Skilled in the word of Righteousness (Hebrews 5:13) Part 24

SKILLED IN THE WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Hebrews 5:13)

Part 24

Yeow Chin Kiong

The books of the Old Testament (OT) were preserved and passed on over many generations by priests of the Israelite tribe of Levi who were held accountable for teaching God’s revelation to the children of Israel (Leviticus 10:10-11; Deuteronomy 24:8; 33:8,10; 2 Chronicles 17:7-9). As custodians of the OT scriptures and with the help of other Israelites or Jews (Nehemiah 8:7-8), the priests were educators of the people in the revealed ways and will of God,

(Malachi 2:7), until the coming of the Son of God, Who placed His authoritative (Matthew 17:5; Hebrews 1:1-2) stamp confirming the reliability and trustworthiness of the preserved OT scriptures as Divine revelation. Jesus also sealed the contents of the OT by warning against altering the OT scriptures by adding to, or subtracting from, them (Matthew 5:17-19) or replacing portions of them with human traditions (Matthew 15:1-9).

The Son of God confirmed the reliability and trustworthiness of the New Testament (NT)books (which He had no part in writing) by orally teaching part of its contents and having those teachings confirmed by fulfilling OT prophecy (Acts 3:18) and doing signs, wonders and miracles (including His resurrection) (Acts 2:22-24). As we have ascertained, the writings of the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are reliable records of the words and works of Jesus as testified by eyewitnesses (John 15:27) and those who were their contemporaries.

Having proven that He was God’s Son by His resurrection from the dead as He had prophesied (Matthew 12:39-40; 16:21; Mark 9:30-32; John 2:18-22; Romans 1:1-4), Jesus explained that He had all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18-20). By this authority, Jesus promised that He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to remind the apostles what He taught as well as to complete instructing them in all truth (John 14:25-26; 15:26; 16:12-15). As they taught with the words inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21), those words were confirmed by God through their working of signs, wonders and miracles (Mark 16:15-20; Acts 14:3; Hebrews 2:1-4).

When such teachings were written down in the epistles of the apostles and other inspired disciples of Jesus, they bore the authority of Jesus Who caused the oral teachers and writers like Luke and John (see Luke 2:1-4 and Revelation 1:17-19; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). Hence the writings of the NT were as reliable and trustworthy as Divine revelation as the OT. Indeed, the NT also contained warnings against the alteration of their contents by addition or subtraction (Revelation 22:18-20).

Besides bearing the authority of Jesus Christ, we remember that the NT scriptures also met the tests of eyewitness reliability and trustworthiness applied to their contents. The differences (not amounting to contradiction) between some of the four gospel accounts of the same event (e.g. how many angels were encountered at Jesus’ open tomb by the women disciples) show that there was no collusion among the gospel writers. Also, the inclusion in NT scriptures of verifiable information regarding people, places and events (e.g. Luke 1:5; 2:1 and the large number of place names in the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles) supports their trustworthiness. Then, there are many embarrassing accounts (e.g. the apostle Peter’s denial that he was Jesus’ disciple; and Peter’s statement in 2 Peter 3:15-16 that some things his fellow-apostle Paul wrote were hard to understand) contained in NT scriptures which would not have been included if they were not true, indicating their writers were honest to a fault as bearers of Divinely/inspired truth.

To recap, proving that the Bible is the word of God beyond reasonable doubt must begin by building a prima facie case for the Divine inspiration of its entirety, the Old and the New Testament. This must necessarily be done systematically or stepwise, beginning from “ground zero” of human reasoning itself (i.e. that the truth about reality can be known), leading to the truth of the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-benevolent God Who wants to communicate with mankind. Then, it must be argued that the New Testament’s four gospels and Acts of the Apostles are historically reliable as testimony to truth and that these scriptures indicate that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Finally, it must be shown that Jesus Christ (as God, Who cannot lie) taught that the Old Testament scriptures were Divinely-inspired and also put His stamp of authority on the New Testament’s contents, thus rendering His determination that the entire Bible is God’s word and authoritative for man.

To make the aforementioned prima facie case one which is “beyond reasonable doubt,” we must next meet successfully the challenges to each point in support of our prima facie case. These challenges would include: the argument from evil (against the existence of a good God), the argument of the Bible’s imperfections and the non-availability of the original scriptures with which to compare our modern versions and translations.