A Younger Generation Will Sit in Judgement on Our's

It should be clear to us that future generations do sit in judgment on those that preceded them. We do it with the horrific issues of slavery, racism, and the holocaust. We do it when we look back on generations that did amazing things as evidenced by books like The Greatest Generation.

How might future generations reflect on ours when it comes to the issue of abortion? I don't know the immediate future. I know that ultimately God is our judge, and, so, we must fear him and not what others think. Popular opinion in our generation or future generations is not our benchmark. That being said, I found this quote from Frederica Matthewes - Green to be thought provoking.

The pro-life cause is perennially unpopular, and pro-lifers get used to being misrepresented and wrongly accused. There are only a limited number of people who are going to be brave enough to stand up on the side of an unpopular cause. But sometimes a cause is so urgent, is so dramatically clear, that it’s worth it. What cause could be more outrageous than violence — fatal violence — against the most helpless members of our human community? If that doesn’t move us, how hard are our hearts? If that doesn’t move us, what will ever move us? 

In time, it’s going to be impossible to deny that abortion is violence against children. Future generations, as they look back, are not necessarily going to go easy on ours. Our bland acceptance of abortion is not going to look like an understandable goof. In fact, the kind of hatred that people now level at Nazis and slave-owners may well fall upon our era. Future generations can accurately say, “It’s not like they didn’t know.” They can say, “After all, they had sonograms.” They may consider this bloodshed to be a form of genocide. They might judge our generation to be monsters. 

One day, the tide is going to turn. With that Supreme Court decision 43 years ago, one of the sides in the abortion debate won the day. But sooner or later, that day will end. No generation can rule from the grave. The time is coming when a younger generation will sit in judgment of ours. And they are not obligated to be kind. 

The quote is from an article published at the National Review on January 22, 2016. It is entitled "Roe v. Wade -- Abortion Won the Day, but Sooner or Later That Day Will End." I came across it while listening to a Gospel Coalition Podcast message by Justin Taylor entitled  How Should we Think about Abortion? 

"6 Ways to Avoid Delayed Adulthood"

Here is a helpful article at The Gospel Coalition by 'Gunner' Gundersen. He offers some good challenges to college age men and women (though it can apply to all of us). The whole thing is worth a read. Here is a quote to get entice you

"You can’t lead if you’re not around. You can’t serve if you don’t come. You can’t help if you’re not here. So if you want to mature, start by making wise commitments, and then follow through on those commitments." 

Below is his outline:

1. Desire
2. Commitment 
3. Faithfulness
4. Humility
5. Courage
6. Resilience 

Read his article to find out more... 

Get a Handle on the Canon: Is the Canon Closed?

My series, "Get a Handle on the Canon" is coming to a close. So it is fitting to think about whether the canon is closed. That is, should we expect more inspired writings to come to us from God? 

Should we Expect More Writings from God?

No. There are at least two reasons we can say this is the case. The first is practical and the second is theological. 

First, 

“[a]ccording to the church’s categories for canonicity (apostolic, catholic [wide use by the church], orthodox…), it would be impossible to have any additions to the canon. For example, even if a genuine and orthodox letter of the apostle Paul were discovered, that letter would not have had widespread usage in the early church (that is, it could never claim catholicity). The canon of Scripture is closed” (Plummer, 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible, pg 66).

Second, we expect no new revelation from God since Jesus has come as the final and fullest revelation of God. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...

The NT ends with a view of the complete fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament contained many promises, the New Testament contains the fulfillment. The NT gives us a picture of redemptive history that takes us all the way to the New Heaven's and New Earth (the eternal state). Thus, there is nothing more to add. We are waiting for the return of the King, Jesus, who will bring in the fullness of the Kingdom. The only revealing that awaits is the Son of Man returning in the clouds (Mark 13:26, Rev. 1:7). 

Get a Handle on the Canon: How the NT books were recognized and added

Continuing my series on the Canon of Scripture (which books make up the Bible). Today I will briefly describe how the New Testament books were recognized by the church as being part of the canon.  

Did the church decide which books were in?

First, the church did not decide what was “in” and what was “out.” They simply recognized which books came from God. Much like you don't decide who your mother is but learn to recognize her voice even from infancy. You learn that she is your mom because she feeds you and cares for you. In a similar way, there is a recognizing of the books that God had inspired to feed and care for his people.

So what were the character traits of the books that revealed them to be, in fact, God's Word? 

If a book was from God it would be apostolic: written by an apostle or in his company. The word "Apostle," in the Greek, means "An official representative charged with a commission"*). Jesus called the apostles for this purpose- to testify about Him (see John 16:12-15).  This is in keeping with the fact that God had his spokesman or ambassadors (ie. the prophets) in the Old Testament times too. 

A book from God would also be catholic: that is widely, if not universally, recognized by the churches as divine (not Roman Catholic). If it is the Word of the Father, then his children should, in general recognize it. To put it another way, since the churches all had the same shepherd, Jesus, and all his people would all listen for His voice, then they all should recognize it.  

A third characteristic the churches would expect from a God inspired book was orthodoxy: not to be in contradiction to any book that is already in the canon. Since God does not lie and is powerful enough to oversee the writing of His Word, this makes sense.

How did the canonization take place? 

The NT books began circulating** among the churches by A.D. 90 or 100 and were viewed as authoritative (Col. 4:16, 2 Peter 3:16). During the early years of the church that followed (post-NT), it became clear from the writings of the early church fathers that an implicit canon existed (they cited from books we now have in the NT as authoritative sources). By A.D. 367 we have all 27 books of our NT listed together in a letter by Athanasius (lists occur prior to this, but this is the first time the exact 27 we have in our NT are listed together). Two church councils in A.D. 393 and 397 recognized the 27 books as authoritative.

Why not earlier? 

Remember, that travel and communication was hard in the early centuries. Also, it took some time to see which books were accepted widely in the church. Third, remember that these books were all in use from the time they were written, but it was not until the late 300’s that a recognized list is compiled to show which books had proven inspired. Earlier than this, Eusebius (ca. A.D. 260-340) had already mentioned that there were books which were: 1. universally confessed, 2. some which were debated, and 3. others which were spurious (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 3.25.1-5).

------
*[Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 67). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans."]

** They were written prior to that and being read in local churches. But by 90-100 they were actively on the move throughout many churches.

Get a Handle on the Canon: The New Testament

This is a continuation of a short series designed to give a quick look at the canon of Scripture (not the kind that go "boom"). We have briefly looked at the Old Testament and (Why not) the Apocrypha. Today I want to look at the New Testament. 

The New Testament (NT)

As NT times began (around the life of Jesus), there was already a body of authoritative “Scriptures” (the OT) that governed the life of God’s people (Luke 24:27, John 5:39, Acts 17:2, Rom. 5:14). 

When Jesus comes, he comes as an authority (Matt. 7:28-29) and as the one who perfectly reveals God (John 1:1,15; Heb. 1:1-2). He comes to fulfill the promises made in the OT and to bring in the promised New Covenant (or Testament). This was not "out of the blue", but rather had been foretold in the OT. 

The question, then, is, how will those living in Jesus' time and the following generations know this new message of the gospel and how it is to be lived out? The answer is an expansion of the OT canon. God's people expected he will write out his promises and commands just as he had done in the OT. With movement forward in redemptive history comes the need for new Scriptures to be written by God. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach and remind his Apostles of his message (John 14:24-26), and their message serves as the foundation of the church:  

the household of God [ie. the church], built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone (Eph. 2:19-20). 

This foundation is laid as the Apostles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote new Scripture about the new covenant work Jesus did. 

And I [the Apostle Peter] will make every effort so that after my departure [death] you may be able at any time to recall these things [truth of the gospel see 1:3-14]. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,”  we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.  And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:15-21)

Later in that same letter, the Apostle Peter explicitly acknowledges the Apostle Paul’s writings as being Scripture: 

just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures (2 Peter 3:15-16).

So the NT is inspired by God to record the gospel message (the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah) and how God's people should live while they await his return. 

Next time we will look at how the NT books were recognized by the church and added to the canon of Scripture. 

Get a Handle on the Canon - Why not the Apocrypha?

Continuing our look at the Canon, we will look at a related question. Why not include the Apocrypha in the canon? Remember, canon refers to the books that are recognized as coming from God (and excluding other books that might claim to be from him).  

Why Not The Apocrypha?

The Apocrypha are books written during the “inter-testamental period” (after Malachi but before Matthew) from 430 B.C. to 40 A.D. It includes books of Jewish history (1,2 Maccabees), wisdom (Sirach), and other writings. They were added to the Catholic Church canon during the Council of Trent in 1546 A.D.

So why not accept these as part of the canon? Here are a few reasons:

• First, the Jews did not put these books in the same authoritative category as the OT writings. Philo, (ca. 20 B.C. – 40 A.D.) quoted the OT prolifically but never quoted the Apocrypha as inspired. Josephus (ca. 30 A.D. – 100 A.D.) explicitly excludes the Apocrypha when he lists the OT books.

• Second, Jesus didn’t accept it. In  Luke 11:49-51 Jesus says,

"Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation."

What is significant about this is the two martyrs he mentions. Zechariah (mentioned in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21), was not the last martyr chronologically in the OT times. But he is the last martyr mentioned canonically (that is, in the Hebrew canon, Chronicles is the last book and he is the last on mentioned in Chronicles). Abel is the first martyr in Genesis. So, Jesus summarizes all the martyrs in a way that does not extend the canon into the apocryphal books, but ends with the last book in the Hebrew OT. Therefore, he did not consider the apocrypha part of the canon.  

• Third, the New Testament authors never cite an Apocryphal book as Scripture (The book of Enoch is cited in Jude 14-15, but it is not said to be “the Word of God” or any other designation for Scripture. It should also be noted that Paul cites a pagan author in Acts 17:28 and Titus 1:12 as saying true things, but he did not recognize them as divinely inspired and authoritative).

Get a Handle on the Canon - The Old Testament

Canon

I want to begin a short series on what books make up the Bible and why? The canon of Scripture refers to the books that truly have come to us from God and are, therefore, included in the Bible. Let's start by looking at the Old Testament (OT).

The Old Testament (OT)

The Hebrew OT [that Jesus had] is made up of 24 books. These are the same as our 39 books in the English OT (several books that comprise one book in the Hebrew OT were divided in the English OT -  such as Samuel, Kings, etc.). 

The Hebrew OT was divided into three sections: Law, Prophets, and Writings. With this in mind, read Luke 24:44 and see what Jesus affirmed about the entire Hebrew OT.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms [the largest of the "writings"] must be fulfilled."

So, Jesus said that each part of the Old Testament had things written in it about him! 

Next time we will look at why the canon does not include the Apocrypha.