My purpose in writing these musings is to concentrate on issues that I think are relatively and sometimes, of absolute importance to our personal Christian lives and our churches.  The matter “by what authority” demands attention.  My chosen Bible translation this year is by Dr James Moffat, it was published in its final form about eighty years ago.  One of the frustrating things about it, especially in the Old Testament, is his rearrangement of chapters, and the way he breaks them up.  The question is; by what authority does he do this?  We need to remember that he was a diligent scholar and an expert in the original languages.  However, he espoused certain critical ideas (in vogue at that time) as to the sources of various parts of the Bible and these, having their origins in the minds of men were his ground of authority.

Here is a quote from his introduction, “The Old Testament is a collection of religious literature thrown up in the course of the story,” (of the “highly self conscious” Jewish people.)  The words “thrown up” indicate a rather low view of scripture and so it is little wonder that he rearranges chapters in the way he does.  Of course, in so doing it means he ignores the possibility that through the course of several centuries God had directed the Church Fathers to arrive at what we now know as the canon of scripture.  We believe that by inspiration God has given His Word, it is not something simply thrown up in the course of the story of a people.  Rudyard Kipling wrote a verse that helpfully expresses what should be our attitude as we read the scriptures and consider any subject for that matter.

I keep six honest, serving men,

They taught me all I knew:

Their names are What and Why and When,

And Where and How and Who?

We do not always use these ‘honest serving men’ as we ought but Jesus was openly challenged by two of them in the lips of some of His adversaries.  For a second time in His ministry He had entered the Jerusalem Temple and emptied it of what, in His view should not have been there, this act, along with many others, and the words He spoke brought about the crisis that eventually led to Calvary, his critics, (using two of the ‘honest serving men’) said, “By what authority” and “who gave you this authority.”  (Mark 11v28)  Jesus replied by asking His interrogators a penetrating question about the ‘where’ (here is another of them!) of John the Baptists ministry and this landed them in serious trouble, they refused to answer with honesty and the Lord Jesus refused to answer them.

When Jesus asks the question ‘where from?’ he indicates only two possible origins, either from heaven or from men, there is no middle ground.  Where did the scriptures come from, are they from above, from God?  Where did Jesus come from, was He from His Father in heaven?   The alternatives are obvious.  When we apply the ‘honest serving man’ named Where to the gospel we preach can we honestly say that it comes from God above?  There are plenty of diluted versions around in our day.  Distortions of the Word from heaven, evasion of certain essential matters of the truth of God are all too evident, surely this is because the hearts of men are eager to make the gospel palatable in an age where toleration is a buzz word.  So the pure word that comes from God above and is of power to save is corrupted, its Divine authority is compromised as it passes through the sieve of man’s mind and opinion.  Man becomes chief interpreter; the scriptures of truth are made subject to human preference rather than the heart of man bowing to the objective truth set forth in the Bible.  Paul the apostle was bitingly clear, for such perverted, weakened gospels were being preached in his day too and he hated them, recognizing the blight they brought to the believers, “I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”  (Gal 1v11&12)  He had been raised and immersed in the teachings of the Jewish religion and sadly much of the faith he learned was a travesty of that which God had given his forefathers.  However, he said, “it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”  (Gal 1v15&16)

Here is the Divine and heavenly origin of both his gospel and his ministry plainly understood by him.  He is unapologetic, absolutely clear as to the source of all the Christian work to which he gave himself unstintingly.  The message he preached, the way he constituted the churches and the ordering of the life and conduct of church gatherings were according to the pattern that was shown him from above, nothing sprang from his own opinion.  We should note how frequently, when referring to his ministry, Paul uses the words ‘revelation’ and ‘reveal.’  A quick search in all his letters will confirm that either directly or indirectly he affirms the revelatory origin of his gospel.  For him this was the action of God from outside of himself.  It did not begin in Paul’s own rich, fertile and brilliant personal powers.  Throughout his epistles, when he answers questions, correct errors, lays down spiritual doctrines and principles he claims that the things he writes are not from himself.  When he does not have spiritual clarity on a matter he says so.  (Cf 1 Corinthians 7v10&12)  As we hear certain novel doctrines being promulgated or observe certain practices being popularly incorporated into the conduct of churches and their meetings we must enlist the help of one or two of those “honest men” of Kipling and ask “Why are they doing this,” and, “Where did this notion come from?”

At each significant turning point in the story of the Jewish people we discover God is the initiator, revealing Himself, His will and His pattern.  Abram was a pagan, living in the city of Ur of the Chaldees; he was not a Jew as some would say but an idolater until “the God of glory appeared” to him.  (Acts 7v2)  Called to walk in step with God, a sharer in His will and purpose, things were not left to his own choosing.  When he did lean to his own understanding unnecessary complications resulted, yet these things, although bringing much pain and trouble, were not beyond the gracious actions of God Who pursued His purposes continually.  We may say that the three most important men in the Old Testament narrative as far as that ‘story’ is concerned were Abraham, Moses and David.  Both Moses and David were builders as well as leaders and neither of them was left to choose their own design.  Each was shown the pattern, Moses for the tabernacle and the worship involved there and David for the more permanent temple building.  Nothing was left to personal opinion, it was revealed unto them from above.

Paul also declared that he was a ‘wise master builder’ (1Cor3v10), he labored according to the pattern God had revealed to him in the gospel.  He obeyed from the heart “that form of doctrine that had been delivered unto him,”  (Romans 6v17) in fact, in this verse the matter is reversed for he says “you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”  (Rom 6v17NASB)

Putting these two thoughts together we arrive at the conclusion that God, by revelation, delivers to us His heavenly mould which is His divine way and we must commit ourselves without argument and with joyful acceptance to the shape of that mould, not seeking to modify or adjust it to suit ourselves nor the approval of the world around us; we know where we come from and where we are going and are authorized by God to build according to His pattern.