THE BIBLE IS INERRANT, which means it doesn’t make any mistakes. In whatever subject it touches, whether religion, history, or science, the Bible is perfect. It’s perfect because it’s written by God.
“All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16a).
God wrote the Bible through people.
“Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).
Over a period of approximately 1,500 years, the Bible was written by 40 different inspired authors. The Bible is a big book made up of 66 smaller books.
The 66 books of the Bible were recognized by the early church as being the only books that were written by God. No other books in the world had the same quality as these books. When we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will witness that these books are written by God. No other book carries the same spiritual quality as the Bible. Ancient pseudo-gospels like the Gospel of Thomas are of a completely different quality than the books of the Bible.
Reading the Bible
Each Christian needs to study the Bible for themselves, and should read through the entire Bible at least once. When we read through the Bible, God’s word will get into our minds and hearts. As we continue reading the Bible, the different parts of the Bible will begin to supernaturally connect through the help of the Holy Spirit.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
The word of God is spiritual food. We need spiritual food to feed our spirits, just as we need natural food to feed our bodies.
Reading the Bible should be a joy. We should want to read the Bible. Hungry people eat. They don’t need to force food down their throats. We need to desire the word of God more than TV, internet, or other books and magazines. God can give us a supernatural hunger for the Bible. We should pray for this spiritual hunger. “God, give me a hunger and thirst for your word!” When we have a spiritual hunger for the Bible, it becomes easy to read.
Understanding the Bible
There will be passages in the Bible that we don’t understand. Pray for understanding. The Holy Spirit will help you understand the word of God.
With our minds alone, we can’t understand it.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14)
“No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Pet. 1:20).
The Bible is not really “open to interpretation.” It’s not up to people to decide what the Bible means. It’s up to God. Only God’s interpretation of the Bible matters. If we wonder what the Bible means, we need to study it more and pray. Hopefully we will find good teachers who will accurately expound the Bible. But people can be wrong. Nothing can substitute for reading the Bible and understanding it through the help of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible interprets the Bible. One verse or passage will illuminate another. Several passages about the same topic will give a fuller picture of what God is saying about that topic. To find these related verses, use cross-references. These references show how verses in different parts of the Bible connect. Ultimately, one author, God, wrote the entire Bible, and the whole book connects together supernaturally. For example, the book of Daniel illuminates Revelation, and vice versa.
Sometimes to understand the meaning of a passage, it is necessary to refer to the original Biblical languages – Greek and Hebrew. There are nuances in these original languages that are impossible to fully capture in English, and only by looking at the original languages can these nuances be discovered. Learning Greek and Hebrew is ideal for a serious Bible student, but if this is not possible, there are many free software programs that make it easy to discover the meaning of specific Greek and Hebrew words.
Understanding the Difference Between the Old and New Testaments
Some parts of the Bible are literal, and some are symbolic. When studying the Bible, it is important to not take as literal what is symbolic, and not take as symbolic what is literal. If God has given us a literal command, we need to obey it. If he’s given us a symbolic statement, we need to interpret it.
The teachings of Jesus and his apostles are literally applicable for us today, and they are essential for us to follow. Their instructions are the framework for the kingdom of God upon the earth. These words of the New Testament will judge us all.
The Old Testament on the other hand is mostly symbolic for us today. Full of wars, rituals, and religious pageantry, we learn from the Old Testament today not by following its specific examples or instructions, but by interpreting its symbolism.
“All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition” (1 Cor. 10:11).
Even the Mosaic laws are not to be followed literally by God’s people today. When Christ came, he set us free from following the Mosaic law.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Eph. 2:14-16)
Jesus set us free from the law because he fulfilled it and gave us the free gift of righteousness.
When he began his ministry, Jesus said,
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (Matt. 5:17-18)
Jesus fulfilled the law in two ways. First, he performed all the righteous requirements of the law. Second, he fulfilled the prophecies contained in the law. One prophecy in the law about Christ says this:
I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. (Deut. 18:18-19)
Jesus brought the commands of the kingdom of God into the earth. These commands were higher than the law of Moses. Jesus spoke many of these commands in Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus refers to his own commands of the kingdom of God when he says:
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:19)
Our position in the kingdom of heaven is determined by our level of submission to Jesus while we live upon the earth. On the other hand, our entrance into the kingdom of heaven is determined by whether or not we believe in the blood of Christ to take away our sins.
Jesus fulfilled the law. With the law fulfilled, we are no longer under its power. That is why it is said that the Law has been “abolished” through Christ (Eph. 2:15). The Mosaic law has been annulled.
For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. (Heb. 7:18)
However, we must still obey some of the Law’s commands, such as don’t steal, kill, or commit adultery. This is not because we are still under the Mosaic Law, but because these commands have been reiterated to us in the New Testament. In the New Testament, these commands were not only reiterated by Jesus, but they were brought to a higher level. Adultery became something in the heart, not just the body; murder was no longer merely physical, but it became hatred.
Nine of the Ten Commandments were reiterated by Christ and his apostles. The remaining one, the literal observance of the Sabbath Day, was not reiterated. Therefore we are no longer under obligation to literally observe the Sabbath day.
We don’t pick and choose what parts of the Law we want to follow. The entire Law has been abolished in Christ. Now we follow Jesus’ New Testament commands by the power of his Spirit.
Old Testament Holidays
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:16-17).
All Old Testament holidays, including the Sabbath Day, are shadows of different aspects of the work of Christ. They illuminate different aspects of Christ’s work in our lives. For example, the Sabbath symbolizes resting in God and doing only the works that God wants us to do (see Hebrews 3 and 4). Jesus always kept the Sabbath not by doing nothing one day a week like the Pharisees expected, but by doing what God wanted 24/7.
Observing Old Testament holidays literally, when Christ has done away with their literal observance, produces bondage.
But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. (Gal. 4:9-11)
Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament and become the fullness of which the Law was a mere shadow. In fulfilling the Law, he took it out of the way for us, replacing it with the higher instructions of the kingdom of God. He brought the full revelation of the Spirit which eliminated the shadows of the Old Testament.
To accurately apply the Old Testament to our lives today, we need to learn by the Holy Spirit how to interpret and apply its symbolic meaning.
Other Old Testament Shadows
The Mosaic law commanded God’s people not to eat certain types of meant, including pork (Deut. 14:8). But this has changed now.
God gave Peter a vision of animals descending in a sheet in Acts 10:11-15. The law said many of these animals were unclean, but God told Peter to eat them anyway.
Jesus said that all meats were clean including pork, “because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods” (Mark 7:19).
Paul told us to “eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake” (1 Cor. 10:25).
God doesn’t even want us obeying basic Old Testament commands like circumcision. “If you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing” (Gal. 5:2). Circumcision was one of the most important commands in the Old Testament, but it’s not a command that we should keep today.
“Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters” (1 Cor. 7:19).
The commandments we must follow are all found in the New Testament. The Old Testament commands are types and shadows that reveal New Testament truths. The Old Testament helps us understand the gospel through its symbolic teaching.
“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully” (1 Tim. 1:8).
The Old Testament symbols, whether incense, candles, vestments, religious buildings, musical instruments, or sacrifices have all passed away. They provide a wealth of insight into Christ who is our spiritual inheritance, and into God’s plans for the advancement of his kingdom upon the earth. They are symbols for the church today. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are invaluable for us, for they reveal the riches of Christ. But they reveal him in different ways.
PART II. Bible Preservation
It is important for each Christian to know that the Bible we have today is an accurate reflection of the original writings. God preserved his word carefully throughout history and has ensured that the Bible we have today is reliable.
The Old Testament was preserved over the centuries by Hebrew scribes called Masoretes. Their scribal diligence made sure that each copy they made of the Hebrew Bible was an exact copy of the originals. Because of their diligence, the copy of the Hebrew Bible we have today is the same as the one God originally gave to the original authors.
The New Testament was preserved with similar care. Dedicated scribes copied the apostolic writings and distributed them throughout the early churches. There are more ancient copies of the New Testament than any other piece of ancient literature. All these copies are in remarkable agreement, and none of the slight differences among them calls into question any of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
The earliest copies of the New Testament come from the first part of the second century. These extremely early copies reveal that the New Testament was written within the lifetimes of the first apostles, by the apostles themselves, and by their associates Mark, Luke, and Jude.
Textus Receptus
Throughout the centuries, the Greek New Testament was handed down among God’s people – from church to church and from generation to generation. This ancient manuscript tradition has come down to us today in the form of the Greek manuscript called the Textus Receptus.
Textus Receptus is Latin for Received Text. It can also be called the Majority Text, for the majority of ancient New Testament Greek manuscripts that we have today generally reflect its readings. The Textus Receptus is the Greek manuscript that was used by reformers like Luther and Tyndale. It forms the basis for the King James Bible.
Rise of Liberal Scholarship and the Critical Text
In the 1800s, skepticism about the Bible began to rise in European and North American universities. Liberal scholars began questioning many things about basic Christianity. They doubted whether Jesus was God, whether he was born of a virgin, whether he worked miracles, and whether he resurrected. They also began doubting the reliability of the Textus Receptus.
Out of this skeptical atmosphere emerged a new field of study called Textual Criticism. Textual critics believe that God did not preserve his word among his people. They don’t trust the versions that were copied and handed down by the churches throughout history. Instead, they think that they must determine which Greek manuscripts most accurately reflect God’s original word.
Textual critics stand over the word of God – criticizing it – in order to determine what should be in the Bible and what shouldn’t.
Critical scholars soon developed their own Greek New Testament. This new Greek Text was based primarily on two newly discovered manuscripts – one from the Vatican and one from a monastery in the Sinai peninsula. Largely on the basis of these two manuscripts (both of which are riddled with errors), the Greek New Testament was reconstructed. This new text was called the Critical Text.
Textus Receptus vs. Critical Text
Today, the Textus Receptus and the Critical Text are the two primary Greek manuscripts that underlie most modern English New Testaments. The differences between these two Greek texts are not large, and they do not affect any major issues of the faith.
However, there are significant differences. For example, the Critical Text omits at least 15 verses completely from the New Testament, including Matt. 17:21: “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Try looking up Matt. 17:21 in the ESV, a popular modern version based on the Critical Text, and you’ll find it’s not there. There are many other places in the Critical Text where important words are missing, such as Lord or Christ when referring to Jesus.
We don’t want to miss anything from God’s word.
The Bible is God’s word, and his supernatural care is involved in its preservation. If we believe this, then we will believe that the Textus Receptus is reliable. To prefer the Critical Text is to believe that the liberal scholarship of the 1800s somehow restored the inerrant word of God to the church. This is not how God worked with the Old Testament, and it’s not how he worked with the New Testament. The Textus Receptus reflects the manuscripts used by God’s people from the apostolic times, was used by the majority of God’s people throughout history, and has the bulk of manuscript support today.
The major Bible translations today in English that are based on the Textus Receptus are the KJV, NKJV, and MEV. These are the most accurate of the widely known modern English versions.
Bethel Cornerstone 