THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
Lesson 2
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Kevin Pendergrass.
“ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Welcome to the Gospel of Christ. This is the second lesson in our study of an introduction to the Bible. In this lesson we will be looking at how we got the Old Testament. If someone was to come up to you and ask, “How did you get the Old Testament?,” you might respond by saying that went to the local bookstore and purchased one. That might be true, but that obviously is not the answer for which the person is looking. The person is asking how did the Bible actual come into being. If it is from God, then how did it come from God to us?
We begin by the source of inspiration. Everything begins with God because He is the One Who wrote the Old Testament. He communicated it by inspiring certain men during Old Testament times to carry forth His message. In 2 Peter 1:19-21 Peter explained how this process worked:
“So we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
In the Old Testament we begin with Moses divinely writing the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books are known as “the Law.” When we look at other Bible books that refer to the Law of Moses, we see constant references to these five books by almost every other book in the Old Testament. This demonstrates that the first five books of the Old Testament (which contain the Law of Moses) were immediately received as authoritative, and were continuously recognized as such. There are numerous passages which teach that, a few of which are: Joshua 1:7-8; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chronicles 14:4; Daniel 9:11; and Malachi 4:4. These verses show us that when Moses spoke, he was speaking on behalf of God, Who was using him as a mouthpiece.
The most common designation for the rest of the Old Testament is “the prophets.” Matthew 11:13, Matthew 22:40, Luke 16:16, and Luke 24:24 use such a designation. These are passages in which Jesus was talking about the Old Testament, an in which He identified the Law and the prophets as referring to the Old Testament. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Here we see that the Old Testament was composed of the Law and the prophets. We need to notice that in the scriptural sense of the term, every inspired writer was a prophet of God. The word “prophet” carries the idea of one who spoke by inspiration on behalf of God. This would include such individuals as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Daniel, David, and Solomon (see Joshua 24:26; 1 Samuel 10:25; Daniel 18:15; Acts 2:30). We might not think of these men, at times, as all being prophets of God such as Daniel or Isaiah. But the Bible refers to them as such. When we look at the word “inspiration,” it is important that we understand what it means. When we talk about God “inspiring” these men to speak on His behalf, we are not using the word “inspired” in the same way that we might use it in normal, everyday speech. I might be driving down the road and see someone jogging down the sidewalk. I then might say, “That inspires me to want to begin jogging.” That is not the same type of inspiration of which the Bible speaks. When we say that “all Scripture is inspired by God,” we are talking about God speaking through the men who wrote down the Scriptures so that what they wrote is literally the words of God. The first thing we need to remember regarding how we got the Old Testament is the fact that men who were inspired by God spoke and wrote down what God wanted them to say and write.
The second thing that we need to understand has to do with the recognition of inspiration. How did other people know that they should accept what people were saying who claimed to be inspired of God? Just because a person says that he is saying something from God does not mean that he is. We understand that today. I could say, “My name is Kevin, and God has inspired me to tell you to send me a million dollars. If you will do that, God will bless you.” Someone might say something like that, but does that mean it is a message sent to you on behalf of God? Claiming something to be true does not make it true. How did people recognize something as being inspired of God? There were at least two ways that this happened. When someone spoke on God’s behalf, there was always what I like to call a “no-doubt confirmation.” This means that when someone heard inspired men speak, he knew without a shadow of doubt that what the men were saying was truly God’s message. One way that could be accomplished had to do with a prophet saying something, and it coming true. If this happened, then people knew that they needed to listen to what that prophet had to say. In Deuteronomy 18:19-22 in fact, this was the test that God set forth for legitimate prophets.
“It shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Inspired men who were able to prophesy told people that they were speaking on God’s behalf. They set forth a prophecy, and that prophecy would be fulfilled. Thus, everyone would know that they needed to listen to what the prophets were saying. The opposite of that was when someone said that he was speaking on God’s behalf and presented a prophecy, the prophecy did not come to pass. Deuteronomy 18:19-22 said that people should not listen to such a person. When prophets presented a prophecy, and the prophecy was fulfilled, everyone knew that the prophet and the prophecy were genuine. Ezekiel 33:33 puts it this way: “When this comes to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” People could know when a prophet of God had been among them. Therefore, one way of knowing whether or not a man was a legitimate prophet of God was to see if what they said came true. Such prophecies were given in specific, minute detail.
Another way by which people could tell if a speaker was inspired was by miracles. God sometimes worked miracles through such prophets. In Exodus 4 we read about Moses communicating with God. God had commanded Moses to talk to pharaoh and to command him to let the Israelites go. In Exodus 4:1 Moses said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’”? That’s a good question. Moses’ point was, “You, God, are commanding me to go do this and speak on Your behalf. But what if people say that You didn’t really appear to me? What if they are convinced that I made up everything I say?” Here is how the Lord responded:
“’What is that in your hand?’ He [Moses] said, ‘A rod.’ And He [the Lord] said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. hen the Lord said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail’ (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. Now put your hand in your bosom.’ And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow. And He [the Lord] said, ‘Put your hand in your bosom again.’ So he [Moses] put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh. ‘Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign. And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. And the water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land’” (Exodus 4:2-9).
Here we see God giving Moses the power to do miraculous things. Why? It was to prove that he spoke on God’s behalf. In Numbers 16 and 17 and Daniel 3:19-30 we read of other miracles that were performed for such purposes as well. Miracles confirmed that what the prophets said or did was from God. Even pagan nations had heard about such miracles. In Joshua 2:10-11 we find Rahab (in the city of Jericho) saying,
“We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.”
Here we see that even pagan peoples had heard about God’s miracles. God has never expected His people to accept what He says by what might be called “a blind faith.” Hebrews 11:1-6 teaches us that faith is “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” No man has ever seen God face to face. But He has set forth evidence to document His existence. In the same way, throughout the Bible we see God setting forth evidence so that we can reasonably and logically believe Him. He does not expect us to have a “blind faith.” Many people in the religious world at large advocate a “blind faith.” But that is not correct. Yes, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). But when we walk by faith, we are walking according to God’s Word (Rom. 10:17).
While we could examine a lot of passages that show us how God confirmed that He was speaking through various prophets, one of the clearest passages is found in 1 Kings 18: 20-22, which has to do with the prophet Elijah.
“[King] Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people, and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people answered him not a word.”
Here we see people “faltering between two opinions.” Should they choose to follow Baal, or God? Elijah told them to stop faltering, and to choose whom they would serve. They were not to be “fence sitters.” Nor are we today supposed be fence sitters. In Revelation 3 we are told that lukewarm people make the Lord want to spit them out of His mouth. Verse 21 said, “The people answered him not a word.” They didn’t care. They were not yet convicted. We then read,
“Then Elijah said to the people, ‘I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.’ So all the people answered and said, ‘It is well spoken’” (vss. 22-24).
Elijah told the Israelites that they were still faltering between two options. He then told them that he was the only prophet of God who was present, but that there were 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah then suggested that in order to determine who was the true and living God, altars should be built, and offerings should be placed upon the altars. But no fire was to be lit on the altars. Then, the deity who rains down fire to consume the offering is the true and living God. The people responded by saying, “It is well spoken.” They agreed that Elijah’s suggestion was a good way to determine which deity was the truth God. In verses 25-27 we read
“Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.’ So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, ‘O Baal, hear us!’ But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, ‘Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.’”
When the 450 prophets of Baal called upon him to do something, nothing happened. Elijah used mockery and sarcasm to prove his point. Sometimes that is authorized for us today. At times, mockery and sarcasm gets across a point by showing a person’s inconsistencies and exposing his error. Ephesians 5:11 says that we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather are to expose them.” Elijah was exposing the fraudulent nature of Baal and his prophets. Elijah told the prophets to cry loudly because perhaps Baal was on a journey, was sleeping, or was meditating. Verses 28-29 go on to tell us,
“So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.”
The prophets of Baal tried to call upon the name of their god. But there was no confirmation from Baal that he was alive or genuine. There was nothing to prove that what Baal’s prophets actually spoke on behalf of a legitimate god. Compare that to what happened next.
“Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come near to me.’ So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name.’ Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, ‘Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.’ Then he said, ‘Do it a second time,’ and they did it a second time; and he said, ‘Do it a third time,’ and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water” (vss. 30-35).
There was no fire placed on the altar. But Elijah wanted to make sure that what was about to happen was not caused by magic or deception. So, he even had the people pour water on the altar and sacrifice, and then dug a trench around the altar and made sure that it was filled with water as well. In verse 36 the text says,
“And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, ‘Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.’ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!’” (vss. 36-39)
When God led holy men to speak on His behalf, He did so in such a way that no one could deny that He existed. This is why the Law and the prophets (the Old Testament) were (was) so readily accepted as being true. Yes, people like pharaoh could choose not to obey God’s words. But plagues came upon him and his people because of his actions. He then knew that there was a God, and he knew how powerful God was. Yet pharaoh continually hardened his heart. Hebrews 3:16-19 talks about how even the Israelites, whom God had led out of Egypt, ended up rebelling against Him. While a person could not legitimately deny the miracles, he could choose not to obey God’s words. Thus, the second point we have been discussing has to do with the recognition of inspiration. Men inspired by God spoke things that came true. And they confirmed what they said and did by miracles. Thus, people could know that what was being said and done was on God’s behalf.
The last point in this lesson has to do with the preservation of inspiration. How do we know that we have the same Old Testament today that people had back then? How can we know that the text of the Old Testament has been preserved faithfully? Of course, there would have to be some reason not to belief that the text had been preserved faithfully. If the God Who created the Universe wanted us to have His words, then we can rest assured that He was able to ensure that we would have what He wanted us to have. If someone asks, “How do you know that the Bible is from God?,” or “How do you know that it has been preserved faithfully?,” we need to ask such a person what reasons he has to prove that it has not been preserved faithfully. This places the burden of proof on such an individual.
Also, we must understand how the scribes worked who made the copies of the Old Testament manuscripts. Scribes at that time used a special kind of ink, and made sure that each letter of a word was spaced exactly a hair’s breadth from each of its neighboring letters. The scribes also never wrote even the smallest letter from memory. One group of scribes made even stricter rules. When they produced copies of manuscripts, they would count every single letter, word, and verse of the Old Testament books that they copied. They also counted how many times a letter was used, and which letter, word, and verse should appear exactly in the middle of the manuscript. Plus, the scribes were so particular about their copes of the Old Testament books that if one of their copies began to appear worn or faded, they then would bury it in the ground or burn it so that no one could misread or miscopy the worn, faded copy. Any document that had God’s name on it was considered by the Jews to be holy. Because of that, they believed that such documents had to be maintained in the best shape possible. We understand that the pages themselves are not holy, of course. Rather, it is the content of the words on the pages that is holy. But the scribes believed that if a holy document became old, faded, or worn, then it had to be burned or buried.
Today it is estimated (according to A General Introduction to the Bible by Geisler and Nix) that there are tens of thousands of Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts in existence (in whole or in part). When we consider other old, secular books, there may be only a few in existence. And if we have any copies of them, we might have only a few. God, however, wanted to make sure that the Bible was preserved.
Perhaps you have heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls. The earliest copies of the Old Testament that were available prior to 1947 were copies from around A.D. 900 or later. But in 1947 a great discovery was made. An Arab boy was looking for some lost goats. He tossed a rock into a small cave, and heard a sound like breaking pottery. He was curious, so he went into the cave where he found some leather scrolls (with writing on them) inside clay jars. These ancient writings were hundreds of scrolls of the Old Testament, which had been hidden in caves around the Dead Sea. These copies were produced between 200 B.C. and A.D. 100, which means that they were almost one-thousand years older than the oldest previous copies of the Old Testament that we possessed. Every book from the Old Testament was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, except for the Book of Esther. What does this document? Since it can be demonstrated that the text of the Old Testament had been accurately transmitted for the past 2,000 years, then one can reasonably conclude that it was transmitted accurately from its inception. This shows us how specific, strict, and precise the scribes were when they copied the Old Testament manuscripts. The same can be said of the New Testament. The scribes made sure that what they were copying was indeed as perfect a copy as possible because it was the Word of God. It is clear from the remarkable evidence, as well as from the number of extant manuscripts that we possess, that the Old Testament that God gave thousands of years ago is the same Old Testament that we possess today. We do not have to worry about its having been tampered with or manipulated. We can know that what we have today is the same text that God gave originally.
How did we get the Bible? It came to us from God. He inspired men to write down His message. God’s Word was recognized as being inspired because the prophets spoke things that came true, and confirmed their words by miracles. We also saw the testimony regarding the accuracy of the Old Testament that comes from the nature of the work carried out by the scribes who produced copies of Old Testament manuscripts.
The Bible is such a wonderful book. And we have to be sure that we are living our lives by it. In our next lesson, we will be examining how we got the New Testament. We must study the Old Testament because, as Romans 15:4 says, it is “for our learning.” One thing that we learn in the Old Testament is that God demands obedience. Under the New Testament, what are we to obey? We must obey the Gospel (2 Thess. 1:7-9). We must obey the Gospel plan of salvation. We must hear God’s Word (Rom. 10:17). We must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Jn. 3:16; Acts 4:11-12). We must repent of our past sins (Acts 17:30). We must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Rom. 10:10). And we must be baptized in water for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 22:16). If you yet to obey the truth, we pray today that you will obey the Gospel of Christ.
Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
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1. According to 2 Peter 1:20-21, what is the ultimate source of the material contained within the Bible?
2. What claim is made in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 regarding the material contained within the Bible?
3. What designation is often given to the first five books of the Old Testament?
4. What designation is usually given to the rest of the Old Testament?
5. According to the definition given in this lesson, what does the word “prophet” mean as it is used in the Bible?
6. According to Deuteronomy 18:19-22, how does God view people who allege to be “prophets,” but who do not have His authority to speak on His behalf?
7. According to Ezekiel 33:33, what was one way to tell if a prophet was actually speaking on God’s behalf?
8. In Exodus 4:2-9 God gave Moses the power to perform miracles when he spoke to the Egyptian pharaoh. What was the purpose of those miracles on that occasion?
9. According to Joshua 2:10-11, had even pagan nations heard about the miracles that God had performed for His people?
10. What effect did knowledge of the miracles that God had performed for the Jews have on pagan nations?
11. In both the Old and New Testaments, when someone performed a genuine miracle, what was the main purpose of that miracle?
12. What unusual thing happened in 1 Kings 18:20-38 which showed that Elijah was a legitimate prophet of God, and that the other prophets with whom he was contending on that occasion had not been authorized to speak on God’s behalf?
13. How would you respond if someone asked you, “How do you know that the biblical text has been preserved faithfully?”
14. Name some of the things that scribes from the past did to ensure that when they made copies of biblical manuscripts, those copies were as accurate as humanly possible.
15. Explain what was so significant (in regard to biblical accuracy and preservation of the biblical text) about the finding in 1947 of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
16. One of the things that the Bible provides for us is the information a person needs to become a Christian. How does one become a Christian?
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