The Apocrypha

The Apocrypha was accepted in 1546 at the Council of Trent. This decision was an error on the part of this church council for these reasons:

1. Jesus, the apostles and the New Testament never quote from the Apocrypha.
2. The Apocrypha itself never claims to be authoritative, inspired, or the word of God.
3. The internal evidence within the books themselves even disclaims inspiration, stating that there were no prophets that could speak or write under the inspiration of the spirit during the years these books were written (1 Maccabees 4:46; 9:27; 14:41).
4. Some books have major historical errors. For example in the book of Judith, Nebuchadnezzar is said to be the king of Assyria, and in the books of First and Second Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanies is recorded as dying three different ways in three different places.
5. Some books promote doctrinal error. For example, prayer for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:45-46), attainment of complete sanctification and sinlessness,
6. Some of the books accept practices that the Bible condemns such as suicide, assassination and magical incantation.
7. Josephus, who rejects the Apocrypha and other books outside of the Jewish scriptures says: “From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.” (Against Apion 1:8)
8. The Dead Sea Scrolls do not consider the Apocrypha as inspired.
9. Jerome rejected the inspiration of the Apocrypha and originally refused to translate them as part of his Latin Vulgate – but did include them in the end at the request of the Roman bishop. He warned readers not to “apply them to establish any doctrine” concerning “these portions which exhibit no authority as Holy Scripture.”
10. The Apocrypha lacks any prophetic authorship or content and so there is no possible prophetic fulfillment to confirm their authority.
11. In accepting these writings in 1546, the Council of Trent broke with the traditional views of the Jews, the early Church, and major church councils in the past.
12. The Council of Trent made its decision in reaction against Martin Luther’s criticism of their doctrine of praying and collecting indulgences for the dead.
13. The Council of Trent accepted only 11 of the apocryphal books. They accepted 2 Maccabees because it supported their belief in prayer for the dead, but rejected 2 Esdras because it opposed prayers for the dead.

The New Testament Apocryphal Books
There are books from the first and second century that have been compiled as the so-called New Testament Apocrypha. These books can be broken down into two groups: books written by known authors that are not considered scripture, and pseudo-writings which are books written by unknown authors claiming to be someone else (For example: an author who wrote a book with his own ideas and doctrine but signed Peter’s name to it to help it gain acceptance).

Some books written by known authors from the early church that are authentic but not considered scripture are Clement’s letter to the Corinthians, Ignatius’ seven letters written on his way to martyrdom in Rome, and others. A few books written by unknown authors who ascribed the writings to apostles or other famous Christians are the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and the Apocalypse of Peter.

These books are rejected because they do not meet the requirements of canonicity listed above. In addition:

1. They were never recognized by a major church council.
2. If they were ever listed in the same document with the canonical books they were always placed on a separate list.
3. None of these books ever received universal acceptance by the churches. At best they experienced local acceptance (or consideration), and then only for a limited time. Once they were tested and carefully considered they were universally removed from acceptance in the canon
4. Some of these books are clearly fables, deceptions, or products of some early unorthodox group trying to gain acceptance into Christendom.
   

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/

The Chain of Prophetic Continuity in the Old Testament

There is a clear scriptural chain of prophetic continuity through the complete Old Testament revelation. Luke referred to this chain when he wrote of Jesus talking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus:

• "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27
  

This same chain of prophets was referred to by the Jewish historian Josephus when he wrote:

• “From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.” Against Apion 1:8

This concept eliminates the possibility of canonicity and the inspiration for the Apocrypha. The word Apocrypha comes from the Greek word apokryphos which is built on the Greek word krypto which means “secret or hidden”. They were given this name by Jerome around 400 AD because they are books that are rarely seen. They were written between 400-200 BC after the inspired Old Testament canon was closed.

Old Testament revelation can be traced through a series of prophets who form a prophetic chain through the Old Testament beginning with Moses (1440 BC) and ending with Nehemiah who compiled the final books after Malachi closed Old Testament Revelation around 432 BC. Scripture identifies these prophets as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo, Jehu, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra and Nehemiah.

1. Moses -Genesis, Exodus, Revelation, Leviticus, Deuteronomy (Nehemiah 9:14Luke 24:27
2. Joshua - End of Deuteronomy, book of Joshua
3. Samuel - Samuel wrote an early history of Samuel and David (1 Chron. 29:29)
4. Nathan & Gad - Nathan and Gad recorded events in the reign of David (1 Chron. 29:292 Chron. 12:15)
5. Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo - Nathan, Ahijah and Iddo wrote of the events during the reign of Solomon (2 Chron. 9:29-31)
6. Shemaiah, Iddo - Shemaiah and Iddo chronicled the events in the reign of Rehoboam (2 Chron. 12:15)
7. Iddo - Iddo wrote of the events of the reign of Abijah (2 Chron. 13:22)
8. Jehu - Jehu wrote of the events of the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:34)
9. Isaiah - Isaiah wrote of the events of the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 32:32
10. (Hozai?) - An unknown prophet (possibly Hozai) wrote of Manasseh’s reign (2 Chron. 33:19)
11. Jeremiah - Jeremiah prophesied and recorded the final days of Judah during the reigns beginning with Josiah through Jehoiakim through Zedekiah (Jeremiah 1:1-3)
12. Ezekiel - Ezekiel prophecied and recorded events from July 5, 593 until April 28, 573 BC during the Babylonian captivity (Ezek. 1:2; 40:1)
13. Daniel - Daniel prophesied and recorded events from 605-536 B.C. This included the time of Jehoiakim of Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon until Cyrus and Darius of the Medo-Persians (Daniel 1:1; 10:1)
14. Ezra - Ezra returns to Jerusalem with the exiles with the written revelation and teaches the people. Ezra taught the word of God and recorded events (Ezra 6:18; 7:11; 9:4
15. Zechariah - Zechariah prophesied to the Jews who returned from Babylon and recorded events in 520 BC (Zechariah 1:1)
16. Malachi - Malachi closed the time of revelation around 432 BC – until the coming of “the prophet Elijah”, or, John the Baptist (Malachi 4:5)
17. Nehemiah - Nehemiah was governor in Jerusalem for two terms (445-432 and a second term somewhere between the years 430-407). Nehemiah compiled the final prophetic books with all the previous revelation into an organized collection of written revelation known to Christians today as the Old Testament (Nehemiah 1:1; 5:14;13:6)

On Thursday or Friday we will take a look at the Apocrypha. I believe we should be familar with the Apocrypha. One of the greatest stories is recorded in the book of Maccabees concerning the Maccabean revolt.

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/

Transcendence, Immanence and Theism

Transcendence and Immanence - These are two characteristics of the God of the Bible. Transcendence refers to God as being prior to and existing outside the created world. To describe God as transcendent means God’s existence, his person and his nature, are not connected to the created world. God exists unchanged before, during and after the universe, or any created thing, existed. Immanence refers to God’s ability, desire and practice of being involved in the universe. This includes his general indwelling of every part of creation. God is everywhere simultaneously and is present at every point in space (but, this does not mean he exists as every point in space.) As transcendent, God is beyond time and space and is not affected by creation. As immanent, God is aware, present and involved in the created world. The Biblical God is both transcendent and immanent. He exists outside the universe but is active in the universe.

There are seven major world views of concerning God:

1. Atheism – believes there is no God
2. Polytheism – believes there are many gods
3. Panentheism – believes God is finite. He learns and changes as the free universe makes decisions.
4. Finite godism – believes God is finite but lives beyond the universe yet still has limited action in the universe
5. Pantheism – believes God is infinite but lives or exists with the creation
6. Deism – God is infinite, does not live in or effect the world; he is totally outside creation (transcendent).
7. Theism – God is infinite and beyond creation but he does act within creation; he is personal and knowable

Theism is an ancient philosophical concept that needed to be identified when the philosophy of deism began to be embraced in the 1600’s. Deism simply believes that God created the universe like a clockmaker. God wound it up and is letting it run. In deism God is entirely transcendent or outside the created world. Deism describes God as the first cause who created the world and established immutable, universal laws that can not be altered even by divine intervention. Theism on the other hand is the belief in the existence of one God who is transcendent and yet immanent. Theism embraces an infinite God who has personhood and interacts with people.

Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/

Bad Choices Eliminate Good Options in the Future

In Genesis 19 Lot is left in a very difficult situation. Lot wants to be the good host for the strangers that have come to his city of Sodom but he is unable to provide them with a good meal (the unleaven bread he gave them was the frozen pizza of his day) or a safe home. Even Lot's invitation to stay at his home was quickly turned down by his guest. When it came time to be the good host and protect his guest, Lot felt he had to choose between forfeiting his daughters and so be the bad father or surrendering his guest and be the bad host. Why was Lot left to chose between two bad options? Why did he not have any better choices?

Many times in life the decisions we make today eliminate the options we will get to choose from in the future. Bad choices today cancel out the good options from our list of future choices. Even in human history and in world events there are no "right" answers to our dilemmas because previous sins or selfish choices have destroyed the win/win options. Thus, we find ourselves with no clear direction and no real commitment to move ahead since any decision will produce lousy results.

As the angels tried to get Lot to leave the city, Lot hesitated and refused to flee. Why? He was fleeing into the dark wilderness were he would end up living in a cave in the mountains. Why did things end so badly for Lot? He had made a series of bad choices which included leaving Abraham who was still a powerful and wealthy relative living only twenty miles to the west.

Watch this 9:55 minute YouTube message by Galyn Wiemers:


Galyn Wiemers
http://www.generationword.com/