Tag: why believe the bible

COLOSSIANS #38: JUNK TIME?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Colossians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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If we move over them quickly, many of the verses like these today seem to be “junk verses,” or “junk time.” They contain greetings and suggestions for people who have been dead for many centuries. What is the point of having them in the Bible? But when we listen to the Holy Spirit, even such verses as these can be used to encourage us, and strengthen our faith.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Colossians Part 38

COLOSSIANS #38  COLOSSIANS 4:7-18

We have come to the end of the book of Colossians. Paul closes this letter, as he does many of his other letters, with greetings from specific people, to specific people. He also adds a few personal instructions.

7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”
18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. (Colossians 4:7-18, ESV)

I like to watch American Football, both college and the NFL. Sometimes, one team completely dominates in a game, so much so, that the outcome of the game is already decided several minutes before it technically ends. The losing team may score, and other types of things might happen, but it won’t change who wins or loses. Football people sometimes call those meaningless minutes “junk time.”

It might be easy to think of our verses today as “junk time,” (or maybe, “junk text”). There are greetings passed back and forth among people who have been dead for almost two thousand years. Many of the New Testament letters include these sorts of things.  There’s another “junk time” text at the end of 2 Timothy, where Paul tells Timothy to travel and join him, and when he does, to bring the cloak he left behind, and also some scrolls and parchments:

9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:9-13, ESV)

At first, those sorts of verses seem a bit difficult to apply to our lives in the 21st Century. What do we do with “bring my cloak?” And yet, I think that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us even through such texts as these today.

One thing we can get out of these verses is that the New Testament is exactly what it appears to be, and it is historically valid. The things we read about in “junk time” ring true for people who lived in the First Century Greco-Roman world. Think about Paul’s concern for scrolls, and a cloak. This is exactly the sort of thing real people at that time in history would have been concerned about – books and scrolls were not mass produced, nor was clothing. They would have been valuable, and hard to replace. These “junk time” verses show us that the books of the New Testament are clearly not made-up stories, but rather, real letters, written by real people to real people in a real time and place. We can also be encouraged (or warned) by learning about some of the people mentioned in our text today.

Let me start with the very end, where Paul says: “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.” Paul typically used an amanuensis (like a secretary) to write his letters. He would dictate, and the secretary would write down his words as a rough draft in wax (because paper and ink were expensive). The two of them would discuss the text, and when they had it the way they wanted, the secretary would carefully copy it down on paper/parchment and ink. At the end of several of his letters, Paul personally signed his own name in ink. That’s the meaning of “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.” In the original letter, you would have seen a difference in the handwriting. “Remember my chains” is about the fact that Paul was a prisoner at the time, chained to a guard during the daytime, and in a house at night. He is reminding them that he so thoroughly believes in Jesus that he is willing to be a prisoner, and even, perhaps, to be executed, for his faith. He wants them to be strengthened and encouraged by his example, and he also wants their prayers for his situation.

Next, let’s consider some of the people involved in this “junk time.”

TYCHICUS

A trusted traveling companion of Paul, mentioned a few times in the book of Acts. He was from the province of Asia. Paul wrote the letters to the Ephesians, the Colossians, and to Philemon all at the same time, and Tychicus was entrusted with task of delivering each one of them. If he hadn’t done his job as a messenger, we would not have those parts of the Bible today. It is also possible that Tychicus was the “secretary” to whom Paul dictated the three letters I just mentioned. If so, he would have been the one to write down the words. Tychicus shows us that even mundane jobs like “secretary” or “delivery person” can be very valuable and important.

ONESIMUS

A slave from Colossae. Though slaves were in a much better position in the ancient world than in ante-bellum America, a slave was not free to leave without permission from his master. Much like someone in the Army going AWOL, a slave leaving without permission was a big deal. Unfortunately, Onesimus went AWOL. He ended up with Paul in Rome, where he became a Christian. Since his master, Philemon, was also a Christian in the city of Colossae, Paul sent Onesimus back, along with the letter to Philemon, which instructs Philemon to remember that Onesimus’ new status as a brother Christian cancels out his status of slave. Philemon was one of the parts of the Bible used by abolitionists to bring about the end of slavery. Onesimus, by prompting Paul’s letter to his master Philemon, helped bring about the eventual downfall of worldwide slavery.

ARISTARCHUS

Another of Paul’s traveling companions and fellow-ministers. He was from Macedonia (Possibly Philippi, Berea, or Thessalonica). He was among those who suffered at the hands of a mob in Ephesus. He is mentioned several times in Acts, and in Paul’s letters. We don’t know exactly what he did, but he encouraged and assisted the work of the Lord through Paul.

MARK

Mark (John-Mark), the cousin of Barnabas, has one of the great redemptions stories of the Bible. He started out with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, and then chickened out, and deserted them to go back home. Later, Paul and Barnabas quarreled about it, because Paul judged Mark to be weak and useless, but Barnabas wanted to give him another chance. It turned out Barnabas was right. Mark repented, learned from his mistakes, and matured in faith. Now, several years later, Paul says that Mark has been a comfort to him. Even later (about 3 years after Colossians), in 2 Timothy, Paul asks Timothy to send Mark to him as soon as possible, because he feels he can rely on him. So he went from being a burden to Paul to becoming one of Paul’s most trusted companions. Finally, Mark is also the same man who wrote “the gospel of Mark.”

JESUS/JUSTUS

Though there are several people with the name “Justus” in the New Testament, this appears to be someone in Rome, and not one of the others of the same name elsewhere.

EPAPHRAS

Apparently from Colossae. He was probably the person who brought the gospel of Jesus to the Colossians. After doing so, these verses tell us that he continued to pray for them diligently, and to represent the Colossians in the ongoing work of God with Paul in Rome.

LUKE

Luke is the author of the gospel of Luke, and the book of Acts. He was also a doctor, and a frequent companion of Paul.

DEMAS

Probably from Thessalonica, a traveling companion of Paul. A few years after the writing of Colossians, he deserted Paul, seduced away by loving the things of the world more than Jesus. Perhaps, however, like Mark, he too, may have ended up as a redemption story, though we don’t know that.

ARCHIPPUS

We only know his name because it is mentioned here, and in the letter to Philemon. He was apparently married to a Christian woman named Apphia. Together, they hosted one of the Colossian house-churches in their home. Apparently, from this brief text, he was called to some sort of ministry. Even this brief statement that he should fulfill the ministry given to him might apply today to someone else who reads this text. Perhaps the Lord is calling you to do something more, (or different) than you are yet doing. See to it that you fulfill his calling!

NYMPHA

Hostess of a house church. Possibly there were only two or three house-churches in Colossae at the time, and Paul’s letter was sent to the group at Apphia & Aristarchus’ house, so he also greets the church at Nympha’s home.

CHURCH AT LAODICEA

Apparently there was another letter from Paul, written to the church at Laodicea. It was lost very early on, and only this mention of it remains. That gives me a great deal of confidence in the New Testament. Paul was not infallible. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate author of the scriptures. I assume that there were things in the letter to the Laodiceans that ought not to be in the Bible, so the Holy Spirit allowed it to be lost. It appears that Paul also wrote two additional letters to the Corinthians which have been lost, as well.

Another one of the companions of Paul who is mentioned in the book of Romans “junk time” section is Clement. Clement also wrote his own letter to the Corinthians. Though Clement’s letter has been preserved, it has never (even since the earliest days of the church) been considered to be part of inspired scripture. Clement wrote many good things. He also wrote some things that we know are wrong. For instance, he wrote about the legend of the phoenix, which he apparently believed to be true, which today we know to be false.

I find it very helpful to see that even though one of Paul’s companions (Clement) held this belief which has been proven false, no such misplaced belief or false legend ever made it into the pages of the New Testament. Perhaps in his letter to the Laodiceans, Paul also wrote about the Phoenix. But the Holy Spirit made sure no such thing entered the Bible. So, even the mention of a lost letter can be used to encourage us and strengthen our faith.

Also, we can see how the New Testament was preserved and spread throughout all Christian communities. Paul tells them to pass the letter on to Laodicea. No doubt, they would have copied the original “letter to the Colossians” and sent that copy to Laodicea. Probably they sent a copy to Ephesus as well, and received from Ephesus a copy of the letter to the Ephesians. Apparently, churches all over began to do this while the apostles were still alive: copying their writings and teachings, and sharing them with other churches. In some of the other ancient documents, like letters between early church leaders, the people who copied them wrote down the history of the document. For instance, the Apostle John trained a leader named Polycarp. Polycarp trained Irenaeus, who wrote down an account of how Polycarp was martyred (that is, murdered for being a Christian). At the end of that written account, we find this in the ancient text:

These things Caius transcribed from the copy of Irenaeus (who was a disciple of Polycarp), having himself been intimate with Irenaeus.

And I Socrates transcribed them at Corinth from the copy of Caius. Grace be with you all.

And I again, Pionius, wrote them from the previously written copy…

So we see that that they were first written down by Irenaeus, then copied by a Christian named Caius. Next, a Christian named Socrates (not the famous philosopher) copied the text that was transcribed by Caius. Then Pionius copied out what Socrates had passed own.

This sort of the thing was also down with the things written by the apostles, but even more frequently, which is why we have almost six-thousand ancient copies of New Testament writings.

Suddenly “junk time” turns out to be a treasure trove. We have an example (as a warning) of one person was faithful and then turned away (Demas). We have another example (as an gracious encouragement) of a believer who failed, and then repented, and was used by God to do wonderful things (Mark). We have others who started faithful, and remained so (Aristarchus, Timothy, Luke and several others). Luke & Mark were used by God as writers. Tychicus was used by the Lord as a secretary, and a specialist in travel and delivery. Epaphras came to Jesus, and then went home and told others about him. Onesimus made a big mistake. But God called him to Himself, and then used his mistake to ultimately dismantle slavery.  Archippus & Apphia, as well as Nympha, allowed their homes to be used for church. We have believers who are encouraged to step deeper into the calling that God has for them (Archippus). Even the mention of a lost letter can encourage us to trust the writings that were never lost, and reminds us how the New Testament was passed on to us by faithful Christians making copies of the writings of the apostles.

Once again we are reassured that all scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and equipping us for service to Jesus and love for one another (2 Timothy 3:17). Every bit of the Bible is written to teach us, so that through endurance and through the encouragement of  the scriptures, we will have hope (Romans 15:4)

  • What did you find most surprising in these “junk verses?”
  • Of all the people mentioned, who do you identify with the most?
  • Whose “back-story” gives you the most encouragement?
  • What is the Lord saying to you through these verse today?

WHY SHOULD WE LISTEN TO THE BIBLE?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible Teaching, Christianity, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized3 Comments

oldbible

The Bible is unique among religious books. We will start to learn why, with this post.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Understanding the Bible Part 1

UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE #1

Someone recently liked this blog, and as I often do, I went over to his blog, to check out what he was writing about. I noticed a post with an eye-catching title, and I read it. What I found is similar to many blogs and Facebook posts that I have seen over the past few years. The basic argument went something like this:

  • Many Christians claim that, according to the bible, [enter something here that the bible says, which you don’t like].
  • But the bible also says lots of goofy things, like:
    • Rapists can pay their victims’ parents 50 shekels, and get off the hook (the writer mis-quoted Deuteronomy 21, but I think he was referring to chapter 22).
    • It’s OK to sell daughters into slavery (Exodus 21:7)
    • It’s OK to marry multiple wives (21:10)
  • Since we don’t agree with these goofy things in the bible, we shouldn’t pay attention to what the bible says about sex before marriage.

I’ve seen this sort of argument before. Most commonly, it is made in order to justify sinning in whatever way you prefer to sin. But logically, if that argument was valid (it isn’t) there would be no reason to pay attention to any part of the bible at all. If that blogger is right, we ought to just ignore it altogether as irrelevant. If he’s right, we shouldn’t pay attention to what the bible says about Jesus, or  forgiveness, or love, either. To be fair, he wasn’t saying that in his blog, but it is the logical conclusion.

Here’s what I wonder: do you know why the blogger’s argument is invalid? Do you understand how to answer the questions of someone who has this attitude? Do you have a firm grasp on what the Bible is, how we got it, and how to understand it?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions, I think you’ll find this sermon series helpful, and even enjoy it. By the way, I have two helpful and reasonable answers to the guy who posted the blog entry I mentioned above. I could explain it in about five minutes. But rather than do that, what I want to do is help you learn enough about the Bible, and how to understand it, so that you can answer questions like that yourselves. You’ve heard the old proverb: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish, and he’ll spend all his nights and weekends in the boat, and his family will never see him anymore.”

Actually, I think the second part is “teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for the rest of his life.”

I want to teach you to “fish.” I could give you the answers the questions posed by the blog entry I mentioned above. But then, when you encounter new questions, you’ll be dependent upon me, or someone like me, to give you answers again. I’d rather help you understand enough so that you can do some digging, and find the answers for yourselves.

It might take a little while. I’ve been studying the bible seriously for more than twenty-five years. It won’t take you that long to get started and to begin finding answers yourself, but I do hope you look on the bible as a source that you can and should continue to study for the rest of your life. I think that over the course of the next few weeks, you can learn enough about the Bible to begin.

The best place to start, as is often the case, is at the beginning. What is the Bible? Where did it come from? Who wrote it, and what is its purpose?

The bible is not actually one book. It is a collection of books. That is one reason why I never recommend starting in Genesis (the first book), and trying to read it straight through all the way to Revelation (the last book). It won’t make sense that way, because it isn’t that kind of book.

The very earliest parts of the bible were handed down as oral traditions, and later were written down. Even today Hebrew scholars of very moderate learning can see linguistic evidence that much of the first five books of the Bible were originally memorized orally. We’ll talk about what that means, next time. The oral traditions, and some new material were first written down, probably by one man named Moses, sometime around 1400 B.C.

By the way, many scholars now prefer to note dates as “BCE” and “CE” (“Before Common Era,” and “Common Era,” respectively). However, BCE is exactly the same as “BC” and “Common Era” means the same thing as AD. It is downright silly to pretend that “common era” is defined by anything other than historical life of Jesus Christ. Whether or not you believe in him as anything other than a man, whether or not you like it, the world numbers history by the life of Jesus Christ.

Back to the Bible. More history and more oral tradition were recorded by another man, probably the prophet Samuel, sometime around 1000 B.C. Samuel also recorded many of the current events of his time. As the monarchy in Israel took shape, court historians kept records of happenings, and further unknown writers recorded more of we know call the Bible. Prophets spoke, and scribes wrote down what they said. Later, the New Testament was formed from letters and writings of those associated with Jesus Christ.

All in all, the Bible was written by several dozen different people. It was written in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). The people who wrote it were from all different walks of life: Farmers, shepherds, kings, court officials, prophets, fisherman, doctors, prisoners, church leaders and more. Some of them were rich, some were poor, some were in between. The writers came from different cultures, different countries and different continents. There is no sense in which one can say that the Bible was just made up by one person, or even one small group of people at one time. It does not claim that it was dictated in secret by angels.

These facts about the formation of the Bible have never been secret. Scholars have known these things for many centuries. Archeology has consistently confirmed all this. Manuscript study and comparisons also confirm it. These facts are not hidden away somewhere; they are not closely guarded secrets. They are well established.

Now, let’s look at the bible in comparison to some other ancient writings. This is not to “slam” anybody, but rather for the sake of knowledge, let’s compare the Bible to two other well-known Holy Books: The Koran, and the Book of Mormon. Hinduism and Buddhism do not have authoritative scriptures that they hold in the same way as do Christians, Jews, Muslims and Mormons. Therefore the Koran and the Book of Mormon are really the only other major books that claim the same sort of authority as the Bible.

The Koran was formed in this way: During the early 600s (AD), a man named Mohammed, a former resident of the city of Mecca in Arabia, went into a cave. He came out with the Koran, claiming that an angel had dictated it to him. Much of the Koran appears to be a copy of parts of the Old and New Testaments, although often distorted. Other parts of the Koran are quite different. It is not a very large book. Muslims also receive a lot of direction from the sayings of Mohammed (Hadith) and the biographies of Mohammed. As with the Koran, these all depend upon the words of a single man.

The Book of Mormon was “given” to Joseph Smith on golden tablets in 1823. Again, Mormonism uses Christianity as a jumping off point, but contains many things which contradict the Christian/Jewish bible.

No Muslim denies that the Koran came through just one man at one particular time in history. They do not deny that it was written in only one language, in one place and arose from one culture. The Book of Mormon is similar: by the admission of Mormons it was revealed to just one man in one time and in one place.

Now, you might ask, what difference does it make whether one person wrote the bible, or dozens did? Why does it matter if the bible was written over the course of 1500 years, or just in one lifetime? What is the significance of what we’ve just learned? Why does it matter?

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of many fiction novels set in Africa. In one of his novels, the main character has these reflections on morality (from Morality for Beautiful Girls page 77-78)

Most morality, thought Mma Ramotswe, was about doing the right thing because it had been identified as such by a long process of acceptance and observance. You simply could not create your own morality because your experience would never be enough to do so. What gives you the right to say that you know better than your ancestors? Morality is for everybody, and this means that the views of more than one person are needed to create it. That was what made the modern morality, with its emphasis on individuals, and the working out of an individual position, so weak.

If you gave people the chance to work out their morality, then they would work out the version which was easiest for them and which allowed them to do what suited them for as much of the time as possible. That, in Mma Ramotswe’s view was simple selfishness, whatever grand name one gave to it.

Mr. Smith gives us a tremendous and profound insight here. Moral authority cannot come from one person. No single human being, by himself or herself, has the breadth of experience, nor the wisdom, nor the character, to create morality. Yet in Islam, all moral and spiritual authority comes from one man. Likewise with Mormonism. The same thing is true of atheists, agnostics and secular humanists.

If you are agnostic or atheistic, in a very real way you are saying that you know better than everybody else. You, in your few years of life upon this earth, are claiming to have wisdom, experience and authority greater than that of the collective wisdom and experience of entire cultures of people whose lives spanned more than a millennium and a half, whose morality and wisdom still profoundly shape the world we live in.

When I was in high school, the teachers said to us kids that we needed to decide for ourselves what is right or wrong. We were told to create our own morality. The very thought of such a thing is nothing less than overwhelming, towering, ugly, arrogant pride. “Hubris” is another word for it. What, in all the universe, makes us think that we, in 16 years, could match the wisdom and experience that spanned 16 centuries and survived thousands of years? What makes us think even a 90 year old person could match all that? Only ugly pride.

Remember, just for today we are trying to evaluate this from a secular position, rather than a spiritual one. Does it seem rational to suppose that one person, in one lifetime, however varied her experience, however deep her wisdom, could match the wisdom and morality and experience contained in the Bible? Of course not. It’s simple logic. And in this same respect, the Bible is logically superior to those other “holy books” which were brought into the world by single individuals.

Now some folks may say, “well, I look at what’s in the Bible, and make use of all that experience, but I still decide what is right for me.” On the one hand, of course everybody does have to decide whether or not they will accept what is written in the Bible. But nonetheless, it seems awfully arrogant to say, “I know what the Bible says, but I still think I am wiser than Moses, Isaiah, Paul, Samuel, David, Peter, John, and Jesus (plus about two dozen more) all put together.”

You see, even from a secular standpoint, the Bible is unique in history. There is no other ancient document so well preserved, so thoroughly verified as genuine by legitimate scholarly work (more on that in in the near future). There is no other source of moral and spiritual authority that has so much objective logic to back up its claim. Here is a quote from it, which seems rather fitting:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts

than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

This book, this Bible, goes far beyond the thoughts or ways of any one human being. Next week we’ll begin to see how it goes beyond even collective human morality.