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by Charles Jemeyson, San Antonio, Texas
Why I believe we are to go ONLY by the Bible and not any other writing (s).
God had ALL AUTHORITY!!
God delegated all authority to His Son Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:18ff; Jn 14:6)
Jesus delegated AUTHORITY to His apostles:
. John 13:20 I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send (apostles) accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."
(Jesus here, is talking about the one's He sent, His apostles)
. John 20:21 Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (apostles)
The Holy Spirit guided the Apostles
Again, Jesus was talking to His apostles and said:
. John 14:26 "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
.. John 16:12-15 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."
. 1 Corinthians 2:10-13 "But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words."
The apostles wrote the Bible:
(by the Spirit of God)
. Ephesians 3:1-5 "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets."
We are not to "add to" nor "take away" from the written Word:
(man has ADDED! STARTING IN 110 A.D.)
. Revelation 22:18-19 "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."
. Galatians 1:8-9 "8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"
. 1 Corinthians 4:6 "6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, 'Do not go beyond what is written.' Then you will not take pride in one man over against another."
In the Bible, God told us "everything He is going to tell us"!:
. Faith - Galatians 1:11-24 "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth {Or from my mother's womb} and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles-- only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
. "Once for all" -Hebrews 9:26-28 "26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."
God has given "All things Pertaining to Life and Godliness"
* 2 Peter 1:3-4 "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."
. Peter maintains that the Bible doesn't claim to teach us everything on every subject, but it does claim to teach us everything we need to know on every subject to please God.
Everything we need to have true life and to please God is in the Bible. We are to use the Bible and the Bible ONLY as our source of information.
. revealed in the Bible!
. This is precisely why God does not want us to tamper with the Bible.
Summary:
. God has all authority. He has delegated ALL Authority to his Son.
. His Son delegated Authority to His Apostles.
. Through the Holy Spirit, the apostle's have written the Word through "Epistles." (Letters) and these letters have been put into book form. (We call it the "Bible")
. Through the terms of the New Covenant we know:
-how to worship God,
-how to be obedient,
-how to be saved,
-the government of the church (assembly, assembly means "people" NOT a building.)
-each assembly in the New Testament has elders and deacons.
That WAS IT! No "Fathers," no "reverends", no Popes, just a minister, elders and the people of God.
(Read it! The Book of Acts tells all!)-and how to live our lives as a Christian.
May the Lord be with you as you study His Word.
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