Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for August 15, 2010
Series on The Nature of Scripture
“Jesus had nothing original to say” – John 14:10-18; 15:26-27
The entire Christian canon of scripture from Genesis through Revelation is the word of God.
One reason you can trust the words of Jesus is that He had nothing original to say.
John 14:10-18, 24
Jesus says that the words He speaks are not only His own but the words of the Father. He also says that anyone who has faith in Him will do even greater things than what He is doing, but keep in mind that Jesus is not talking to you or me; He is talking only to the disciples who are present with Him at the moment; chapter 14 is for the apostles only. The reason Jesus has nothing original to say is because He is the Son; and what sons do is report and represent their fathers. Jesus is not appearing as a unique individual, but as One who represents the Father, and He never gets to be God the Father. Everything that happens in the world from God is a Trinitarian reality. All things are from God the Father, through God the Son, by means of God the Holy Spirit. God speaks to us through the Son by the Holy Spirit. God the Father created everything in the heavens and the earth through the Son by the Holy Spirit. God reveals Himself to His creatures through the Son by the Holy Spirit. God redeems His creatures through the Son by the Holy Spirit. God the Father resurrects us through the Son by the Holy Spirit. Nothing is original with the Son. When the Son speaks you are hearing a common message that originates with God the Father. When the Holy Spirit speaks you are hearing a message which is passed down through the Son but which originates with God the Father.
John 15:26-27
The Holy Spirit does not testify about Himself; the Spirit does not make Himself the center point of history. The Holy Spirit comes to counsel and comfort the apostles by testifying to them about the Son. Neither does the Son come to magnify Himself; the Son comes to convey to the world the Father, to manifest the Father to the world, to point the world to the Father. The Spirit comes to magnify the Son and to point the world to the Son. Everything goes back to God the Father.
John 14:17
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth because no scripture is in error. The Holy Spirit also does not speak anything that is original with Him; rather He reminds the apostles of everything which Jesus has said.
Ephesians 2:17
Jesus preached “peace to you who were far away” (the Gentiles) and “peace to those who were near” (the Jews). Through the Son, Jesus, we all have access to the Father by one Spirit. No one has immediate access to the Father, but our access is mediated by God the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus the Son by the Holy Spirit. All prayer is a Trinitarian reality as well. As Christians, everything for us is a Trinitarian reality.
John 17:6-10
We love no member of the Trinity to the exclusion of the Others.
We must believe, speak, and teach as Trinitarians. Why does Jesus spend so much time emphasizing to the apostles that the words are not originally His and the words of the Spirit are not originally His? Everything originates with the Father.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for August 8, 2010
Series on The Nature of Scripture
“Nag Hammadi Scrolls, Marcion, & Canonizing the Bible”
In the second century A.D. (140 to 180 A.D.), there was a group calling themselves Christians who believed that the apostles did not have the right perspective. They also believed that the church was wrong in believing that there were only four legitimate gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John). They thought that the church wasn’t recognizing all the gospels that they should recognize. They held that there were other gospel writings of the apostles that ought to be read and held up as being in common with the Old Testament.
The Nag Hammadi writings, which were found in the desert of Egypt near the town of Nag Hammadi in the 1940’s, are copies of these other gospel accounts from the second century A.D. They were composed by Gnostics originally in the Greek language but had been translated into the Coptic language, which was a mixture of Egyptian hieroglyphics and Greek characters. What makes these writings so dangerous is their titles, such as “The Secret Book of James,” “The Gospel of Truth,” “The Treatise on the Resurrection,” “The Secret Book of John,” “The Gospel of Thomas,” “The Gospel of Philip,” “On the Origin of the World,” “The Book of Thomas,” “The Wisdom of Jesus Christ,” “The Revelation of Paul,” “The First Revelation of James,” “The Second Revelation of James,” “The Revelation of Adam,” “The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles,” “The Revelation of Peter,” “The Letter of Peter to Philip,” “The Gospel of Mary,” “The Act of Peter,” “The Gospel of the Hebrews,” “The Letter of Paul to Peter,” and “The Gospel of Judas.”
The Gnostics argued that you should not limit the number of gospels in the canon to four. These writings, available in English, are seducing an entire generation of young people and those who have just attained some maturity as adults as being an alternate collection of Christian writings. So, in the second century we had the Gnostics with which the church had to contend in considering what books should be included along with the Old Testament as divinely inspired scripture.
Then on the other hand, also in the second century, we have a man named Marcion. He attracted a group of followers known as Marcionites. He and his followers were based in Rome along with a large group of Gnostics. Marcion argued that, rather than having too few books in the New Testament, too many had been added in. Marcion advocated throwing out all of the Old Testament scriptures. Marcion held that the God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath and judgment and not a God of grace and love and not the Father of Jesus Christ. He argued that the church needed to get rid of the writings of the Jews. He was the first and utter anti-Semitic. He discounted the entire Jewish religion as being false. He also wanted to cut out everything in the New Testament writings that sounded too much like the Old Testament. When he had finished cutting up the New Testament, he ended up with nothing left but a carefully edited version of Luke and ten of Paul’s epistles. Marcion’s version of Christianity had no root in the Old Testament or the religion of the Jews. Marcion argued that his was the first New Testament canon.
In this atmosphere of one group yelling for more to be added while another yelled for less, people in the church wondered what the canon of scripture ought to be.
A lot can be said against Marcion, including that he was a dirty, low down anti-Semite but one thing that you cannot say against Marcion is that he lacked integrity; because he walked and lived in continuity with his deepest convictions. Which is more than many Christians can say of themselves. How many Christians can say that they read the Old Testament for spiritual benefit with any frequency? How many can say that God has given them any of the Old Testament books for their edification and Christian walk? Marcion, true to his beliefs, got rid of the Old Testament; but we, having kept them in the canon, just never read them.
What do you do about Isaiah 63:1-6, in which the Lord trampled the heathen nations in wrath and anger, spattering His garments with their blood? Do you acknowledge and praise Him or do you try to hide Him? Are you careful about the vision of the living God you provide to the unbelieving world? Do you like the God of John 3:16 better than the God of Isaiah 63? Or do you emphasize the fact that God is a God who despises sin to the point of trampling the city of sinners until their blood runs freely and spatters His garments? The God in Isaiah 63:3 is the Lord Jesus Christ and He will show up in Revelation 19, at the end of the ages, wearing a white garment again and to His side will be strapped a sword that He will draw and use to decimate the sinners and, when He is finished, He will exit that battle covered with the gore of those who stood against Him. Do you love that God? The God of Isaiah 63 is the God who showed up at the crucifixion, except that this time He stomped upon His only begotten Son.
Marcion didn’t like the portrayal of God that appeared in Isaiah 63:3, so he got rid of it. You have not been given permission to paint a portrait of God the way you would like to picture Him. You must paint a picture of God in accordance with how God has revealed Himself, and part of the way in which God has revealed Himself is in Isaiah 63:3. Jonathan Edwards used Isaiah 63:3 as a key text in his famous sermon during the first great awakening in the early period of this country.
What do you do with the Caananite wars, in which God ordered the Israelites to destroy all the flocks of the Caananites and to put to death all the Caananite men, women, and children, even the women who were with child? What do you do with the God who commands the death of the unborn? Marcion hated and despised Him to the point that he just got rid of Him.
The church responded to Marcion by saying that the entire Old Testament, without division and without preference, must be included in the Christian canon of scripture because we are not given permission to paint a portrait of God after our own image or according to our preferences. We are responsible to view God, to love God, to obey God, to submit to God according to the portrayal that He Himself presented of Himself. So who do you love? The God who is or the God that you created?
Paul commands Timothy to preach the whole counsel of God. He is commanded to preach the God of the Caananite wars, the God of John 3:16, the God of Isaiah 63, and the God of Romans 5. (2 Timothy 3:16)
Jesus Christ taught the Old Testament. Jesus Christ taught Himself from the Old Testament. Jesus Christ brought the entire Old Testament with Him into the temple and read from it.
The entire Old Testament, without mixture or any omission, is to be understood as the fundamental aspect of the church’s scripture.
The reason why the church accepted the entire Old Testament into the canon is because it was Jesus’ book. So that solved the question of the Old Testament.
Now what do we do with the Gnostics who were declaring, “Add, add, add?” Once the question of the Old Testament had been settled, the question about what to include in the New Testament became easier.
The Criteria the Church used
for Inclusion and Exclusion of Books from the Canon
1. Nothing would be accepted into the New Testament that was not in continuity with the Old Testament. A book should cite the Old Testament, be based on the Old Testament, and be in harmony with the Old Testament. A lot of the Gnostic writings had the same attitude about the Old Testament that Marcion had; so they were excluded.
2. Every New Testament book must satisfy apostolicity: it has to be written by an apostle or by the disciple of an apostle.
3. The book has to be something with which the entire Christian world resonates. In other words it has to satisfy universality. Nothing gets into the canon that only one Christian community likes. It has to be something for which the Spirit has brought the entire Christian world into conviction. It has to be a book, loved, affirmed, and embraced by the entire Christian world.
4. No gospel account or book is to be accepted into the canon that does not have at its heart the incarnation and the bloody, crucifixion of Jesus Christ, resulting in His death. Gnostics taught that Jesus Christ was not really incarnated, that He did not really become flesh, He only seemed to be, and He did not really die from a fleshly slaughter on the cross. They were embarrassed by the entire idea of a God who would become human and who would suffer the ultimate humiliation of death on the cross. This is why the Lord’s Supper formed such a fundamental aspect of the church’s worship in the early centuries. Because the Lord’s Supper is that which we gather around and proclaim that our Lord is an incarnate, slaughtered, bloody Lord. We eat the bread which is symbolic of His slain body; we drink the wine which is symbolic of His dripping blood; and we do this as a common confession of the center of our faith.
The Bible is the Old Testament, the text of Jesus Christ, and the scriptures written down by the apostles and the disciples of the apostles, to whom the Holy Spirit came and whom Jesus taught, whose writings did not originate with themselves but from God. What they wrote was not the word of men but of God. What they wrote was produced through them by the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Whether Old Testament or New Testament, it is the word of God.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for August 1, 2010
Series on The Nature of Scripture
“All Scripture is God-Breathed” – 2 Timothy 3:16
The Old Testament
We saw previously that, in the third chapter of second Timothy, Paul declared the Old Testament Scriptures as inspired.
2 Peter 1:20-21
No scripture came about by a prophet’s own interpretation. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. No scripture had its origin in a human being.
So Peter agrees with Paul.
2 Timothy 3:16
The Greek word, meaning God-breathed, is theopneustos. The first part, Theo, means God and the second part is from the Greek word, pneuma, meaning wind, breath, or spirit. In the New Testament, the Greek words, Hagios Pneuma, are translated as Holy Spirit. (Editor’s note: In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word ruach {pronounced ru-akh}, can also be translated as wind, breath, or spirit.)
Thus far, Peter and Paul are expressing their views on the Old Testament; that is what they meant by “the scriptures” in these verses.
The New Testament
Now what about the writings of the New Testament, which were only just being put into writing as Peter and Paul spoke? Why can we consider the New Testament to be just like the Old Testament in being God-breathed?
We must answer for the New Testament the following questions which were used to authenticate the Old Testament.
1. Do the apostles speak of the New Testament writings as scripture?
2. Do the New Testament writings have their origin in God?
3. Do the apostles talk about their own writings as being brought forth by the Holy Spirit in the same way they talk about the writings of the Old Testament?
1. 2 Peter 3:14-16
Peter refers to Paul’s account of the gospel as according to the wisdom having been given to him (presumably by God, since He is the giver of wisdom). The origin of Paul’s writing is the wisdom that comes from God. Peter further tells us that Paul writes from this wisdom in all his letters. Everything that Paul writes in his letters finds its origin in God. Peter says that some people distort some of the things Paul writes as they do the other scriptures. By saying this he calls Paul’s letters Scripture; Peter has said that Paul’s writings are to be taken on the same basis as the Old Testament. The writings of the New Testament are Scripture.
2. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 7-13
Paul speaks of the gospel of God and not merely of his gospel or someone else’s gospel. He also speaks of himself among the other apostles as having the approval of God to be entrusted with the gospel. They are not speaking from error, impurity, or by way of deceit. Paul says that they are not seeking the approval of men but are speaking only that which God approves. Paul speaks of the gospel of God several times. Finally, in verse 13, Paul says that the Philippians received their word as the word of God.
3. 1 Corinthians 2:4-11
Paul says that his message was not with wise and persuasive words but were a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit so that no one’s faith would stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Paul is saying that he is not the great author; God the Holy Spirit is.
Furthermore, Paul tells us that he and his fellow apostles are speaking the wisdom of God that had been ordained and held secretly by God from before the foundation of the world and was destined for our glory. None of the rulers of the world knew it. It is a wisdom that could not have been conceived by the mind of man. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived how much God has prepared for those who love Him.
Paul is saying that it was impossible for what he and the apostles are preaching to have originated with man. But God has revealed it to them by His Spirit for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. The things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God. The message the apostles are delivering is something to which only the Holy Spirit has access. So the third question is satisfied.
The New Testament writings are Holy Scripture
on equal ground with the Old Testament.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for July 25, 2010
Guest Speaker: Dr. Christopher Graham.
“How To Read a Book – Part II” – Mark 1
Dr. Bingham’s series on The Nature of Scripture resumes August 1.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for July 18, 2010
Guest Speaker: Dr. Christopher Graham.
“How To Read a Book – Part I” – Mark 1
Dr. Bingham’s series on The Nature of Scripture resumes August 1.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for July 11, 2010
Series on The Nature of Scripture
“God Talks” – Genesis 1
What would it be like if the Creator of all things chose to keep silent? What would it be like if God gave us the silent treatment?
This would be the exact opposite from the God we encounter in the Holy Scriptures. We find out in the very first chapter that the Creator of all things is a talking God. To be silent is entirely contrary to God’s nature. In fact, we see in the first chapter of Genesis that God brings everything into existence by speaking it into being. All through Genesis we find that God cannot keep silent. He is a speaking God.
God even calls His Son “the Word of God.” (John 1:1)
2 Timothy 3:16 – Everything you need to do every good work that God expects of you is to be found in the scriptures. You don’t need private dreams or visions or a private word or for God to whisper something to you. Everything you need is between the beginning of Genesis and the end of Revelation. Because God is a speaking God, His words become for us our very life, strength, and breath to live the life that He intends for us.
2 Peter is a broadly addressed letter, to all Christians. Chapter 1 tells us that what we need to be complete in Jesus Christ is a God speaking, revealing, manifesting, prophesying, declaring God. The body of the letter begins in verse 3 and sounds very much like 2 Timothy 3:16. We have been supplied with everything we need for life and Godliness. Peter declares that everything originated from God’s divine power, but it is by our knowledge of Him through His word that we receive His promises and through them “participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world.” It is our comprehension of God and His Son that gives us everything we need for life and Godliness. In this chapter, we find the apostle to the Jews in agreement with the apostle to the Gentiles, that everything we need for life and Godliness has been given to us. Peter and Paul both bring us back to the word of the prophets and God’s promises through them.
Peter further reveals that God’s mere words have the power to transform our lives. Conversely, we also know that a single word withheld or spoken in thoughtlessness or malice can drive a person to utter despair, death, or even hell. The power of the promises of God is life-giving. His words can ween you from your evil desires and cause you to escape the corruption of the world and participate in the divine nature which enters your life and transforms you from what you were to what you should be because words are powerful. If you have a time in your life when you think God is giving you the silent treatment, remember it is not God keeping silent but rather you not inquiring of the words God has already spoken.
Because of God’s promises to us we can and must add to ourselves the virtues listed in verses 5 and 6.
In verses 12 – 15, Peter is anticipating his death, which tradition says took place in Rome as a martyr’s death. This is the same situation in which Paul wrote in his second letter to Timothy; Paul was anxious to impress on Timothy that the scriptures are able to give him everything he needs for life and godliness. And that is exactly what burdens Peter’s heart in his second letter. In verse 16, Peter reminds his listeners that he and the apostles did not deliver to them any kind of cleverly invented story or fable but they spoke the words of Jesus as they heard them and presented the things Jesus did as they saw Him do them. On the day of Jesus’ transfiguration, Peter heard God declare Jesus to be His son and the words God spoke are in Psalm 2:7. In the same way that the promise of Psalm 2 was fulfilled, you can depend on every other promise and every other word spoken by God to be fulfilled. Psalm 2 also points to Isaiah 42.
In verse 19, Peter declares that we have “the word of the prophets made more certain” and that we ought to pay attention. Their words are more certain because the apostles have seen them fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, in verse 21, we find that the words of the prophets are reliable because they did not speak out of their own will but they were moved by the Holy Spirit to speak the very words of God. The reason the scriptures can transform you out of your evil desires and from corruption into incorruption is because they do not find their origin in human beings but in the One divine being, God, who through the third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, makes sure that when the prophet writes or speaks his words do not come from within himself. Everything the prophets spoke are the very words of the God whom we see speaking in the first chapter of Genesis. The words of God are just as powerful in your life as they were to bring light into being, just as powerful to free you from your evil desires as the word of God was to separate the water from the land, and just as powerful in your life to change you and transform you from a corruptible thing into an incorruptible thing as the word of God was to fill the heavens and the earth. God’s word is life-giving. The word of God is sanctifying as well as saving. You have need of nothing else.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for July 4, 2010
Beginning of Series on The Nature of Scripture
“Lovers of Self & Pleasure reject the Truth” – 2 Timothy 3
Paul probably wrote this letter to Timothy from one of two places in Rome, Marmertine Prison (Carcere Marmertino) or Abby of the Three Fountains (Monestery Complesso dell’Abbazia Tre Fontane).
2 Timothy 3:1-9
Paul begins this chapter by telling Timothy to pay close attention to what he is going to say; it is very important.
For Paul, the last days began with the coming of Christ.
Paul wants Timothy to know that, although he may have some good days, the times in which we all live are terrible times.
Paul gives two characteristics of the last days — people love in perverted ways and people relate to truth in a perverted way.
People of the last days are lovers of self and money to the point of not loving anyone else and totally without virtue of any kind and loving pleasure rather than loving God. They are always learning but never acknowledge the truth and are even against the truth.
Don’t think our times are wonderful. Terrible times require devotion to trustworthy teaching.
2 Timothy 3:10-12
Paul points to himself as a man not described by the above verses. Our first obligation is not to be like the people in the above verses. If you do live a Godly life in Christ, that is the opposite of those described above, you will suffer and be persecuted.
2 Timothy 1:8
Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of him but join him in suffering for the gospel.
2 Timothy 1:11-12
Paul is suffering because he was appointed to be a proclaimer of the gospel, an apostle, and a teacher.
2 Timothy 1:15
Everyone in Asia Minor has deserted Paul.
2 Timothy 2:8-9
Paul is suffering for the gospel to the point of being chained like a criminal.
2 Timothy 4:9
Demas, because of his love of the world, has deserted Paul; so Paul wants Timothy to come to him quickly. Things got too uncomfortable for those helping Paul.
We need to understand that John 10:10, in speaking of having life abundantly, does not mean we have an easy time; but, rather, that we experience abundance in spiritual matters.
2 Timothy 3:14-16
Paul exhorts Timothy to continue in what he has learned and what he has been convinced because he knows the ones from whom he has learned it and has known the holy scriptures since he was a child, which are able to bring salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Paul calls the scriptures “holy” because these writings are as different from any other writing as God is different from all His creatures. What we hold from Genesis to Revelation are holy writings able to make us wise but not to deliver us from suffering, persecution, and desertions.
All of scripture is God-breathed. This is what makes scripture unlike any other writing. They have their origin in the God who spoke the universe into existence. God used human beings to write the scriptures within a cultural and historical context but they didn’t come up with it.
Some translations use the word, inspired, in place of God-breathed, but it is not like an artist being inspired by something in his surroundings or by some piece of knowledge or by his emotional response to something.
The scriptures are entirely capable of themselves to thoroughly equip us for every good work. We do not need anything else to equip us; we do not need a private vision. We don’t need God to speak to us privately. All we need are the words written from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation because they have their origin in God. But remember that living your life according to the holy scriptures turns on the heat of suffering and persecution.
A book published by Crossway, entitled Why, O God?, has an article by Dr. Douglas Blount, which gives the best Christian perspective on suffering and evil to come along in years.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for June 27, 2010
Guest speaker: Christopher Graham
“Trees in Scripture” – Isaiah 44:1-5, 41:1-4, 17-20; Jeremiah 17:7-8
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for June 20, 2010
Not Available
