Do you choose what God said selectively from among scriptures?
I am a theologian; that is, I study God. Yet how? And where do I seek answers about God? Which books of the Bible? What verses?
Who should I believe in my choices about the Doctrine of Scripture?
You won't want to miss some definitions and important church history in Part 1 linked below
or our first doctrinal post on the holiness of God.
{These links may also be found in the talkofJESUS.com menu & will open in a new tab.}
Of course most of us will recognize what seems to be a legitimate question from near the beginning of the Bible when the serpent hissed against the LORD, ‘Did God really say..’
Yes, it would have been a legitimate question IF the questioner had not already known the TRUTH of the command of the LORD God. But Scripture records Satan’s cunning in Genesis . (He knew, but twisted truth.)
Sin is turning away from God
YOU questioned God’s truth.
Temptation of Eve
On behalf of all mankind for perpetuity, YOU crossed the line of obeying God’s commands.
Here you now wander into the darkness beyond Paradise .. continually asking, ‘DID GOD REALLY SAY..?’
And do not think, my fellow fallen saint, that you will choose what is TRUE without seeking the Lord.
Do not ask the one who hisses against Jesus Christ, any tempter who doubts what God said, since the LORD’s command to obey is what they will not do.
SO WHERE DO WE FIND TRUTH?
DOCTRINE – What do you believe?
Do you choose what God said?
Where do you draw your line in the sand about believing the Doctrines of the Bible?
Some preachers don’t believe in Satan or some truths about Christ. (What else won’t they believe from Holy Scripture?)
ALL of these TRUTHS are witnessed in Scripture. They give mortals many glances at Paradise and eternal life with the LORD God.
You just imagined yourself to be in the Presence of the Lord in Eden on behalf of the generations, but you crossed the line and wandered into the darkness of sin.
O man! I have asked myself, “Did God really say? Then I made excuses to the LORD for my sin.”
What is the ONLY BOOK where one made in the image of God can discern the TRUE words of WHAT GOD HAS SAID?
For those of you who are not musicians: D.C. al Coda directs us to GO BACK to the BEGINNING then where indicated, GO towards the ENDING. (It’s new music resolving into an eventual final ending.)
Now you ask, what does that have to do with Scripture?
ANSWER: Scripture frequently takes us back to what we ought to have already known to interpret what will happen in the ending soon before us.
Deuteronomy Calls out the ending
Chosen or Not – Blessed or Cursed?
THE LORD warned us through Scripture (time and time again):
We continue our look back at Summer Scriptural Reruns asking questions and providing answers to life and death questions.
Although recent focus has been on Jews who ought to have known better from Scripture, today in the first of three reruns, the Messiah Jesus also points us to other examples in Scripture.
Who will save you from DEATH?
Scriptures
“But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah.. and yet Elijah was sent to none of them..
The Messiah Jesus tells us to go back to Scripture if you want to understand meaning. D.C. al Coda Read it again, then skip ahead from the Cross to the end.
“God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind..
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God! Other! Separate of man and above all His creation.
God is God and we are not.
Is the Bible Holy?
Christians call it, “THE HOLY BIBLE,” but what does that mean?
Now I ask you, my fellow believer and follower of Christ Jesus,
What authority should the Bible have in the lives of disciples of the true doctrines of God?
We have already defined holiness as separate, apart, and therefore sacred and as God speaks, an awful thing! Now I must define our commonly used terms addressing the holiness of God’s written word, the Bible or Scripture.
What is Scripture?
“It is written..” – כָּתַב
The word means “writing.”
In the Old Testament it occurs in the King James Version only once, “the scripture of truth,” in Da 10:21, where it is more correctly rendered in the Revised Version (British and American), “the writing of truth.” The reference is not to Holy Scripture, but to the book in which are inscribed God’s purposes.
In the New Testament, “scripture” and “scriptures” stand regularly for the Old Testament sacred books regarded as “inspired” (2Ti 3:16), “the oracles of God” (Ro 3:2).
Scripture is the written truth of God revealed to man.
The Jews chosen by the LORD God lived by Scripture (or at least they were called to live by the word of God through the Law and the Prophets).
“It is written..” – γράφω
The first mention of Scripture in the Gospels of the New Testament is by the Person of Christ Jesus!
After the Lord had been in the wilderness for forty days, the Messiah Jesus answers Satan’s temptation by applying Scripture written from the wilderness testing of Moses and Israel.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”
Gospel of Matthew 4:4 NASB
(Do you think Christians might want to take heed to how Jesus replies to the temptation of Satan in the wilderness?) ‘MAN SHALL LIVE ON EVERY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD..’
JESUS REITERATES THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE!
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.
- Deuteronomy 8:3
the Scripture, used to denote either the book itself, or its contents
a certain portion or section of the Holy Scripture
The KJV translates Strong’s G1124 in the following manner: scripture (51x). from G1125; a document, γράφω – graphō [as we have defined above ‘it is written’ ] which occurs 192 times in 181 verses in the mgnt Greek.
A few examples of holy scripture
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. – Luke 24:45
You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me; and yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.– John 5:39-40
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. –Romans 15:4
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
INSPIRED BY GOD! ALL Scripture (not just a verse or two to our liking). Scripture is HOLY, writings other than the ordinary books not spoken by God — books not written by the LORD speaking to a man.
The BIBLE is HOLY!
What is the Bible?
DOCTRINE – What do you believe?
Again, the necessity of defining what ANYONE means where referring to “THE BIBLE.”
The Complete Tanakh (*with its 24 Hebrew books) is an incomplete Bible.
*The 24 Hebrew books are the same as the 39 Books of the Old Testament; the difference is in the way they are divided.
Some *Additional Books in Roman Catholic and other Bibles include writings which are helpful, but NOT the inspired Word of God.
The word Apocrypha means “hidden.”
Gnostic Books (& gospels) which some *claim as part of the Bible oppose the Holy Scriptures and Word of God.
*The term apocryphal is also applied to other books that are New Testament forgeries. An example of this would be the Gospel of Thomas, which claims to have been written by Jesus’ disciple Thomas. The book, however is a forgery.
Some contemporary ‘translations’ of the Bible are *biased against true Scripture and do NOT actually translate Scripture from the original Hebrew and Greek.
*Examples of Anti-Trinitarian bias of the NWT (New World Translation) of the Jehovah Witnesses cult non-secure links to authoritative research by Bruce M. Metzger from Christianity Today available.
The BIBLE
I will not go into detail here concerning the Canon of Scripture and historical affirmations of the Authority of God’s word.
– i.e. Canon So-and-so, Bishop of Rome, London, etc.}
Technically, the HISTORY of the Bible is NOT itself, DOCTRINE, however one cannot fully appreciate the Bible now in print for most anyone without a brief look at how the Canon of Scripture came about.
Since many respected theologians have provided proofs of the authenticity of the Books of the Bible [66 total] included in the teachings of the church, I will highlight just a few dates for your further research if you desire.
Although I use and refer to several sources, if I could suggest one indexed authoritative source for your person answer to questions about the Bible I recommend:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/index.cfm
Creeds & the Canon of Scripture
The Biblical Canon
is the collection of scriptural books that God has given his corporate people, which are distinguished by their divine qualities, reception by the collective body, and their apostolic connection, either by authorship or association.
A final attribute of canonical books is that they are written by God’s chosen agents, his inspired prophets and apostles. Put simply, not just anyone can speak for God; .. prophets and other inspired spokesmen .. it included the apostles, Christ’s authoritative witnesses …
‘We have good historical evidence…‘
A few of the historical events of note which have constantly and consistently affirmed the Authority of God through the Holy Bible.
‘The earliest Christian creed is found in the New Testament, which declares, “Jesus is Lord.”’ – R.C. Sproel, Avoiding Theological Anarchy
Because of the confused political and religious situation of the time, Luther was called before the political authorities rather than before the pope or a council of the Roman Catholic Church.
“I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.” – Martin Luther at Worms
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