HAVE SOME GONE SO FAR THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE FORGIVENESS?

Jesus was willing to forgive all. Even on the Cross, He prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). However, Jewish scholars and rabbis tend to believe that some have just gone too far to be forgiven. For example, when Jews celebrate Purim, they spit when the name of Haman is mentioned. This symbolizes their belief that Haman, who had wanted to destroy the Jewish people, as recorded in the Book of Esther, had lost any possibility of receiving forgiveness.

Likewise, Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, admitted that Jews are not willing to forgive all evil-doers. Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik also confessed:

·       During my weekly coffees with my friend Fr. Jim White, an Episcopal priest, there was one issue to which our conversation would incessantly turn, and one on which we could never agree: Is an utterly evil man—Hitler, Stalin, Osama bin Laden—deserving of a theist’s love? I could never stomach such a notion, while Fr. Jim would argue passionately in favor of the proposition. Judaism, I would argue, does demand love for our fellow human beings, but only to an extent. ‘Hate’ is not always synonymous with the terribly sinful. While Moses commanded us ‘not to hate our brother in our hearts,’ a man’s immoral actions can serve to sever the bonds of brotherhood.” (FirstThings Magazine)

Soloveichik offered two examples of people who had crossed the line. Samson had finally been captured by the Philistines, who had cut his hair to deprive him of his strength and had plucked out his eyes. The Philistines had chained him to the pillars of their stadium before a sellout crowd who came to see him tormented. However, Samson prayed:

·       "O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!" (Judges 16:28).

The Lord answered his prayer, and Samson brought down the stadium causing thousands of deaths. Soloveichik reasoned that God had granted his prayer because the Philistines were beyond forgiveness. He therefore wrote:

·       Indeed, the contrast between the two Testaments indicates that this is the case: Jesus’ words [‘Forgive them for they know not what they do’] could not be more different than Samson’s.”

According to Soloveichik, this proved that the NT had veered far from the Hebrew Scriptures. He then offered the example of King Agag of the Amalekites, who Saul had spared in opposition to God’s instructions.

·       [The Prophet] Samuel said [to King Saul], "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?" (1 Samuel 15:17-19)

·       Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites." Agag came to him confidently, thinking, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." But Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women." And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. (1 Samuel 15:32-33)

Once again, Soloveichik reasoned that Agag was no longer eligible for forgiveness and was therefore executed. However, Soloveichik wrongly assumes that forgiveness and temporal (earthly) punishment are mutually exclusive. He assumes that if God forgives, He will not also punish. However, there are many Biblical examples that show that God will forgive and still punish. He forgave King David for his adultery and murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah. However, He would also punish David:

·       David said to [the Prophet] Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14)

If God can punish but also forgive upon confession of sins, the fact that He had punished the Philistines and Agag didn’t mean that they had gone so far that they could no longer be forgiven. Instead, they never confessed their sins – the necessary requirement to receive forgiveness.

Instead, Israelites were expected to show mercy to even their enemies. There is no indication that these commands excluded really bad enemies:

·       "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.” (Exodus 23:4-5)

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• If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

If God required mercy for the worst of enemies, then we should expect at least the same from Him. Jesus had commanded us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Therefore, being merciful to the worst of people would be something that God would do. Jesus also explained:

·       But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45)

(A strange anomaly should be noted. The God had never asked the Israelite to forgive. Perhaps this is because a complete forgiveness had not yet been accomplished on the Cross.)

Soloveichik also seems to overlook the fact that God had forgiven the worst people. King Manasseh had arguably been the worst of Judah’s kings. He had reigned in Judah for more than 50 years and killed so many of the righteous as to create a veritable bloodbath:

• Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah...’ (2 Kings 21:10-12).

However, after he had been captured and imprisoned by the Assyrians, he repented and the Lord evidently forgave him:

·       “Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chron. 33:12-13).

This would suggest that the Lord would forgive any who would sincerely call upon Him:

·       And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:32)

This is the same hope that the Lord extends to His errant people Israel:

•  “O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:7-8).

• “I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me” (Jeremiah 33:8; also 31:34; Isaiah 43:25).

There were even times that Israel was worse than her pagan neighbors. However, this did not make them ineligible for forgiveness and salvation:

•  “Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you...'” (Ezekiel 5:7)... “Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters. You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways” (Ezekiel 16:46-47).

Despite the gravity of their sins, God would remain faithful to Israel. Of course, Israel would have to turn from their sins and turn back to God:

·       If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14; Isaiah 55:7; 59:20)

Nevertheless, in the end, God will unilaterally change Israel in order to forgive them. He will initiate their return without waiting for Israel to turn to Him:

·       Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety…I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:37-41)

God will pour out His Spirit and bring Israel to mourning and repentance:

·       “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn…The land shall mourn, each family by itself.” (Zechariah 12:10,12)

I don’t think that Soloveichik realizes that when he disqualifies the Hamans of this world, he is also disqualifying his own people, contrary to the mercy of God.

SALVATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Salvation under the Old Covenant resembled the New. Throughout, it was a matter of the mercy of God. However, the earliest revelation of salvation left out many crucial features. Conspicuously absent was any promise of an afterlife, of a heaven or hell. In a comprehensive list of the ways that God would bless Israel for their adherence to His commandments, there was no promise of a salvation from sins or of an eternal life (Deuteronomy 28). Instead, the blessing was for a long life, as specified for Sabbath observance (Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16) and for obedience in general (Deut. 4:40; 22:7).

Consequently, we read in the New Testament about the ongoing debate between Pharisee and Sadducee regarding whether eternal life even existed. In Ecclesiastes, we read that King Solomon, who had everything, had hated life, because, even with all of his wisdom, he could not perceive through the curtain of death into the next world:

·       For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity ["incomprehensible"] and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:16-17)

Without the knowledge of the afterlife, the meaning of life remained hidden from even Solomon's wisdom:

·       For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity...Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 21)

How blessed we now are to see beyond the horizon! However, in a dialogue with the Sadducees, Jesus, referring to Moses’ encounter  with God in the burning bush (Genesis 3), revealed that, even in the Torah, eternal life, the salvation of God’s people, had been revealed:

·       “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 22:31-33)

Weren’t there plainer texts in the Torah from which Jesus might have made His case in favor of eternal life? This silence illustrates the fact that God kept many secrets. One of them was the source of His mercy and salvation, symbolized by the one object that Israel could not look upon without being struck dead – the mercy seat of God (Leviticus 16:13; Romans 3:25), which covered the Ten Commandments within the Ark.

Nevertheless, God would reveal it to those who hungered and thirsted to understand His ways (Psalm 25:14). In fact, God was always preaching the Gospel. He preached it to Abraham and his offspring (Galatians 3:8). On one occasion, God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. However, before Abraham could accomplish this task, God intervened and gave Abraham a ram to sacrifice in place of Isaac. But this was far more than a test of Abraham’s obedience. It was also a revelation of the heart of God:

·       And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” (Genesis 22:13-14)

Why didn’t Abraham name Mount Moriah, “The Lord has provided,” as He had, instead of “The LORD will provide?” It had evidently been revealed to Abraham that what he had experienced was prophetic of something that the Lord would do – provide a Son as Abraham had provided with Isaac.

It was also revealed to the Apostle Paul that the Lord had revealed the means of His salvation through Abraham:

·       For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:2-3; quoting Genesis 15:6)

This was a righteousness that God had reckoned to Abraham apart from any merit that Abraham might have achieved. Instead, it was mercifully given because Abraham had merely “believed God.” Did it also consist of God’s gift of eternal life? Paul was convinced that it did:

·       For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13)

They would live again, and the world would be their inheritance. Quoting Psalm 32:1-2, Paul also used King David as an example of this gift of salvation:

·       …David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” (Romans 4:6-8)

In both cases, Paul had demonstrated that in both instances salvation was a matter of the mercy of God in forgiving sin. This is the revelation of the OT, as well as the New. The entire sacrificial system was a revelation of the mercy of God. It taught that each sin deserved death but that an animal could be sacrificed in the place of Israel’s sins, and the mercy of God would receive it in place of the death of the Israelites.

Could any Israelite ever be good enough so that he would not deserve death? Not according to the Scriptures:

·       Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. (Psalm 143:2; Job 9:2; 15:14; 25:4)

·       If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3)

No one could stand before God apart from His mercy (Psalm 15, 24). Similarly, at King Solomon’s consecration the Temple, God affirmed that Israel’s hope had to be in His mercy alone:

·       “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn [repent] from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14; 1 Kings 8:46)

No one would ever be able to successfully plead that their good works entitled them to God’s forgiveness or salvation:

·       When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. (Psalm 65:3-5)

God had to be the Source of Israel’s salvation. There was no other hope. King David certainly understood this:

·       Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.” (2 Samuel 22:51)

The truth of the need for the mercy of God was illustrated before Israel in many ways. They had rebelled against the Lord repeatedly:

·       And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21:5-9)

Jesus understood that this had been a demonstration of the mercy of God that also pertained to His atonement on the Cross:

·       “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)

Jesus illustrated that fact that salvation in the OT prefigured salvation in the New. Both depended upon faith in the mercy of God. However, His salvation was dimly perceived in the midst of the Old. However, it should have been clear that salvation didn’t depend on their own merit:

·       The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. (Psalm 37:39)

This is the way it had been from the beginning:

·       Leviticus 26:40-42 “But if they confess [changing their mind about sin – repentance] their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity [a demonstration of faith/repentance], then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”

This highlights the fact that the Biblical faith had always been opposed to other religions  where the faithful had to earn their way up to their deities, through obedience, knowledge, or by gaining spiritual insight. However, the Biblical faith reveals that becoming worthy of God through human efforts was impossible (Romans 3:19-20; 11:35; Galatians 2:16). Instead, Israel had to humble themselves by confessing their sins, and God would reach down to them:

·       “Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever.  Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 3:12-13)

Many verses simply indicate that “God is our salvation.” Consequently, salvation is in a Person and not by our own deeds:

·       Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. (Jeremiah 3:23; Psalm 68:19-20; 98:3)

Other verses refer to God as “The LORD is our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16), indicating that our hope of righteousness and salvation doesn’t depend on our performance but upon His. He Himself would clothe us “with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). All of our good deeds could not adequately clothe us to come into His presence.

The Prophets of Israel had consistently revealed that salvation was of the Lord not of ourselves:

·       And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:32; also Romans 10:12-13)

No one would ever be able to say, “I am entitled to salvation!” Instead, Israel had to seek out the Lord’s mercy by calling upon Him as He had directed, “Seek the Lord and live” (Amos 5:4, 6).

• “I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” (Hosea 5:15, NASB)

·       “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words [of confession] with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously.” (Hosea 14:1-2)

Israel had to confess and repent of their sins. They only had to come to their Savior with their broken hearts. All of this demonstrated that salvation is a matter of the mercy of God (Isaiah 44:3; 45:17; 46:12-13; 51:4-5; 52:10; 57:18-19; 61:1-8; 63:9; 66:22). God would unilaterally regenerate His people so that they would never again rebel against Him:

·       “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.” (Jeremiah 32:39-41; Isaiah 59:21; Ezekiel 34:25-26)

Salvation is all about God. Notice how many times He declares, “I will.” God will perform major heart surgery upon Israel, removing from them any reason for boasting:

·       Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:25-27; 16:59-63)

How will God accomplish this? In a manner prefigured by the Old Testament sacrificial system! However, God cryptically promised that it would be He, not the priesthood, who would make atonement for the people:

·       "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people." (Deut. 32:43, Psalm 79:9)

He would be their Redeemer:

·       No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. (Isaiah 35:9-10; Psalm 19:14)

Israel should have realized their hope was in promised Messiah:

·       "Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?” (Malachi 3:1-2; Isaiah 42:6; 49:8; Isiah 9:6-7; 11:1-10)

However, the role of the Messiah was also carefully concealed (Isaiah 49:2; 51:16) until God could not contain Himself anymore:

·       Surely he [the Messiah] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6; Psalm 22, 40; 69)

God’s salvation and eternal life is progressively revealed throughout the Bible. The portrait is so consistent that we can conclude that it represents the single plan of One surpassingly intelligent Being who worked seamlessly through many authors, cultures, and epochs.

“SOLA SCRIPTURA”: IS THERE CONTINUITY BETWEEN THE OT AND NT?

“Sola Scriptura” (SS) states that the Bible teaches that God’s words must prevail over all other words or statements of truth or moral imperatives. His words must take precedence over everything. In the NT, Jesus responded to Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). However, this was a teaching that Jesus had drawn from God’s instructions to the Israelites:

·       “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:1-3)

We find in both Testaments that life and well-being were a matter of keeping God’s every Word, as God’s commandment to Adam revealed:

·       And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

The first couple’s welfare depended on whether or not they would put God’s Word above everything else, above every temptation and every fear. This doctrine of SS didn’t mean that they couldn’t learn from other sources, like their observations and feelings, but God’s Word would have to take precedence over everything else.

Abraham passed this test when he placed God’s Word even above the life of his son, Isaac, and was ready to sacrifice him, according to God’s commands. And God rewarded him for his obedience (Genesis 22:15-18). Previously, God had revealed that all the wonderful promises he had made to Abraham depended upon his response to the Word of God:

·       For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice [God’s commands], so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” (Genesis 18:19)

The imperative to follow all of God’s commands had characterized Israel’s relationship with God. If they would love God by following them, He would bless Israel; if they turned away from them, they would be cursed (Deuteronomy 28, 29). This is what had defined their entire history. The Lord had sent many prophets to His people to warn them of the consequences of their rebellion against His Word:

·       The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

Israel’s response to the Word of God meant life and death. It was also an expression of Israel’s faithfulness to their Redeemer. It therefore had to be protected against any alterations or additions at the threat of death (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32). Even a worker of miracles had to be put to death if he was preaching a message contrary to the Word Israel had already received (Deut. 13:1-5; 18:20-22). How was Israel to know which prophets came with God’s Words? His prophecies had to be fulfilled 100% of the time (Deut. 18:22).

The NT validated the fact that the OT Prophets were the Words of God:

·       Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

John invoked the OT warning against tampering with God’s Words:

·       I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. (Revelation 22:18)

As was the case in the Hebrew Scriptures, God’s Word was to judge everything else, while nothing was to judge His Words. Scripture had to sit in judgment over all other truth claims:

• The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:4-5)

Scripture was also meant to give God’s people everything they needed in order to relate to Him.

·       All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Therefore, Paul reasoned that the Church should not go beyond what had already been given them in the Scriptures:

• Learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.  For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Cor. 4:6-7)

This too was the message of the OT. All truth claims had to be consistent with God’s Words. There was nothing higher or more authoritative. Scripture was the Supreme Court where the buck stopped:

• When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

In regards to the things that Scripture taught, it was the brightest light and the source of blessing. In view of this, God had commissioned Joshua:

• Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:7-8)

God warned Joshua that his response to His Word would determine blessing and curse. If he failed to follow it, he and Israel would suffer, if he meditated on it to do it, he would prosper. There was no other activity that could compete in importance with Israel’s response to the word of God. It occupied an unrivaled position. No amount of philosophizing, painting, poetry writing, or practicing spiritual disciplines could even come close. Scripture was in a league of its own. This was the uniform teaching of Scripture, not just a handful of verses.

All the Apostles recognized that God worked through the understanding of His word to accomplish great things (Psalm 1). Paul therefore recited this benediction over the Ephesian elders:

• “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Acts 20:32)

How do we please God? We abide in His word above all else. Peter insisted that:

• If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God... so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:11).

Our church traditions should never be in competition with God’s word. This was the problem with the religious leadership of Jesus’ day. They valued their own traditions above Scripture. Against this lethal tendency:

• Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?... Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” (Matthew 15:3-9)

Our traditions or institutions cannot be placed on par with Scripture. The resulting worship is of no value! God had always intended for His Word to rule over all else. Jesus had been totally sold out for the Scriptures, claiming that it could “not be broken” (John 10:35). Everything else could be changed but not Scripture (Matthew 24:35). It stood over everything else – sola scriptura! Even Jesus would not do away with Scripture:

• “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)

Because Scripture came from God, it could not just be set aside. Instead, our standing in the Kingdom depended upon our response to Scripture. However, Jesus would fulfill it, according to Divine intention.

Jesus had such a high regard for Scripture that He continually brought His disciples back to this wellspring of blessing. When Jesus encountered His disheartened disciples after His crucifixion, He could have spoken His own words to encourage them, but instead, He pointed them back to Scripture:

• “Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:26-27)

Scripture is so central to our lives that Jesus opened their minds to understand it:

• He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:44-45)

Never once do we see any indication that Jesus regarded Scripture as merely a human document. Instead, He copiously quoted Scripture, always as maximally authoritative.

Besides, because Scripture is God’s authoritative word, we are not free to interpret it in any manner we choose:

• Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:12-13)

Although under both covenants, God had ordained teachers to teach His Words, it was also intended to be so plain that all would be held to account for violating it:

·       “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

The Word was so approachable that no one had an excuse to not perform it. Paul even quoted these verses to demonstrate the continuity between the Old and the New Covenants (Romans 10:6-8) and that God’s Word had to be at the center of the life of God’s people. There is nothing higher than Scripture. Consequently, we never are free to not obey it:

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. (John 14:23-24)

To love Him is to place His Word above all else. This is the message of “Sola Scriptura” in both covenants. This should lead us to ask the question, “Why do religious Jews venerate the Talmud, the collected writings of their rabbis, above their own Bible?” I will try to address this question later in this book.