Sermon Central
-
Absolute Essentials Of Christianity - Part 2 Of 2 Series
Contributed by Dr. Craig Nelson on Jul 20, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: The Bible - The Foundation of the Church - The Sufficiency and Authority of Scripture - Traditions of Man - Experiential Revelation
The Bible
The foundation of Christianity is the Bible. It is the only dependable source for humankind to know God's voice. It has the answers to all eternal questions. The focus of all Scripture is ultimately on Jesus. It is the blueprint of Heaven and the only reliable source of truth for all moral and spiritual information by which humans can successfully live each day and build a foundation for any endeavor. In its original text, the Bible is the all-inclusive, inerrant, divinely inspired word of God (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Bible was written with a consistent theme by about 40 authors over an approximately 1,500-year period in three languages on three continents with no evident contradictions. Its writers were scholars, ranchers, shepherds, and fishermen.
New Testament Timeline
The historic church has had the complete written “logos/rhema/graphe” Word including all 27 books of the New Testament (NT) since approximately 90 AD. Here is the timeline for each NT book:
James 40-46 AD
1 + 2 Corinthians 56-57 AD
Romans and 1 Peter 57-58 AD
2 Peter, 2 Timothy, Luke, Jude, Acts 58-67 AD
Titus, Philemon, Mark - no later than 61 AD
Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, Hebrews 61-63 AD
John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John 63-80 AD
The entire New Testament could be reconstructed from the writings of the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Rome who wrote a letter to the church at Corinth in 95 AD that contained numerous OT Scriptures as well as the writings of the Apostles Jesus had hand-picked, that were considered as sacred Scripture. Another early church father was Irenaeus, who lived from 130 AD to 202 AD. In his writings, He quoted from 24 books of the New Testament over 1,800 times.
Justin Martyr wrote a letter known as his first Apology to the Roman Emperor around 150 AD in which he described what happened during a typical Sunday church service. He wrote that the Scriptures of the OT (the writings of the Prophets) and the writings of the NT were read out loud and then a message (discourse) was preached, songs were sung, people prayed together and took communion. Then, an offering was taken, part of which was used to help those who were sick, as well as widows and orphans, and all those that were in need (First Apology, 67).
There was also Origen Adamantius who lived from 185 AD - 254 AD in Alexandria, Egypt. He was a theologian and scholar who made over 18,000 references to the books in the NT in his writings. There are many more.
The Bible has been translated many times in a one-step process from the original languages into multiple languages throughout history. However, it has never been rewritten. There are approximately 5,700 copies of the Greek manuscripts that were made very close to the time of the originals, and they all agree with each other with 99.5% accuracy. The .5% variation would include textual misspellings or minor word alternations. There are also over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages, bringing the total supporting New Testament manuscript purity to over 24,000 copies.
God the Father, just as He spoke in the past in the Old Testament, continues to speak to His people today through the New Testament by using His own Words spoken to Jesus, who then spoke to His Apostles, who wrote them down, which made up the New Testament (Luke 10:16; John 13:20, 17:17-20). The writers of the New Testament constantly appealed to the Scriptures alone as their base of authority in declaring what was and was not actual Biblical teaching (Matthew 21:42; John 2:22; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Peter 1:10-12, 2:2; 2 Peter 1:17-19; Acts 17:11).
The Foundation of the Church
The church was built on the teaching (Scriptures) of the Prophets and Apostles found in the Old and New Testaments (Ephesians 2:19-20). The Bible is the authoritative source for the proclamation of the church and the norm by which that proclamation is tested. It cannot be changed by any additions, subtractions, or modifications offered by anyone, no matter what position or authority they claim to hold. Once a person attempts to conflate various verses, supplement, supersede, distort, or subtract from the Bible, they enter into heresy.
The writers of the New Testament lived in poverty. They suffered tremendous persecution by the two most powerful cultures of the day. They willingly endured political disgrace, beatings, stonings, imprisonment, and execution about the claims of Jesus and what He did while boldly insisting to their last dying breath that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead.
The vast majority of New Testament books were written by numerous eyewitnesses, and there is no record of anyone alive at the time questioning their accuracy. There were indeed many deeds and sayings of Jesus not recorded in Scripture. However, the letters and writings chosen to be included in the New Testament were required to meet three primary criteria points.
