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To take a second look at the inspired words of our Bible we
must begin by surrendering the heart, the mind, and the will – indeed the core
of who we are and even how we think – to the source of truth Jesus Christ. By allowing our God the freedom to re-create
who we are from the inside out, we become new. We lose our slavery to self, and our minds and
hearts are liberated to His service. As
we begin to follow our God, rather than attempt to lead Him, or teach Him; we
become ready to see something more in the written pages of our Bible. A deeper level of truth is revealed to us in
the same familiar passages. The meanings
become more profound, and the impact more distinct in how we think and how we
live. This transformation is only
possible when our ideas of control are surrendered. This revelation of truth is only possible
when we follow our God’s leading in the reading of His book, rather than open
it with our own preconceived ideas fully in charge, and our only motives to
prove what we already believe. Truth is
truth. It requires no evidence to prove
itself, it is the evidence. The one
constant of our faith is that Jesus Christ is truth. As we surrender ourselves to the re-creating
power of our God, we can find Him better in the pages we have already
read. It is only in this way that we
relook at a book we have read and studied throughout our lives.
Since Christ is the center of our entire Bible, it seems the
best place to begin looking at Jesus, is where the books were written by those
closest to Him. Old Testament writers
had encounters with our God, but were unable to walk with Him every day, eat
meals with Him, listen for hours directly to everything He would say, and daily
witness the depth of love He showed for every person He encountered. These were the personal testimonies of New
Testament writers. So we begin our
examination of scripture with those who were the closest to Him, those written
works comprise the second or New Testament of Jesus. It is here where we will find the written
account of His life, His travels, His constant acts of love and redemption, His
Ministry, and finally His fulfillment of the cost of our Salvation from the
slavery of sin and self. Every Old
Testament writer longed to see the coming of their Messiah. From Adam to Moses to the minor prophets,
each believed firmly that our God Jesus Christ would come, and free them from
the bondage of evil. And while each
author wrote the history and the hopes of Israel in their time, to witness the
coming of the Messiah would have fulfilled their wildest dreams. In our day, we wait for His return. But like any good story, we will begin in the
middle, and begin to learn of our God, from the words of the eye witnesses to
His Truth.
As we begin, we might also address an issue that has become
more prominent in recent days.
Historians and scholars from time to time uncover manuscripts believed
to be written during the time of Christ, some purported to be written by His
closest followers. Yet these epistles
are missing from the collection we refer to as the New Testament. As Historians find value in the study of
history, they would not understand why our Bible is simply not amended to
include these discoveries as they are made.
In addition, many authors have penned many works and studies on the life
of Christ centuries after the early Christian church had evolved, and some
argue that their works could also be added to the end of the collection as
well. The question then, is what makes a
particular work worthy of inclusion into our Bible, and what does not? Why not include recently discovered works
such as the gospel of Mary Magdalene, or of Judas, or others? This has been debated by historians as well
as philosophers and theologians since the collection was first assembled. And it is a question that modern agnostics
and atheists attempt to use to discredit our Bible, as we appear unwilling to
modify it despite “evidence” that it may be incomplete. So how do we address the works that are NOT
included in our Bible?
How could you know truth, if what you needed to know was
held back from you? How could you know
truth if what was written were based in lies, or mis-edits, on unclear
translations of what was originally said?
An atheist has a legitimate claim in distrusting humanity to “get it
right”. Simply put, we as a species have
a long history of making mistakes. We as
a species, tend to embellish, incorporate our opinions in stories that are
supposed to be factually accurate, and in general remember only the good and
ignore all of the bad we may be responsible for. Given that, a series of collected works, that
span a 2000 year period of time should be at best “a good story” and at worst,
an entire distortion of anything resembling reality. But this perspective is clearly and accurately
based in examining us a species, absent the power or influence of any divine
being.
If however as our atheists friends disdain considering,
there actually is an omnipotent God who created our species through an act of
love and choice; if this God gave us the freedom to choose to trust and love or
not, and we chose badly; and instead of leaving us to our deserved fate of
slavery to pain and death, our God chose to redeem us; it would only seem
logical, that our God would need to communicate His plan, His Truth, and His
love to us. This communication would
have to last for thousands of years, and reach many more people than would
first encounter it. Therefore the best
and most effective method of communication would be the written word. This word would have to protected, and its
importance understood by those involved in its preservation, so that accuracy
could be maintained. And if the point of
these communications were the redemption of man, then this word would have to
be widely disseminated and translated in order that the maximum amount of
people in the world might be able to read it, and get from its pages, the truth
they would need to make a decision about whether they wanted to return to the
trust and love our God offers, or not.
The communication may not need to be absolutely perfect, or even
absolutely clear, but it would need to be perfect enough, clear enough, and
complete enough so that its reader could decide for themselves if they wanted
to follow the God Jesus Christ identified in its pages or not. If that decision was based on error due to
the weakness of our species, or that decision was based on incomplete
information because what was needed was omitted or altered, then the decision
would be void. At that point, choice
would no longer be choice at all.
If our God created us with the ability to choose to trust
and to love in the first place; then it stands to reason He has no intention of
taking that ability to choose away from us.
Instead He offers us the clear alternatives of love of others, and love
of self, captured in the included works of our Bible from cover to cover. He offers us a very personal view of Himself
in the form of Jesus Christ. He reveals
to us what it truly means to love. He
does these things not in an attempt to control us arbitrarily, but to show us
how we may be made free through His love.
He wishes to liberate us from our slavery to self, to pain, and to
death. These acts of love forever
preserve our ability to choose them, or walk away from them. His communication to us then, must be more
than simply the historical ramblings of generally uneducated men. They must be divinely inspired and divinely
preserved. They must be accurate enough
to show the definition of love, and the implications of what it means to trust
in God even more than to trust in our own wisdom. This is why we can have confidence that what
is included in our scriptures is indeed enough.
It does not need more information, and newer discoveries in order that
truth be finally revealed. What it has
already is enough.
If we choose to examine subsequent works, or discoveries of
writings made in the same time periods, it is not to replace what was written,
but perhaps only to offer another perspective on the source of truth who stands
behind the words of His communication to us.
If those newly discovered works detract from the divinity of our God,
they would make void the entire intent of the Bible, and therefore prove
themselves of no account. There are men
and women who have served our Lord during the last two thousand years, who may
have written down ideas, perspectives, and revelations about the truth they
discovered in the books of our Bible.
What truth we can glean from their words is an added blessing to
us.
Martin Luther for example, along with many contemporaries of
his day, determined from the reading of the word, that salvation was brought
about by Christ Himself, not through the ordinances of the church who claimed
His name at the time. This discovery or
revelation of truth was profound, and gave birth to Protestantism within
Christianity. He further advocated that
the members of the church be given direct access to the words of scripture,
rather than be led only by those who studied theology as a profession. In so doing, and with the birth of the
printing press, the Bible was released to the world at large, offering every
man the chance and the choice to see the truth of Christ for himself. Without these important contributions to the
cause of our God, the world may never have known His truth. This does not mean that Martin Luther, or any
of his contemporaries were perfect, infallible, or deserving of inclusion in
new volumes at the end of our current Bible.
It does however illustrate to us, that the goals of our God to redeem
mankind, can and will be achieved through the dissemination of His
communications to us. It also shows us
that a study of the word without preconceived ideas can lead to world altering
profound revelations of love that are consistent with the character of Christ,
even if they are not in line, with the contemporary thinking of the established
religions of the day.
While we examine the writings of our New Testament of Christ
it is important to remember, the writers of the New Testament did not have
these compiled works at their fingertips for reference and study. The scriptures they had access to at the time
were only the works of the Old Testament.
The established religion of the day, had made the choice to reject the
divinity of Christ, despite having all the written works of Moses, David,
Isaiah, and the prophets. While the
entirety of the Old Testament prophecies found their fulfillment in the life of
Christ, the theologians of the day who should have been the most aware of this,
rejected it. They decided despite the
written word, that they would rather maintain their power and influence over
the people than be compelled to humble themselves, abandon the hope of
liberation from Roman occupation, and focus only on service to others as Christ
advocated.
The established religion of God, went so far as to kill its
object Jesus Christ, and then to attempt to kill or silence any follower of
Christ who dared to spread the good news.
In effect the religion of God, went to war with the God who founded
it. Paul was caught up in this war
against God until his conversion. But it
is worthy of note that the authors who penned the works included in our New
Testament of Christ had only the works of the Old Testament from which to prove
the divinity of our God. In re-examining
the scriptures of the day, they discovered the truth that led them to
Christ. Without the preconceived ideas
of the established priesthood in their heads, they found the truth of Christ in
the same familiar passages that the leadership and educated intelligentsia of
the church had rejected. The same words,
revealed the truth, that preconception had rejected. The lesson is keen for us as we begin our
second look …
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