Systematic Theology (part 5)

Here we call this Adventures in Theology because we want to look at the study of God, things that God has revealed about himself and us and the world, and then apply them in our lives. So this must be an exciting time as we open God's word and learn more about him and what theologians call the summum bonum, you know, God is our supreme good and we want to just rest in him and rejoice in him and have our minds filled with him that we may flourish in his presence.

The Word of God as Living, Powerful Revelation

So the first thing we've been looking at is the word of God and we've spent quite a bit of time on that and hopefully today we'll finish, wrap this up. There's a lot more that could be said about the word of God but I'll probably bring them in later because I do want to get to theology proper.

Maybe next week or the week after we will look at God and his attributes and we'll slow down because I want us to just spend a lot of time in looking at God, gazing at God through the scriptures as we look at his attributes.

But before we get to look at theology proper, we wanted to put the foundation of God's word, the word of God. So I know it's been a few weeks now. Does anyone remember what are some things that jump to mind when you think of the word of God?

What are some attributes or some qualities that should come to your mind? Excellent. Hebrews 4 .12. This is not just dry words from ancient times. This is living, active, powerful. It works in the lives of believers.

The spirit of God takes and wields this, convicts, encourages, and then most important of all, reveals God to us. And I think those two characteristics I want us to keep in mind as we go through today.

One of them is the revelation of God and the other one is the power of God as God speaks. Do you remember what examples we used for the word of God being powerful? Can you think of when God speaks and something happens?

Creation? Yes. So I think that should be a good reminder of what the word of God really means. It's not just something dry, but there is power as God speaks. Out of nothing, everything comes into being.

And when I talk about revelation, it is supposed to distinguish from some other sources of knowledge of God. We talked generally about general revelation. We talked about special revelation of the word of God.

Now, what could be some other ways that could contend for the knowledge of God in opposition to revelation? I'm not talking about Christians, like non-Christians. What would be other ways that people generally say, oh, this is how we could know God?

Audible voice? Okay, that's mysticism, some way in which there is... Yeah, that's a very common. People believe that they have the capacity to know God in and on their own. Look inside yourself or have some direct unmediated communication with God one-on-one and then find out about God.

So there's experience in other sources that normally compete with the written word. And before we talk about the nature of God, we wanted to lay a foundation of why God's word is important. So last time, we talked about how God spoke directly one-on-one to people and then those words were written down.

And these words have the same authority as if God was actually speaking to us in person right now in this room. And so we wanted to set the foundation why this is trustworthy and the source of knowledge to God.

Now, having said that, today's material, we will cover all of it, is a little different than what we've covered so far. We began by looking at how do we gaze upon the beauties of God in theology. And that's our goal.

Next week, hopefully, we'll get there. And then we said, how do we know about this God? And we said, we need the word of God. God has revealed himself to us. Now, if you just scan the handout, if you don't have a handout, there should be some, I think, by the doors so you can pick up.

Miss Mark, are they by the doors? This, OK. Now, if you look at the handout, we have the New Testament canon and the Old Testament canon and the authority of scripture. And many of you might actually have questions about, OK, why are we even looking at this?

Maybe there could be someone who says, I see you've told me that I need to go to the word of God in order to know about God himself. Now, how do I know that this word is actually true? Do I have to now put something as a foundation under God's word in order for me to trust it?

Or can I just trust it by opening it and reading it? And we're going to work through that in today's material. And in order to think properly, I'm going to give you two categories. And I want you to keep this in your mind as we jump into this.

The categories are knowing and showing. So each of us knows something to be true. As Christians, I want you to think as believers, there are some things that you know to be true, who God is, what the word of God is.

And then there are things that you want to show or communicate to, let's say, unbelievers, people who don't know these things. You want to tell them about God. You want to tell them about the word of God.

So I want you to keep these two categories in your mind because sometimes when we mix them together, it can get a little confusing, you know, where exactly we are standing when we process some information like the one we are going through this material.

And when you look at this knowing, and again, I want to just think of two categories here, one of which is a result of faith, your belief. What is it that you believe, you trust, you commit yourself to?

And the second component, and this is where I think we may get a little confused at times, is what are things that we understand, comprehend by having meditated upon it, understanding how things fit together, and say, okay, I can logically put things together and say how they relate.

So now these two broad categories, knowing and showing, and then the subcategories under knowing of what do I believe and what do I understand? And these are the big framework with which I want us to keep as we move through this material.

So once again, those coming in, there are some handouts by the door. You can pick them up. We're going to begin with a canon of scripture. And so I'm going to go back to the original statement. We are looking to understand who God is.

We do it on the basis of scripture. And now the question that's listed out is, how do you know what belongs in the Bible and what does not belong? So someone comes and says, or you yourself look at it and say, okay, do I know that everything in the Bible is correct in being here, or does the Bible actually miss some things that ought to be here but is not here?

So let's just get some responses. How do you know what belongs in the Bible and what does not belong? Excellent. So there is a historical precedent in the sense that when you said early church fathers, you're saying right from the time when the Bible was written, the church at that point had already had a collection of these books.

These are not something that we innovated or we invented over time. This was something that the church always had right from the beginning. Let's maybe just pursue that a little bit and then we'll look for other answers.

Now, when you think of that as a response, think again, know, show, believe, understand, what is the significance of the fact that the early church fathers or the early church always had these documents as part of the scripture?

Why would that be an important thing to think about? Excellent. So they are probably better qualified than anybody else because they either knew the apostles or they, yeah, let's just say they were very closely related in time.

So they were probably better able to. Okay, so what other means could you say for what belongs in the Bible and what does not? I think the New Testament quotes over 295 times various books of the Old Testament, and that's excellent.

And Jesus quotes extensively from certain books, like Deuteronomy and such, where you can actually say, okay, Jesus considered them to be scripture. Excellent. What other reasons can you think of? Apocrypha, okay, okay.

And maybe I'll even broaden it a little bit and say there's a consistent theme to these books, is there not? Right from Genesis to Revelation, you see the hand of God in redeeming his people, the Old Testament pointing to Christ, and then the New Testament revealing who Christ is, what he has done, and then looking forward to his second coming.

And actually, you can maybe broaden that a little bit more and say here are these 66 books written over 1 ,500 years by over 40 different authors. And yet, they have a unity and a consistency showing that it is one author above it all that is God who has breathed or inspired them.

So that's another good way for us to think about how this fits together. Any other reasons you can think of? So internal authentication, in this case, you mentioned New Testament, the Old Testament, but right within the New Testament, we have Peter talking about Paul's writing as equivalent to the other scriptures, referring to the Old Testament.

That's excellent. And again, from this side of the picture, and most of these will fall in different categories that you've just talked about. But I think this is very important. If God is the author of scripture, if he has revealed his words to us, you would also expect him to preserve those scriptures that he wants us to have.

And I think we'll pick this up at the end of today's class. And the very source of revelation is also the one who preserves his revelation for the church today. And so we can trust God's goodness in keeping this for us.

I'll just throw a few more out. How about prophecy, things that are recorded in the scriptures that come to pass and we find out later that these things God said are true. Archeology, things that the Book of Luke talks about.

There was a time in history when people didn't know about these towns. They said these books must be false. And then they find out about these things later and they're like, these are more historically accurate than any of the other history books that we've had up until this point.

So it's very accurate. Now, all of these, except maybe the one that you mentioned, would fit in this category of showing. You know, when we talk about how the early church fathers have always had this, or there is a consistency to these things.

Now, these are all helpful information that we can provide people who don't know the Bible and say, here are some things that you can, that seem to validate that the Bible is true. Now, when you came to a knowledge of God and a knowledge of the word of God.

Actually, I'm curious, maybe there is someone here that way. How many of you actually came to trust the word of God through these things that we just mentioned? That you had severe doubts, and there could be some here, and then you just studied things about the prophetical fulfillment in the word.

And then you said, wow, this book is really solid, Bob. And I think there is a few other famous men, too, who have said that they tried to destroy the Bible, and then they go there and they find out, man, this thing is indestructible because it is God's word.

And so those who were opposed to it became converted because of the consistency, the coherence, and the correspondence that it has with the world. And so there are some who have come to the Lord this way.

But for many of us, the experience is normally different, isn't it? It's like Hebrews 4 .12. You read the Bible, and then the word of God is like a sharp two-edged sword, and you have God speaking to you.

And there is that spirit of God that is working in us as we read this. And no one needs to tell me this is God's word, because God himself is doing business with my soul as I'm reading this. And so if you think of those categories, once again, we had know and show.

And the knowledge we talked about as belief and understanding. And when we talk about, and actually, Bob, I'm glad you mentioned this, because there are some things that our mind puts things together.

We understand, actually, as our faith is developed. And for most of us, the faith comes as God does work. And then we try to understand what it is that we have actually committed our lives to, as we have a trust, a fellowship with God.

Then we say, well, this was the case with me, as I knew the word to be true. And then I think I was talking to friends, and they asked these questions. They're like, I never even considered the fact that maybe one of these books is not authentic.

And then as you read more, and then you understand, and then it just reinforces or helps what your faith already held on to, because you knew this was God's word. So with that in mind, let's now go through this material we have here.

The Canon of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha

So we have first the canon of the Old Testament. We have in the first paragraph, actually, what is the canon, the definition? Canon of Scripture is the list of all the books that belongs in the Bible.

So canon is like a straight line. Here's a list of all that ought to be here, and we have those here. So the Old Testament, I've just broken it down by the categories. Pentateuch, the first five books written by Moses.

Historical books from Samuel to Esther. Poetical or wisdom books you have, like from Job to Proverbs. And you have the prophetic books, Isaiah to the end. Now all these books, and actually I'm not gonna go through those references there.

Those are references that talk about Exodus 32 we saw last time. God himself wrote with his finger. And then Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 31, Joshua, and so forth. You have the different prophets who are writing down these Old Testament canon, as it were.

Now, I'm gonna just pick one example here, but I think if there's someone else who wants to add another example, we'll use it. So here I'm gonna use the apocrypha as a means of showing to someone who may not agree with you on the canon of the Old Testament.

So we say 39 books in the Old Testament. And someone says, no, there's another canon, a deuterocanon, called the apocrypha, with 15 other books that ought to have the same validity and authority as the scriptures.

So here are some data that we could present to, like Catholic friends, who might say, well, this is true, but there is something else that has equal validity. So I've just picked this here. So you could be thinking of showing.

How would you show? Because for many of you, you may not even care to know why the apocrypha is not scripture, because you know the 39 books, you've read them, and maybe you've scanned an apocrypha and it doesn't make sense.

So here is the material that we have for the apocrypha. And think again in terms of showing, rather than knowing. So this is a quote, actually, from Grudem in italics, in 1546, the Council of Trent. The Roman Catholic Church brought these books and accorded them to be part of the canon because of the events that were going on at that point in time.

One of the things that the apocrypha does is there are texts in these deuterocanonical books that seem to accord salvation to faith plus works. So you have works as a means of salvation that these books actually endorse.

And so this would help the case against the reformation and the things that are happening here, salvation by faith alone. And so here are some factual data that are listed in the bottom of page one. So what could be some reasons to speak about the apocrypha as not being the word of God?

Literature outside of the New Old Testament state that divinely authoritative words from God had ceased. This is actually pretty interesting. First Maccabees, if you just turn your page over, there are some quotes there.

And if you just look at the first couple of quotes, one in 164 BC and the other in 160 BC, end of the first quote says, they tore down the altar and then stored it until a prophet should come and tell them what to do with them.

So here was something that was happening and there was no prophet, and so they had to wait for God to send a prophet. And there was no one bringing God's word to them. And the same thing with the second quote, the end says, the prophets had ceased to appear among them.

With the end of Malachi, up until the New Testament, there was really no, there was silence from God in terms of revelation. And so these books that were written during that period themselves said that there was no prophets at these times.

So they were just writing down historical documents. They are valuable as historical documents, but not as God's word, inerrant, infallible, communicating eternal truths to people. So that's basically how the authors of these documents themselves felt.

And then if you go back again, Josephus, he's a historian, a Jewish historian in the first century. He again said, these apocrypha don't have the same validity as that of the Old Testament. Again, if you look at the last quote up there on the back side, he says, we do not possess myriads of inconsistent books conflicting with each other, which is exactly what would happen if you put the apocrypha and the Old Testament.

They would start a conflict with one another because theologically, they have issues and they have historical inaccuracies that would actually make it errant rather than inerrant. Our books, these which are justly accredited are but two and 20 and contain the record of all time.

Two and 20 because the Jewish Old Testament conflated some of the books that we have, like 1st and 2nd Kings, they would bring them together. So there was 22 books in the Jewish canon that would be equivalent to the 39 that we have here.

And then on the top of page two, Qumran community, again, the first century, they too said we are still waiting for a prophet whose words would have God's authority. The Jewish community, and again, if you use the same argumentation, the closest to those who were around the time of the written word, never saw the apocrypha as authoritative from God.

They saw it as historical, but not as divinely inspired. And the New Testament, in all the New Testament, you never see Jesus disputing with the Pharisees about the apocrypha. So he would bring out issues from the book of Deuteronomy.

There's 295 quotes, but not one from the apocrypha. They contain teachings inconsistent. I already mentioned faith and works. Jerome's, and that's the time when you have officially the apocrypha brought with the Bible, but even he notes that these are not inspired.

These are helpful to have. So he puts them there and he makes it clear that they are not canon, but just helpful. And the early church had mixed opinion. And this is where it's gonna start to get a little blurry, and I wanna be, just give you a little word of caution here.

Mixed opinion on the issue, although most of the evidence is decidedly against viewing the apocrypha as scripture. And the earliest list, or the canon of the Old Testament books by Melito of Sardis, does not include the apocrypha.

And some famous guys, Eusebius was a historian, and Athanasius, they both rejected the apocrypha as part of the canon. So the data that I just, so we just went through a whole bunch of data. Here are some data to just say, okay, if I didn't know anything about the apocrypha, here are some things that it's helpful for me to know, especially if I'm talking to maybe some Catholic friends who are not clear about what the scripture is and why the apocrypha should or should not be there.

But the last point there, ninth point, brings something that I want us to just maybe spend a few moments on before we go to the New Testament. How many of you have actually spoken to Catholics who actually strongly believe that the apocrypha was scripture?

What did you hear from them? So there was some intentional reasons why these books were excluded and then later included. Okay, any other, and that's a legitimate fear, is it not? So if, because when we look at, I think if you look at the bottom of page two, the definition of authority.

The authority of scripture means that all the words in scripture are God's words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God. So if the apocrypha was scripture and then you would exclude it, then it would be like rejecting God and you would incur punishment.

So the question is, is this or is this not God's word? And on the basis of that, they will know whether to listen to it or just read it but not submit to it. Any other thoughts? So let me now turn this around.

So thinking again from knowing to showing, how would you communicate to believers about, actually, what would you communicate? So here you have a friend, a Catholic friend, who maybe doesn't even know much about their own scriptures.

And you need to, you want to show them the gospel, you want to love upon them. How would you communicate the truth of God's word to these people? Let's just open-ended, how have you done it before? Excellent.

Actually, I think that's really where I was going with this whole knowing versus showing. It's because when you're an unbeliever, your mind is already darkened. It is under the prince of the power of the air.

And no matter where you meet a person, someone who really doesn't know anything about the apocrypha or someone who is just a scholar in Catholicism, who's just gotten all the answers why apocrypha needs to be part of the Bible.

If they're not a believer, the first thing that they need to know is the gospel. And when I talk about knowing and showing, and this is the key that I want you to take away from this, how do you know the truth?

It is because God, by his grace, has opened your eyes, he has given you the spirit, and he has spoken to you through the word. He has revealed himself to you. And really, the unbeliever and the most fundamental level what they need is the same relationship with God.

They need their eyes open, and the means to the opening of the eyes is the gospel. So we need to be able to present the gospel to them that the Lord would open their eyes and see. There is nothing wrong with talking about this data, but I think it's very easy for us to get sidetracked to say, okay, my path to helping this person become a believer is take these specific issues, whether it's the apocrypha or something else, and then work through them, destroy all these arguments before I can actually present them the gospel.

And the danger there is this. When I know something, as a believer, I'm standing on the authority of God's word. When I'm trying to show someone what I have strong convictions for, I have a lot of data in the middle, the kind of things we just talked about.

And then I try normally to present it in a way this person can understand. So the danger that we incur during this process is I tend to step out of my worldview, because my worldview is a little incomprehensible to this person.

So I tend to walk into their worldview, what they take for given. I was standing upon the word of God, and now whatever it is that they're standing upon, I try to walk, stand on their platform, and try to explain to them the same data that I have.

The only challenge is, depending on what their worldview is, they're going to be looking at that data in a very, very different way than you are. And so, the frustration in many of these communications is, I'm speaking one language, and they're hearing in a different language.

And so we never get through at all. Now, I'm not saying we should disregard these data. We can use this data, but we need to be very careful what our fundamental purpose is when we are trying to show.

And again, even here, there are some things we know by faith. I don't need this data to know that this is the word of God. But as I understand, as I recognize, here is how the Apocrypha was actually written, then some things actually start to fall into place in my own mind.

I can see why the Apocrypha is not Scripture. I can see why these errors cannot be part of the canon of Scripture. And so, now I have a better understanding with which I can actually communicate as well.

So, let me just leave it at that, in terms of what we believe and what we show. Now, it gets a little more interesting with the New Testament canon, because I think not many people, unless you have strong Catholic friends, not many people are going to come and talk to you about the Old Testament.

But the New Testament, you will probably see a lot more people putting their guns on, and you probably have some examples to share. So, let's talk about the New Testament canon here. So, the first line there, just to break up the four Gospels and the Book of Acts, the historical work, and the epistles of Paul, and the general epistles, the letters from the other apostles, and then you have the Book of Revelation.

Now, the next two lines have various examples with regards to the authority of the apostles to write. We covered some of this already a few weeks back, so I don't want to spend time on this. Maybe you can go home and read this.

We'll just use a couple of examples here. Just as the prophets of the Old Testament heard from God in different ways, whether it was God speaking to them through visions and otherwise, so also the New Testament authors had divine inspiration, either what they heard from Jesus directly, or God communicating to them that they would write down under the inspiration of the Spirit.

And so, they had the equal authority, the apostles, as the Old Testament prophets. Now, we'll just use a couple of examples, the one that one of you mentioned about Peter and Paul. Let's actually read these scriptures, just so we know, we can use one example.

If someone can read 2 Peter 3 .16, who would like to read that? Mark? Someone read 1 Timothy 5 .17 -18, okay? And then someone can read Deuteronomy 25 .4, Scott? And then the last one, Luke 10 .7. Corey, thank you.

All right, so Mark, if you can read. Thank you. Actually, there is a subtopic here in terms of things that are hard to understand. You know, the scripture, when we read the scriptures, we want to read them as it is written, you know, in context, understand the language, understand the intent, use the grammar and the genre in which it is written, to whom it is written, so you understand it.

And for the most part, things are very clear, you know, just straightforward. And there are things there that are hard to understand, things that you have to study and meditate on and understand. And here, Peter says of Paul, some things that he says are difficult to understand.

And those who twist, there are some who would twist what Paul says, and then he says this concluding phrase, as they also twist other scripture. And basically, what he's saying here is, Paul here is writing scripture that people twist, just as they would twist other scripture.

He's here talking about the Old Testament. And the word that is used there, graphe, is used for writings of the scripture in the New Testament context. It says here, 51 times it is used. And here, it uses it for that of Paul, just as it would be used for all the other Old Testament writings also.

Now, the next three verses are all connected. So, we're going to see what Paul says. And Paul here is going to be quoting two texts. So, the first one is 1 Timothy 5. Okay. So, here, Paul is writing to Timothy.

He's giving some instructions with regards to how the elder Timothy is to run the church. And then, he's then instructing how the elder should be honored. And that itself is part of scripture. While he's writing this scripture, he is actually quoting two, he gives two quotes from the scriptures.

So, what were those two quotes? The first one is in Deuteronomy 25. And that's directly verbatim from Deuteronomy, the first quote. And the second quote is from Luke 10 7. Sorry. Thank you. So, here is Jesus speaking.

And it is written by who? Luke. And Luke was the traveling companion of Paul. And so, here, you have Luke actually writing a text that Paul actually quotes as part of scripture as well. So, what you're seeing here is the acknowledgement of the New Testament writings and scriptures within the scripture itself, both with Peter authenticating what Paul wrote and Paul authenticating what Luke says as scripture.

So, these are just some internal evidence in terms of the canon of scripture. So, now, let's look at the authorship in the next section. So, many of these books were written by apostles. Who is an apostle?

What's the definition of an apostle? Yeah, the meaning of the word apostle is sent. And then we use the two, we use a capital A apostle and a small a apostle. I think there's a few verses that talk about the small a apostle.

But we use the capital A apostles to someone who are sent in a very specific way. So, these are the apostles who were eyewitnesses of Christ and his ministry. So, we see that from Acts 1 when Judas is dead and they're trying to replace someone else in his place.

So, we need someone who is witness to Jesus Christ and his ministry and seen the resurrected Christ. And then they are testifying. They're sent because they testify about who Christ is and what he has given them to tell the world.

So, we have the list here. Matthew and John. Matthew is Levi, John, the beloved apostle. And then Romans to Philemon, all Pauline epistles. Paul was the late born apostle as he would call himself. And then we have James.

Which James is this? The half brother of Jesus. So, this is not the apostle James who was killed in Acts 12. But this was actually the brother of Jesus in John 7. He probably was an unbeliever at that point, although he was an eyewitness.

He didn't submit to the lordship of Christ, but the Lord was gracious to save him. And he was a leader in the early church. We see that again in the book of Acts. He was the head of the Jerusalem church in Acts 15.

And so, here is another apostle. And then you have the books of Peter, the letters of Peter, the letters of John and the book of Revelation once again with the apostle John. So, then we have a few other books.

The Gospel of Mark. Mainly because Mark was a companion of Peter. It was in the early church. Again, going back to the early church fathers, it was seen as the writings of Peter documented by young Mark.

And, well, he was with him in Rome. And Luke and Acts, once again, because of his association with Paul. And again, just the manner in which Luke and Acts are written is again instructive of the very diverse ways in which the scriptures are written.

Can somebody remember what does Luke say in his introduction when he says, I'm writing these things? That's right. So, he says, I have actually, there's different people who are writing and I have actually gone and researched these things and I'm writing an orderly account of all the things that I have discovered.

So, completely different means that God uses when he inspires and he writes. And then we have Jude. And actually, does anybody know of the controversy with Jude? The book of Jude? Yes, that's right. You have Enoch there.

And it's one of those books that it alludes to. And so, there was some question about it. And Jude also is the half-brother of Jesus. But very early, it was accepted as part of divine canon. Once again, on the basis of its content and what it was talking about.

Hebrews, the same way, because of its content. Once again, early people assumed that it might be Pauline, but the real reason for its acceptance is its contents. And again, back to Hebrews 4 .12, here is the word of God that, and I want to use this term now, it is self-authenticating.

We'll talk about that a little bit more as we get to the end. So, the church had, and again, here's another reason. The church had personal testimony of the living apostles to confirm books such as Luke, Acts, and Mark.

And the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church. Actually, can someone read John 10, 27? And here, Jesus is talking about himself as a good shepherd. And it's easy for us to remember in the historical context when Jesus is actually speaking.

You know, if you remember John 10, it's after John 9, Jesus has just healed the blind man. The blind man has said, Lord, and bow to him. Whereas the Pharisees have kicked out the blind man, and they say, you know, I'll be blind too.

And Jesus then gives the good shepherd. And then he says, you know, my sheep hear me, you don't. And so while he's physically speaking, there are people who hear and people who don't. And likewise here, when we think of scripture as a written revelation, written word of God, you once again have the sheep, which again, think in the early, the first century as the church, who actually hears God's word, just as Jesus was speaking, here it is from the written word, who recognize the word of God and they follow it.

So it's not very complicated to understand why these books that God had inspired were clear as God's word to the people of God who heard them, collected them, stored them, copied them and communicated them from century to century to century.

Okay, so let's maybe ask this last question and then we'll throw out, just like the Apocrypha, what are some of the other books that contend for the canon today? Will anything else be added to the canon of scripture in the future?