BETWEEN THE LINES
RAVENING WOLVES ATTACK CHRISTIANITY'S FOUNDATIONS
Exclusive: Joseph Farah lauds critical importance of Old Testament to understand New Testament
Jesus talked about why – and He should know.
But I suspect even many devout Christians have not fully embraced what the apostle John said about Him.
Jesus is the Great Creator, John declared in the opening passage of His Gospel.
John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
Later, in John 1:10, it is written: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”
Again, in Colossians 1:16, we’re told: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”
Do we believe this? Do we embrace it as truth?
Who is “the Word”? Jesus. He’s the One who “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)
How was the world created? It was spoken into existence, we learn in Genesis 1:3: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Each time something was created, it was spoken into existence through “the Word.”
Nine times in that opening chapter, God creates merely by speaking: “And God said …” That’s how it was done. In other words, God created with His mind – and His spoken Living Word. If the New Testament is to be believed, it was Jesus who was there at the beginning. It was He who created the heavens and the earth and all living things.
Psalm 33:6 tells us: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
“The Word” is one of many names for Jesus. Others include “Almighty One” (Revelation 1:8), “Alpha and Omega” or Beginning and End (Revelation 22:13), “Bread of Life” (John 6:35), “Son of God” (Matthew 3:17), “Son of Man” (Luke 19:10), “I Am,” (John 8:58), “King of Kings” (Revelation 17:14), “Lamb of God” (John 1:29); “Messiah” (John 1:41), “Redeemer” (Job 19:25), “Rock” (1 Corinthians 10:4), “Savior” (Luke 2:11), “the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25) and many others.
But is Jesus alone known as “the Word” – “the Logos”? Not quite. And this is important. The written Word of God is also known as “the Word.” In effect, “Jesus the Word” and “Scripture” are inseparable – just as God and the Father are One.
In other words, not only was all Creation the result of the spoken “Word,” so too, later, was all revelation of God to mankind in the written “Word.” Thus, Jesus “the Word” and the written “Word of God,” the Holy Scriptures, are as indivisible as Father and Son. Is that a coincidence? Think about that. If I say the names “Bread of Life” or “Son of God” or “Lamb of God,” is there any question about whom I am referencing? No. But, if I say, “the Word” or “the Word of God,” there are two possibilities – Jesus or the Bible. Isn’t that correct? It’s understandable. Jesus is the Word. He spoke the Word. And the Scripture is the recorded Word that testifies of Him and the Father.
To underline how foundational all this is to proper reverence and understanding of the nature of God, consider what we are told in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
This is heavy stuff – not easy for mortal man’s mind to comprehend. Yet, it is revealed to us for a reason. God is omniscient, omnipresent, everlasting, eternal. He doesn’t make mistakes. Jesus was there at the beginning and He is “the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” (Hebrews 13:8) In other words, God’s plan was the same from the beginning, with no deviation, no second tries, no errors, no changes. That’s why we are told in Revelation 18:8 that Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Maybe you know all this. I hope you do. But without this background, we cannot appreciate the gravity of false and misguided teachers who seem to think “rightly dividing the Word of Truth” somehow translates into adding to the Word or taking away from it.
We live in a time when not one, but many, popular, well-respected, well-educated, self-proclaiming followers of Jesus are doing just that, openly and in plain sight, without much repudiation nor correction from the body of believers.
While Jesus and all of His apostles in the first century affirmed the basic premise I have carefully recounted here, nevertheless, many so-called pastors and teachers are undercutting the foundations of the faith. Some even say we should scrap, discount or de-emphasize three-quarters of Scripture. Yet, how can this be so?
Consider the following:
- Deuteronomy 4:2: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”
- Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
- Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
- 1 Peter 1:25: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Even the closing words of the very last book of Scripture holds this warning in Revelation 22:18-19:
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
From beginning to end, God warns not to add to nor subtract the Word of God. Yet, it should not be a surprise that it is happening now. It happened throughout the times from Genesis to Malachi. It happened throughout the Gospels bringing rebuke upon the Pharisees from Jesus. And, we are warned throughout Scripture, that it will happen until the “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21) after Jesus returns.
My latest book, “The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament,” illustrates the point that the clear resonant message of redemption we hear in Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom in the New Testament is present throughout each and every book of the Hebrew Scriptures – from Genesis to Malachi. Why would any follower of Jesus advocate obscuring that miraculous fact by gutting or de-emphasizing the Scriptures?
In Matthew 7:12-27, Jesus spoke of the foundations of our faith. When the One known as the Word speaks these words in the Word of God, we probably should heed His warnings:
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. … A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
How can we be confident in our own faith? Jesus continues:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
The lesson: If you want a good physical foundation, build it on a rock, says Jesus. If you want a good spiritual foundation, built it on the Rock.
On the other hand, one prominent pastor suggests there’s just too much emphasis on the Bible today. He advocates “unhitching” from the Old Testament. He says it’s time to “consider the version of Christianity that relies on the event of the resurrection of Jesus as its foundation.”
While I would never underestimate the magnitude nor the power of the Resurrection, without the rest of the Bible how could it be defended or understood as anything other than a myth, a fable, an apparition? Why was it necessary? Where does it lead? What does it mean to us individually and to the whole world? What is the context?
What if you heard that someone else rose from the dead? Would that alone incline you to worship the person as Lord and Savior?
Jesus knew the limitations of something even as miraculous as arising from death. He actually addressed it. It is almost as if Jesus spoke this parable recorded in Luke 16:19-31 with just such future notions in mind. Jesus tells the story of an unnamed rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. The latter desired just to be fed with the crumbs of the rich man’s table. When Lazarus died, the angels carried him to “Abraham’s bosom,” a place of comfort among those awaiting the final judgment. Meanwhile, the rich man found himself in a place of torment. They were separated by a divide, but could see through it – even communicate with those on the other side.
The rich man cried out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”
Abraham responded: “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”
The rich man had another idea. He asked Abraham if he would send Lazarus to his family’s house to meet his five brothers – warning them of this place of torment so they might avoid his fate.
Abraham explained: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”
The rich man pleaded: “Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.”
Now, remember, Jesus is telling this story, which concludes with Abraham explaining: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
Did Jesus, knowing He would go to the cross and rise from the dead believe that His Resurrection would prove to be the foundation of the faith for future believers? Did He or any of His apostles ever suggest that it would overshadow the centrality and importance of the Scriptures?
You tell me.
Get Joseph Farah’s new “breakthrough Bible book,” “The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament,” available now in e-book and soon everywhere in hardcover.
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