The Origin of the Bible - Flipbook - Page 18
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THE ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE
were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination
of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11, NIV).
Regarding its place in the Christian Bible, the Old Testament is
preparatory in character: What “God spoke to our ancestors
through the prophets” waited for its completion in what was
“spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:1-2, NIV). Yet the Old Testament was the Bible that the apostles and other preachers of the
gospel in the earliest days of Christianity took with them when
they proclaimed J esus as the divinely sent Messiah, Lord, and Savior; they found in it clear witness to Christ ( John 5:39) and a plain
setting forth of the way of salvation through faith in him (Rom.
3:21; 2 Tim. 3:15). For their use of the Old Testament they had
the authority and example of Christ himself; and the church ever
since has done well when it has followed the precedent set by him
and his apostles and recognized the Old Testament as Christian
Scripture. “What was indispensable to the Redeemer must always
be indispensable to the redeemed” (G. A. Smith).
The New Testament
The New Testament stands to the Old Testament in the relation
of fulfillment to promise. If the Old Testament records what “God
spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets,” the New Testament
records that final word that he spoke in his Son, in which all the
earlier revelation was summed up, confirmed, and transcended.
The mighty works of the Old Testament revelation culminate in
the redemptive work of Christ; the words of the Old Testament
prophets receive their fulfillment in him. But he is not only God’s
crowning revelation to man; he is also man’s perfect response to
God—the high priest as well as the apostle of our confession (Heb.
3:1). If the Old Testament records the witness of those who saw
the day of Christ before it dawned, the New Testament records
the witness of those who saw and heard him in the days of his