The Word of God

“One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” — Voltaire (1694-1778), French writer & philosopher

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.     Isaiah 40:8 NIV

No book has been subject to such attack, so often banned or burnt, so scrutinized, so despised, or so challenged as the Bible. Yet, more than 200 years after Voltaire, the Bible is still trusted by more people than ever before. It has withstood the attacks of time.  The Bible is a book like no other book, whose origin has the fingerprint of God in it.   It is the most widely translated book (whether whole or in parts) and tops the best seller lists each year.   It gives meaning to life’s existence, showing us clearly that there is life after death and provides direction from the Giver of Life Himself i.e. God.

Jewish scholars and scientists have discovered, using Equal Letter Sequences (ELS), that the ancient Hebrew texts of the Torah contain the fingerprint of God.  

In the opening verses of Gen 1, the word Torah was found at the 50^th letter of the text, starting from the first letter of Torah.  It was likewise for the opening verses of Exodus.  However, in Numbers and Deuteronomy (the 4^th and 5^th book), Torah was spelt backwards at the 50 and 49 letter interval respectively.  There is a 300 million to one chance of Torah being encoded by chance alone within the opening verses of the first 5 books.  The number 50 is also significant as the Torah [Law] was presented to the Jewish people at Mt Sinai by God exactly 50 days after their miraculous escape from Egypt through the Red Sea. 

When it comes to the 3^rd book Leviticus, Torah was not found in the opening verses but the name Yeshua was encoded (7 letter interval).  What this means is that the Torah points to Jesus. What’s even more amazing is that the name of God is encoded in significant passages of the OT.

“Yeshua is My name” (Yeshua Shmi) is embedded in the text of Is 53:10 at 20^th letter

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.  (NIV)

Mathematical experts have calculated the probability of this occurring by random chance in this Messianic prophecy is very small indeed (1 in 50 quadrillion or 50x10¹⁵).  At this point, I want to say that the divine origin of the Bible is greatly attested by the fulfilment of prophecies, more than 650 of them. Each one of us need to make a decision concerning our response to Christ’s life, death & resurrection.

Text	ELS	Encoded
Genesis	Every 521st letter	Yeshua Yakhol – “Jesus is able”
Lev 21:10-12 – instructions for holy priesthood	Every 3rd letter	Hain dam Yeshua – “Behold! The blood of Yeshua”
Dan 9:25-27 – Daniel’s 70 weeks	Every 26th letter	Yeshua
Zech 11:12 – price of betrayal	Every 24th letter	Yeshua

Is there a logical reason to doubt the supernatural origin of the OT?

Moses and other prophets would have received special revelation from God.

Moses - 40 days and 40 nights up in the mountain of God. 

Introduction

1.       The word Bible comes from the Greek word, biblios, meaning book; same root word from which “bibliography” is derived.  It is a library of books consisting of 66 books:   

Features	Old Testament	New Testament
Number of books	39	27
Language(s) written	Hebrew & parts in Aramaic	Greek
Authors	About 40 spanning over a 1600-year period
Events chronicled	Creation to 400 years before Christ	Prior to Christ’s birth to end time events
Time period	About 2500 BC to 400 BC	About 4 BC to 100 AD
Contents	Law History Wisdom Major Prophets Minor Prophets	Gospels History (Acts) Epistles Revelation

Many of the writers of Scripture did not know the other writers of Scripture and were unfamiliar with the other writings. Yet the Bible is a marvellous, unified whole without contradictions or inconsistencies within its pages. The Holy Spirit is the unifier of the sixty-six books, determining its harmonious consistency. In unity, these books teach the triunity of God, the deity of Jesus Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, the fall and depravity of man, as well as salvation by grace. It soon becomes clear that no human being could have orchestrated the harmony of the teachings of the Scripture. The divine authorship of the Bible is the only answer.

How was the Bible constituted?

2.       There are both the divine and human elements involved in the composition of Scripture (sacred writings).  The Bible writers had revelation, inspiration and at times illumination.

A.   Revelation concerns the communication of truth not discovered by natural reason.   Revelation is possible because man, made in the image of God, has the faculty to receive divine knowledge from God just like Adam and Eve.  Because of the fall of man, his faculty of reasoning and understanding became darkened and therefore God had to take the initiative to reveal Himself.  God’s revelation to mankind can be in the form of direct verbal or non-verbal transmission. There are primarily two ways in which God has revealed Himself:

§  His Works: through His creation and mighty acts

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  Rom 1:20 NIV

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.”  Ex 15:1 NIV

§  His Words: in the OT, over 2,600 times, the writers claim to be speaking or writing not their own words, but God’s!  And in the NT, we have the incarnate words of Christ and those of His apostles 

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  Jer 1:4-5 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread.  1 Cor 11:23 NIV

B.    Inspiration concerns the influence of the Holy Spirit on the mind and soul of man to record the truths of God.  This means God used various people; their thoughts, experiences, background and personalities, to write down what He intended.   Some could be using simple words (Peter) while others could argue their points with great clarity (Paul).  The Scriptures are infallible (contains no errors) in revelation due to inspiration given by the Holy Spirit.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV

The primary reference is to the OT as the NT hasn’t been constituted yet.  But when you read what the apostle Peter wrote in his letter, you would see that the NT writers claim inspiration for their own writings as well:

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.  Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Pet 1:19-21 NIV

The Bible has a consistent theme from start to finish; that is the salvation-history of mankind.  It provides instruction for salvation as well as training and equipping for right living and service to God.  Towards this end, it is to be recognised that the words or utterances of Satan and evil men were certainly not inspired of God, nor are they God’s words but God did inspire men to record them to provide the context in understanding the whole counsel of God.  Eg. the words of the serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden for us to understand the deceptive strategies used by the devil.

Inspiration can be seen in the research work done by Dr Luke to record both the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in an orderly fashion for Theophilus (friend of God) to follow and understand:  

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.  Luke 1:1-4 NIV

In fact, the books of Chronicles and Kings referred to sources such as the annals of the kings of Israel & Judah.

The other events of Jeroboam’s reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.  As for the other events of Rehoboam’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?  1 Kg 14:19, 29 NIV

C.    Illumination describes the process of the Holy Spirit enlightening man’s understanding to believe and receive God’s revelation.  Illumination separates believers from unbelievers when we read the Bible.  The unbelievers would read and view the Bible as a religious or historical document and nothing more.  Believers today will not receive revelation or inspiration equal to that of the Bible writers, because the full revelation of what God intends to communicate is already completed in the 66 books of the Bible. 

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.  And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.  Rev 22:18-19 NIV

However, man will continue to receive illumination and some will receive revelation (dreams & visions) from God to confirm the word of God.  Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church is fitting here:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.   Eph 1:17-18 NIV

Even though it is the Holy Spirit who would illumine our hearts and minds to know God and His ways fully, we should also do our part to dig into the Word for ourselves.  In fact, we are encouraged to study the Word of God ourselves and be like the Berean Christians who checked Scriptures to determine what Paul said was true.  You should likewise do so for any message that you here, including mine.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.  2 Tim 2:15 NIV

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.  Ac 17:11 NIV

 Conclusion: Scripture is equally the words of God and the words of men

 “The dual authorship of Scripture is an important truth to be carefully guarded.  On the one hand, God spoke, revealing the truth and preserving the human authors from error, yet without violating their personality.  On the other hand, men spoke, using their own faculties freely, yet without distorting the divine message.”    John Stott in Understanding the Bible

The Bible has a divine touch making it infallible and human touch, making it understandable.

3.       The formation of the OT canon (reed or standard) was completed by 400 BC.  When applied to Scripture it meant an acceptable list of books.  It has been suggested that it was Ezra the scribe who, after the close of the Babylonian captivity, gathered the OT books which had been written to that time into the accepted canon.  Jesus and the apostles accepted many of the OT books as authoritative.

He said to them, “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.”  Lk 24:44 NIV

The Jewish council of Jamnia held in 90 AD helped to establish the recognition of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and Esther (part of the Writings) as canonical.  Esther did not contain the name of God and Ecclesiastes contains a pessimistic view of life.

In the 4^th century, Jerome (monk) was the first to call the group of books (14 of them) added to the OT by the Catholic Church as “Apocrypha”, meaning “hidden or concealed”.  Luther and the reformers rejected their canonicity.  Among the reasons for their exclusion:

§  They abound in historical, geographical and chronological errors, at times contradicting themselves, the Bible and history.

§  The teach doctrines which are false and foster practices which are at odds with inspired Scripture eg. lying is sanctioned, suicide and assassination are justified.

§  They were written in the 400 years between Malachi and John the Baptist when there were no inspired prophetic utterances.

§  They were never quoted by Jesus and the apostles. 

4.       By the 2^nd century, there were a lot of pseudo-epistles circulating.  Hence the need to establish the genuine from the false ones.  In 314 AD, Athenasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, identifies the 27 books of the New Testament which are today recognized as the canon of scripture.  The formation of the NT canon was confirmed at the Synod of Carthage in 397 AD.  There were probably 5 guiding principles used by the early fathers:

A.      Is it authoritative?  Does it come with the divine “thus saith the Lord”?

B.      Is it prophetic?  Was it written by an apostle or a close associate?

C.      Is it authentic?  The fathers had the policy of “if in doubt, throw it out”.

D.      Is it dynamic?  Did it come with the life-transforming power of God?

E.       Was it received, collected, read and used?  Was it accepted by the church at that time?

5.       Bible versions:  for most readers, the basic tool in understanding the Bible would be a good (English) translation of the Bible.  To read in a translation is inevitable.   And the very fact that you are reading God’s Word in a translation means you’re already involved in interpretation.   No original autographs of the Old and New Testaments exists today.  However, the copies that exist have been done by biblical historians via the science of textual criticism (which seeks to restore the Bible to its original autographs).  Because of this, there is no loss of confidence among competent scholars that today’s modern Bible reflects the Old and New Testament writers’ work.  Many modern translations of the Bible rely on the work of biblical scholars to try to convey clearly the truths of the Bible for modern readers. Translators had to make choices as to what the Hebrew or Greek texts were saying.  The Reformation and the Gutenberg printing press (15^th century) accelerated this task of bringing God’s Word to the people in their vernacular languages.  
     Bible versions are placed on a continuum based on the principles of translation used:

    

Word for Word	Dynamic equivalence (updates matters of lang, grammar & style)		Ideas for Ideas
KJV, NASB	RSV                       NIV                                 NAB	GNB                    JB, NEB	Living Bible, The Message

              

Let’s take a look at Ps 138:2 in a number of different versions: 

The book of Psalms (hymn book of the 2^nd temple) is a collection of inspired Hebrew prayers and hymns; for many of us it is the best known and most loved portion of the OT.  The book of Psalms contains men’s words about God or to God, and they are rightly a part of God’s Word.  The Psalms are profitable for us because it helps us (i) To express ourselves to God, (ii) To consider the ways of God.  We don’t formulate doctrines from this book.  Ps 138 is attributed to David or possibly someone representing the post-exilic community (hence reference to the temple not tent). 

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (KJV)

I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth (faithfulness); For You have magnified Your word (promise) according (together with) to all Your name. (NASB)

I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. (NIV)

I will face your holy temple, bow down, and praise your name because of your constant love and faithfulness, because you have shown that your name and your commands are supreme.  (GNB)

 I face your Temple as I worship, giving thanks to you for all your loving-kindness and your faithfulness, for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. (LB)

LB is a paraphrase by Kenneth Taylor who used the 1901 American Standard Bible as a base text.

Magnified – to make great

Name – represents the character of God eg. Lovingkindness and faithfulness of God

Word – the promise of God; what He says, He will do as it is backed up by the name/character of God

The NIV is a good translation by the best scholarship in the evangelical tradition (updated based on the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947).   This could be your main translation, but it should be complemented by others as you read and study the Bible to gain an understanding of what was intended to be communicated to the original audience.     

According to the psalmist, God has tied his promises to his good name.  Because the Bible contains so many promises (7000+) of God, it behoves us to read the word and claim them for ourselves. 

But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him.  For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.  2 Cor 1:18-20 NASB