It Is Written: The 400 Years of Prophetic Silence | Malachi 4:4-6

Let's turn to the book of Malachi. The prophet

Malachi chapter 3. I want to start in verse 16.

The book of Malachi chapter 3 beginning in verse 16. I'm gonna read to the end of the book of Malachi here.

Then those who feared Yahweh spoke to one another and Yahweh gave heed and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear

Yahweh and who think upon his name and they will be mine says

Yahweh of hosts on the day that I prepare my own treasured possession and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him so you will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between the one who serves

God and the one who does not serve him for behold the day is coming burning like a furnace and all the arrogant and every worker of wickedness will be chaff and the day that is coming will set them aflame says

Yahweh of hosts so that it will leave them neither root nor branch but for you who fear my name the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall and you will tread down the wicked for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which

I am preparing says Yahweh of hosts remember the law of Moses my servant even the statutes and judgments which

I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel behold I am going to send you

Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land devoting it to destruction this is the reading of God's holy written word amen so this is a very powerful word from God today here here we find

God rebuking Israel through the

Prophet Malachi one of many repeated recurring rebukes and judgments that God pronounces on Israel for most of her history ever since the beginning

God had warned Israel you're stubborn you're stiff -necked and you're going to be judged for your disobedience and it kept happening over and over again and this book is no exception to that recurring pattern in Israel's history

Israel was in a state of sin of negligence earlier in the chapter talks about how they neglected

God's temple by not tithing the portion that they were supposed to tithe and take care of the things of God and the temple in those things of idolatry they were guilty of idolatry of hypocrisy and sadly they lacked the self the conviction and the self -awareness to see it to see their own sin to see herself in the mirror truly for what she really was and if you turn back with me to the book of Malachi in chapter 3 we're going to see more of that play itself out what why

God is rebuking Israel in chapter 3 beginning in verse 13 where Yahweh says your words these are the words of the

Jews under under the Persian rule have been strong against me says

Yahweh but you say what have we spoken against you you have said it is worthless to serve

God and what gain is it that we have kept his charge and that we have walked in morning before Yahweh of hosts so now we call the arrogant blessed not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test

God and escape they get away with murder so to speak these that this is the state of Israel and obviously needless to say but but it needed to be said and told to them by God they are in a dire state of sin rebellion and hypocrisy these words from the

Prophet marked the end of the Old Testament like we saw in the previous weeks the last of the

Old Testament prophets Malachi and the beginning of the 400 years of prophetic silence that is the that is the main agenda for today's sermon beloved the sermon series on scripture alone and on all of these different aspects of scripture and this is going to continue to be an apologetic sermon on the intertestamental period and on the nature of the apocryphal writings written during this time of silence of these years of prophetic silence very important subject matter sadly it is all too often neglected in churches today and it's important for us to have an awareness of this important historical period because it informs so much of what happens before during and after the

New Testament as well so the book of Malachi ends with a stunning prophetic cliffhanger it just it just it's a sharp rebuke but then there's a prophetic cliffhanger it leaves the entire nation of Israel hanging on a promise from Yahweh God because Yahweh is announcing the return of Elijah the

Prophet of Elijah the Prophet who had already lived before that then he had already passed on but Yahweh announces the return of this prophet

Elijah known as one of the grandest most romantic characters and prophets that Israel ever produced behold

I am I Yahweh and going to send you Elijah the

Prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Yahweh or the day of the

Lord as it the Septuagint says and he Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children in the hearts of the children to their fathers to their fathers that is a stunning prophetic promise of that that that's it that's that kind of thing

God has never really prophesied that before the return of a prophet that has already gone before them and has already passed on and it is remarkable because you have to put yourself in their shoes in Israel's shoes think about what's going on they're in sin they're being rebuked by God and then

God promises them Elijah will come back he will send

Elijah back to them to restore them and back in this time during the mid to early 400s

BC this is around that time of Malachi and Israel around that time and but just imagine just imagine the anticipation the eager expectation of Elijah's return to reform

Israel and to clean up the sinful mess that she had put herself in that she had brought upon herself through her sin her hypocrisy her lack of self -awareness lack of conviction and lack of repentance so what what happens

Malachi the prophet passes on he dies right and then what happens they wait and they wait and they keep waiting all of Israel keeps waiting for Elijah to come back to them and to help restore them turn them back turn the hearts to the fathers to the children the children to the fathers to make things better for Israel they wait and they keep waiting and not only does

Elijah not come back yet but no other prophet comes to Israel either none not for 100 years not for 200 years not for 300 years not for 400 years no prophets come to Israel during this time the the the you can imagine the build -up the tension the distress the anxiety that they've been used to a line of a line of a continuous succession in line of prophets for 600 700 years before this a continual succession of prophet after prophet and or prophets and yet there is a sudden halt for 400 years no prophet it is a very significant change unexpected change in the history of Israel because you see in the prophecy it doesn't say exactly when

Elijah would return but he just leaves them with that promise these are beloved the 400 years of prophetic silence known as also the intertestamental period the intertestamental period the period between the

Old and the New Testaments so although there was a glaring a glaring prophetic silence in Israel it the succession of prophets was was it broke

God stopped it he halted it he put it on hold put it on pause for 400 years there was also at the same time during this time there was great political and spiritual change and turbulence and turmoil there's a lot of things going on during this time and no new scripture was written was given at this time though the entire

Old Testament was eventually translated into what became the next universal language of that time

Greek the Greek language so God's providential shaping of redemptive history and of Israel and of the world continue to unfold and to pave the way for the next prophet

Elijah who would pave the way himself for something much bigger and greater so going beginning in about the 430s

BC to 331 BC Israel is under the

Persian Empire when previously they were under Babylonian rule until the

Persians who were led by Cyrus the Great defeated

Babylon they defeat Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple and relative peace and stability this this this is prophesied in the

Bible the Bible referred the Old Testament talks about it Cyrus the Great he allows the

Jews to come back to their homeland rebuild the temple that the Babylonians had previously destroyed the

Solomon's temple so and the Jewish high priests gain increasing importance in Israel's national leadership as well that becomes important later on now in 331

BC through 323 BC around that time Alexander the

Great conquers the Near East the Macedonian general he wasn't

Greek but he was he was a Macedonian he conquers the Near East including Israel without any resistance from Israel and gradually ushers in Greek culture language philosophy and so on it's the

Hellenization of the world at that time the Greek of the Greek effications so to speak

Greek becomes the common language the common tongue which becomes crucial for the

Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament and the writing of the

New Testament and coin a Greek coin a Greek that means common the common

Greek so from 323 onward something else very eventful starts to happen

Alexander is Empire is divided as often happens in history empires get fractured they get divided their schisms there's factions about who's going to take over and it starts to divide and Israel becomes a battleground between two major successor kingdoms that of the

Ptolemies in Egypt and the silly the Seleucids in Syria okay in Egypt under the

Ptolemies Jewish communities grew in Alexandria in relative peace and there was a famous library in Alexandria sadly it got burned down but there was a lot of culture and stuff and knowledge being produced there and it was it became a massive

Mecca and Center for learning and and the Jews were many

Jews lived there Alexandrian Jews and this is where the

Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament is eventually produced as well okay now in 175 to 164

BC this is where in Syria under the

Seleucids Antiochus the fourth Epiphanies violently attempts to eradicate

Jewish worship violently he desecrates the temple and replaces it with Jupiter and all this just blasphemy that he imposes on the

Jews bans their sacrifices forces pagan practices on them and this persecution of Antiochus Epiphanies triggers the

Jews to revolt against him known as the Maccabean revolt so in 164 through 63

BC led by the Maccabees Israel then gained some independence from their

Seleucid oppressors they fight back they revolt that the temple is cleansed and rededicated at this point and this is where the origin of Hanukkah comes from from this momentous event in Israel's history and I have to confess

I resonate a lot with Israel's history and their independence there they have a fiercely independent spirit and I resonate greatly with that they just want to be left alone to worship

God be left alone they they despise being under rulers foreign rulers and but that was what

God had warned them what happened if they disobeyed if they sinned they didn't repent but this is an ongoing theme in Israel's history this very fearsome spirit of independence and they want some of that in this time and the

Hasmoneans the Hasmonean dynasty eventually became both kings and priests in Israel but this led to corruption and internal division more schism fractures and all that stuff and during this time again 164 63

BC the several Jewish groups emerge as part of the religious landscape of the

New Testament okay there were the Pharisees who emphasized strict

Torah observance to the to the five books of Moses and their oral tradition as well which

Jesus often rebuked and refuted and said they were you know replacing God's law with and word with their vain traditions human traditions man -made traditions there were the

Sadducees the priestly aristocracy tied to the temple establishments they were the liberal elites they denied the resurrection and things like that there were the

Essenes the Essenes were separatists who sought purity from you know the what they thought was the corruption of society and they were the likely authors of the

Dead Sea Scrolls that they were the Dead Sea Scrolls were several Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts and many other things manuscripts of the

Old Testament they are the oldest copies of the Old Testament that we have amazing they are exactly the same as what the

Old Testament that we have today ancient ancient manuscripts and there were the zealots the zealots were militant nationalists often violent nationalists who despised the foreign yoke the foreign rule of these foreign rulers like the

Greeks and the Romans and so on so this is the context of that time all of these things were taking place and more no but no prophet had come to Israel during that time no

God breathed scriptures had been written during that time either and all of these things were taking place meanwhile from the time when

Haggai Zechariah and Malachi died the divine spirit departed from the

Jewish people as these three were considered to be the last prophets and that's from the

Jewish Talmud that was the understanding of the day and after that of the

Jews this is what we've shown you all before and in the sermons prior and so there was great distress and suffering in Israel such as had not been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them and that's a quote that I read previously also from first Maccabees one of the apocryphal books so then in 63

BC the Romans under general Pompey now captured

Jerusalem and Israel becomes a Roman client kingdom so now they went from Greek Dominion ought to Roman rule and Herod the

Great really Herod the devil the man was a devil was an abomination of a man he eventually rules and renovates the temple and the stage is set for the birth of Christ in a

Roman ruled Judea and Palestine right so this is where so much of this is unfolding and unraveling in God's providence without any prophet yet coming to Israel nope no prophet has yet to show himself so then and then there was a man a priest named

Zechariah remember him mentioned him last time because some people thought that like that apocryphal infancy gospel of James they thought that Jesus was referring to Zechariah the priest who was killed and murdered but that's not that's false there's no record of Zechariah being killed or even of his death but Zechariah the priest something important happens in this time turn with me to the gospel of Luke chapter 1 verse 11 as we find out what happens next the gospel of Luke chapter 1 verse 11 here we find some very important realities taking place and soon to take place and an angel of the

Lord appeared to Zechariah standing verse 11 standing to the right of the altar of incense remember that the altar of incense is inside the temple and Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel and fear fell upon him but the angel said to him do not be afraid

Zechariah for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will call him his name

John the Baptist and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the

Lord and he will not drink any wine or strong drink and he will find he will be filled with the

Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb and he will what he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the

Lord their God and he will what he will go before him

Yahweh in the spirit and power of whom Elijah Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the

Lord Wow amen this is what Malachi was prophesying this is the prophecy of Malachi taking place this is where Malachi's prophecy is literally fulfilled the years of prophetic silence the four hundred plus years of prophetic silence finally ended with the arrival of John the

Baptist the mess the Messiah's prophetic forerunner the one who is more than a prophet in the words of Jesus himself the greatest of all the

Old Testament prophets who will go before him in the spirit and power of none other than Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children straight out of the prophecy of Malachi the last prophecy of Malachi of the next prophet that would come now let's find out more about this event beloved turn with me in Matthew 11 where we now find

Christ Christ speaking about his cousin

John the Baptist his older cousin and I meant to clarify this to I miss go misspoke a little bit last time when

Jesus referred to the Zechariah the Old Testament in Chronicles the altar and he was stone between the altar and the sanctuary the altar that was outside was the was a burnt offering altar the incense altar was inside the temple so there were two different altars okay so the this is where this

Zechariah was he was in the altar of incense inside the temple not outside in the court okay so excuse me

Matthew chapter 11 the gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verse 7 verse 7 now as these men were going away

Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John the Baptist what did you go out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind but what did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing behold those who wear soft clothing's clothing are in Kings palaces no but what did you go out to see was it a prophet yes

I tell you and one who is what more than a prophet this is the one about whom it is written behold

I send my messenger ahead of you you who will prepare your way before you truly

I say to you among those born of men among those born of women there has not arisen greater than anyone greater

I'm sorry truly I say to you among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the

Baptist yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he and the days of John the

Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force violent men take it by force for all the prophets remember that synecdoche all the prophets in the law prophesied until John and if you are willing to accept it what does he tell us here beloved

John himself is who Elijah who was to come who was prophesied to come he who has ears to hear let him hear amen amen it is black and white before us beloved black and white the the prophets had ceased until John the

Baptist came Elijah 2 .2

point oh so to speak in the spirit and power of Elijah the

Prophet himself now now beloved we have an historical prophetic biblical context to the apocryphal writings this is what was going on it is amazing stuff to understand and to internalize beloved it is so clear in scripture so clear

God promised a prophet but no prophet came until John the

Baptist 400 years later first but now first of all dealing with the apocrypha why should we care again why should we care about the apocrypha do they really matter what is the big deal one thing to understand is that the issues and the controversies the debates surrounding the apocrypha they do focus on what they say and teach but especially the controversies are especially focused and we need to focus them ourselves on how they are regarded and used by religious traditions and churches or how they are not used whether Protestant Roman Catholic Eastern Orthodox and so on it is not it is in part what they say and what they teach but it is especially how they are used and recognized by churches and certain religious traditions as I have stated before in the previous sermons the canon of scripture the authoritative list of script list canonical books of scripture and biblical authority are definitional foundational differences between Protestantism and everything else and everyone else including especially

Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy so and the different views of these foundational issues of scripture and authority and of ultimate authority lead to the con lead to very conflicting understandings of what scripture is and what it teaches like the apocryphal books including doctrines that are of first importance

God man salvation the gospel faith works the

Antichrist and his Antichrist and so on and on because the sacred scriptures are the very foundation and definition of our faith they define us as Christians and as Protestants who hold to the ultimate authority of scripture alone not scripture and nothing else but scripture the final infallible written permanent rule of faith for the believer and the church so this is what we must understand beloved and it distinguishes us from everyone else even from those who claim to hold to the very same books of the

Bible that we do they might just add a few more but why why do they add more or why do they say that we take some away because likewise these the apocryphal books are tied to these exact same foundational definitional distinguishing issues of ultimate authority issues of ultimate authority what is scripture who gets to define scripture on what basis do we receive the scriptures from what from tradition from the church from God working through the church how does it how do we answer those questions are the apocryphal scripture and according to whom says who

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches teach that their apocryphal are God -breathed scripture and they don't have the same apocryphal books they overlap but they have different ones the

Eastern Orthodox Church has more in certain cases and and and they both of these churches use them as reasons for why you should not be a

Protestant or anything else and instead should submit to their churches and their authority which supposedly gave you the true

Bible according to their traditions and authorities right so these are perennial important issues that have been ongoing and within the life of the church for centuries and nothing has changed in our day they claim these traditions these false

Antichrist traditions claim that the 400 years of silence are enough is a non -biblical man -made fiction a tradition a tradition when ironically the apocryphal show themselves to be pious but nonetheless human writings that were not breathed out by God even the even those books acknowledge this very ironic remember then that the book of Malachi ends with a prophecy of the next prophet that was coming to Israel the next prophet was supposed to be

Elijah that is that Yahweh was himself going to send like he did the other prophets it was

Elijah who did not come until John the Baptist arose as the voice crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the

Lord this makes it so emphatically clear why we are we understand these things the way we do and why the apocryphal books have no place in Scripture there's no profit to justify them at all and from from a perspective of them being breathed out by God that is so what are the apocryphal books books then what are they about do they evidence

God's breath the theopneustos of God at all so remember the apocryphal books were written during the 400 during these 400 years of prophetic silence prophetic silence when no prophet had spoken or written any prophecy at all not until John the

Baptist began preaching the baptism of repentance and on the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world the promised

Messiah he was the red carpet that would preach this repentance and turn the hearts of many to the

Lord and also provoke the ire of the unbelieving

Jews just like they did they're all the other prophets who can kill them like they did able to Zechariah like Christ said now remember too that there are two major views of the early church regarding what they considered canonical

Scripture the books of the Bible the first one was what books did the Jews believe to be

God's Word and this has been very clear they did not consider the apocrypha to be

Scripture the other criteria that the early church use was what books that the churches read in church and liturgically and consider edifying this was the more imprecise criteria that made more room for other books including the apocryphal books but many in the early church did not consider the apocryphal writings to be canonical in addition to the

Jews themselves and this is this is the first criteria the

Protestant view that we agree with that we hold to but they still considered them edifying for the church to read okay so even though they didn't consider them to be

Scripture they said they were still useful and beneficial for the church to read and this is what this is historically what

Protestants taught and believed Luther and the Reformers they they believed that this they were still valuable to know and be aware of just that they weren't

Scripture there was that distinction and this is an ancient description distinction going back all the way to the early church so this is what and even though sadly we've lost a lot of this because they started to take out the apocryphal books from Protestant Bibles from publishing companies in the late late later on in the 1800s late 1800s

I think so it was only recently that the apocryphal wasn't published with in Protestant Bibles even though they were distinguished as not

Scripture so they are the apocryphal books are the books of Tobit Judith the wisdom of Solomon Sirach or Ecclesiasticus Baruch with the letter of Jeremiah first and second

Maccabees plus additions to the books of Esther and Daniel known as the prayer of Azariah the song of the three holy children

Susanna and Bell and the dragon now some some

Eastern Orthodox churches not all of them and I'll deal more with that later on but they include the

Roman Catholic Deuterocanonical books that I just listed and they add more they add first Esdras third

Maccabees the prayer of Manasseh Psalm 151 and sometimes fourth

Maccabees in second Esdras to Esdras so there's a there's a lot of variation going on here they don't even agree on what the apocryphal books are so even within their own traditions we will see that as well now this brings me to an important public service announcement for today none of the apocrypha claim to be inspired divinely inspired or breathed out by God none of them there is no explicit reference to thus saith the

Lord no prophetic formula but on the contrary some explicitly claimed to be mere human attempts mere human writings in part because they acknowledged that prophecy had ceased during that time just like I read from first Maccabees you remember that all of the apocryphal books were also written during the 400 years of prophetic silence remember that they were written during that period of 400 years between the

Old and the New Testaments okay so no prophetic formulas in any of them and some openly admit their human limitations and their attempts to write this down their books down now there's another issue here this is focusing on the issue of what the apocrypha say and teach because the apocrypha contain various numerous errors and contradictions within their the writings internal contradictions contradictions with the other books of the true books of the

Bible there's chronological errors geographical errors historical figures misrepresented and misplaced there's issues with authorship and there's embellishments exaggerations and embellishments and so on the book of Tobit for example which was written around the 200s

BC around the middle of the silent years claims that Nebuchadnezzar who was

Babylonian and has aware us who was Persian captured Nineveh together it claims that in the book of Tobit the only problem is that that that's an that's impossible that's a historical impossibility because Nineveh was destroyed in 612

BC 612 BC before Nebuchadnezzar's reign which began in 605

BC by his father it was destroyed by his father not nabobo nabobo lesser and by Syrax Ares Syrax Ares I think who was of the ruler of the meats okay so Nebuchadnezzar never fought

Nineveh because the in Syrian Empire was already gone at that time and a hazardous and the

Persian Empire had not even existed yet not so many years later so there's just gross historical errors in these books this is just one of many the book of Judith also in the late 200s

BC written in that time claims that Nebuchadnezzar reigned from Nineveh over a

Syria okay that's not exactly true at all that's false another falsehood

Nebuchadnezzar was Babylonian and he ruled from Babylon because he was

Babylonian after Nineveh's destruction it was after the destruction of Nineveh in 612

BC so numerous historical light errors like these abound in these books okay the book of Syrac another apocryphal book around the the late 200s

BC also it is a grandson's translation of his grandfather's work it's a book of religious wisdom and Proverbs some of it is very good stuff it's worth reading the prologue says this my grandfather

Jesus was also drawn on himself to it's not

Jesus it's not the Jesus of the New Testament not we're not the Messiah Jesus is another Jesus was also drawn on himself to write somewhat pertaining to instruction and wisdom you are entreated therefore to read with favor and attention and to pardon us if in any parts of what we have labor to interpret we may seem to fail and some of the phrases for things originally spoken in Hebrew don't have the same force in them when they are translated into another language in this case

Greek I have made efforts to translate this book so he's sure he's saying hey this is my best effort it is a human attempt to translate a book from Hebrew to Greek that's really all it is

I mean it's so funny how this is showing itself to be a mere human effort of a translation of another book which

I we don't have we don't have any of these original writings that the apocryphal books are based on we don't have them they were not preserved and that's another red flag those original writings were not preserved and so what does that tell us then you know this is this is why it's so important that we understand these things beloved you know like and then this is one of the most significant apocryphal books is first and second

Maccabees these are considered to be the more historically reliable apocryphal books they tend to be the most valuable or the most useful in that sense in a historical sense so first Maccabees was written around 100

BC one of the more valuable books like I said it describes the exploits of the three

Maccabean brothers Judas Jonathan and Simon during the Jewish revolt against the

Seleucid Empire the ones that were very oppressive to Israel in around 167 to 164

BC along with Josephus it is one of the most important sources for this crucial period in Jewish history it's a very important work for that reason but we will see that it is not breathed out by God there was great suffering in Israel the book says such as was not since the time the

Prophet stopped appearing to them it's right there the verse I've quoted many times before and 1st

Maccabees 445 to 46 similarly says a good plan came into their mind that they should pull it down unless it would be a reproach to them because the

Gentiles had defiled it so they pulled down the altar they pulled down the altar and laid up the stones on the temple hill on a convenient place until a prophet would come to give an answer concerning them why because there was no prophet at that time it says that numerous times even so the author places the events of Maccabees 1st

Maccabees places the events in an era after prophecy had already ceased obviously implying the book itself is a historical record but not a divinely inspired prophetic work from God it just ain't and it's just you just have to read it to see it

I like what the the new Jerome Bible commentary okay the new

Jerome Bible commentary a Roman Catholic commentary that is stamped with the seal of approval of the

Roman Catholic Church that is quote free of doctrinal or moral error okay the book that commentary says this several complaints have been lodged against the historical reliability of 1st

Maccabees the nationalism of its author and the exaggerated importance he gives to Judean events are said to make its object objectivity suspect so there's embellishment there's exaggeration he is anti -seleucid obviously because they were oppressing them and moreover which is he's they're saying it reveals a bias and moreover he shows ignorance of the history geography and political organization of foreign peoples they don't even represent the writing doesn't even represent the foreign nations properly whether in geography history political organization he is

Jewish nationalism leads him to inflate the numbers of the enemy so as to have a more striking divine intervention on behalf of the

Hasmoneans who eventually took over as kings and priests of Israel and he has erred in placing the death of Antiochus the fourth

Epiphanes Epiphanes who was the brutal oppressor at that time after the dedication of the temple and there are five there are like five different contradictory accounts of Antiochus death reported in the books of Maccabees alone just in those books these and other historical shortcomings blatant blunders you should say are thought to discredit him as a reliable reporter of the period so this is from a

Roman Catholic commentary okay free of doctrinal and moral error according to the

Roman Catholic stamp of approval and there you have it now second

Maccabees okay the other book that's considered to be more historically relevant and reliable it is around the same time written around the same time 100

BC as as first Maccabees it is a condensed or abridged history of an earlier five -volume history and again no surprise the original work is lost no longer exists it recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus the fourth

Epiphanes and the Maccabean revolt against him it concludes with the defeat of the

Seleucid general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus the leader of the

Maccabees of the Maccabees and it describes prayers and offerings for the dead as well so there's a lot of issues here as well now second

Maccabees 223 through 25 says this these things which have been declared by Jason of Cyrene and five books we will attempt to a bridge in one book for having in view the confused mass of the numbers and the difficulty which awaits those who would enter into the narratives of the history by reason of the abundance of the matter we were careful that those who would choose to read may be attracted and that those who would wish to us well may find it easy to recall and that all readers may benefit so they wrote this because people were having a hard time reading a five -volume history so say okay you know what let's make this easier for people and just abridge it it's not because God told him to it's because they wanted to just condense a work that they thought was useful a five -volume work which we don't have we lost it similarly second

Maccabees 1537 through 38 says this then having been the account of the attempt of Nicanor the general who served in the

Maccabean revolt in Judea and the city having from those times been held by the

Hebrews I will also here make an end of my book if I have written well and to the point of my story it's he said even says it's his story this is what

I myself desired but if it's poorly done and mediocre this is the best

I could do so it's a very honest forthcoming confession is that you know what

I tried I did my best it ain't gonna get any better than that because God is not involved

God is not breathing this out so the author who is actually an editor of an original work presents the work as a mere human best effort literary effort not a divinely breathed -out text by God and even apologizes for his shortcomings for his human attempt to condense a five -volume work and he made he did a pretty poor job based on the historical issues just on that alone not that it's not useful it's still useful but boy you can't rely on that for by itself notice too if the churches of Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy claim that second

Maccabees is divinely inspired and since it is a condensed edition in abridgment of an original five -volume work by Jason of Cyrene he was a

Hellenistic Jew around the time of the silent years then does it not follow that the original work by Jason of Cyrene was also divinely inspired by God wouldn't they have to say that that the original must have been breathed out by God because if this one is why is it the original breathe out by God right but if so then this means that we would have lost one of God's divinely inspired history books ironically to history we lost it we don't have it so but I thought doesn't

God say his words will be preserved forever oh there's a major there's a big problem here there's just problem after problem after problem with these books the original is lost okay so what does that mean then if it was if the original was divinely inspired when logic would demand it based on their logic and criteria and if it was written by a prophet if Jason of Cyrene was a prophet who was in the middle of the silent prophetic years when there was no prophet okay let's just regard that for a minute if it let's just say it was the case then why didn't

God preserve the original history was Jason of Cyrene also a prophet and if Jason's original history is not

God breathed then was it partially God breathed based on what was preserved in second

Maccabees okay how does this make any sense he said okay it's my best effort

I'm just gonna try to condense this to make it people for easier for people to read it's like it's like people writing a a cliff notes or a spark notes of Calvin's Institutes or a book of the

Bible or important historical word Gibbons decline of fall of the

Roman Empire which was like I don't know ten volumes or something like that I'm gonna attempt to condense it to give you a reader's digest version right that's all it was so what it makes no sense why was this partially preserved or inspired what about the original this doesn't this makes absolute nonsense and contradicts history and the prophetic testimony of the prophets

Malachi the silent years that were prophesied because the next prophet wasn't gonna come until Elijah came in the spirit and power of John the

Baptist right amen so beloved I really am glad we got a chance to cover these important matters regarding these apocryphal books there's so much to this that we need to ground ourselves and understand carefully because this completely undermines the authority and the claims of the

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches it's it's it's a blatant undermining of what they consider to be true and inspired by God because it's not and and with that beloved with that I want us to focus and meditate on a few things here that's that's the these are the issues that we are faced with in our day and they are ever present before us they are ever present before us and I want to close out with some very wise words from James White a fellow

Reformed Baptist apologist one of his debates he said some very sound words he said is the canon of Scripture something that the church by its authority defines or is the canon something that God defines by an act of inspiration or breathing out the writings and then by the

Holy Spirit passively leading his people to understand or rather than I I would say rather than passively organically from the bottom up which is what happened historically according to God's Word and the history of the early church and is the church itself infallible in its pronouncements because both

Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church claim that their dogmas are infallible incapable of erring dogmatically true if that is the case here this really becomes a question because once the church infallibly announces something then she can no longer be corrected think about that and what was

God rebuking the Israelites over their utter arrogance and their failure to see their error their blindness to their own sin that was the constant rebuke of God towards the

Israelites the same constant rebuke throughout she can no longer be corrected when she claims to be infallible and even further evidence that comes to light cannot change these allegedly infallible pronouncements because they're supposedly infallible and come from God God's Word God's words and I believe this is

James Stokes speaking that the church exists in a relationship of dialogue with Christ of interaction that is the church praise to Christ communicates with Christ and hears from Christ in his word his true word but once you make the church infallible listen to this once you make the church infallible you no longer have a dialogue instead you have a monologue and now you can't be corrected not even by God himself because your tradition ends up overriding

God's Word which is what has happened all through history when these claims have been made by the

Pharisees the scribes by the Israelites by the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches exactly the same way sadly this is why beloved these issues are so critically important for us to understand and I hope you have a deeper appreciation for and in the words at that point when you claim to be infallible as a man when

God himself said let God be true and every man a liar you can no longer be corrected or reformed even when you are in error and worse than that what did

Jesus warn the prophet those Pharisees about and you do like many such things you commit many such errors because you claim to have traditions that have replaced

God's Word and now you can't you how can you change that because you're saying it's from God and it's infallible you can't and now you're stuck that's the danger of these issues beloved that is why they are so critically foundationally of first importance and I hope we see that more clearly today beloved in other words my sheep hear my voice our

Lord says and I know them and they follow me and my voice and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and ever and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand amen that is why we must take care to know what

God's Word is and what it isn't and know what to measure all other writings and opinions and doctrines of men by as we will hopefully begin to see further in the next sermon beloved let us bow our heads now in a concluding word of prayer heavenly precious heavenly father we thank you so much

Lord for your blessing for blessing us with the truth of your infallible words only your words

Lord are infallible and yes your spirit is infallible your son is infallible you are infallible but we are not father help us to understand and to realize that that even though you have declared your church to be the the pillar and buttress and foundation of the truth nevertheless we are not the truth we are not infallible we err we sin and that is why church discipline is also necessary as you've instituted it for us father

God we ask that you help us to balance those things out and to not ever fall into the error of those who have come before us and who are here present with us now who believe that there are other man -made traditions who replace and ultimately supersede your word and now have nullified your word to make it know of no effect and contradict it and now incapable of being reformed because of those arrogant claims of infallibility we thank you father for please help us to understand these things and to be salt and light to those around us who are deceived by these false teachings and doctrines of men

Lord help us to grow in these matters we thank you father for the supreme authority infallible final written authority of your words alone the

Old and New Testaments father we thank you so much and we ask this in Jesus almighty powerful name amen thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant

Baptist Church where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life we strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional loving discerning

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El Paso Texas area or for more information about our church sermons and ministries such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and thorn crown network podcast please contact us at thorn crown ministries calm and may the mercy peace and love of our triune