Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Credible Bible Introduction

Our Credible Bible (Lesson 1)

Introduction

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Ruth and I are in our fourth year of hosting a college Bible study group in our home on Thursday nights during the school semesters. We have fallen in love with our students, and enjoy sharing life with them.

 

In these studies, Ruth and I have learned a painful truth. We are often reminded students can be unknowledgeable and unappreciative of the Bible.

 

Even students who grew up in church often show a lack of knowledge about rudimentary Bible truths. Even more alarming, they can be lax in their commitment to Scripture as the authority in their life for belief and behavior.

 

Due to this disconcerting observation, I took a three-week study break in January 2016 to investigate certain scholarly theological books that would help me better defend to our college students the truthfulness and reliability of Scripture. The six books listed here helped me immensely:

 

Bird, Michael F., "The Gospel of the Lord" (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI,

2014)

Blomberg, Craig L., "Can We Still Believe the Bible?" (Brazos Press, Grand

Rapids MI, 2014)

Cowan, Steven B., and Wilder, Terry L., "In Defense of the Bible"

(Broadman and Holman, Nashville TN, 2013)

MacArthur, John, ed., "The Scripture Cannot Be Broken" (Crossway,

Wheaton IL, 2015).

Ward, Timothy, "Words of Life" (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove IL,

         2009).

Warfield, Benjamin Breckenridge, "The Inspiration and Authority of the

Bible" (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg

NJ, 1948 reprint).

 

         Warfield's book is the greatest book I ever read regarding the Bible. I think the other five authors in the above list would pretty much agree with this assessment. I think I can safely say Warfield's book is referenced in the other five books more times than all other sources combined. It would be hard for me to express how refreshing it was to read a masterful, scholarly book that was 100% totally sold out to the Bible being the Word of God.

 

Through 49 years of ministry, I have been guided by a firm belief that without a commitment to the truth of Scripture, we have no chance of living a successful spiritual life. The Bible is the crux of our faith. I respect and love the Bible. I want our college students to do the same—thus this class. I pray it will effectively teach the importance of Holy Writ.

 

I feel the timing is right for a class like this. Forces seem to have been let loose in our land that want to convince us the Bible has no current value for our culture. Sadly, these attacks sometimes come from within the so-called Christian movement. Some see it as antiquated, an ancient relic irrelevant to today. But many of us believe what the Bible says, God says. We feel we can make this claim based on rational, reasonable research.

 

People are prejudice against the Bible before they even give it a fair hearing. Nothing in the writings of the ancients has near the verification and support the New Testament does, but people do not reject the other writings.

 

Many reject the Bible on predetermined factors totally unrelated to the reliability of Bible manuscripts. Often they have a sin they don't want to forsake; thus the Lordship of Christ is not a welcome thought. Sometimes our interpreting the Bible is inconvenienced by its interpreting of us.

 

Others hate the Bible's worldview. They have no use for a God who became flesh through a virgin birth, lived a perfect life, died for the world's sins, rose from death, returned to Heaven, and is the only means of salvation.

 

THE APOSTLE PAUL AND MY DAD

 

         On Paul's second missionary journey (AC 15:36-18:22), Paul founded the church at Thessalonica (AC 17:1-4). Philippi was Europe's first church. Thessalonica was second. (Maybe they called it Second Baptist.)

 

         Within months of the church's founding, Paul felt a need to write his first letter to the Thessalonians. He probably took a pen made of hard reed that was cut diagonally across one end with a finely cut slit through the point. His ink would have been made of soot with burnt resin or pitch. Thicker and more durable than our ink tends to be, Paul may have had to use water to thin its gumminess. An inkstand discovered at Herculaneum, Italy, which was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., contained ink as thick as oil, and was still usable for writing.

 

         Paul's writing material would have been either papyrus or parchment. Papyrus, the more common, was made from the pith of a water plant that grew along the banks of the Nile. Parchment, sometimes called vellum, was made from the skins of cattle, goats, and sheep that were scraped till smooth.

 

         Armed with pen, ink, and papyrus, Paul wrote his name in Greek, "Paulos", thereby penning the first word of Holy Writ in almost half a millennium. His letter was the first New Testament writing, and is our oldest extant written Christian document. The year was 51 A.D.

 

In 1951 A.D., the year I was born, my dad began preaching from a Bible, which I now own, that contained a copy of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. The purpose of this class is to analyze what happened to the message of that letter and of the other New Testament books in the intervening 1900 years. Can we be sure that the book my dad preached from was conveying the same message Paul wrote 19 centuries earlier?

 

Questions about the reliability of Scripture have to be viewed through the lens of Archaeology, which has become our true friend. (CW, pages 236-239, lists several significant archaeological discoveries.) Over the past few decades the archaeologist's spade has become a witness on our behalf.

 

I learned this on my study break. It had been 40 years since I had read in-depth theological books. I was surprised at how much more corroboration there is for Biblical reliability now than I was exposed to in seminary.

 

For example, in my seminary days, Rudolph Bultmann, the liberal German scholar, was a force to be reckoned with. Now, almost none of his tenets are widely accepted. That's a game-changer for me. I am grateful we have left his arguments behind us.

 

Though Archaeology is our friend, news outlets still seem to prefer to publicize any find that might in any way possibly contradict Christianity. Digs sometimes turn up factors that are quickly analyzed, and prematurely assumed to disprove some historical tenet of Scripture. These are almost always later shown to not evidence Bible error, but the damage is done.

 

The story of Archaeology's finest hour fits well here. Much criticism of the Old Testament was made passé by the greatest archaeological find ever--the Dead Sea Scrolls, which pushed back 1000 years the date of our oldest Old Testament manuscripts.

 

The scrolls helped us better appreciate the reliability of the text we have. We now know the Masoretes accurately conveyed Holy Writ to us.

 

For me, the Dead Sea Scrolls' biggest contribution is; they gave us copies of the Bible that predate Jesus. This is earthshakingly vital to me.

 

We have always known Jesus believed the Old Testament Scriptures were true and divinely inspired. He said, "Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35), and "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law" (Matthew 5:18b). Critics, though, could say, "Yes, but we don't know for sure what the Old Testament manuscripts said in His day. We have no manuscripts extant within 1000 years of His lifetime."

 

They can no longer make this claim. Now we know what the Scripture of His day said. Dead Sea Scrolls have portions of every OT book except Esther. The most striking result of these 972 or so Dead Sea manuscripts, ranging from from 250 BC to 50 AD, is how similar they are to the Masoretic texts of a thousand years later. A stunning example of this is the handful of minor differences the huge scroll of Isaiah brought to the table.

 

Jesus' judgment is the most valuable one we have, and the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown that what we have now is what Jesus had then, and He verified them all as trustworthy and holy. We know precisely what He was referring to when He claimed, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke 16:17).

 

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Growing in Unity

Ephesians 4:2b-6

Growing in Unity

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Eph. 4:2b-3 (Holman) . . .gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.

 

           "Gentleness" aids unity. The world admires aggression, the will to assault, but we believers should not lash out at others, because God is calming our anger.

          Straightforward confrontation and dialogue is desira­ble, but never demolish anyone. Do not lose control and smash a person. Keep yourself under God's control.

          "Patience" in this context deals with the absence of revenge in the presence of wrong. Believers must not retaliate if hurt by others. We commit our cause to God.

          We must be "accepting one another in love." We will alas have ample oppor­tuni­ties to show patience in a church. Believers are not angels, and won't be perfect in this world. We will all at times be mistreated and spoken harshly to. Belie­v­ers can be unjust, unfair, inconsiderate, hypocritical, and wrong, but we accept one another.

          "Diligently keeping" denotes exertion, sparing no effort. Never say the Christian life is easy to live. Living it in general, and loving one another in particular, is hard work. Satan knows how important unity is within a church. Let's not be guilty of underestimating its importance. Satan never stops trying hard to destroy our unity. He always sows seeds of discord among believers. Let's not let him outwork us.

          "The peace that binds us" defines the sphere in which our unity is nurtured. It becomes the out­ward guard, the protecting shell, of the inner unity which spawns it.

          Outward peace holds God's people together. When peace is maintained, inner passions and angry thoughts are more likely to be held in check, thus allowing them to be resolved privately in prayer. If peace is broken, deeds and words inflame inner feel­ings and throw gasoline on inward sparks, thereby inviting all havoc to ignite.

         

Eph. 4:4   There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling--

 

          In what way are Christians in unity? The answer is seven-fold. In verses 4-6, Paul repeated the word "one" 7 times. The 7 "ones" are clustered into three groups, centering in God the Holy Spirit (4:4), God the Son (4:5), and God the Father (4:6).

          Unity in the church reflects and reveals the blessed Trinity. The church is to picture for the world our triune God. This is why unity among believers is of utmost importance. The best chance unbelievers have to see the Trinity is in a united church.

          "Body" is Paul's favorite way of describing the church. This is under­standable.  It clearly pictures a unity which funnels energies into coopera­tive effort. Unity is essential to coordinated action. Division paralyses. By the new birth, believers are joined to their Head, Jesus, and thus become interactive members one with another.

          We are made for one another, and cannot thrive without each other. To teach us this at the first of our Christian walk, God made it impossible for a person to be saved without someone previously in the body doing something to make it happen.

          All who become believers do so by means of another believer. This forces us to see from the first that we belong to each other. We were not meant to be loners.

          "One Spirit" means a church can never be viewed mainly as an organization. The Holy Spirit's presence among us constitutes life, as in an organism. The Spirit in­dwells every believer and thus creates vital union between us. He is the unifying force in "the body." Even as every human life is traced to Adam, all believers can trace their spiritual life to the Spirit who worked through ones already in the body.

          He indwells, animates, and means to rule the "one body." His voice should be obeyed in all church decisions. The members must enact the Spirit's will, not theirs.

          "One hope at your calling" reminds we will someday enjoy eternal Christlike perfection. Believers differ in much, but in this we agree--we yearn for the homeland, for a life free from sin, the great divider. I look forward to the day when I will never hurt Jesus again. We will some­day be like Jesus. With this as our common hope, let's walk in such a united, joyful way that we attract others to travel the journey with us.

 

Eph. 4:5 . . .one Lord, one faith, one baptism,. . .

 

          The earliest basic Christian confession was, "Jesus is Lord." Without Christ, there is no Christianity. Christ is Christianity, Christianity is Christ. Christianity is not first a body of teachings or philoso­phy. It is the Lord and our relationship to Him.

          We are servants of one Master, who bought us with His blood. We do not belong to ourselves. Jesus owns us. He is the Sav­ior through whom we are saved, and also the Lord to whom we submit. All believers pledge allegiance, "Jesus is Lord."

          When Paul and other early Jewish believers called Jesus "Lord," they knew what implication would be drawn from their claim. Lord was a title the Jews reserved for YHWH Himself. For fear of mentioning God's holy name, the Jews substituted for it the word "Lord" over 5000 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

          For a Jew to call Jesus "Lord" was to call Him God. Jesus is God incarnate. There never had been anyone else like Him, and there never will be. He stands alone.

          We respond to "one Lord" with "one faith." Believers share this: we have all completely surrendered our lives to Jesus, thereby expressing our own weakness and total trust in His strength. Paul says nothing here about deeds of merit. Faith, the outgoing of one's whole self toward Christ, is the only means of contact with Jesus.

          "One baptism" is the initial outward sign of "one faith" placed in "one Lord."  The order in our text matters. Baptism follows faith. Soldiers are inducted into the army after they choose to join. Their public oath is based on a previously made decision. Similarly, bap­tism does not save. It publicly discloses a prior, private faith.

          The early church knew nothing of unbaptized believers. Secret disci­ples­hip was dis­allowed. When baptized, we unashamedly declare we are Christ-fol­low­ers.

          Allegiance was important in Jesus' bap­tism. In submitting to John's baptism, Jesus identified with a preacher scorned by the religious establish­ment of His day.

          Baptists immerse in water because the Greek word "baptizo" means immerse. We do not baptize infants. We immerse only believers who on their own previously chose to trust in Jesus. The act is an outward expression of inner allegiance to Christ.

 

Eph. 4:6 . . .one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

         

          The Church is one because its life and leadership can be traced to One who is paramount. Our text refers to God's spi­ritual gov­ern­ment over His own people. The phrase intermingles majesty and af­fec­­tion. It begins with splendor ("God"), softens into tenderness ("Father"), and then hastens to absolute authority ("above all").

          Here is the remedy of all worry--our "one God" who is "Father" is also "above all." Often, the one who controls does not care, or the one who cares does not control.

          However, in the leadership of the Church, grandeur is tem­pered with paternity and crowned with power. God who loves us most and wants to help us is fully able to carry out His desires in our behalf.

          "Through all" suggests movement. God is work­ing through us, guiding our footsteps, directing our circumstances, sustaining our hearts, and upholding our lives.

          God operates through us all. His providence is active. He is not a remote, disinterested deity, nor an isolated recluse in outer space. He is active in our affairs.

          "In all" is the most amazing thing of all. God who is transcendent, is also immanent. He does not come and go to accomplish His goals in our lives. He abides, indwells us. He works through us; His base of operations, His home, remains in us.

          This is not pantheism. God remains a distinct Personality, not a principle or a force. He is a Person who resides in us. No longer do we need to visit a distant shrine to find God. Each Christian is a temple. In ancient days, we journeyed huge distances to be near God. Christ reversed this process. God travelled far to be with and in us.

          Based on verse 6, my former Sunday School teacher, Chad Colley, gave some excellent ad­vice, "Since our God is Father of all, above all, through all, and in us all, let Him be all." Rest in God. Love, serve, and trust God. Let Him be our all in all.