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To take a second look at the inspired words of our Bible we must begin by surrendering the heart, the mind, and the will – indeed the core of who we are and even how we think – to the source of truth Jesus Christ. By allowing our God the freedom to re-create who we are from the inside out, we become new. We lose our slavery to self, and our minds and hearts are liberated to His service. As we begin to follow our God, rather than attempt to lead Him, or teach Him; we become ready to see something more in the written pages of our Bible. A deeper level of truth is revealed to us in the same familiar passages. The meanings become more profound, and the impact more distinct in how we think and how we live. This transformation is only possible when our ideas of control are surrendered. This revelation of truth is only possible when we follow our God’s leading in the reading of His book, rather than open it with our own preconceived ideas fully in charge, and our only motives to prove what we already believe. Truth is truth. It requires no evidence to prove itself, it is the evidence. The one constant of our faith is that Jesus Christ is truth. As we surrender ourselves to the re-creating power of our God, we can find Him better in the pages we have already read. It is only in this way that we relook at a book we have read and studied throughout our lives.
Since Christ is the center of our entire Bible, it seems the best place to begin looking at Jesus, is where the books were written by those closest to Him. Old Testament writers had encounters with our God, but were unable to walk with Him every day, eat meals with Him, listen for hours directly to everything He would say, and daily witness the depth of love He showed for every person He encountered. These were the personal testimonies of New Testament writers. So we begin our examination of scripture with those who were the closest to Him, those written works comprise the second or New Testament of Jesus. It is here where we will find the written account of His life, His travels, His constant acts of love and redemption, His Ministry, and finally His fulfillment of the cost of our Salvation from the slavery of sin and self. Every Old Testament writer longed to see the coming of their Messiah. From Adam to Moses to the minor prophets, each believed firmly that our God Jesus Christ would come, and free them from the bondage of evil. And while each author wrote the history and the hopes of Israel in their time, to witness the coming of the Messiah would have fulfilled their wildest dreams. In our day, we wait for His return. But like any good story, we will begin in the middle, and begin to learn of our God, from the words of the eye witnesses to His Truth.
As we begin, we might also address an issue that has become more prominent in recent days. Historians and scholars from time to time uncover manuscripts believed to be written during the time of Christ, some purported to be written by His closest followers. Yet these epistles are missing from the collection we refer to as the New Testament. As Historians find value in the study of history, they would not understand why our Bible is simply not amended to include these discoveries as they are made. In addition, many authors have penned many works and studies on the life of Christ centuries after the early Christian church had evolved, and some argue that their works could also be added to the end of the collection as well. The question then, is what makes a particular work worthy of inclusion into our Bible, and what does not? Why not include recently discovered works such as the gospel of Mary Magdalene, or of Judas, or others? This has been debated by historians as well as philosophers and theologians since the collection was first assembled. And it is a question that modern agnostics and atheists attempt to use to discredit our Bible, as we appear unwilling to modify it despite “evidence” that it may be incomplete. So how do we address the works that are NOT included in our Bible?
How could you know truth, if what you needed to know was held back from you? How could you know truth if what was written were based in lies, or mis-edits, on unclear translations of what was originally said? An atheist has a legitimate claim in distrusting humanity to “get it right”. Simply put, we as a species have a long history of making mistakes. We as a species, tend to embellish, incorporate our opinions in stories that are supposed to be factually accurate, and in general remember only the good and ignore all of the bad we may be responsible for. Given that, a series of collected works, that span a 2000 year period of time should be at best “a good story” and at worst, an entire distortion of anything resembling reality. But this perspective is clearly and accurately based in examining us a species, absent the power or influence of any divine being.
If however as our atheists friends disdain considering, there actually is an omnipotent God who created our species through an act of love and choice; if this God gave us the freedom to choose to trust and love or not, and we chose badly; and instead of leaving us to our deserved fate of slavery to pain and death, our God chose to redeem us; it would only seem logical, that our God would need to communicate His plan, His Truth, and His love to us. This communication would have to last for thousands of years, and reach many more people than would first encounter it. Therefore the best and most effective method of communication would be the written word. This word would have to protected, and its importance understood by those involved in its preservation, so that accuracy could be maintained. And if the point of these communications were the redemption of man, then this word would have to be widely disseminated and translated in order that the maximum amount of people in the world might be able to read it, and get from its pages, the truth they would need to make a decision about whether they wanted to return to the trust and love our God offers, or not. The communication may not need to be absolutely perfect, or even absolutely clear, but it would need to be perfect enough, clear enough, and complete enough so that its reader could decide for themselves if they wanted to follow the God Jesus Christ identified in its pages or not. If that decision was based on error due to the weakness of our species, or that decision was based on incomplete information because what was needed was omitted or altered, then the decision would be void. At that point, choice would no longer be choice at all.
If our God created us with the ability to choose to trust and to love in the first place; then it stands to reason He has no intention of taking that ability to choose away from us. Instead He offers us the clear alternatives of love of others, and love of self, captured in the included works of our Bible from cover to cover. He offers us a very personal view of Himself in the form of Jesus Christ. He reveals to us what it truly means to love. He does these things not in an attempt to control us arbitrarily, but to show us how we may be made free through His love. He wishes to liberate us from our slavery to self, to pain, and to death. These acts of love forever preserve our ability to choose them, or walk away from them. His communication to us then, must be more than simply the historical ramblings of generally uneducated men. They must be divinely inspired and divinely preserved. They must be accurate enough to show the definition of love, and the implications of what it means to trust in God even more than to trust in our own wisdom. This is why we can have confidence that what is included in our scriptures is indeed enough. It does not need more information, and newer discoveries in order that truth be finally revealed. What it has already is enough.
If we choose to examine subsequent works, or discoveries of writings made in the same time periods, it is not to replace what was written, but perhaps only to offer another perspective on the source of truth who stands behind the words of His communication to us. If those newly discovered works detract from the divinity of our God, they would make void the entire intent of the Bible, and therefore prove themselves of no account. There are men and women who have served our Lord during the last two thousand years, who may have written down ideas, perspectives, and revelations about the truth they discovered in the books of our Bible. What truth we can glean from their words is an added blessing to us.
Martin Luther for example, along with many contemporaries of his day, determined from the reading of the word, that salvation was brought about by Christ Himself, not through the ordinances of the church who claimed His name at the time. This discovery or revelation of truth was profound, and gave birth to Protestantism within Christianity. He further advocated that the members of the church be given direct access to the words of scripture, rather than be led only by those who studied theology as a profession. In so doing, and with the birth of the printing press, the Bible was released to the world at large, offering every man the chance and the choice to see the truth of Christ for himself. Without these important contributions to the cause of our God, the world may never have known His truth. This does not mean that Martin Luther, or any of his contemporaries were perfect, infallible, or deserving of inclusion in new volumes at the end of our current Bible. It does however illustrate to us, that the goals of our God to redeem mankind, can and will be achieved through the dissemination of His communications to us. It also shows us that a study of the word without preconceived ideas can lead to world altering profound revelations of love that are consistent with the character of Christ, even if they are not in line, with the contemporary thinking of the established religions of the day.
While we examine the writings of our New Testament of Christ it is important to remember, the writers of the New Testament did not have these compiled works at their fingertips for reference and study. The scriptures they had access to at the time were only the works of the Old Testament. The established religion of the day, had made the choice to reject the divinity of Christ, despite having all the written works of Moses, David, Isaiah, and the prophets. While the entirety of the Old Testament prophecies found their fulfillment in the life of Christ, the theologians of the day who should have been the most aware of this, rejected it. They decided despite the written word, that they would rather maintain their power and influence over the people than be compelled to humble themselves, abandon the hope of liberation from Roman occupation, and focus only on service to others as Christ advocated.
The established religion of God, went so far as to kill its object Jesus Christ, and then to attempt to kill or silence any follower of Christ who dared to spread the good news. In effect the religion of God, went to war with the God who founded it. Paul was caught up in this war against God until his conversion. But it is worthy of note that the authors who penned the works included in our New Testament of Christ had only the works of the Old Testament from which to prove the divinity of our God. In re-examining the scriptures of the day, they discovered the truth that led them to Christ. Without the preconceived ideas of the established priesthood in their heads, they found the truth of Christ in the same familiar passages that the leadership and educated intelligentsia of the church had rejected. The same words, revealed the truth, that preconception had rejected. The lesson is keen for us as we begin our second look …
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