The Origin of the Bible - Flipbook - Page 22
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THE ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE
New Testament. The old covenant people had to die with him in
order to rise with him to new life—a new life in which national
restrictions had disappeared. Jesus provides in himself the
vital continuity between the old Israel and the new, and his faithful followers were both the righteous remnant of the old and the
nucleus of the new. The Servant Lord and his servant people bind
the two Testaments together.
The message of the Bible is God’s message to man, communicated “at many times and in various ways” (Heb. 1:1, NIV) and
finally incarnated in Christ. Thus “the authority of the holy
scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly
upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; and therefore
it is to be received, because it is the word of God” (Westminster
Confession of Faith, 1.4).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barr, J., gen. ed. The Cambridge History of the Bible, Volumes I-III, 1975.
Bruce, F. F. The Books and the Parchments, 1952.
Dodd, C. H. According to the Scriptures, 1952.
Reid, J. K. S. The Authority of the Bible, 1957.
Warfield, B. B. The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, 1948.
Westcott, B. F. The Bible in the Church, 1896.