D31-20: NOT ONE BOOK Of The New Testament Makes The Claim That Its Contents Are God-breathed!

You know what I find really funny about a lot of Church’s Bible study curriculums?

The fact that a lot of them will have their new members begin their Bible studies starting from the New Testament (usually the Gospel of John).

I’ve said this before…but that’s kind of like watching a movie from the halfway point.

Although it may be entertaining and you may be able to follow the storyline to a degree, in many cases, you’ll have missed so much foundational content, you WON’T be able to follow the storyline and the primary motivations and purpose of the main characters will be completely lost on you.

That is precisely the problem we encounter when we totally ignore the “Old” Testament and begin our Scripture studies from the Book of John or any other book from the New Testament.

Actually, let me rephrase that.

I don’t even think it’s proper to categorize the New Testament as being “Scripture” which brings me to my next point.

There is one interesting difference between the so-called “Old” Testament and the New Testament.

Here’s what it is.

The Old Testament serves as its own witness that it is God-breathed.

In other words, it is “self-canonizing” for lack of a better term.

This Torah that we have been studying together over the past four and half years affirms that it is indeed the work and words of the living God and also affirms that Moses was to preserve these words in written form for all future generations of Israelites.

The Prophets of the Tanakh also affirmed the same thing.

They claimed the very words coming out of their mouths were the very words that the Almighty had given them.

One could also make a strong case that several of the Psalms also claim to be God-breathed.

However, can we say the same thing about the New Testament?

Absolutely not.

There is not one book…NOT ONE in the whole New Testament corpus…that asserts it is God-breathed or “self-canonizing”.

Quite the opposite actually.

You know that famous Scripture 2 Timothy 3:16-17 verse?

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I’ve already mentioned this like 20 billion times but those verses are ONLY referring to the “Old” Testament.

They cannot be referring referring to the New Testament because the New Testament wasn’t even in existence at this time.

That’s right.

The ONLY “Bible” Yeshua, his apostles and even John the Revelator knew of was the Hebrew Bible which means the only Bible they studied and quoted from was the Hebrew Bible.

Okay, I gotcha Rich, so how should we view the New Testament?

You should view it as I told you before.

It is an oral law or commentary testifying to the fulfillment of the Hebrew Bible prophecies concerning the coming and identity of the Messiah and what his coming and sacrifice meant for Israel and the gentile nations.

And to be honest with you, there are certain Kabbalistic principles you need to understand if you’re ever going to properly understand the New Testament.

This reminds of a statement I heard from a Messianic Rabbi in Canada who said something to the following effect:

“If your theology on the Torah is wrong, your theology on the New Testament is going to be 100 times more wrong”.

That’s a paraphrase but I think you get the point.

The story of Yeshua is contained in those books the Christians call the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Three of these gospels are lumped together and called the Synoptic Gospels because they depict the life of Yeshua in pretty much the same way with only slight variances in emphasis and perspective.

However, the story of John is a whole different can of worms altogether that I’m not even going to try and get into here.

To close, just understand that when we talk about God-breathed Scripture, I am ONLY referring to the Hebrew Bible.

The New Testament may be God-inspired and but it sure as heck ain’t God-breathed.

Know the difference.

I’m done.