Understanding the Bible

 

In a conversation with a friend of mine who was preparing to enter the Christian ministry, we discussed the importance of church history.  He was attending a local Christian college in preparation for his service.  When we spoke of the early church and the writings of the early fathers he simply wrote them off by saying that they have no value today.  In his thinking, they, and the history of the church were just not important.  All that was important was God and his Bible.  This notion is not original to my friend, but it is believed and being taught by many ministers.

 

There is no doubt that knowing God and trusting in Him is the most essential part of our faith. Secondly the Bible is the source of that revealed knowledge necessary to our salvation.  However, when it comes to what we believe the Bible to teach, it is necessary to apply a hermeneutic, which is consistent with the teachings of the Scripture and that of the Apostles and Prophets who gave us the understanding of it.  The story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch found in Acts gives us an illustration of this:

 

8:26Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. 27So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” 30So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

 

In the above passage we may observe that the Ethiopian was an honest believer. In reading the sacred texts he desired to understand and sought instruction. Even the Apostle Paul speaks of things “hard to be understood.”    When Philip arrived he asked the Eunuch if he understood what he read.  The response is classic, “ How can I understand except someone guides me.”  How then are we understand the Scripture?  It has been said that Scripture is its best interpreter. This is very true. So let us look as what the scripture teaches about how we are to understand the teachings of the Christian Faith.

 

We need to recognize that we understand the scriptures because someone at some point has taught us. We were not born with the knowledge we now have. However, by careful study under sound teachers we have learned what we now know. Our teachers learned from their teachers, who learned from other teachers and so on. The truth, which we believe the Scriptures to teach, is not new but originated with Jesus who taught the Apostles who in turn taught their disciples and on.  Note what St Paul says to Timothy:

 

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, And the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou unto faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (II Timothy 2:1-2)

 

 In the above passage, the Apostle expresses the means by which the truth of the Gospel is to be preserved and passed on. The Apostle is speaking not of what was written but the things, which Timothy had heard from St Paul’s teaching.   Note also that in the Old Testament God gave the Word to Moses.  He taught it to the people. Further, the Levites were raised up to continue to teach the Word in accordance with Moses doctrine. The holy order of Prophets was raised up by God to bring the people back to the right understanding of Moses.  They were to declare the mind of God according to the truth.  There was and still is an understanding of the Scripture which is true and others which are false. Objective truth is what we seek. Notice what Isaiah tells us in his prophecy:

 

8:20To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

 

The prophets of God in the Old Testament were called to challenge the false prophets of their day and their false teachings.  One was not to interpret the Scripture as one wanted. It was not a matter of “this is just how I understand it.” It meant what the prophets of God said it meant. The problem, which both the prophets and apostles had to contend, was a private interpretation of the Scriptures.  Private interpretations establish the interpreter as the final authority and not God.  God raised up Moses and gave him understanding of His revealed will.  He was commissioned to teach the people what God wanted and not what he thought God wanted. The prophets were sent to clear up the confusion caused by false prophets and false teachers of their day.

 

In the New Testament times, Jesus taught the Apostles what the Old Testament meant.  Luke speaks to that as he records Jesus words after His resurrection:

 

24: 44Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 45And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

 

Jesus spent about three years teaching his disciples before sending them out.  He could have given them the Holy Spirit early on and infused all the knowledge they would need to preach.  He could have done that, but we know that he did not, nor does he do that today. We lean here that the teachings of our faith are passed on by those who have studied and have been duly ordained by others who like Timothy, were prepared and considered ready to take upon themselves the ministry of the Gospel.  We find that Timothy and Titus, having been taught by St Paul were sent out to both ordain and to teach.  Note the instructions which St Paul gives to Titus: “For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I have appointed thee, (Titus 1:5).

 

Titus was to first set things in order that were wanting.  There were needs in the church that had to be addressed.  He was given authority to resolve them.  If the people would not hear him, then they were hardly subject to our Lord for his commission was from the Lord through the Apostle.  To resist Titus was to resist Christ. Not that Titus was infallible by any means, but what he taught was not his own thinking. He was taught by St Paul who received his teaching by revelation of Jesus Christ.    “But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:11-12)  To teach any other gospel would be anathema.

 

We must however note that though St Paul did not travel with the other apostles and receive his teaching from Christ with the others, what he received by revelation never contradicted anything that the other apostles taught.  There was a clear solidarity in doctrine among all the apostles.  What St Paul received by revelation was the same things that the others received during Christ earthly ministry. There was no contradiction among them.

 

The Apostles being commissioned to go to all the world (see Matthew 28:18-20) were told to teach all things “whatsoever I have commanded you.”  They were not to teach anything they wanted but only what Jesus had taught them.  This is the same thing which Jesus demonstrated as he taught the people. He came to speak His Father’s words and not His own. He was faithful to that. So even Jesus was not inventing anything new.

 

That having been said, we now ask: “How are we today to understand the Bible?”  In the words of the Ethiopian, “How can I understand unless someone teach me.”  We understand the Scriptures in light of those who have taught us.  The truths and doctrines which we have embraced are due to the teaching we have received from those, whom we trust, who have themselves been instructed in “the faith once delivered to the saints.”  The question we must then ask is this, “Are those who have taught us, teaching the same thing which Jesus taught the Apostles?”  How can we be sure?

 

The Apostles in their epistles warned of those who would teach falsely. The Apostle Paul writes to the Galatian Church:

 

1:6I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

 

During Paul’s lifetime there were those who sought to teach their own ideas of what they thought the Scripture meant.  The Apostle calls them “anathema,” cursed. This is a serious charge against those who taught according to their own private interpretation.  Further, Paul wars young Timothy:

 

1: 3As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. 5Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 7desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. 8But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 11according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

 

Many in those days wanted to be teachers for various and some not honest reasons.  Note what Paul says as he writes to Timothy:

 

Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.  I Tim 1:5-7

 

That is not all that different from today where in some cities and towns one may find in certain sections, churches on almost every street corner which all sprang out of the same church.  Everyone wants to be the teacher. Yet many, who want to be teachers, as the Apostle says, do not have an understanding of what they teach.  This being the case, there can be no consistency in the message proclaimed. It is in St Paul’s word’s the trumpet sounding an “uncertain sound.” It is confusion.  The great Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon stated, “It is pointless to claim to be Biblical when the whole question is, what does the Bible teach.” His words still ring true today.

 

Contrary to some persuasions, there is a right and there is a wrong way of understanding the Scripture. One leads to eternal life, the other to eternal death.  This is a serious matter and not one, which should be taken lightly.  What one believes does matter. Simply because someone wants something to be true does not make it true.  Absolute truth does exit. The Bible presupposes an absolute truth revealed to man by the Almighty God, the creator, and sustainer of all life. His final judgment of all mankind will be based upon this truth.  Note what St Paul says about this:

 

“…the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His might angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”  (II Thessalonians 1:7-9)

 

Jude as well, desiring to write to the church concerning our common salvation, was led to write a warning to the church because “4… certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Of these ungodly creepers Jude continues to say, “10But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. 12These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 14Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15“to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. 16These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.”

 

Notice what Jude says, “remember the words spoken by the Apostles.” Was Jude speaking only of what we read in the New Testament, or did he mean something else?  When Jude speaks of “the faith once delivered unto the saints,” what does he mean?

 

Let us back track a bit to Acts 2:40-42 “And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

 

With many other words Peter preached and exhorted the people. They received the word and we read that they “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers”  What doctrine did they receive? What prayers did they learn? In the Greek New Testament we notice that the Apostle uses the definite article with “prayers.” It reads “the prayers.” It is uncertain why the translators omitted it, however it does add to our understanding of what Luke is saying.

 

But what is important for our understanding is that the reference to “the apostles doctrine” is a reference to the teachings of the apostles, which the believers received before the New Testament, was written. When Jude speaks of “the faith once delivered to the Saints” he is referring to these very teachings of the apostles, which were given before the canon of Scripture was complete. “The Faith” of the whole church was that body of truth, which was committed to the disciples by Christ and then by the apostles to and their successors from generation to generation.  Recognizing that the Bible is the final authority of all faith and practice of the Christian Church, it does not negate those truths taught by Christ and the apostles which, consistent with the Scripture and sometimes referred to briefly with in the New Testament, have been passed on to us in the writings of those who have heard them.  

 

We learn what Christ taught the Apostles from the writings of the early church. Questions like “What was the structure of the early church?  How did they worship and was that worship to be continued until the Lord returns? When the scripture speaks of the saints continuing in “the apostles’ doctrine” what does it mean? St Ignatious and St Polycarp lived during the times of the apostles ministry.  They were both not only contemporaries of the Apostles but they were disciples of St John. When one reads their writings one reads what they had received from St John. Though their writings they are even now passing “the doctrine of the apostles’ on to successive generations. It is interesting to observe that in all the early writings of the Church, other than those branded heretic, there is a beautiful uniformity of doctrine between both the eastern and the western churches.

 

To rightly understand “the faith once delivered to the saints” one needs to understand the Bible in light of the doctrine of the apostles which has been held to by the Church for the last 2000 years. The Bible was not written in a vacuum but in the context of “the Apostles doctrine.” The doctrines which they taught, their epistles affirm. To teach anything other than what they had taught was anathema. To reject those teachings was and still is to reject what Christ gave to the Church by them. It is to reject Christ and His authority.  Further, to gather disciples around one’s private interpretations is to institute a new church, based not on Christ, but on a Christ born out of private interpretation. This was a fear of St Paul’s when he wrote to the Corinthian Church (II Cor. 11:4)

 

As the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph :2:20), it is as well the pillar and ground of the truth (I Timothy 3:15).  When the Bible speaks of the truth is it referring only to what is written in it or what it has been taught by the apostles and prophets to include what has been written.    Christians are called to the pursuit of truth.  We know that the Bible is truth.  We know that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. We know that the apostles preached the truth. We as well know that those whom the apostles sent into the world preached the truth, even if they are not mentioned in their epistles.  To preserve the truth, which the apostles had preached the early Christians, recorded some of the things, which they had heard.  Those ordained to the various offices of the church, Episcopos  (Bishop), Presbuteros (Priest or Presbyter) and Deacon were to proclaim and preserve the truth.  Such early writings as the Dedache (the two ways) and the Apostolic Constitutions embody much of what the Apostles taught and referred to in their epistles.  This body of truth, which has been preserved, is referred to as the Sacred Tradition.

 

Many protestant churches find the term tradition repugnant to the scriptures. Yet to give an example of tradition still believed among all Christians is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  As we recognize that the word Trinity is not found in the Scripture itself, it is applied to a doctrine, which it teaches. This doctrine was believed among Christian before the New Testament was completed. It is one doctrine of the Apostles, which was taught and has become one that has been passed down through the last 2000 years. It is believed because the Scriptures teach it and it is understood because the Church has taught it. It has preserved the truth and has passed it on to the next generation.  It has as well been said that the present anti-traditionalism is the tradition of modern Protestantism.

 

Heresies which crept into the Church from the earliest of times demanded that the Church meet in council to deliberate on the issues of doctrine to keep the Church pure and unified in the truth. Thus, the creeds were produced to separate truth from falsehood. The most noteworthy creeds are the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanatian creed. The councils and the creeds however did not stop the wicked from infiltrating the church and bringing with them the evil seed of corruption.

 

We know all too well that through the years various corrupt traditions were added to the teachings of the Church and the need for reform was evident.  As there were many good reforms that took place there were many changes that were not reforms at all but an out right rebellion against the Church which severely dismembered the Body of Christ. Luther at the end of his life was remorseful in that giving his life to reform the church and do away with one pope; he had created a thousand more.  All the new factions of Christianity that sprung up were build around one individual and his peculiar doctrine and not built upon obedience to Christ.  Obedience to Christ demanded that one follow the Scriptures and that also meant that one follow the scriptures in light of what Christ had taught the Apostles. Reformation did not mean to reinvent the church and institute new doctrines, but to restore the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone.

 

Sadly, as the reformation took shape, the devil was all too ready to split up the unity of Christ’s Body and use the ego of men to do it.  It was the divisiveness of Corinth revisited.  Hear the Exhortation of St Paul:

 

“Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you and that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren, by them, which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Not this I say that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos: and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.  Is Christ divided?…”  (I Corinthians 1:10-13)

 

The reality is that the wickedness of men’s hearts, has led to a blind arrogance among men who do not understand the meaning of the call of Christ to obey those whom Christ has set up as Authorities in the Church.

 

Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

 

 Though we know the gates of Hell will not prevail against it, the battle will have its casualties.  The Apostle knew this and gave us a warning that “heresies must come so that those who are genuine will be made manifest” (I Corinthians 11:19).  Christ Himself is sorely afflicted and battered by the present trend of dismemberment. Heresies have come, and those obedient to the Gospel have put them out of the Church.  But on the other hand a crop of new weeds have grown up attempting to blend in with the Church profaning the name of Christ in their disobedience to the Gospel.  That trend has not diminished but has continued to fester and feed upon men who seek for their own notoriety. As they may proclaim Christ they do it our of an evil motive. St Paul warns of this attitude as well:  “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will. The one preach Christ of contention and not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds.” (Philippians 1:15-16)  Some preach even for “filthy lucre.” They are in it to fleece the flock rather than to feed the flock. Religions hoaxes and scams are just as plentiful today as they were back then.

 

The Christian Church today is in desperate need of reform.   There are clergy and laity on one side claiming that the Bible is a work of men and only contains truth. There are those who believe that the writings were not inspired by the Holy Spirit and rendered infallible. It is further perceived that several of the apostles “opinions’ were the result of their cultural influence and thus not authoritative nor applicable for today.  There are even those who need no man to teach them and presume an infallible understanding of the Scripture given directly by the Holy Spirit.  The new revelations seemingly supersede what the Holy Spirit gave in the Word.  Others simply reject the idea of truth to be absurd.

 

 

With this though in mind, is it any wonder why we have so many present day sects among professing Christians?  How is it that if so many have the “Holy Spirit” that we have so many different understandings of the Bible? Has the Spirit gone mad and forgotten what He taught from one generation to the next, or to one individual to the next?  That would be one conclusion.  However, there is another.

 

 

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