WHAT IS GOD’S WORD
Lesson No. 3
(HISTORY
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT)
#1. THE BIBLE = SCRIPTURES =
WRITINGS
There
are over 12,000 manuscripts (over 5,500 in the New Testament) to prove the existence
of the Bible. No other book in existence has near that amount of existing
manuscripts extending over such a long period of time.
#2. THE BIBLE IS THE OLDEST BOOK IN
THE WORLD
The Bible has been in continuous use (approximately 3,500 years) since books were first written.
#3. THE BIBLE IS BY
FAR THE MOST POPULAR BOOK IN THE WORLD
The most widely read book ever published.
#4. THE BIBLE IS THE
ONLY BOOK:
The only book with a clear, understandable, and truthful
record of creation, the great flood, and the end of the world.
#5. THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY BOOK:
That gives mankind a reason for living. (1 Corinthians 6:20, Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Peter 2:5)
#6. THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY BOOK:
Solves the riddle of the
crazy days we are living in today. (2
Thessalonians 2:1-12, 1
Timothy 4:1-3, 2 Timothy 3: 1-13, 2 Timothy 4:3-4,
2 Peter 2:1-22,
2 Peter 3:1-7, Jude
17-19)
#7. THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY BOOK:
To
accurately foretell the future in detail and never have a
prophecy fail.
Christ’s 1st. Coming: (Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Jeremiah 31:15, Isaiah 40:3-5, Malachi 3:1)
Christ’s
2nd. Coming: (Matthew
24:1-51, Mark 13:1-37, Luke 21:1-38, Acts 1:9-11, Acts 3:18-21, 1 Corinthians
15:51-58, 1Thessalonians 4:13-18,
1 Thessalonians 5:1-10, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12)
(Over
1,000 prophecies in The Book – many still to come)
#8. THE BIBLE - WRITTEN ENTIRELY BE
JEWS
(Luke
– The only possible exception) Deuteronomy
8:3, Deuteronomy 30:10-14, Deuteronomy 32:1-4, Isaiah 45:23, Isaiah 55:10-11,
Ezekiel 3:10, Romans 3:1-2
President Garfield visited the
Metropolitan Tabernacle (Charles Spurgeon - pastor) with great interest in
1867, and his personal journal published after his death says of that visit:
“C. H. Spurgeon evidently proceeded upon the assumption that the Bible, all
the Bible, in it’s very words and phrases is the word of God, and, that a
microscopic examination of it will reveal ever-opening beauties and blessings”.
Now that is what a former president
of the
“I do not believe that, from one
cover to the other, there is any mistake in it of any sort whatever, either
upon natural or physical science, or upon history or anything whatever. I am
prepared to believe whatever it says, and to take it believing it to be the
Word of God; for if it is not all true, it is not worth
one solitary penny to me. It may be to the man who is so wise that he can pick
out the true from the false; but I am such a fool that I could not do that. If
I do not have a guide here that is infallible, I would as soon guide myself,
for I shall have to do so after all; I shall be correcting the blunders of my
guide continually; but I am not qualified to do that, and so I am worse off
than if I had not any guide at all . . . . . . SIT THOU DOWN, REASON, AND LET
FAITH RISE UP.”
Charles Hadden Spurgeon
TIME TO READ THE BIBLE = 71 HOURS
(52 Hours - Old Testament & 19 Hours – New Testament)
If you read the Bible 8 hours a day it would take 9 days to
read.
If you read the Bible 4 hours a day
it would take 18 days to read.
If
you read the Bible 2 hours a day it would take 36 days to read.
If
you read the Bible 1 hour a day it would take 72 days to read.
If
you read the Bible 1/2 hour a day it would take 144 days to read.
If
you read the Bible 15 minutes a day it would take 288 days to read.
If
you read the Bible 10 minutes a day it would take 365 days (one year) to read.
The Bible
has 66 Books. (39 Books – Old Testament & 27 Books – New Testament)
The Jews divided their Scriptures (Old Testament) into 3
Sections:
THE LAW
The Law was given to Moses
(Exodus 24: 3-4; 12)
After Moses wrote The Law, what happened to
these writings?
THE LAW WAS ENTRUSTED TO THE PRIESTS
(Deuteronomy 31:1-13; Deuteronomy 31: 24-26)
(The priests from the tribe of Levi were given the responsibility for the copying and preservation of The Scriptures).
A Prophet was a man from
the Nation of Israel, called by God to serve Him, who preached, prophesized,
warned, and worked in the Jewish Nation. Either he or his scribe wrote a record
of his ministry to
The Books called The
Prophets were divided into two sections:
THE
FORMER PROPHETS
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
THE WRITINGS
The Books of the Writings were written by men who were inspired by God,
but did not hold the position or Office of Prophet. David and Solomon
were inspired, but they were Kings. Job, though inspired, was not a prophet.
Even Daniel, who prophesized, and whom we (Christians) hold to be a Prophet,
did not labor among the Nation of Israel as the Prophets did before and after
him.
Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song Of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles
THE LAW, THE PROPHETS, & THE
WRITINGS make up what we
(Christians) call:
THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON (Canon = a
measuring rod or rule)
The Old Testament Canon is the Jewish standard for the Scriptures and simply means that these are all
the Books of Scripture that the Jews recognized and accepted as being The Holy
Word of God at the time of Christ’s first coming.
The Lord Jesus Christ quotes from Psalms,
Daniel, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Exodus, and many other Books of the Old Testament. The Lord referred to or
quoted over 400 Old Testament Scriptures in The 4 Gospels. During The Lord’s
entire ministry here on earth, not once did he ever question or doubt
whether he was using, reading or handling the word of God!
The Scriptures clearly
demonstrate that the Priests were entrusted with the Law, but what about the
rest of The Old Testament Scriptures? THERE IS NO RECORD, NO INSTRUCTIONS in
the Old Testament. However, we know from history, that the Jewish scribes
faithfully copied all of the Books from
The Old Testament Canon, not just The Law (Romans
3:1-2). Don’t forget, Daniel has all
of The Old Testament (Daniel 9:1-6) up to his time (the Babylonian Captivity).
After the
Captivity, the Jews returned to
Ezra 7:6 This Ezra went
up from
7 And there went up some of the
children of
8 And he came to
9 For
upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from
10 For Ezra had prepared
his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach
in
11 Now this is the copy of the
letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe,
even a scribe of the words
of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to
The Jews either
took the Scriptures back with them or God miraculously restored the Scriptures
to them (WITHOUT ERROR). How do we know this? Because The
Lord Jesus Christ never once questioned the authenticity of the Scriptures that
He and the Jews of his time used. And neither did Paul, Peter, John
James, or any other disciple or apostle. (2 Timothy
3:14-15).
Up until the
Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ the Priests (scribes) of the tribe of Levi
kept and preserved the Holy Scriptures. The Lord recognized this and approved
of their authority.
Matthew
23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
3 All
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye
after
their works: for they say, and do not.
After the Atonement
was made with the sacrificial death and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on
the cross. And following His resurrection and ascension, the Jews continued to
keep and faithfully copy the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, the AV-KJB
text of the Old Testament comes from this Jewish text (known as the Massoretic
Text) – NOT from the Gnostic, philosophical, depraved text of the gentiles!
After the first three
centuries of the existence of the church and up to the Reformation most
Christians didn’t use the Old Testament very much. But the Jews kept faithfully
copying and preserving the Old Testament Holy Scriptures.
The
following is a quotation on Bible Inspiration from John Wesley.
“The Bible must be the invention of good men or
Angels, bad men or devils, or of God!
(1) It could not be the invention of good men or
Angels, for they neither would nor could make a book and tell lies all the time
they were writing it saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord’, when it was their own
invention.
(2) It could not be the invention of bad men or
devils, for they could not make a book which commands all duty, forbids sins,
and condemns their own souls to Hell for all eternity.
(3) Therefore I draw the conclusion that the Bible
must be given by Divine Inspiration.”
THE STANDARD, OR TEST, OF
CANONICITY
In order that a
book mat be acknowledged as canonical, as worthy of a
place in the Sacred Canon, five tests are applied:
1. Divine Authorship.
Inspiration - Is it inspired? Was it given by God through the Spirit through
men; or did it come from man alone?
2. Human authorship.
Was it written, edited, dictated, or endorsed by a prophet, or spokesman for
God?
3. Genuineness. Is it
genuine? Can it be traced back to the time and to the writer from whom it
professes to have come? Or, if the writer cannot be named positively, can it be
shown to contain the same matter, in every essential point, as it contained
when written?
4. Authenticity. Is it
authentic? Is it true? Is it a record of actual facts?
5. Testimony. In
modern times another test is included: the testimony of orthodox Jews, the
early Jewish church, the early and latter Christian churches, the so-called
church “fathers”, and the ancient versions of the Bible in other languages.
Each of these tests
should be considered separately. The first two, however, dealing with divine authorship
and endorsement, are sufficiently strong to settle the question of canonicity
and authority. And if a book is inspired of God it must be genuine and
authentic; He does not inspire deceptions and falsehoods!