October 19, 2021 – Click here to listen
I received some correspondence about yesterday’s post and found one letter from a longtime reader and Christian brother. It is as follows:
First, my reply/question is not about the rapture. I believe it and hope. My question is about Paul’s statement in 2 Timothy 3:16. When Paul wrote that verse wasn’t Scripture considered to be the first 5 books of the Old Testament, or conceivably the Old Testament in its entirety? I am not against including the New Testament as “Scripture”, and am convinced it is divinely inspired, but was Paul telling the reader that what he and the letters of other writers (which he may not have even known about) were writing at the time was to be considered scripture? I think Paul was telling people that the law was still “useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
I welcome your thoughts.
Hmmm . . . My belief is that the personal thoughts of the Apostle Paul were irrelevant. The Bible was written by 40 different authors over a period of some 1500 years. It was written in three languages, Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew. And it was written on three different continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, with three different cultures. It would take a miracle to write a book in such a manner and have it turn out to be cohesive much less a masterpiece like the Bible which is today the best-selling book in the world. It could have been written on Mars and a thousand countries and it would still not matter, because it was written by God. Those who wrote it including Paul were merely writing down what God told them to write. They were scribes writing down what the King told them to write.
So many people try to say that the writers were prejudiced and old fashioned and tied to their cultural systems. Do they know that they are talking about God Himself? Because this is His word – He owns it. Now if one looks at this discussion from the perspective that the Bible is the word of God Himself and what the writer may have known or not known about the final product in which he had a part is irrelevant, then we can more easily answer the question posed by my friend.
So, when I view it, I have no doubt God was referring to the entire Bible when Scripture was mentioned. To be clear I refer to what had been written at that time and what was being spoken but not yet put to pen and paper by the Disciples that recorded the coming of Jesus and His ministry until it reached its final form which I believe to be the King James version.
God is not hampered by time and when He elected to give us His word in written form, He knew what the final product would entail from Genesis to Revelation. As I said yesterday every word is true and as my friend wrote, “is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” It is God’s primary tool to teach us about Him, His law, and His Son Jesus. This is bad news to many of the WOKE folks running around saying we should accept homosexual priests, weddings and the like and of course abortionists. They need to go back to sleep.
I find it incredulous that some “Christians” think so little of the incomprehensible power of God who spoke this world into existence that they think He would allow His Holy Word to be distorted. The annals of history are littered with the corpses of those who tried to discredit and destroy the Bible. It has survived everything that Satan can muster against us. And yet he still twists things and tries to offer a little truth to make his lies more believable in saying what is wrong is right and what is right is wrong.
Unfortunately, he wins far too many of these battles and countless souls will join him in hell eternally separated from God. We are told not to argue fine points of Scripture because it does great harm and confusion especially to those among us whose faith is weak and tenuous. It is designed to distract us from focusing on the saving grace of Jesus. Do not be deceived my friends, undoubtedly most of these arguments are devised to distract our attention away from the most important subject in the Bible and that is Jesus Christ.
Titus 3:9
But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.