The Bible
by Stephen Bastin
From the earliest days of the
Christian religion there has been an understanding that the Bible is the Word of
God. Belief that God, through His
Spirit, caused men to write the things recorded in the Bible goes all the way
back to the time of Moses and was a staple in the preaching of the apostles of
Jesus. Often, in preaching to the
Jews, they quoted from the books of the Old Testament.
Their preaching was accepted as the Jews understood that the message
concerning Jesus was rooted in the prophets whom they had heard from childhood.
When Moses had received the
Ten Commandments and the rest of God’s law for Israel, he gave them God’s
warning: “You shall not add to the
word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the
commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”
Changing times and customs could not affect what God had said.
His law could not be changed.
It was astounding to me to
learn that Jews today (at least some of them) allow a Rabbi to determine what
parts of the Law of Moses they need to obey and what parts they are free to
ignore. A Rabbi takes precedence
over Moses?!
In like manner, Jesus told the
Jews, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges
him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”
Just as God had made a covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai, so, God made a
new covenant, sealed with the blood of Jesus at Golgotha, the hill of Calvary.
Jesus, as the Son of God, was sent to take precedence over Moses.
His resurrection from the dead proves his claim!
Jesus committed his teachings
to his apostles, men whom he personally chose for their mission.
The last words of Jesus before he left them to return to heaven are found
in the first chapter of Acts: “You
will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the
remotest part of the earth.”
Faithful to their task, the
apostles began preaching the good news about Jesus in Jerusalem.
Eventually their message was carried throughout the world.
The message of Jesus was recorded in those writings we know as the New
Testament.
The New Testament closes with
a warning that reminds us of what
God said to Israel through Moses: “I
testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book:
if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written
in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy
city, which are written in this book.”
As time passed after the death
of the apostles, questions were raised concerning what ought to be believed and
what ought to be done by Christians. Answers
from the Bible were not deemed satisfactory.
Additional decisions and decrees were sought.
There were leading men in the church who were only too eager to answer
such questions and provide such guidance.
Just as the Jews turned from
Moses to the Rabbis, “Christians” turned from the apostles of Jesus to the
theologians. The result is a
religious view that has lost touch with the authority of Jesus expressed through
his apostles.
It seemed never to have
occurred to the theologians that it was not their words, but the words of Jesus
that were going to judge people in the end.
The views of men were made binding in the church in various ways, through
the decisions of councils, through decrees of church leaders and through
additional writings that were held up as a standard in addition to the Bible, or
sometimes in place of the Bible.
Jesus was condemned by his
generation because he did not keep the “traditions of the elders.”
When Jesus ignored the rules that had been made long after Moses’
death, the religious leaders opposed him and ultimately sought his death.
They were more interested in preserving their place than in learning the
truth.
There are all sorts of reasons
that people give for not following what is clearly in the Bible.
“God did not really say that, that is just some man’s opinion.”
“God said that, but it no longer applies because we live in modern
times.” “God said that, but over
here it says . . ., and that is what I choose to believe.”
This, of course, assumes that the Bible is some kind of buffet offering
where we can pick and choose what we want to accept and what we want to reject.
Sadly, much of our world
believes that the Bible has been discredited as the Word of God.
It is not that people have examined the evidence and found it lacking.
More to the point, people have found the Bible too demanding and have
refused to consider the evidence.