Now that the Doctrine of God is completed, Lessons 1 through 7, Pastor Scott Craig enters into the Doctrine of the Scriptures.

Christians often express concerns of trepidation, anxiety, and confusion about the Bible. Through our next few meetings, all that should go away.

Key Concepts:
I. THE BIBLE—ITS NAMES AND TITLES
» The word Testament means Covenant, and is the term that God selected to describe His faithful relationship (primarily) to His people.
» Of all the names given to the Bible, “The Word of God” (Mark 7:13; Rom. 10:17; 2 Cor. 2:17; Heb. 4:12; 1 Thess. 2:13) is doubtless the most significant, impressive, and complete.

» There are two Greek words in the New Testament for the word “Word.” One is ‘logos’ which refers to a saying or written word. The other is ‘rhema’ which is the spoken word or direct word.

» All scripture was rhema at the time it was written, but is now logos. Often, as you read the Bible (the logos) God uses it as His rhema. It will be God’s direct word for you at the moment [but not always].

II. THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE
» 2 Tim. 3:16 “All Scripture is God breathed.”
» Verbatim – voice of God Himself
» Revelation – communicated by God to individuals [ “…said to me…” or “…Lord took me to…”]
» Illumination – Individual freedom in choice of words (“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith…I urge you, as I did when I was on my way to Macedonia…)

III. PRIMARY THREADS OF THE BIBLE
The Sacrificial Lamb
» Able and his lamb; Genesis 4:4
» Abraham and his lamb; Genesis 22:8,13,14
» The Passover Lamb; Exodus 12:3-7,23
» The Sacrificed Lamb is a Person; Isaiah 53:6-8
» The Lamb is Jesus; John 1:29
» The Risen Lamb; I Peter 1:18-21 » Lamb is Worthy; Revelation 5:6f

The Canonization of the Scriptures – If an ancient writing ‘measured up’ to a certain standard it was ‘canon’ or ‘canonical’.

– What standard (test) did the church and its councils apply?
= the authority of the writer; had to be written or backed by an apostle
= must provide internal evidence of divine inspiration and authority in communicating the truths and revelations of God
= total ‘divinely inspired’ agreement among the early churches as to which books belonged in the ‘divinely inspired’ category

– How the Bible Measures up to Other Ancient Writings: More than 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament exist today, which makes the New Testament the best-attested document in all ancient writings.

– The Formation of the Old Testament
= It is believed that all the books of the Old Testament canon were collected and recognized by Ezra in the fifth century B.C. Extra-biblical references by Josephus (A.D. 95) and in II Esdras 14 (A.D. 100) identifies the Old Testament canon as the thirty-nine books we have today.