Rev. Aaron Long: What About the Bible
The bible is one of the most argued about, debated over, fought over, blood shed document in history. It has a weird past and a future that we can’t even see. It is a document that was used to defend slavery and a document that was used to fight against slavery. It is a document that is miss interpreted, miss read, miss used, and weaponized. Thing is it is also a document, a book that Christianity can’t exist without and is the foundation of all truth we have in the world around us.
First of all, what is the bible. The bible is a library of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament. The Jewish leaders canonized, made official the 39 books of the Old Testament well before Jesus’ birth, probably around the time of the return from the Babylonian captivity. We know that by the time Jesus came into the world that the Old Testament was safely and completely known, not only know but accepted as God’s Word to humanity and infallible to teach from.
The New Testament was written for about 80 years after Jesus’ resurrection. We know that it was quickly accepted by the entire church, especially the gospels and Paul’s epistles. Don’t buy into the lies that Constantine made up the bible, that garbage has led many astray. The only New Testament books that were even argued about were Hebrews and revelation and even then, not seriously. Like the Old Testament and because the books were written by people who knew Jesus they have always been viewed as infallible.
Now, by the time of the Nicene Council we have the whole bible put together and forming the foundation of the faith, that said these bibles were missing things that we take for granted and sometimes mess us up. Chapters were not introduced into the books of the bible until the 1400’s and the verses don’t pop up regularly until around the 1600’s. The books of the bible were written to be read as whole books. To help this make sense to you, you all know how to write a letter. When you write a letter do you put chapters and verses in your letter. Well, the epistles are letters, don’t assume that they were written broken up into chapter and verse like we have now.
Remember these books were not written in English, the New Testament was written in Greek and the old testament mostly in Hebrew and some Aramaic. All of our English bibles from the KJV to the ESV are translations. This does not make them fallible but remember to get a full reading of the text you need to be able to read it in the language, hence, pastors should be able to read the bible in its original languages in order to be able to properly preach.
We know the bible is infallible because we have copies of both the Old and New Testament going way back, with the dead sea scrolls literally being put to paper before the birth of Jesus and still reading exactly like what we have today. Only God Himself could have possibly preserved the hand copying over all that time without errors creeping in.
Now, all of this being said, what does this mean for us as everyday Christians. It’s simple, God the Creator of everything has chosen to speak to you personally, not with an audible voice, but instead with a book. Why aren’t you reading it? It seems to this humble pastor if you aren’t in your bible every day you probably don’t love God and probably aren’t saved. Why do is say that? If you love somebody you are going to want to talk to them and hear them. You hear God by reading the bible, and you talk to Him through prayer. Get into your bible.
