When we speak of the Word of God, we must recognize that there were a lot of spirits worshiped by people in the past. Each one of these spirits gave “words of god” to their followers that contained messages that would allow their human followers to prove their loyalty.

Within the rather large group of ancient spirits, we have chosen a single spirit to be our only God. Our God is the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and it is His voice we want to hear. We are willing to listen to any Word of God that He has spoken.

The Creator of Heaven and Earth has been speaking to people from every generation living in this world since human history began, and the Church has made a commitment to look closely at the lives of people who lived in the past for guidance on recognizing when and how He speaks.

We believe that God still speaks to people in our world today. The Word(s) of God that were spoken in the past set a standard we can use for recognizing His voice today. The idea that this standard was settled a long time ago is known as the Doctrine of the Canon of Scripture.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever heard of the Doctrine of the Canon of Scripture before?

#2. When and where did you hear about the Doctrine of the Canon of Scripture for the first time?

The Canon of Scripture

The Canon of Scripture is a complete list of the different words of God that we can use to recognized how God speaks to people living in this world to help them find FORGIVENESS OF THEIR SINS as well as gain FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS.

There are 66 documents that were written by people living in the past that God is still using to speak and guide His people through the challenges involved in finding the forgiveness and freedom we need to be faithful to God.

The 66 documents that contain every Word of God we need are divided up into two parts. The first part is commonly called the Old Testament, and the second part is commonly called the New Testament.

We are going to begin exploring Christianity by taking a look at the Old Testament writings.

Discussion Question:

#1. Have you ever read all of the Old Testament writings before? Why or why not?

The Old Testament Writings

The Old Testament writings are a collection of 39 books. These books were written before Jesus Christ was born. The English names of those 39 books that contain information that can help us pursue God’s voice as a guide while we search for FORGIVENESS AND FREEDOM FROM OUR SINS are as follows:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever had a chance to learn how to hear God’s voice from each of the Old Testament books? (Why or why not?)

The Old Testament Manuscripts

In order to use the Old Testament books as guides on how to receive FORGIVENESS AND FREEDOM FROM SIN, we need to take a moment and try and understand how they were written down in the past and preserved accurately for future generations. With that in mind, let’s slow down for a moment and take a look at what kind of paper was used to preserve the Old Testament writings.

In the latest version of Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell wrote this:

“The most common writing material available in biblical times was papyrus. The papyrus plant grew in the shallow lakes and rivers of Egypt and Syria. Papyrus was used “until the third century, for classical literature until the sixth or seventh century, and even later for some documents.”

He also said that “scrolls were made by gluing sheets of papyrus together or sewing sheets of parchment together with sinews of a calf’s leg and then winding the remaining long strips around a stick…the average scroll, however, was only about twenty or thirty feet.”

For centuries papyrus scrolls were used to the preserve the integrity of the 39 Old Testament books. This task was so important that the work of the Scribe became one of the most important jobs among the Israeli people.

During the 8th century of the Common Era, a group of Jewish scribes known as the Masorites began developing a system for copying the Biblical text for liturgical and scholarly use. Their goal was to maintain the ancient traditions of Israel.

Almost all of our oldest copies of the Old Testament were written by them. The oldest copy we have was written about 900 years after Jesus Christ was born. The Masoritic Text was the only hand written copy of the Old Testament in the original language available for Jewish and Christians to study until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In late 1946 or early 1947, Bedouin shepherds found almost 1,050 scrolls in a cave. The scrolls belonged to a first century group known as the Essenes, and were written about 100 years before Jesus Christ was born.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls have allowed Jewish and Christian scholars to read a version of the Old Testament that was available when Jesus Christ and his closest followers began preaching and teaching the hope of the Resurrection which was recorded in the New Testament writings.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever seen a papyrus scroll before?

#2. Did you know the Jews had developed a system to make sure no changes were made to the Old Testament writings?

#3. Did you understand the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls before now?

The New Testament Writings

The New Testament writings are a collection of 27 books. Each one of these 27 books were written before Jesus Christ was born. The English names of those 27 books that contain information that we help us pursue God’s voice as a guide while we search for FORGIVENESS AND FREEDOM FROM OUR SINS are as follows:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and the Revelation.

Discussion Question:

#1. Have you ever had a chance to learn how to hear God’s voice from each of the New Testament books? (Why or why not?)

The New Testament Manuscripts

The Church has a group of scribes who were responsible for producing copies of the New Testament writings in the past. These Christian scribes did not have a carefully developed system like their Jewish counterparts.

That does not mean that there were changes made in the text of the New Testament at any time by Church leaders. The words of God originally recorded in the New Testament have been preserved by an act of God for us to use with complete confidence as guide in hearing God’s voice.

As of January 2017 the Institute for New Testament Textual Research has confirmed the existence of 5,856 different copies of the New Testament written in the first century language. This number is in addition to the number of New Testament copies written in the Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac, Georgian, Slavic and Latin languages available to us today.

Most of the differences in these ancient copies are simple spelling errors. Occasionally we find copies with missing lines or paragraphs, which can be corrected by reading other copies in the same language (as if the scribe just lost his place and skipped a part in one hand written document).

The extensive variety allows to compare each copy of the New Testament to other copies for mistakes and omissions, and in those comparisons, there has been no reason to doubt that we do not have an accurate record of the words of God from the past available to guide us today.

Since we have an accurate record of the words of God in the Bible to guide our pursuit of replacing the works of the flesh with the Fruit of the Spirit, we are committed to following the warning Moses gave in Deuteronomy 4:2 (ESV) very carefully: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, not take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I give you.”

Discussion Questions:

#1. Will you limit your search for spiritual truth to the Words of God in the Canon of Scripture?

#2. Will you help us find others we can share the Words of God in the Canon of Scripture with?

#3. Will you recognize that anything the Bible does not talk about directly can lead you away from the FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND FREEDOM FROM SIN that God offers?

The Other (Excluded) Books

There have been many other books written about God in the past that cannot help people find FORGIVENESS OF SIN and FREEDOM FROM SIN. Since we have an accurate record of the Words of God in the Bible to guide our lives, we want to remain deeply committed to following the warning that Moses gave in Deuteronomy 4:2 (ESV) which says “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I give you.”

The simple reality is that any violation of this principle can compromise our potential in the Lord’s service, for we can begin to misunderstand the will of our King, having been exposed to propaganda put out by His enemies who claim to be his subordinates just to confuse and mislead us by changing the meaning of words away from the meanings presented to us in the Bible itself.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Would anything outside of the Word of God given by someone other than God Himself improve our understanding of God’s expectations are? (Why or why not?)

#2. Will you pray for us to find people to share the Word of God in the Canon of Scripture with?