Where did the Bible come from?

A youth group Sunday school lesson I taught this summer, I present this piece now, though it is a tad different than how it was presented and discussed in youth group. Hunter Irvine
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Hebrews 1:1-2 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (NIV).
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So what you have in history is God speaking!
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And what you have today in the Bible is the writing that some people wrote down about what God said, and about what God did.  They were witnesses!
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Key question: There have many people who have said that God spoke to them, that started false religions or that even did horrible things like kill people. How do we know that God truly spoke to authors of the Bible, or that the writings of authors of the Bible were inspired by God?
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For the Old Testament, many people were witnesses of the ministry of the prophets in the Old Testament. The Jewish community recognized the individuals as prophets.
For an example in the Old Testament, the ministry of Moses involved numerous people. They were involved with the miracles God was doing with Moses as His chosen leader. They were witnesses of his relationship with God, and the result is that the Old Testament is still a foundation of the Jewish people on the whole.
Thus, many Jewish people witnessed and identified prophets as people who listened to God.
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And in the New Testament, the Apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus, God incarnate. They were listening to God by listening to Jesus.
An example in the New Testament can be summed up by the claim of Peter the Apostle of how he was an eyewitness.
II Peter 1:16 “…we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
Apostles were the people who wrote the New Testament, or who had some sort of friendship with those few who wrote a New Testament book who were not apostles.
And as the Apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus, other people witnessed the Apostles do miracles, and they witnessed men who were willing to die for their Messiah.  Thus the Apostolic writings preserved witness to Jesus, and other witnesses preserved and took those writings to be sacred.
Thus, we have human witness galore!
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Second, the Holy Spirit is a witness!
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II Peter 2:21 “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Those prophets and Apostles listened to God, being enabled by the Holy Spirit to write what is truly inspired by God. And we must rely on the Holy Spirit to be affirmed of the witness of Scripture, and to correctly interpret it.
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Biblical Authorship
Remember two important points for both the Old & New Testaments:
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Regarding the Old Testament -
First, the authors, at least the vast majority, were either prophets, priests, or kings.
Second, the authors were all Jewish!
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Regarding the New Testament -
First, the authors were all Apostles or friends of an apostle. [An apostle was a person who spent much time with Jesus and witnessed Him do ministry work!!!]
Second, the authors were all Jewish except for one – Luke. (Luke was a friend of Paul, who was an Apostle. See I Colossians 4:11- 4:14).
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The concept of God's work, which impacted the Bible since the authors were people who listened to God, is all so wonderfully summarized by John Stott:
“Christianity is essentially a historical religion. God’s revelation…was not given in a vacuum but in an unfolding historical situation, through a nation called Israel and a person called Jesus Christ.”
[John R.W. Stott, Understanding the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 45.]

Six people I admire

   I will speak for myself and say this human being is in need of encouragement in this world.  People who have lived in an ultimately loving manner, whatever their gifts, and in spite of their mistakes, offer encouragement even when that is not their intention.  I have been encouraged in my life by many, but here I list six people I admire.

*Billy Graham, due to his faithfulness to God.  In reading his autobiography, I was encouraged by his willingness to completely commit to God.  Considering the fallibility of us humans, giving complete control over to God results in utter blessings, though we may resist such at times.  Giving himself fully to Christ is what Billy Graham did, and look what resulted.

*Abraham Lincoln, due to his moral conviction.  Once a person asked me why I think he was so great.  My answer: Lincoln, in the midst of his genius, in the midst of his mistakes, in the midst of his humanness, always maintain his conviction from youth that slavery is immoral.  No pressure ever changed his conviction, and more and more he actually dedicated himself to working to bring an end to the horrible wrong.

*John Stott, due to his focus on Christ.  Though I have some doctrinal differences with him, reading a number of books written by John Stott in my early Christian years were an incredible blessing to me.  After turning to Christ, John Stott lived a life where Christ was central to his day to day living.  In all he did in a busy life as a pastor, evangelist, and author, his heart was submitted to Jesus.

*Frank Beamer, due to his loyalty.  Through all of the challenges of being a coach for a large university, Frank Beamer has remained loyal to the people he works with as the coach.  Now being the coach with the most wins of any active NCAA Division I coach after twenty-six years at Virginia Tech, there have been times when he could have been the football coach of another university making more money, or getting more attention.  Yet Frank Beamer has been loyal at his Alma mater, caring for the people he works with.  And he has been a loving guy in university community, the city of Blacksburg, Virginia, and even the entire country and world.

*Dr. David Beckman, for his perseverance.  Dr. Beckman is the best preacher I have ever heard.  And the reason I was able to hear him preach was because he has kept persevering through tough times and good times into an age where most ministers are not in the pulpit.  In addition to his phenomenal work at Colorado Christian University, he was the preacher for an interdenominational retirement community church for a total of about twenty years.  Since retiring the second time from Windsor Gardens Community Church, he still works to personally be a light for Christ at the retirement community where he resides.  Through times of illness of his wife, through times of personal illness, through times of hardship, he has continued to trust God, and still does unusual ministry work here in his "golden years."

*Richard, my dad, for his concern for people.  After turning to Jesus in his middle age, his interest in people has risen to a genuine concern for people.

Genuine heroes are a blessing from God.  Yet sometimes heroes let us down.  Sometimes heroes make serious mistakes.  Yet you will never be hurt or disappointed by Jesus if you believe in the One who is the Savior and Lord for all people who believe in Him.  Jesus is God the Son, and Jesus is perfect.

Hunter

Alienation

   I like music.  I have seen some incredible concerts in the past 45 years.  My mom says that I liked music when I was young.  Early on in elementary school, I went to my first concert with my family, which was my mom's all time favorite artist, John Denver.  I would see him seven more times in my life.  Yet most of the concerts I have seen were "rock" groups, and I have seen many great rock performers in concert.  Two that I never got to see that I would still like to see are Paul McCartney and Boston.  As a Christian, I have seen many great Christian concerts.  I am especially a Rebecca St. James fan.  Yet I still enjoy "classic rock," though I'm careful about my song selection.  I try not listen to songs that are raunchy, confusing, or vindictive.
   I like a variety of music, yet in some ways, the music I like is a part of my personal expression.  When I was in high school, I was spiritually struggling.  And I look back and realize there were problems in my family that would eventually lead to my parents getting a divorce.  As opposed to music that I liked when I was younger which was more cheery and fun, like the Cars and Paul McCartney, I started really getting into Pink Floyd music.  In retrospect, I think my feelings of alienation, due to spiritual struggles, along with being in a family that was coming apart, resonated with the alientation that Pink Floyd expressed.  After years of listening to their music, I got the opportunity to see Pink Floyd in concert,  minus Rogers Waters, in early summer after my junior year at Virginia Tech, in June of 1988.  I was excited.  I thought David Gilmour was a great guitarist, and I was seeing one of "my" bands.
   The concert was at RFK in Washington, D.C., and as was the case for the majority of concerts I attended, I went alone.  I was sitting in the second tier, but I was over on a far side, so I was not a mile from the stage, and there were few people around me.  I really got into the show, and the performance was top notch.  Now normally when I went to D.C., I took the subway, but for that evening I had asked my mom to take her car for some reason.  I was unfamilier with that part of town, and upon leaving the parking lot of R.F.K., I was on a road which I did not recognize at all.  Yet I have a good sense for direction, and I figure I would detect where I was soon, and get on a road in the correct direction.  A local rock radio station was playing an old Pink Floyd album due to the hometown concert, and so I had that music on as I headed for home.  Driving to the instrumental music, which was kind of eeire, I ended up getting so lost that I was driving down in an area of town where I was totally turned around, and the weirdest part was that all of the stoplights were blinking yellow as the eeire Pink Floyd music whined.  I was lost.
   I use this as a metaphor for the fact that at that time, I was spiritually lost as well.  I was not living by the love of a loving God, rather I was doing what seemed sensible, but it was not bringing love.  I was not getting healing in the wake of my parent's separation after 21 years of marriage.  I was hurting deep down in my heart.  I needed love, even if I did not fully realize it.
    I will tell you, I enjoy music, and even more, I enjoy singing.  Yet sooth or excite as it does, music never brought me love.  God gives true love.  You may not go to oodles of concerts alone like I did.  You may not share hurts with the lyricists in rock bands like I did.  Yet if you are void of the love of God, my heart yearns to say that if you believe in Jesus, you will be forgiven of your wrongdoings, and the Love of God will come into your heart.  It may not be as noticeable as the rush from hearing your favorite song.  Yet your heart will begin to know it.  Jesus came to save those who are lost, and I am grateful that He saved me.
God is love.
Hunter

John 11: 17-27

Sermon by Hunter Irvine on June 17, 2012

at Wheat Ridge United Methodist Church.

JOHN 11:17-27

   There was a family of two sisters and one brother. The sisters were Martha and Mary, and their brother was Lazarus. All three had a friendship with Jesus. Yet Lazarus has died, and Martha goes to greet Jesus as He is traveling into the town of Bethany. I jump to the verse where Jesus states: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha responds, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” What is Martha talking about? Daniel 12:2 speaks of resurrection. Martha believed the prophet Daniel, and believed that resurrection would take place.

   Why then was there such a huge debate during that time regarding resurrection between the religious leaders who were Pharisees, and the religious leaders who were Sadducees? The Pharisees believed in a bodily resurrection, yet Sadducees did not. The point of theological debate may have come from Ezekiel! In Ezekiel 37, there is the passage that is now termed “the valley of dry bones.”

   The background of Ezekiel 37 in a one phrase synopsis is that because the Israelites, the Jewish people, had disobeyed God, a disaster was underway which would result in Jerusalem being destroyed, and which would result in many of the Jewish people ending up as captives in Babylon. In my opinion, the odds were zero that the Jewish people would ever see Jerusalem again.

   The prophet Ezekiel was taken captive in the second wave of exiles in 597 B.C., only 11 years before the fall of Jerusalem. God told him how Israel was going to fall to Babylon. Yet then in Ezekiel 37, there is a vision of a valley of bones.

   The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision which started with a valley where bones were lying all over the place. God tells Ezekiel to instruct the bones to come to life. Ezekiel does so, and sure enough, these bones start rattling, then they take on flesh, and the next thing you know, there is a huge group of alive human beings.

   Then God explains the purpose of this vision! God gave Ezekiel this vision as a metaphor to tell the Israelites that as a nation, even though they are dead, that He will resurrect them and bring them home in the future to Jerusalem. This vision was a prophecy of the miracle of God bringing the Israelites home from captivity in Babylon in the year 536 B.C.

   Regarding the Pharisees, I think they recognized that this vision was a metaphor, but they added on to it, making it a double entendre, which is a bad Biblical interpretation practice, which some scholars even steadily employ today. A double entendre is different than the hermeneutics of what is called “types,” yet that is another sermon. The key here is that the Pharisees went so far as to say that a key need for resurrection was the bones of a person.

   On the flip side, the Sadducees probably reacted against the interpretation of the Pharisees, and simply started saying that there was no bodily resurrection. Thus the division.

   Going back to the Pharisees, the result of their theological belief was the development of “secondary burial.” For a period before 20 B.C., the flesh was burned off of dead bodies, and then they would store the bones. After 20 B.C., dead bodies were put in tombs which often were carved out of the limestone cliffs. A stone would be rolled over the entrance so that wild animals would not get in there. After about one year, someone would go back in the tomb, and the flesh would be rotted off of the bones. The bones would be retrieved and put into bone boxes, or caverns.

   “Bone boxes,” which are technically called ossuaries, are limestone containers which are about 2 feet by 1& ½ feet, and there are bones in them, often of several family members. Archaeologists have been digging up bone boxes for over half a century! They have thousands of these boxes.

Usually these bone boxes were only for the wealthy. For the lower classes, bones might be thrown all together into big rooms in a cavern. And for criminals, their bones were usually not given a proper burial.

   The focus in secondary burial was the bones.

   The bones were ready for resurrection.

   After all of this focus on bones, Jesus totally changes the focus! Resurrection for Him had nothing to do with bones, rather it had to do with Him. Jesus states that if a person believes in Him, then he or she will have eternal life. This is the big idea of the passage. Jesus is the One who makes resurrection possible.

   And for us, there is a personal message. That message is that you need to believe in Jesus to have resurrection, and in order to have eternal life!

Martha believed!

   Martha, the same Martha who once had been in the kitchen cooking rather than listening at the feet of Jesus like her sister, has since decided to listen to Jesus. And now Martha is able to identify Jesus as the Messiah.

   How did she know a Messiah was coming? There are numerous Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, yet a big one comes from Daniel, where even the exact time period that the Anointed One would come is foretold. Christ is the Greek word, whereas Messiah is the Hebrew word used. Both mean Anointed One.

   Another prophecy of the Messiah concerns what Ezekiel stated, which is that the Messiah would be a Shepherd! In Ezekiel 34, it is revealed how God Himself would be the Shepherd of Israel. And in John 10, Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd!

I did not grow up in a Christian family. I only went to church a handful of times in my youth. However, I was extremely active in Boy Scouts, thus on most Monday nights I was at the Annandale United Methodist Church in Annandale, Virginia. Our Boy Scout troop went camping every month, except for August and December. Early one Saturday morning, I was in the church gathering equipment for our weekend campout. For some reason, I was having an intense feeling of apprehension! Most of the other Scouts were getting equipment out from our storage closet upstairs. However, I had to go to a closet downstairs by the fellowship hall to get so utensils. As I walked through the fellowship hall, I stopped and looked at the stain glass window. The window was a picture of Jesus with a lamb in His arms. The apprehension left, and I had a complete peace.

I would learn years later that the Good Shepherd not only offers peace, yet He also offers the forgiveness of sins.

   Isaiah 53:6 states, “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (NIV).

That “Him” is Jesus. Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. He was the substitute for the wages of sin, which is death.

If you believe in the Good Shepherd, your sins will be forgiven, and you will have eternal life with God.

   I am not going to call anyone up to the front here, rather I am inviting anyone to an altar call right where you are sitting. If you have never believed in Jesus before, you can do so right now right where you are sitting. To know resurrection and eternal life, you need to believe in Jesus!

Holy Kiss Quotes - my research gem

  I am super grateful to God for the quotes on this blog, which are the result of serious research!
   One of my big papers at Colorado Christian University was on the subject of the "holy kiss."  One of my points was that when churches engage in a time of "greeting" or "the Peace" during worship, they are carrying out a practice of early Christians who gave the "holy kiss" during worship gatherings there in a culture where kissing on checks was the cultural norm.  I also gave the reason why it would not be appropriate to do the holy kiss now, but that having a greeting time in church is appropriate.  I acknowledge some people think a greeting distracts from the focus on God, and I respect their opinion.  (In my opinion announcements distract from worship and I have disliked them for 24 years of being a Christian.)  Following are direct quotes which support the history of the "holy kiss."  Hunter Irvine

* Justin Martyr:   "Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss." (1)

* Athenagoras:    "If any one kiss a second time because it has given him pleasure, [he sins];..." (2)

* Clement of Alexandria:    "The apostle calls the kiss holy." (3)

* Tertullian:    "What prayer is complete if divorced from the 'holy kiss?'" (4)

* Cyprian:    "We look with glad countenances upon confessors illustrious with the heraldry of a good name, and glorious with the praises of virtue and faith; clinging to them with holy kisses..." (5)

* Athanasius:    "Salute one another with a holy kiss.  All the brothers and sisters who are with me salute you." (6)

* Cyril of Jerusalem:    "Then the Deacon cries aloud, 'Receive ye one another; and let us kiss one another.'  Think not that this kiss is of the same character with those given in public by common friends.  It is not such: but this kiss blends souls one with another, and courts entire forgiveness for them.  The kiss therefore is the sign that our souls are mingled together, and banish all rememberance of wrongs." (7)

* John Chrysostom:    "Having then knit them together by his exhortation, he naturally bids them use the holy kiss also as a means of union : for this unites, and produces one body.  This is holy, when free from deceit and hypocrisy." (8)

* John Wesley:    "The faithful afterwards spend a quarter of an hour in prayer, and conclude with the kiss of peace." (9) {He is talking about folks at Hernhut!}


(1) Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (1867; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 1:185.

(2) Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (1867; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 2:146.

(3) Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (1867; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 2:291.

(4) Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (1867; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 3:686.

(5) Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 (1867; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 5:437.

(6) Jack Sparks, ed., The Resurrection Letters; St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria from A.D. 328-373 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979), 56.

(7) Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church; Second Series (1893; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1955), 7:153.

(8) Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church; First Series (1889; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1956), 12:265.

(9) John Wesley, The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M. (London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1872), 1:142.

Unlimited Atonement - John Wesley

   Enclosed is a brief excerpt from a paper I wrote at Colorado Christian University concerning John Wesley's doctrine of atonement.  His doctrine went against the standard doctrine of the time in the denomination of which he served as a minister, the Church of England, which is captured in Article 17 of the Church of England's Articles of Religion, popularly termed the Thirty-nine Articles, which can be found in the back of any The Book of Common Prayer.

   "A professor of theology at Emory University in the 1960’s, William Ragsdale Cannon, made the following statement regarding John Wesley’s theology involving the work of Christ on the cross: '…the work of Christ, which is the sole cause of redemption, is interpreted in a universal sense, so that Christ is said to have lived and died for every [person] whether a [person] accepts the gift of his atonement or not. The effects of Christ’s work for the individual are conditional, however, being dependent on [a person’s] willingness to receive them'" (8).

(8) William Ragsdale Cannon, The Theology of John Wesley (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1946), 250.

{From The Roots of Wheat Ridge United Methodist Church, by Hunter Irvine, a paper submitted on 4/13/12 to Dr. Aaron Smith for Theology 302: Evangelical Theology, at Colorado Christian University.}

Happy Easter

A dear friend asked me today, "How do you know there is a God?"

My answer: "Faith in Jesus.  He revealed Himself in the flesh.  Jesus gives me joy and peace in my heart, both attributes of love, which I did not have before I gave my heart to Him."

He is risen.

May your Easter be blessed.

love, Hunter