The apostles give new teachings
- Compare Genesis 17:10-13 and Acts 15:1-2, 19-20
Genesis 17:10-13 – “This is my covenant which you must keep between myself and you, and your descendants after you: every one of your males must be circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that will be the sign of the covenant between myself and you. As soon as he is eight days old, every one of your males, generation after generation, must be circumcised, including slaves born within the household or bought from a foreigner not of your descent. Whether born within the household or bought, they must be circumcised. My covenant must be marked in your flesh as a covenant in perpetuity.”
Acts 15:1-2, 19-20 – “Then some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.’ This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it was decided that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the question with the apostles and elders.
‘My verdict is, then, that instead of making things more difficult for gentiles who turn to God, we should send them a letter telling them merely to abstain from anything polluted by idols, from illicit marriages, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.’”
Specifically, compare Genesis 17:13 with Acts 15:1, 19-20
- Compare John 12:1-6; John 8:3-11; Luke 19:1-9; Luke 22:54-62; etc with 1 Corinthians 5: 9-13. Compare all times that Jesus showed compassion to the sinner, associated and even ate with them, with the instruction St. Paul gave to the Corinthians. Would you declare St. Paul wrong? He clearly contradicted Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5: 9-13 – “In my letter, I wrote to you that you should have nothing to do with people living immoral lives. I was not including everybody in this present world who is sexually immoral, or everybody who is greedy, or dishonest or worships false gods -- that would mean you would have to cut yourselves off completely from the world. In fact what I meant was that you were not to have anything to do with anyone going by the name of brother who is sexually immoral, or is greedy, or worships false gods, or is a slanderer or a drunkard or dishonest; never even have a meal with anybody of that kind. It is no concern of mine to judge outsiders. It is for you to judge those who are inside, is it not? But outsiders are for God to judge. You must banish this evil-doer from among you.”
Specifically, take note of 1 Corinthians 5:11.
Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot was a thief; he kept their money bag and stole from it (John 12:1-6), and yet Jesus allowed him to follow them for all the time that He was on earth. Yet here is Paul telling the Corinthians not to associate with any believer who is a thief! Can you tell me that Paul was wrong?
What this teaches us is that God inspired and instructed His messengers to instruct His people according to what will help the people at that moment, and not according to what is recorded in a book. So the Holy Spirit leads dynamically and not according to any set of rules in a book. He does this through duly appointed leaders who have been put by God Himself in charge of such matters, not anybody at all.
All the above should be enough proof that God has always instructed, directed and led his people using other human beings, not a book.
Who is the authority?
But let’s go further. The apostles proved abundantly that they considered themselves to be the authorities and not a book. Even though they extensively quoted the OT, they many at times like Jesus, taught outside of the OT, and sometimes even against. Let’s take for instance the first council (in Jerusalem). Act 15:1-35. Let’s analyse the events in this passage.
There was an argument about whether gentile believers needed to be circumcised before they could be saved. Let’s see how the apostles handled this issue. Let’s keep in mind that the commandment of circumcision (Genesis 17:9-14) is right in the OT (the scriptures at the time) which the apostles (especially Paul) quoted extensively from. It is based on this covenant and the fact that Jesus was a Jew that those people insisted that the gentiles must also be circumcised. However, we find that the apostles did not refer to the OT to make their decision. What did they refer to? Themselves (relying on the Holy Spirit, of course). Now I want you to accuse the apostles of giving unbiblical teaching. Paul devoted the whole of his letter to the Galatians on the matter of circumcision.
There are two other things in the passage I want you to note.
First, Paul, even though he considered himself an apostle, an apostle who worked more than the rest, in his own words (1 Corinthians 15:10), recognized the authority of the ones appointed by Jesus himself and that was why he took the matter back to Jerusalem to be determined by them. And so after the whole discussion, the apostles emphasized their authority by not only writing a letter but also appointing people to go along with Paul, Barnabas and the letter.
Problems in Christianity have risen because people who cannot even claim authority anywhere near that of Paul have decided that they cannot listen to and obey the genuine authority put in place by God, but have chosen to be their own authority.
Second, Acts 15:24 reads. “We hear that some people coming from here, but acting without any authority from ourselves, have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds” The implication of this verse is that the apostles expected that anyone who went out to preach should be instructed and sent out by them, thus exercising their authority. Those who were not instructed and sent out by the apostles or their disciples but went out on their own accord were the ones causing the confusion. It is true in our time too.
This is the result when people decide to bypass legitimate authority and elect themselves as their own authority and begin to enter territory they have not been authorized to enter.
It is abundantly clear that God’s final authority on earth here has always been the human leaders that he has put in place on earth here, and not a book. The book is normally then a record of what God has revealed and instructed through this authority and which the people had lived. The Bible then is the record of the faith experience of some people. They experienced, lived and then wrote. The experience and living come before the writing, and the experience varied according to the will of God and not according to a set of rules in a book. Even when a book was to be referred to, this authority interpreted and implemented it.
The Bible, therefore, is a record of the teachings of God’s chosen leaders over several generations. How can anyone argue that the Bible has authority over the chosen leaders of God’s people?
This is what the church had believed and practiced until the revolt of Martin Luther and co in 1517 (of course baring minor rebellions, which was no stranger even to the apostles). If Martin Luther and his friends had understood how God worked among his people, they would never have caused such scandal in Christianity. I believe Luther and co had genuine complaints but they went about it the wrong way. Read further for more on this.
How did we get the New Testament?
Now, let’s learn more about who is the final authority by examining how the NT was written and compiled and then trying to understand its purpose. The apostles did not write a textbook for reference. If that were the case they would probably have come together in a council and written or authorized someone to write, which they would then declare as the final authority for all generations of Christians. This they did not do. Also note that all the books of the NT were not written at the same time. The books (or letters) were also written to different communities, and not all communities had all of them. Some useful questions would be
- When those communities which were the target of the letters did not yet have those letters, what was their source of reference for instruction?
- What was the source of instruction for those communities which did not have access to letters which were not written to them?
- What about the fact that the Bible could not be made widely available until the invention of the printing press in the 16th century?
- What about the fact that even after the Bible had been made widely available, most people were still illiterate and therefore could not read the Bible themselves? Even today, there are still many people who are illiterate and cannot read the Bible.
- Why do we have pastors and teachers in our churches today who teach the word of God?
It is very clear that the primary means of instruction by the apostles was not the letters they were writing. They were rather going about passing on what they had received from the Lord Jesus Christ himself and the Holy Spirit, by word of mouth. Wherever they went, they taught and appointed elders who in turn were tasked with the responsibility of passing on and guiding others in passing on what they had received from the apostles (Read Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5).
This is what the Catholic Church has practiced ever since.
In fact, Paul has made it clear that he wrote his letters because