THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES and CHURCHES OF CHRIST
Christian Military Fellowship
Fred's Facts 2 |
 Fred & Grandson Noah |
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THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES and CHURCHES OF CHRISTChristian Military Fellowship
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Fred's Facts is a page of discussion of the Bible's Life-Saving Facts. It will be a fact-based discussion and not idle speculation of what may or may not be implied by passages of Scripture. It is my contention that a perfect God would choose to communicate with us in a simple manner so that we could understand His message by careful study of the Bible text, without our needing to "read between the lines" and resort to highly speculative theories. Fred's Facts will include Bible studies, Christian history studies, and hopefully provocative discussion of Bible-based subjects of interest to servicemen and women. This page will also include offers of free Bible study materials and many other features, as we develop them in the months ahead. Suggestions from readers on subjects to be included in these studies and discusssions are welcome and should be sent to Fred at cmf@cncnet.com! Following is our second study: |
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The starting point for anyone seeking God is the Holy Bible. By observing God's universe, we can come to the realization that a powerful God created it, but we will not learn much beyond that. So we will come to have faith in God, for the most part, to the extent that we accept the Bible as God's inspired, infallible Word. But how can we know that the books in today's Bible are the books God placed there for us thousands of years ago? How can we be sure that men haven't tampered with it---subtracting books inspired by God or adding uninspired man-made books? The answer is that we can have confidence in the validity of our Bible's books to the extent that we can prove that these books were part of the Holy Bible at very early dates. The earlier we can determine that a book was part of the Holy Scriptures, the more confident we can be that it belongs there. |
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A century ago many non-believing scholars and liberal theologians insisted that Moses could not have written the five books of the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) because (they alleged) the peoples of Palestine and Syria hadn't yet developed writing. They claimed, therefore, that the books of the Law were actually written hundreds of years later and were merely a compilation of Jewish folklore handed down orally over many generations. But, thanks to more than a hundred years of archaeological discoveries, we know that written language existed in that area even before Abraham's time (20th or 19th century B.C.), hundreds of years before Moses was born. Scholars now tell us that the Phoenicians developed the modern alphabet, where a set of letters are the building blocks of words---a vast improvement over the "picture writing" of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Phoenicians were a seafaring people who came originally from the Mediterranean coastal area of what is today Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The Phoenicians were also called Sidonians and they are the people of Tyre and Sidon referred to frequently in the Bible. We now know that a hieroglyphics type of script was used in Palestine as far back as the 22nd to 23rd century B.C., 700 years before Moses, and that linear alphabet writing (the ancestor of the alphabet Americans use) was used in Palestine (Canaan) at least as early as 1500 B.C., 200 years before Moses! Thus, the critics' argument has been shot down in flames! |
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The Old Testament provides us internal evidence as to its creation. Exod. 17:14 says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely erase the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven." Exod. 24:3-4 says, "When Moses went and told the people all the words and laws, they responded with one voice, 'Everything the Lord has said we will do.' Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said." God Himself wrote part of the Old Testament! Exod. 31:18 reads, "When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God." Exod. 34:1 says, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.'" Exod. 34:27-28 records, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenent with you and with Israel.' . . . And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant---the Ten Commandments." Num. 33:1-2 reads, "Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by division under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord's command Moses recorded the stages of their journey." Other passages on this are Num. 33:2, Deut.31:9-12, 19-26, Josh. 8:30-35, 24:25-26, 1 Sam. 10:25, 1 Chron. 29:29-30, 2 Chron. 9:29, 26:22, 32:32, Isa. 30:8, Jer. 25:13, Ezek. 43:10-11, Dan. 7:1, and Hab. 2:2. |
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The word "canon" refers to a list of books recognized as worthy to be included in the sacred writings of a religious community. In a Christian context, "canon" can be defined as the listing of writings acknowledged by the Church as documents of divine revelation. The word "canon" comes from the Greek word "kanon," which originally meant "a straight rod used as a ruler," and later came to mean "a list." We know with certainty that, from a date shortly after the last Old Testament book, Malachi, was written (about 420 B.C.), the Hebrews accepted the 39 books we have in our Old Testament as inspired by God. The first century Jewish historian Josephus wrote, "From Artaxerxes (Persian king when Malachi was written) until our times, everything has been recorded but has not been deemed worthy of like credit with what preceded. . . . for though so long a time has now passed, no one has dared to add anything to them, or to take anything from them, or to alter anything in them." The Jews counted them as 24 books, because a number of books were combined (1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra & Nehemiah, and the 12 minor prophets). There was litle controversy about the books because their inspirational and authoritative character were recognized by almost everyone. Since each book was a separate scroll (or scrolls), there was initially no specific order of the books as there is in a modern Bible where the books are bound together in a single volume. But in time, the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) came to be thought of as belonging to three divisions: (1) The Torah (meaning "the Law"), consisting of the five books of Moses; (2) the Prophets, consisting of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 minor prophets; and (3) the Writings, consisting of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Finally, the Jews adopted a definite order for the Scriptures which is different than the one Christians use today---with the Torah first, followed by "the Prophets," and then the "the Writings." |
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The Old Testament Scriptures were repeatedly quoted by Jesus and His Apostles. In fact, in the New Testament, they are recorded as quoting nearly every Old Testament book. Moreover, Jesus clearly makes reference to the three divisions of the Old Testament in Luke 24:44, when He says, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms"---the Psalms being a reference to "the Writings." The portion of the Old Testament most criticized by sceptics is the book of Genesis, which records the creation, Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden, Noah and the great flood, and the accounts of Abraham and other Jewish patriarchs. But Jesus' treated these accounts as real events! For example, he quoted from the Genesis account of creation (Mark 10:6-9); confirmed the existence of Adam and Eve (Matt. 19:4-5); mentioned Cain's murder of Abel (Matt. 23:35); confirmed the account of Noah, the ark, and the flood (Luke 17:26-27); mentioned God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the turning of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt (Luke 17:28-32); and confirmed the existence of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 8:11). Jesus also quoted frequently from the other Old Testament books. In the same way, Jesus' inspired apostles treated Genesis as real history. Paul quotes frequently from Genesis, confirming Abraham as a real person (Rom. 4:1-25; Gal. 3:6-16); the existence of Adam and Moses (Rom. 5:12-14); the existence of Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau (Rom. 9:6-13); the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Rom. 9:29); and the existence of Hagar (Gal. 4:22-24). Likewise, Peter supports the authenticity of Genesis, confirming Noah and the ark (1 Pet. 3:18-20; 2 Pet. 2:4-5); and Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Pet. 2:6-7). Also, John confirms the existence of Cain and Abel (1 John 3:11-12) and James confirms Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice (James 2:21-23). The apostles also quoted frequently from the other Old Testament books. |
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The existence of the apocryphal books are cited by some critics as calling into question the Old Testament Canon. The word "apocrypha" means "hidden or concealed." It is applied to a group of religious writings which are secret or mysterious in nature, unknown in origin, spurious, forged or rejected as uncanonical. The 15 books of the Apocrypha are I and II Esdras (additions to Ezra and Nehemiah), Tobit, Judith, Additions to the Book of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach), Baruch, The Epistle to Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon (an addition to Daniel), The Prayer of Mannasseh, and I and II Maccabees. While some of these books contain some material of literary merit and historical value, they must be rejected for the following reasons: (1) They were written long after the Old Testament books were completed about 420 B.C., (2) they lack the prophetic character which qualifies them as the inspired word of God (none of the apocryphal writers claim inspiration and Ecclesiasticus and I and II Maccabees disclaim it), (3) they were NEVER recognized by the Jews as inspired, (4) though Jerome (translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible) translated the Apocrypha, he said they were in no sense a part of God's Word (after Jerome's death, they were added to the Latin Vulgate Bible), (5) the apocryphal books contain numerous historical and geographical inaccuracies, as well as blatant myths and fictitious accounts (i.e., Judith 1:1-7 calls Nebuchadnezzar the King of Assyria instead of Babylon), (6) these books teach false doctrines and promote questionable ethics (deception and suicide are justified, the end justifies the means morality is promoted, etc.), and (7) Jesus and the New Testament writers NEVER quoted from the Apocrypha and no canon or council of the Christian Church during its first 350 years endorsed these books as inspired. |
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The above information is hardly more than a quick overview of the evidence which exists for the authenticity of the Old Testament Canon. But it should suffice to convince the reader that there IS a very large amount of evidence in support of our Old Testament books as the inspired, infallible word of God! Anyone wishing to explore this subject further will be able to find a mountain of information in the following books: "The Canon of Scripture," by F. F. Bruce, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL; "The Origin of the Bible," edited by Philip W. Comfort, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL; and "How We Got the Bible," by Neil Lightfoot, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI. The CMF also offers a FREE 40-page study, "The Origin and History of the Bible," which we would be happy to send you for the packaging and mailing fee of $2.00. Just mail a check in that amount to: CMF, PO Box 2408, Oroville, CA 95965. Fred also invites you to send him some feedback about this series of studies. Did you find them useful? Did they provide you information you didn't already possess? What additional information would you have liked to have seen included? Will you continue to read future studies? Comments and questions may be sent to Fred at the above PO box or E-mailed to cmf@cncnet.com. |