The Bible…
The Bible
This Blog is called “TheBibleTheTruth”.
By which I mean the historic Bible, the 39 books of the Old Testament, and the 27 books of the New Testament; the books which were the only accepted books in the Bible up until 1546. In that year, however, at the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic church decided to add the 7 Apocryphal books to the Bible, essentially doing what the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, and other cult groups do: they made their own “bible.”
Interestingly, the word “Apocrypha” is used for written works of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The Jews doubted the origin of these books, and so the term was attached.
We Protestants do not consider the Apocrypha books to be inspired by God for two basic reasons:
1) Even though they were written during the Jewish Old Testament time, the Jews did not consider them inspired, meaning they were not part of the Jewish Canon. The Roman Catholic church had to officially add them to their bible in 1546, at the Council of Trent.
2) A cursory reading of these 7 books will show they are not the same as the Old Testament or New Testament books. The reason being they are in fact different; they have a different author; the Holy Spirit did not the author of the Apocryphal books.
The Holy Spirit tells us he is the author of the Bible: “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of the Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation. For no prophecy at any time was produced by the will of man, but holy men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” 2Pe 1:20-21
Jesus tells us the Bible is Truth (not a truth; but Truth). When praying to the Father Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Jhn 17:17
And Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit will lead us into truth, saying “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth”. Jhn 16:13 This makes perfect sense, because since the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible; the Truth, he teaches us from and about the book he authored.
Rarely can we read a book with the author next to us, interacting with us while we read his book, but when we read the Bible, the Author, the Holy Spirit, interacts with us.
The Reformation confessions clearly state 1) the Holy Spirit leads us into truth by illuminating the meaning of the scriptures, and 2) he does not give new scripture, he teaches us the meaning of what he caused men to already write in the Bible.
We teach out of what he teaches us.
As the author of the Bible, the Holy Spirit is the true teacher. John, referring to the Holy Spirit as “the anointing” says, “But the anointing which ye have received of him (Jesus who sent the Holy Spirit) abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” 1Jn 2:27
Learning what the Bible means though, is not a passive activity, but an active one; it requires work, study, thinking, meditating, reading; we study, the Holy Spirit teaches; as we study, he teaches; if we do not study, he probably will not teach! The Bible is his tool, so if we do not study, he has not tool to use to teach us.
I cannot stress enough the need to read and study the Bible, praying as you do that God the Holy Spirit will teach you. This is God’s appointed means to deal with people, by his word!