quickly then, as quick as sorrow would allow, they turned and trod away.  Joseph and Nicodemus.  Two secret disciples who’d at the last openly proclaimed devotion.  Whose minds raced with nothing and with everything.  What, they feared, would happen now?

With the tomb fading behind, it was late Friday.  Sabbath was about to begin.  But could any day be the same again now that their master–and their hope–lay buried in the tomb?




Moral Fact or Personal Opinion?

April 11, 2017 /

The State is indoctrinating our children–from as early as the second grade.  Beliefs, they are taught, are opinions, not truths to be explored and evaluated.  One set of beliefs (“opinion”) is no better than another. 

Our children are being raised in this educational environment.    If beliefs are just opinions, they  can be easily jettisoned if they aren’t working out for you or are too costly to retain.  Moreover, if beliefs are mere opinions, there’s no reality (truth) to hold on to in suffering or persecution.  Your beliefs are just your ideas.  

The implications of this indoctrination are far-reaching and frankly frightening.  Read and be wise . . .

What would you say if you found out that our public schools were teaching children that it is not true that it’s wrong to kill people for fun or cheat on tests? Would you be surprised?

I was. As a philosopher, I already knew that many college-aged students don’t believe in moral facts. While there are no national surveys quantifying this phenomenon, philosophy professors with whom I have spoken suggest that the overwhelming majority of college freshmen in their classrooms view moral claims as mere opinions that are not true or are true only relative to a culture.

A misleading distinction between fact and opinion is embedded in the Common Core.

What I didn’t know was where this attitude came from. Given the presence of moral relativism in some academic circles, some people might naturally assume that philosophers themselves are to blame. But they aren’t. There are historical examples of philosophers who endorse a kind of moral relativism, dating back at least to Protagoras who declared that “man is the measure of all things,” and several who deny that there are any moral facts whatsoever. But such creatures are rare. Besides, if students are already showing up to college with this view of morality, it’s very unlikely that it’s the result of what professional philosophers are teaching. So where is the view coming from?

A few weeks ago, I learned that students are exposed to this sort of thinking well before crossing the threshold of higher education. When I went to visit my son’s second grade open house, I found a troubling pair of signs hanging over the bulletin board. They read:

Fact: Something that is true about a subject and can be tested or proven.

Opinion: What someone thinks, feels, or believes.

Hoping that this set of definitions was a one-off mistake, I went home and Googled “fact vs. opinion.” The definitions I found online were substantially the same as the one in my son’s classroom. As it turns out, the Common Core standards used by a majority of K-12 programs in the country require that students be able to “distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.” And the Common Core institute provides a helpful page full of links to definitions, lesson plans and quizzes to ensure that students can tell the difference between facts and opinions.

So what’s wrong with this distinction and how does it undermine the view that there are objective moral facts?

First, the definition of a fact waffles between truth and proof — two obviously different features. Things can be true even if no one can prove them. For example, it could be true that there is life elsewhere in the universe even though no one can prove it. Conversely, many of the things we once “proved” turned out to be false. For example, many people once thought that the earth was flat. It’s a mistake to confuse truth (a feature of the world) with proof (a feature of our mental lives). Furthermore, if proof is required for facts, then facts become person-relative. Something might be a fact for me if I can prove it but not a fact for you if you can’t. In that case, E=MC2 is a fact for a physicist but not for me.

But second, and worse, students are taught that claims are either facts or opinions. They are given quizzes in which they must sort claims into one camp or the other but not both. But if a fact is something that is true and an opinion is something that is believed, then many claims will obviously be both. For example, I asked my son about this distinction after his open house. He confidently explained that facts were things that were true whereas opinions are things that are believed. We then had this conversation:

Me: “I believe that George Washington was the first president. Is that a fact or an opinion?”

Him: “It’s a fact.”

Me: “But I believe it, and you said that what someone believes is an opinion.”

Him: “Yeah, but it’s true.”

Me: “So it’s both a fact and an opinion?”

The blank stare on his face said it all.

How does the dichotomy between fact and opinion relate to morality? I learned the answer to this question only after I investigated my son’s homework (and other examples of assignments online). Kids are asked to sort facts from opinions and, without fail, every value claim is labeled as an opinion. Here’s a little test devised from questions available on fact vs. opinion worksheets online: are the following facts or opinions?


— Copying homework assignments is wrong.

— Cursing in school is inappropriate behavior.

— All men are created equal.

— It is worth sacrificing some personal liberties to protect our country from terrorism.

— It is wrong for people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol.

— Vegetarians are healthier than people who eat meat.

— Drug dealers belong in prison.

The answer? In each case, the worksheets categorize these claims as opinions. The explanation on offer is that each of these claims is a value claim and value claims are not facts. This is repeated ad nauseum: any claim with good, right, wrong, etc. is not a fact.

In summary, our public schools teach students that all claims are either facts or opinions and that all value and moral claims fall into the latter camp. The punchline: there are no moral facts. And if there are no moral facts, then there are no moral truths.

The inconsistency in this curriculum is obvious. For example, at the outset of the school year, my son brought home a list of student rights and responsibilities. Had he already read the lesson on fact vs. opinion, he might have noted that the supposed rights of other students were based on no more than opinions. According to the school’s curriculum, it certainly wasn’t true that his classmates deserved to be treated a particular way — that would make it a fact. Similarly, it wasn’t really true that he had any responsibilities — that would be to make a value claim a truth. It should not be a surprise that there is rampant cheating on college campuses: If we’ve taught our students for 12 years that there is no fact of the matter as to whether cheating is wrong, we can’t very well blame them for doing so later on.

Indeed, in the world beyond grade school, where adults must exercise their moral knowledge and reasoning to conduct themselves in the society, the stakes are greater. There, consistency demands that we acknowledge the existence of moral facts. If it’s not true that it’s wrong to murder a cartoonist with whom one disagrees, then how can we be outraged? If there are no truths about what is good or valuable or right, how can we prosecute people for crimes against humanity? If it’s not true that all humans are created equal, then why vote for any political system that doesn’t benefit you over others?

Our schools do amazing things with our children. And they are, in a way, teaching moral standards when they ask students to treat one another humanely and to do their schoolwork with academic integrity. But at the same time, the curriculum sets our children up for doublethink. They are told that there are no moral facts in one breath even as the next tells them how they ought to behave.

We can do better. Our children deserve a consistent intellectual foundation. Facts are things that are true. Opinions are things we believe. Some of our beliefs are true. Others are not. Some of our beliefs are backed by evidence. Others are not. Value claims are like any other claims: either true or false, evidenced or not. The hard work lies not in recognizing that at least some moral claims are true but in carefully thinking through our evidence for which of the many competing moral claims is correct. That’s a hard thing to do. But we can’t sidestep the responsibilities that come with being human just because it’s hard.

That would be wrong.

Justin P. McBrayer is an associate professor of philosophy at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. He works in ethics and philosophy of religion.

The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless.

Travel Plans

April 10, 2017 /

Pretty ordinary stuff.  Travel plans of a 1st century Jewish apostle.  Why did the Holy Spirit include them in the Bible?

I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries (1 Corinthians 16:5-9).

Paul is explaining how he intends to get to Corinth for the collection (1 Corinthians 16:1-4). He’s writing from Ephesus, east across the Aegean Sea from Corinth.  He plans to continue ministry there, then journey by land northwest to Macedonia, probably visiting the churches in Thessalonica, Philippi and Berea located in that province..

Finally, he’ll go south to Corinth.  His Corinth plans are uncertain.  “ . . . perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter.”  “I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.”

Like a lot of plans, they changed.  Trouble in Corinth compelled him to make a quick trip to Corinth.  The trouble grew into a major crisis which took two more letters (the “lost” one and 2 Corinthians) and two visits from Titus to mend.

But we know nothing of that here.  His uncertainty about his Corinth visit, however, may imply tensions exist.  So, perhaps does “if the Lord permits”—implying “if the Lord changes the Corinthians’ hearts”.  These tensions become glaringly obvious in Paul’s second letter to the church.

The purpose for his staying at Corinth is surprising: “so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go.”  “ . . . wherever I go” suggests Paul already has in mind what will become clear later:  he wants to go to Rome, then on to Spain.

Whatever his destination, he hopes for the Corinthians’ help—food, money and a few men to insure a safe and successful trip.

Meanwhile, he’ll remain in Ephesus until Pentecost because “a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”  As long as opportunity remains for it, he’ll stay.  Yet already, before the city-wide riot (Acts 19:23-41), “many adversaries” have appeared.

Tensions with the Corinthians move him to urge their cooperation regarding Timothy . . .

When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers (1 Corinthians 16:10,11).

“ . . . see that you put him at ease” is literally “see that he is without cause to be afraid”.  Paul is concerned that the Corinthians may mistreat Timothy and give him cause to fear.

Why should they “put him at ease”?  Because, as is Paul, Timothy “is doing the work of the Lord.”  This is why “no one [should] despise him (treat him with contempt).”  Nor should they despise Paul, because both he and Timothy are doing the Lord’s work.

Finally, Paul mentions Apollos, one of the Corinthians’ favorite preachers (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:5).  It may be that the church was imploring him to visit.

Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity (1 Corinthians 16:12).

Surprising that Paul would “strongly urge” Apollos to visit, since, in the Corinthians’ minds, he was Paul’s competitor.  Paul, however, was concerned for the well-being of the church, not winning a popularity contest.  But, writes Paul, “. . . it was not at all [Apollos’] will to come now.

* * *

When we look back on Paul’s ministry, we see the life of an apostolic superstar.  This reminds us that in the actual living of it, it, at best, looked pretty ordinary.  Some of it was made up of ordinary travel plans.  Only after the fact, when we look back at all the pieces, and see how they fit together and what they produced, can we really catch the overall impact.

So it is with our lives.  While not on the level of an apostles’, they have significance.  The Lord is using them to have eternal impact for his glory and his saving work in the world.  But mostly, they seem composed of ordinary stuff.

Take parenting, for example.  In the morning, getting kids ready for school.  In the evening, feeding them dinner, nagging them to do their homework, supervising conflicts, getting them to bed–to say nothing of laundering their clothes, taking them to their sports’ events, teaching them about the Lord, taking them to church, and so on.  Pretty ordinary stuff.

Or take our work.  Most of us aren’t brain surgeons.  Who of us will discover the cure for cancer or engage in diplomatic relations that will bring peace to the Middle East.  Our careers are far more common.

Yet, if we live our lives with faith in Christ and live in obedience to his teachings, he turns the ordinary stuff into extraordinary for the glory of his saving work in the world.  That is, of course, a faith statement.  We won’t see the “sight” of it until after our lives here end and we can look back . . .

 

 

I Need You, Lord

April 8, 2017 /

So I’m sitting in my wheelchair talking to my air conditioning guy.  Well, he’s more than an A/C guy.  He’s a friend and my brother in Christ.  Anyway, he’s telling me about his two-year affliction.  He never felt closer to the Lord.  All he could do was read God’s Word.

So I’m feeling convicted.  By my A/C guy!  He didn’t know it, and I didn’t admit it.  But he was the Lord’s preacher for me.

See, it was another day I wasn’t feeling well, not feeling God close but wondering where God was.  So I got convicted.

Earlier that day I had read a few chapters in Job.  One “comforter”—Eliphaz—pointed his indictment at Job:  “Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, running stubbornly against him . . . “ (Job 15:25,26a).  Suddenly, I felt the indictment and wondered, “Am I being stubborn against the Almighty God?”

What I mean is, I want to walk.  I hate this Primary Lateral Sclerosis.  I’m done with this wheelchair.  I’m weary of remembering all the things I can’t do any more.  I want to walk along the ocean with my beautiful wife.  Play baseball with my grandson.  Feed the horse in our pasture.  Paint the bathroom (really).  I loathe being so dependent on Lois.

Two weeks ago, my brother-in-law (with whom I speak weekly by phone) asked me if he should pray differently for me. Forever daily, and every week with me on the phone, he’s prayed for my healing and was ready to keep on.  But should he pray differently?   I asked him to continue.  I hardly had the faith to pray for healing; I needed him to do it for me.  He promised he would.

But now I wonder if I’m just being stubborn.  Should I (and he) pray for grace, for Christ’s power to rest on me, so that in my weakness I can be strong (2 Corinthians 12:9,10)?  Is that what God wants?  Not to reveal his power to heal of my weakness, but to reveal his power to be strong in weakness?  I don’t know.  Or am I just being stubborn?

Here’s what I know for certain.  It’s what this song says.  I need you, Lord!  I need him to raise me above my feelings of loss that rule my mind.  I need him to heal me.  Not even the impossible is impossible for him, right?  But, if he chooses not to heal me, I need him to rest in Christ’s power on me in weakness.  Not mostly so I can feel better.  But mostly so Christ can be seen in me, for his sake.

I’m confused.  But I know this . . .

I need you, Lord.  And I suspect others do too,  So:  we need you, Lord . . .

 




A Peculiar Glory (Chapter 5)

April 6, 2017 /

What do the Scriptures claim for themselves?  That’s John Piper’s question in the next few chapters. In chapter 5 he asks the question of the Old Testament.

A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness by [Piper, John]

https://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-Glory-Christian-Scriptures-Truthfulnes
s-ebook/dp/B01M99IQ85/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490645630&sr=8-
1&keywords=A+Peculiar+Glory

THE THREADS AND THE TAPESTRY

Piper wants us to know that he’s not claiming the Scriptures are true simply because they claim to be.  At the same time he’s not denying the importance of what God himself says about his Word.

“I will argue that those truth claims are threads in a tapestry whose divine glory is self-authenticating” (Piper, p. 90).  But in this chapter and the immediately following, he wants us to see those threads as clearly as possible.

THE OLD TESTAMENT WRITERS ARE IN THE DRAMA, NOT OUTSIDE OF IT

The writers were aware God was speaking to and through them, but they never commented on the Old Testament from outside the whole.  Instead, they were actors on the stage God was directing.

The writers tell us “about the way God was revealing himself to them and to others through them” (Piper, p. 91).

Piper alludes to God’s greatness in holding galaxies in place and calling billions of stars by name (Isaiah 40:26)—and that he condescends to speak to us.  It’s astonishing, Piper muses, that God wills to speak to us in human language.

GOD SPEAKS IN HUMAN LANGUAGE

When he speaks, he speaks to humans directly . . .

“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1).

“God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’” (Exodus 20:1,2).

The Scripture never explains how God speaks.  Furthermore, notes Piper, it’s doubtful that we could make sense of his “explanation”.  This has led some to be skeptical that God actually speaks at all.  Rather, they see God communicating through events.

But,  the late James Barr (Scottish Old Testament scholar) protested:  “If we persist in saying that the direct, specific communication must be subsumed under revelation through events in history and taken as subsidiary interpretation of the latter, I shall say that we are abandoning the Bible’s own interpretation of the matter for another which is apologetically more comfortable” (Piper, p. 92).

GOD SPEAKS TO PEOPLE THROUGH PEOPLE

Example:  God said to the prophet Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD:  Would you build me a house to dwell in?’” (2 Samuel 7:5).

Example:  God said to Isaiah, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father:  I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life’” (Isaiah 38:5).

Instead of speaking directly to David and Hezekiah, the LORD speaks to them through a prophet.  Again and again he does this.  However, the words remain the very words of God . . .

“You shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 2:7).

They are God’s words because God directs the prophet’s speaking so his mouth is like God’s.  We see this ideal in the prophecy of the ideal prophet to come . . .

“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.  And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18).

Often in this connection between God’s words and the prophet’s words, the prophet speaks in first person singular as if God himself were present speaking in person . . .

“I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no God” (Isaiah 45:5).

“The Old Testament is saturated with the explicit claim that our Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer is actually speaking intelligibly to the world he has made” (Piper, p. 94).  “Thus says the LORD” occurs 417 times and the phrase “declares the LORD” occurs 358 times in the Old Testament.  Stunning.

Equally stunning:  that the eternal, infinite Creator actually speaks in a way mere creatures can understand.

GOD INTENDS FOR HIS REVELATION TO BE WRITTEN

He says to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book . . . “ (Exodus 17:14).

Again: “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel” (Exodus 34:17).

Similarly, the prophetic books begin by indicating they are a composition of the prophet’s revelations from God . . .

“The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah . . . “ (Jeremiah 1:1). . . “The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah . . . “ (Micah 1:1). 

THE SUM OF YOUR WORD IS TRUTH

“What emerges from this survey of the Old Testament’s self-attestation is a culture in Israel that know itself confronted by God through his all-authoritative word, which comes not directly to every individual, but through persons chosen by God and enabled to speak his word reliably, including its written form . . . And as this collection of writings emerges, it would be handled with extraordinary care, because not only did the writings claim to be the word of God, but they also made explicit one of the clear implications of that fact, namely, their complete truthfulness” (Piper, p 96).

God is not a man, that he should lie,
or a son of man that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19).

OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH

Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament.  Therefore, we are highly expectant as we ask, What was his estimate of these writings?

* * *

We are asking, “Is the Bible the word of God—true and trustworthy and free from error?”  Answering isn’t a simple process and sometimes not spine-tingling.  But we’re wise to endure it, because haven’t you sometimes asked the question?  Maybe when its teaching is radically counter-cultural.  Or when you’re suffering and God’s promises seem a fantasy.

This study isn’t meant to answer every question.  But it’s meant to offer a preponderance of evidence on which to ground our faith.  This evidence—the claims the Old Testament makes for itself—is a big chunk toward that end.




 

 

A Peculiar Glory (Chapter 4)

April 4, 2017 /

God inspired the very words the biblical authors wrote.  This wasn’t dictation. “Men spoke from God (using their own personalities and styles) as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

Do we have those very words—the original Hebrew and Greek words–of the biblical authors?

A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness by [Piper, John]

https://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-Glory-Christian-Scriptures-Truthfulnes
s-ebook/dp/B01M99IQ85/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490645630&sr=8-
1&keywords=A+Peculiar+Glory

JESUS THOUGHT THAT WORDS MATTER

After his resurrection, Jesus rebuked Peter: “’If it is my will that [John] remains until I come, what is that to you [Peter]?  You follow me.’  Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that [John] would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?'” (John 21-23).

Right words were important to Jesus and John, as the familiar passage below confirms . . .

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17,18).

PETER CARED ABOUT WORDS

Peter warns against those who distort Paul’s words . . .

“[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position” (2 Peter 3:16,17).

Peter is saying getting the very words of Scripture right is important.

PAUL’S VIGILANCE OVER HIS WORDS

Paul used an ”amanuensis” (a kind of secretary) to write one or many of his letters.  However, he often took up the pen to assure his readers the words were his . . .

“I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write” (2 Thessalonians 3:17).

“[Paul] was eager not only that his readers have his very words but that they know they have them” (Piper, p. 73).

DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE VERY WORDS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Not only are prophets divinely inspired, so are words . . .

“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” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Paul was referring to the Old Testament, since at that time there was no New.

DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE VERY WORDS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Paul claims his own writings—the very words–to be Holy-Spirit-inspired . . .

“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. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:12,13).

THE DIVINE WILL IN THE HUMAN WILL

Sinclair Ferguson (Scottish theologian and professor at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas) writes:  “Undoubtedly the human writers of Scripture were conscious that they were expressing their own thoughts as they wrote.  But at the same time there were under the sovereign direction of the Spirit.  Theologians call this two-dimensional reality ‘concurrence’.”

DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO AFFIRM THE INERRANCY OF MANUSCRIPTS WE DON’T HAVE?

We don’t have the original manuscripts the New Testament authors wrote.  Hence, the question.  Piper illustrates the answer. Suppose he writes you a letter (on paper) with directions to his house for an important meeting he wants you and others to attend.  You scan his letter to make copies on two different days.  But the scanner copies incorrectly on the second day.  The original letter is lost.  When guests compare letters they realize the error.

“Now everyone getting to the meeting depended on the firm belief that the original letter was accurate and that every effort to get back to that wording was crucial—even though the original letter no long existed.  Similarly, if the wording of Scripture in the original manuscripts is not affirmed as inerrant, there would be little incentive to try to get back as close as possible in our text-critical studies, which form the basis for all of our translations” (Piper, p. 78).

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS HAVE OBJECTIVE HISTORICAL REALITY

“Our Greek and Hebrew versions and our translations are inerrant to the degree that they faithfully render the divine meaning carried by the inspired human words of the original manuscripts” (Piper, p. 78).

This historical reality is an objective standard that we can approach through textual criticism.  Without this conviction, today’s versions and translation are awash in subjectivism.

CONTROVERSY AND CONSENSUS

Recently, most attacks on the Christian faith have come in textual criticism.  But Piper writes, “I am convinced that in the end none of us settles the issue of biblical authority decisively on the basis of historical arguments . . . I will argue in the coming chapters how ordinary people with little chance of following complex and obscure textual arguments may discern whether the Christian Scriptures are the word of God” (p. 79, 80).

A PERSONAL STORY FROM GRADUATE SCHOOL

Piper’s story comes from graduate school at the University of Munich where he did his doctrinal studies.  I’ll skip the story for space.  Conclusion:  many mainline scholars are assured that text-critics have provided us with reliable Hebrew and Greek texts that we use today.

THE STATE OF THE UNION IN TEXTUAL CRITICISM

We have about 5800 Greek New Testament manuscripts (no originals—copies). You can see many at http://www.csntm.org/Manuscripts.aspx.  This is far more than any other ancient documents.  For example, “The average classical author’s literary remains number no more than twenty copies.  We have more than 1,000 times the manuscript data for the New Testament than we do for the average Greco-Roman author.  Not only this, but the extant (surviving) manuscripts of the average classical author are no earlier than 500 years after the time he wrote.  For the New Testament, we are waiting mere decades for surviving copies” (Daniel Wallace, regarded as “evangelical Christianity’s premier active textual critic today; Piper, p. 81).

“No other ancient book comes close to the kind of wealth of diverse preservation that we have for the New Testament” (Piper, p.82).

DO WE HAVE ACCESS TO WHAT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN?

Simple answer:  yes.

D.A. Carson (Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) summarizes: “What is at stake is a purity of text of such a substantial nature that nothing we believe to be doctrinally true, and nothing we are commanded to do, is in any way jeopardized by the variants” (Piper, p. 82).

THE MUSLIM COUNTERCLAIM

Muslims claim the New Testament presents a supernatural-Son-of-God Jesus who died for our sins and was raised because Christians changed original writings.  “But there is no evidence that such writings existed, which means that the Muslim claim is an inference based on Mohammed’s view of Jesus” (Piper, p 83).

WE HAVE THE WORD OF GOD

This chapter’s aim has been to show that our Greek and Hebrew Scriptures are essentially the same as the ones written by the original authors.

*  *  *

Dry, I know.  Congratulations for plowing through!  What does it all mean?  The Bible (leather ones, especially) looks holy.  But we need more than that to trust it.  This chapter offers one reason.  A book written over 1500 years, the last “book” of it 1900 years ago.  No originals remain.  But the discoveries and studies Piper mentions in chapter 4 assure us we hold what the original authors wrote.  That means we can say, “The Bible says . . . ” with confidence that this is the very Word of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Walking Dead

April 3, 2017 /

Sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes wakes from a coma to discover the world overrun by zombies.  (A zombie, if–like me–you don’t watch the hit TV series “The Walking Dead”, is a ” fictional undead being created by the reanimation of a human corpse”.)

I’m with the Corinthians’ anti-bodily resurrection stance,  if Paul is talking about “the reanimation of a human corpse”.  Here’s the twin question . . .

“Someone will ask, ‘How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?'” (15:35 GNT).

Paul anticipates the Corinthians’ skeptical question.  They ask from disbelief.  Which is why he calls them foolish.

“You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies. And what you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up.  God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.  And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, and fish another.  And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the beauty that belongs to heavenly bodies is different from the beauty that belongs to earthly bodies. The sun has its own beauty, the moon another beauty, and the stars a different beauty; and even among stars there are different kinds of beauty.  This is how it will be when the dead are raised to life. When the body is buried, it is mortal; when raised, it will be immortal.  When buried, it is ugly and weak; when raised, it will be beautiful and strong.  When buried, it is a physical body; when raised, it will be a spiritual body. There is, of course, a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body” (15:36-44, GNT).

Resurrection surrounds us.  Flowers in the garden.  Bushes in the yard.  From seed.  Seed transformed into something more, something beautiful.  Varieties of flesh–human, animal, fish, birds.  Heavenly bodies.  Different from each other glory.  So with resurrection.  More than the body buried. Different glory.  Fit for eschatological life.

Dr. Gordon Fee (Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia)explains “spiritual body”:  “The transformed body . . . is not composed of ‘spirit’; it is a body adapted to the eschatological existence that is under the ultimate domination of the Spirit.  Thus for Paul, to be truly pneumatikos (spiritual) is to bear the likeness of Christ (15:49) in a transformed body, fitted for the new age” (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 786).

Christ is the basis for these transformed bodies . . .

“For the scripture says, ‘The first man, Adam, was created a living being’; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit.  It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.  The first Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the second Adam came from heaven.  Those who belong to the earth are like the one who was made of earth; those who are of heaven are like the one who came from heaven.  Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven” (15:45-49, GNT).

Adam:  every human’s first parent–“created a living being”, “made of earth” and “from the earth”.  So we who “belong to the earth” are like Adam, “physical.”  The “last Adam” is “the life-giving Spirit”, “from heaven”.   So we who are “of heaven” are like Christ, “spiritual”.  Now “we wear the likeness of the man made of earth”, then “we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven”.

Corinthians thought the  “body” must be sloughed off for the full spiritual to be realized–a “spiritual” (pneumatikos) they’d already entered.  In heaven we’re not a bunch of spirit-beings surfing on celestial clouds.  Even so, these bodies must be changed . . .

“What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God’s Kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality. Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die” (15:50-53, GNT).

Resurrection won’t be “The Walking Dead” or even “merely” the dead rising.  Fundamental transformation in human composition must occur.  And, Paul prophecies, it will.  Not everyone will die, but “we shall all be changed”.  The “seed” of our human body will be transformed.  For when the trumpet signals  the End, it will call the dead from their graves and  transform our bodies into “what cannot die”.

“So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: ‘Death is destroyed; victory is complete! Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”  Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law.  But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (15:54-57, GNT).

At the End, when the dead are raised and the immortal has overtaken the mortal, death itself will be destroyed.  Paul refers to Isaiah 25:7,8–“On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever“–and Hosea 13:14–“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?”   Fee captures Paul’s triumph:  “Take that, death; for when mortality is clothed with immortality, you have lost both your victory and your sting” (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p.803).

Sin is the poison that brings us to death.  It’s not decay or disease.  Sin empowers death.  And that sin became more energized through God’s Law, which we repeatedly break.

“But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”  That victory becomes ours to share in, not only through Christ’s death, not only through his resurrection, but his return which ushers in the final victory.  God has won the victory through Christ.

“So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless” (15:58, GNT).

For Paul, doctrine always must result in practice.  Or, to put it another way, faith must produce obedience.  “So then”–because God gives us complete victory over sin and death, including the triumph of body-transformed resurrection–“stand firm and steady”.  With similar words he began this chapter–“I would remind you . . . of the gospel which I preached to you . . . in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you” (15:1,2). 

Here his exhortation isn’t warning (“you’re being saved if you hold fast to the word”) but motivation (“since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless”–because of the triumphal End). “Keep busy always in your work for the Lord.”  Nothing is lost.  No act of service is ever erased by death.  Because death is swallowed up by victory!

* * *

At first, I thought I should simply copy Paul’s magisterial words; let them speak their glory for themselves.  Now that I’ve written comment, I think I may have been correct at the start.  Nevertheless, one final thought (well, two . . . ) . . .

There’s no escaping death.  It comes to us all whomever we are.  Our only hope is Christ who died for our sins, was buried, rose on the third day, and appeared to many.  When he comes again, we who are his will be bodily raised and, like Paul, we will taunt death:  “Death, where’s your victory now?  Huh?  Death, where’s your poison-sting today?  Come on, tell me!”  Then we will thank and praise God who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  When I say in the face of death “our only hope is Christ”, I mean our only hope as humans who all die.  Our hope isn’t medicine or technology or surgical advances.  None can stop aging.  None can stave off death.  This body is wasting away.  Christ is our only hope for resurrection-transformation.  Turn to him and be saved.

Finally, why wait to taunt death?  In the words of Isaiah, taunt death now:  “Hey shroud that enfolds all peoples, hey death that like a sheet covers all nations, the Lord will swallow you up forever!”  Or, in the words of Hosea:  “Hey death, the Lord has redeemed me from your power!  Where are your plagues?  Where’s your destruction?  Beaten!  Ha!”

Oh, by the way, Easter’s near.  Happy Resurrection Day!  A great day to taunt death by worshiping the resurrected Christ!

 

 

 

A Peculiar Glory (Chapter 3)

April 1, 2017 /

When Jesus was born, the Hebrew Scriptures held supreme authority over Jewish lives and was a closed canon.  There was no New Testament.

A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness by [Piper, John]

https://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-Glory-Christian-Scriptures-Truthfulnes
s-ebook/dp/B01M99IQ85/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490645630&sr=8-
1&keywords=A+Peculiar+Glory

 New Authority–the Living Word–Comes into the World

“What opened the way to a new canon of authoritative writings was not the arrival of new spokesmen for God . . . but rather the arrival of God himself” (Piper, p. 52,53).  Jesus’ staggering self-claims created a new authority that reached beyond the Hebrew Bible.

In the Sermon On the Mount, for example, Jesus claimed to be the judge of the universe . . .

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” (Matthew 7:21-23).

Again in the Sermon On the Mount, Jesus explained he’d come not to confirm the Hebrew Scriptures, but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).

“The point is that the divine majesty of the person of Jesus is woven inseparably into every layer of the teachings of Jesus.  There is no portrait of Jesus in the New Testament as a merely human teacher of ethics.  There is only the Lord of glory.  The fulfiller of history.  The judge of the universe” (Piper, p. 55).

As a result, the early church recognized Jesus as having authority equal to and beyond the Hebrew Scriptures.  The person and teaching of Jesus, therefore, led inevitably to the canon’s expansion.  Centuries being governed by their Scriptures, now they’re confronted by the Author.  His glory created a new canon.

Jesus’ Preparation for the New Testament Canon

Jesus prepared the church for a new canon by which he would govern the church after he was gone.  He’d provide for it through authoritative “apostles” whom he promised to guide by the Holy Spirit.  They, in turn, would become the foundation of a new Israel.

Jesus Promises the Spirit of Truth

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:25,26).

“The promise that the Holy Spirit would reveal the glory of Christ alerts us to the way Scriptures would be confirmed in the life of the early church.  The light of that glory would shine through the inspired word into the hearts of God’s people and verify the divine origin and character of the Scriptures” (Piper. p. 59).

Paul and the Twelve

Paul, not one of the Twelve (though he authored 13 of the New Testament’s 27 books), claimed to be an apostle “through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Galatians 1:1).  After some hesitation, the Twelve accepted him as genuine (Galatians 2:7-9).

Paul as a Writer of Scripture

Paul’s claim of authority was rooted in his seeing the actual risen Jesus, who commissioned him as an apostle (Acts 9:1-19).  Consequently, he claimed to be inspired by the Spirit in fulfillment of Jesus’ promise . . .

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:12,13).

A Foundational Authority for All History

“The risen Christ was continuing to shepherd his flock through the mouth of the apostles.  He would provide a foundation for the church through their writings so that a canon of writings would emerge that would have the authority of the Lord Jesus till he comes again” (Piper, p. 63).

The New Scriptures

Without canceling its truth, the New Testament completed the Old.  Already the writings of the apostles were considered equal in authority with God’s inspired Old Testament writings.  For example, here’s Peter’s comment . . .

“[Paul wrote to you] as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.  There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16).

Discerning Which Books Were Apostolic

Many writings existed.  Which were “inspired”? The key, of course, was which were genuinely apostolic?

Piper writes, ” . . . apostolicity . . . probably means more than ‘written in close association with an apostle.’  What the apostles possessed from the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit was a supernatural spiritual wisdom both to understand things incomprehensible to the ‘natural man’ and to teach them in words ‘taught by the Spirit'” (see 1 Corinthians 2:11-13).

Apostolicity as Supernatural Communication

Apostolicity is “the supernatural transmission of naturally incomprehensible reality to spiritually discerning people” (Piper, p. 64).  What was involved was not purely historical process or ecclesiastical selection; but “the process of canonization was governed by the spiritual and supernatural reality of the books and by the spiritual discernment of the church . . . The New Testament books were considered authoritative not because the church declared them to be so, or even because they were written directly by an apostle, but because they were understood to bear the essential apostolic deposit” (Piper, p. 65).

The list of books considered authoritative:  Matthew (apostle), Mark (Peter’s interpreter and assistant); Luke & Acts (close associate and partner of Paul); John (apostle); Thirteen letters of Paul (apostle); Hebrews (from Paul’s circles of associates); James (Jesus’ brother closely associated with the original Twelve); 1 & 2 Peter (apostle); 1,2, & 3 John (apostle); Jude (brother of Jesus and James); Revelation (John the apostle).

Compelling Allegiance

Jesus was God in the flesh.   He confirmed, fulfilled and superseded Old Testament authority.  The New Testament grew organically out of that new authority in the world.  He sent his Spirit to assure that the apostles would be led into all truth.  They would speak from that authority and the manifestation of his glory would confirm to the church–then and today–that these writings are God’s words.

* * *

A skeptic might ask, “Dr. Piper, aren’t you asking us to trust the truth of the Bible based on what the Bible says?  Isn’t that circular reasoning?”  Piper might answer, “Good question.  But remember, it was the glory of Jesus himself that gave the New Testament its authority.  Furthermore, if some other writing successfully marked the New Testament as authoritative, that writing would hold authority over the Bible.  Be patient, if you can.  I’ll have more to say about this in chapters 8-17.”

Piper’s presentation is compelling.  Not only does the New Testament’s authenticity stand on the glory of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit also bears witness with my spirit (Romans 8:17) that the the New Testament is true and trustworthy.

We can be assured we hold in our hands the New Testament books the early church held as manifesting the very glory of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

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