Transcript The Bible - Arlington Presbyterian Church

The Bible
Its Authority and Interpretation
Table of Contents
 Systematic Theology
 Overview
 The Canon
Old Testament
New Testament
Theology
Greek theos – God
Greek logos – reason or speech
Result – “Rational discussion about
God”
Systematic Theology
The attempt to reduce religious
truth to an organized system.
Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Walter A. Elwell, Editor
Involves collecting and understanding all the relevant
passages in the Bible on various topics and then
summarizing their teachings clearly so that we know what
to believe about each topic.
“Systematic”
 Requires careful organization by topic
 Requires finding and fairly treating ALL
relevant Bible passages
 Requires that summaries be accurately
formulated
All Christians Practice
Systematic Theology
 “The Bible says that everyone who
believes in Jesus Christ will be saved.”
 “The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the
only way to God.”
 “The Bible says that Jesus is coming
again.”
“God gives the truth in single
threads which we must weave into
a finished texture.”
- Origen
What are Doctrines?
 What the Bible teaches us today about
some particular topic
Example: Bibliology
Example: Soteriology
Example: Ecclesiology
Example: Eschatology
Why Should Christians Study
Theology?
 We are not trying to “improve” on Scripture
 We are not denying the clarity of Scripture
 “Do your best to present yourself to God
as one approved, a worker who has no
need to be ashamed, rightly handling the
word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
Branches of Theology
Systematic theology
Exegetical theology
Biblical theology
Historical theology
Practical theology
Exegetical Theology
Unfolds the meaning of specific
biblical texts and so provides
systematic theology with its basic
building blocks.
Biblical Theology
Sets forth the doctrinal message of
the books of the Bible in their
historical setting.
Historical Theology
Traces the science of God through
the various eras of the church’s
history.
(chronological rather than topical or logical)
Practical Theology
Applies the results of systematic
theology to preaching, teaching,
and counseling.
Systematic Theology
 Incorporates the data of exegetical,
biblical, and historical theology to
construct a coherent explication of the
Christian faith.
 Systematic theology claims that God can
be known and truths about God
communicated in meaningful everyday
language.
Application to Life
Summarizes doctrines so as to be
understood today
Summarizes doctrines creating new
words not found in Scripture:
trinity, incarnation, deity of Christ
Bibliology
The Authority of the Bible
The Interpretation of the Bible
Revelation
 Everything we know about Christianity has
been revealed to us by God.
 Reveal = unveil, uncover
 Idle speculation about God is a fool’s
errand. If we wish to know Him in truth,
we must rely on what He tells us about
Himself.
from Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, R.C. Sproul
How God Revealed Himself
Nature
Dreams/visions
History
Scripture
The Zenith of God’s Revelation
The incarnation of Jesus Christ
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God
spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these
last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed the heir of all things, through whom also
he created the world.”
Hebrews 1:1-2
Two Chief Types of Revelation
General Revelation
Special Revelation
General Revelation
General Revelation is “general” in two
respects –
General in content
Revealed to a general audience
General Revelation: Content
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
Night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
Their words to the ends of the world.”
Psalm 19:1-4
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be
known about God is plain to them, because God has
shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things
that have been made. So they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as
God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their
thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming
to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of
the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and
birds and animals and reptiles.”
Romans 1:18-23
General Revelation
“Revelation in nature does not give a full
revelation of God. It does not give us the
information about God the Redeemer that
we find in the Bible. But the God who is
revealed in nature is the same God who is
revealed in Scripture.”
- R. C. Sproul
General Revelation: Audience
 The entire world is a stage for God.
 “Hearers” include those who have not read
the Bible or heard the gospel.
Denial of General Revelation
 The atheist
 “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no
God.’” – Psalm 14:1
 The agnostic
Declares that there is insufficient evidence to
decide one way or the other about God’s
existence.
General Revelation
Mediate
Immediate
Mediate General Revelation
Transmitted through an intermediary
A medium
For example, the heavens declare God’s glory
Immediate General Revelation
 God revealing himself directly to the
human mind
 “That there exists in the human mind, and
indeed by natural instinct, some sense of
Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since
God himself…has endued all men with
some idea of his Godhead, the memory of
which he constantly renews and
occasionally enlarges.”
John Calvin
“For all who have sinned without the law will also perish
without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will
be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law
who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who
will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the
law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to
themselves, even though they do not have the law. They
show that the work of the law is written on their hearts,
while their conscience also bears witness, and their
conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that
day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets
of men by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 2:12-16
Special Revelation
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned
and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you
learned it and how from childhood you have been
acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able
to make you wise for salvation through faith in
Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for
training in righteousness, that the man of God may
be competent, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:14-17
Special Revelation and the Bible
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of
God.“
Matthew 4:4
The Bible is the Word of God
General
Revelation
To all
Special
Revelation
Inspiration
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
 Human authors, but the ultimate source
and superintendent is God.
Inspiration
GOD
Human Authors
Bible
Inspiration
 God did not dictate his word to human
authors; they wrote through their own
personalities
 The Bible is infallible and inerrant
Original autographs no longer exist
Today’s translations
 It is true and trustworthy
Inspiration
Inspiration is . . .
Verbal: Extends to the very words of Scripture,
not just teachings.
Plenary: Extends to everything in the Bible, not
just parts that speak on matters of faith and
practice.
Key Terms
Revelation:
Inspiration:
Illumination:
The act whereby God reveals truth to
mankind through both special revelation
(Scripture) and general revelation (nature,
conscience, etc.)
The act whereby God guided the writers of
Scripture, giving them His words while
fully using the human element within man
to produce the Scriptures.
The act whereby God enlightens people to
understand His revelation and its
relevance to their lives.
Revelation
Illumination
Inspiration
The Bible
 Life comes with an instruction manual
 Do not attempt to live life without reading
the instruction manual
 If the Bible is not from God, then God is
irrelevant -- He doesn’t care anyway.
BUT -- God has spoken!
“Canon”
 Canon = the list of all books that belong to
the Bible
 Means “rule” or “measuring rod”
 God determines the canon
Questions
 How do we know that the books we have
in the Bible are the right ones?
 Who has the authority to determine what
books can be called Scripture?
 Why do the Roman Catholics include extra
books in their Bible?
Question
 Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and
members of other cults have claimed
present-day revelations from God that they
count equal to the Bible in authority.
What reasons can be given to indicate the
falsity of those claims?
Why it is important
Moses … said to them, "Take to heart all the
words by which I am warning you today, that you
may command them to your children, that they
may be careful to do all the words of this law.
For it is no empty word for you, but your very life,
and by this word you shall live long in the land
that you are going over the Jordan to possess."
Deuteronomy 32: 45-47
Why it is important
Moses … said to them, "Take to heart all the
words by which I am warning you today, that you
may command them to your children, that they
may be careful to do all the words of this law.
But
your
For it is no empty word for you, but
your
veryvery
life, life
and by this word you shall live long in the land
that you are going over the Jordan to possess."
Deuteronomy 32: 45-47
Accuracy of the Canon is Critical
“You shall not add to the word that I
command you, nor take from it, that you may
keep the commandments of the Lord your
God that I command you.”
Deuteronomy 4:2
The Old Testament Canon
 Oldest Collection of God’s Words:
The Ten Commandments
 “And he gave to Moses, when he had finished
speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of
the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger
of God.”
Exodus 31:18
 “The tablets were the work of God, and the writing
was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.”
Exodus 32:16
The Old Testament Canon
 The Pentateuch
 Joshua
“And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of
the Law of God.”
Joshua 24:26
Surprising in light of the command not to add
to God’s word
Thus God must have commanded him to add
them
Old Testament Human Authors
 “Then Samuel told the people the rights
and duties of the kingship, and he wrote
them in a book and laid it up before the
Lord.”
I Samuel 10:25
Old Testament Human Authors
 “Now the rest of the Acts of Hezekiah, and
his good deeds, behold, they are written in
the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of
Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah
and Israel.”
2 Chronicles 32:32
Old Testament Human Authors
 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:
Write in a book all the words that I have
spoken to you.”
Jeremiah 30:2
No Further Additions to the OT
after ~435 B.C.
 Last books:
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Malachi
The Septuagint
 Translation of OT from Hebrew to Greek
 Translated 284 – 247 B.C.
 Latin septuaginta means “seventy”
 Often designated by “LXX”
Canonization of Scripture
Five Tests for Canonicity of OT
1. Did Christ and the NT attest to its authority?
2. Do extrabiblical Jewish writers affirm it?
3. Is the book consistent with other revelation?
4. Was it written by a prophet or someone of
divine authority?
5. Does the body of Christ recognize it?
Canonization of Scripture
Luke 24:44
“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words
which I spoke to you while I was still with
you, that all things which are written about
Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets
and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’”
Canonization of Scripture
Matthew 7:12
“Therefore, however you want people to
treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law
and the Prophets.”
Canonization of Scripture
“Since Jesus is the Messiah, God in human
flesh, He is the last word on all matters.
He had the divine authority to endorse all
Scripture or only some of it. He
universally affirmed all Scripture, in
every part, as the divine Word of God.”
—Don Stewart
The Ten Wonders of the Bible (Orange, CA: Dart Press, 1990), 123
Canonization of Scripture
Josephus
“How firmly we have given credit to these books of our own
nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages
as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either
to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to
make any change in them; but it has become natural to all
Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem
these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in
them, and, if occasion should arise, be willing to die for
them. For it is no new thing for our captives, many of them
in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to endure
racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that they
may not be obliged to say one word against our laws and
the records that contain them.”
The Apocrypha
The Apocrypha
 Records history of the Jewish people from
~435 B.C. to the time of Christ.
 Means “hidden writings”
 Alternate name: Deuterocanonical books
(Literally, “second canon”)
The Apocrypha
This group of writings, mostly written in
Greek during the intertestamental period
(400–100 B.C.), are contained in the
Christian Septuagint and Latin Vulgate and
accepted by Roman Catholics and some
Eastern Orthodox as Scripture, but rejected
by Jews and evangelical Protestants.
Greek Orthodox
Deuterocanonical
Roman Catholic
Deuterocanonical
1 (3) Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Additions to Esther
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)
Baruch
Epistle of Jeremiah
Prayer of Azariah
Story of Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Psalm 151
Tobit
Judith
Additions to Esther
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)
Baruch
Epistle of Jeremiah
Prayer of Azariah
Story of Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Protestant
Apocrypha
1 (3) Esdras
2 (4) Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Additions to Esther
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)
Baruch
Epistle of Jeremiah
Prayer of Azariah
Story of Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
The Apocrypha
Sirich 22:3
“It is a disgrace to be the father of an
undisciplined son, and the birth of a
daughter is a loss.”
The Apocrypha: No Prophet?
 “So they tore down the altar and stored the
stones in a convenient place on the temple
hill until there should come a prophet to
tell what to do with them.”
1 Maccabees 4:45-46
 “[distress]…such as had not been since
the time that prophets ceased to appear
among them.”
1 Maccabees 9:27
Josephus
“From Artaxerxes to our own time a
complete history has been written, but has
not been deemed worthy of equal credit with
the earlier records, because of the failure of
the exact succession of the prophets.”
Against Apion 1.14
Rabbinic Literature
 “After the latter prophets Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi had died, the Holy
Spirit departed from Israel.”
Babylonian Talmud
 The Qumran community, the Jewish sect
that left behind the Dead Sea Scrolls, also
awaited a prophet to follow in the footsteps
of the last writers of the OT.
The OT Canon at the Time of
Christ
 There is no record of any dispute between
Jesus and the Jews over the extent of the
canon.
 Jesus and the NT authors quote the OT
over 295 times but never quote the
Apocrypha.
170 A.D.
 The earliest list of OT books that exits
today was by Melito, bishop of Sardis.
 He includes all OT books except Esther
 No book of the Apocrypha is listed
404 A.D.
 The Apocrypha was included by Jerome in
his Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible.
…but he said that they were not part of the
canon but merely “books of the church.”
Adopted by Roman Church
 It was not until 1546 at the Council of Trent
that the Roman church officially declared
the Apocrypha to be part of the canon.
 The Council was in response to the
Protestant Reformation.
 The Apocrypha supports justification by
faith plus works.
The King James Version
 Some may learn with dismay…
…that the Apocrypha was included with the
KJV when it was originally translated.
The Apocrypha Is Not Scripture
 They do not claim for themselves authority
as the OT writings.
 They were not regarded as part of the
canon by the Jews.
 They were not considered to be Scripture
by Jesus or the NT authors.
 They contain teachings inconsistent with
the rest of the Bible.
The Old Testament Canon
 Summary
Christians today should have no worry that
anything needed has been left out or that
anything that is not God’s words has been
included.
Through God’s providential care, we have the
Old Testament available to us.
The New Testament Canon
The Old Testament Closes
 The Old Testament closes with the
expectation of the Messiah to come who
would be the greatest prophet of all.
Last Words of Old Testament
"Behold, I send my messenger and he will
prepare the way before me. And the Lord
whom you seek will suddenly come to his
temple; and the messenger of the covenant
in whom you delight, behold, he is coming,
says the Lord of hosts.”
Malachi 3:1
"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when
all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that
is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so
that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness
shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping
like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the
wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet,
on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember
the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I
commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great
and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the
hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children
to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree
of utter destruction.“
Malachi 4
The New Testament
 Consists primarily of the writings of the
apostles.
 It is primarily the apostles who are given
the ability from the Holy Spirit to recall
accurately the words and deeds of Jesus
and to interpret them rightly for
subsequent generations.
Christ’s Words to the Apostles
“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 14:26
Christ’s Words to the Apostles
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will
guide you into all the truth, for he will not
speak on his own authority, but whatever he
hears he will speak, and he will declare to
you the things that are to come. He will
glorify me, for he will take what is mine and
declare it to you.”
John 16:13-14
Development of the
NT Canon
Time of Apostolic Authority 40-100 A.D.
Unwritten Tradition (Apostles’ teaching)
Written Tradition (New Testament)
Time of the Apostles
33AD
Apostolic Fathers
Theologians
100AD
200AD
400AD
Canonization of Scripture
The New Testament attests to the
acceptance of the authority of the
words of the Apostles as being on
par with that of God.
The Apostles’ Words from God
1 Corinthians 14:37
“If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual,
let him recognize that the things which I
write to you are the Lord’s commandment.”
The Apostles’ Words from God
2 Corinthians 13:3
“…since you seek proof that Christ is
speaking in me.”
The Apostles’ Words from God
Galatians 1:8–9
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven,
should preach to you a gospel contrary to
what we have preached to you, he is to be
accursed! As we have said before, so I say
again now, if any man is preaching to you a
gospel contrary to what you received, he is
to be accursed!”
The Apostles’ Words from God
1 Thessalonians 2:13
“For this reason we also constantly thank
God that when you received the word of
God which you heard from us, you accepted
it not as the word of men, but for what it
really is, the word of God, which also
performs its work in you who believe.”
The Apostles’ Words from God
2 Thessalonians 2:15
“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to
the traditions which you were taught,
whether by word of mouth or by letter from
us.”
The Apostles’ Words from God
2 Peter 3:1-2
“This is now the second letter that I am
writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am
stirring up your sincere mind by way of
reminder, that you should remember the
predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandment of the Lord and Savior
through your apostles.”
The Apostles’ Words from God
2 Peter 3:1-2
“This is now the second letter that I am
writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am
stirring up your sincere mind by way of
reminder, that you should remember the
predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandment of the Lord and Savior
through your apostles.”
Canonization of Scripture
The NT attests to the acceptance of
other NT books as Scripture.
Canonization of Scripture
2 Peter 3:15–16
“And regard the patience of our Lord as
salvation; just as also our beloved brother
Paul, according to the wisdom given him,
wrote to you, as also in all his letters,
speaking in them of these things, in which
are some things hard to understand, which
the untaught and unstable distort, as they do
also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own
destruction.”
Canonization of Scripture
1 Timothy 5:18
“For the Scripture says, ‘you shall not
muzzle an ox while he is threshing’
[Deuteronomy 25:4], and ‘The laborer is
worthy of his wages’” [Luke 10:7].
Five Books Not Written by
Apostles
 Mark
 Luke
 Acts (written by Luke)
 Hebrews
 Jude
Mark, Luke, Acts & Jude
 Mark was associated with –
Peter
 Luke was associated with –
Paul
 Jude associated with –
James, the brother of Jesus
Hebrews
 “But who actually wrote the epistle, only
God knows.” – Origen, ~ 250 A.D.
 Self-attesting
 The church had the personal testimony of
some living apostles to affirm the absolute
divine authority of some books.
 “My sheep hear my voice.” John 10:27
RCA Victor’s “Nipper”
“His Master’s Voice” by Francis Barraud
Canonization of Scripture
The writings of the early church fathers
attest to the acceptance of many NT books:
•
•
•
They quote them as Scripture.
They draw a clear distinction between their
writings and that of Scripture.
Marcion (c. 140), a Gnostic heretic,
devised his own canon which excluded the
entire OT and included only Luke (except
Chap. 1 and 2) and the Pauline epistles
(excluding the pastoral epistles).
Canonization of Scripture
“From the early part of the second
century of the Christian era, there is
evidence that the letters of Paul were
treasured not merely as isolated
communications, but as a definite
collection of writings, now commonly
described as the Pauline corpus.”
—Donald Guthrie
New Testament Introduction (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990), 986
367 A.D.
The 39th Paschal Letter of Athanasius
contained an exact list of the 27 NT
books we have today.
This was the list of books accepted by
the churches in the eastern part of the
Mediterranean world.
397 A.D.
The Council of Carthage, representing the
churches in the western part of the
Mediterranean world, agreed with the
eastern churches on the same list.
Canonization of Scripture
“One thing must be emphatically stated. The New
Testament books did not become authoritative for the Church
because they were formally included in a canonical list; on
the contrary, the Church included them in her canon because
she already regarded them as divinely inspired, recognizing
their innate worth and generally apostolic authority, direct
or indirect. The first ecclesiastical councils to classify the
canonical books were both held in North Africa—at Hippo
Regius in 393 and at Carthage in 397—but what these
councils did was not to impose something new upon the
Christian communities but to codify what was already the
general practice of those communities.”
—F.F. Bruce
The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), 27
Should we expect any more
writings to be added to the
canon?
Hebrews 1:1-2
“Long ago, at many times and in many
ways, God spoke to our fathers by the
prophets, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed the heir of all things, through
whom also he created the world.”
Heed the words from the last
book of the canon:
Canonization of Scripture
Revelation 1:3
“Blessed is he who reads and those who
hear the words of the prophecy, and heed
the things which are written in it; for the time
is near.”
Revelation 22:18-19
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the
prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to
them, God will add to him the plagues
described in this book, and if anyone takes
away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his share in
the tree of life and in the holy city, which are
described in this book.”
The Canon
Today there exist no strong candidates for
addition to the canon and no strong
objections to any book presently in the
canon.
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints
and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts
and intentions of the heart.”