Men of a Book they personally added to

A fascinating thing is when Peter finishes his epistles, he comments on Paul’s epistles.

II Peter 3:15-16 says, [15] And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
[16] As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Jordan explains, “You notice in verse 15 that Paul had written to these people, and then in verse 16, it says Paul didn’t write any of his epistles to the ‘circumcision Believers,’ so what in the world were those people doing with his epistles anyway? How’d they get them? What did they have?

“That verse slaps in the face standard church tradition about how the Bible came about. The old wives tale about the Bible is that in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries some church councils got together and decided what the Bible ought to be and selected books that ought to be put in the canon and books that ought not be.

“I mean, you read all that stuff and you’d have the idea that nobody in the 1st Century ever had a Bible and that it was just by the good grace of the Church somewhere, and some council meeting with a bunch of long-robed religious dudes, and if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have a Bible.

“Now, you know good and well Peter knows ‘circumcision Believers’ didn’t have the original manuscripts; they had copies of Paul’s epistles that were obviously readily available because you know whoever was making the copy of the Thessalonians epistle wasn’t sending it off over to these people.

“If you go back to chapter one of I Peter, you’ll see where all these people were: Pontius, Galatia, all over modern-day Turkey. The Thessalonians epistle, that was over in Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and in that area. Well, they weren’t making copies and sending them over to (Turkey) before the Thessalonians saints had them.

“Paul writes in I Thessalonians 5:27, [27] I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.

“Well, now I know why they got them. Because the epistles were designed to be circulated. Sometime you’ll hear somebody say, ‘Well, you know, Ephesians was really a circular epistle. In the original it didn’t have, ‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the saints at Ephesus.’ That was just something where in one copy they put Ephesus, and in another copy put Laodicea.’

“You know what that is? That’s just the hallucinations of somebody laying on their bed at night trying to figure out something to say to impress upon people that they had something to say when they didn’t know anything to say. Just hot air.

“There’s absolutely no evidence at all that it’s credible in anybody’s book that the original autographs didn’t have ‘at Ephesus’ in them. None at all and the fact is, they did.

“There’s no credible reason to believe the Book of Ephesians was a circular epistle not meant for Ephesus, because, folks, all of the epistles were designed to be circular epistles. That is, circulated and spread about.

“You see, as your New Testament scriptures were being written, they were being copied and made readily available, and when they were made available, they were regarded and considered to be Scripture.

*****

“We talk a lot about the doctrine of preservation of Scripture in the Bible. I don’t believe the Bible was preserved just because it would be a good idea. ‘It’s preserved in what’s there,’ somebody once said, but God had a DESIGN to preserve what He’d written and the way He did it was to make so many copies of it, in so many languages, available in so many places, that you couldn’t lose it even if you tried to.

“Paul writes in I Timothy 5:18, [18] For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.’

“That first saying is in Deuteronomy 25 and the latter is in Luke 10:7. Think about this; Paul writes to Timothy and says ‘the scripture saith,’ and then quotes Deuteronomy and the Book of Luke. An Old Testament book and a New Testament book and he puts them on the same plane . . . the Book of Luke, in Paul’s mind, and in Timothy’s mind, was just as much the Word of God as Deuteronomy, written by Moses, was.

“In other words, they weren’t waiting until a 3^rd and 4^th Century council to declare the Book of Luke as Scripture. Paul, writing by inspiration, understands and recognizes, and so does Timothy. He doesn’t say, ‘Hey, Tim, I got news for you. What that book Luke wrote, it’s Scripture.’ They both recognize it right off! It’s an understood thing to them.

*****

“Everything that Paul wrote--just like everything Luke wrote, everything Matthew wrote, everything anybody else wrote--wasn’t Scripture. Some things he wrote were and some things he wrote weren’t.

“Colossians 4:16 says, [16] And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

“Now, is the epistle to the Colossians Scripture? Well, there it is in your Bible. He writes, ‘Cause that it be read.’ Now, do you know of an epistle in your Bible called the epistle from Laodicea? Well, then, what is that?

“Outside of taking Revelation 3 and trying to make that be it, which would be a real stretch, the obvious answer is there is an epistle that is either, No. 1, missing from your Bible because it isn’t there, or, No. 2, it was never intended to be in your Bible.

*****

“Paul reveals in I Corinthians 5:9, [9] I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators.’ Do you know where that epistle is? It would have to be before I Corinthians. He’d already written it to them.

“In other words, Paul had already written the Corinthians some books; at least one epistle. Now he writes I Corinthians, but it’s really II Corinthians, and II Corinthians is really III Corinthians, but I Corinthians was the first one that was Scripture. II Corinthians was the second one that was Scripture. There may have been 30 other epistles that he wrote but they weren’t all Scripture. They weren’t all designed to be Scripture.

“So, it was only what was written by inspiration that was Scripture. By the way, you’ll notice that Paul, in I Timothy 5, calls Deuteronomy Scripture and he calls Luke Scripture. Do you think any of them had the original manuscripts of Deuteronomy? No. they had copies. Do you think they all had the original autograph of Luke?

“If you read the first four verses of Luke 1 as you read the first two verses of Acts 1, you’ll see the Book of Luke was written to a certain individual. That person would have had the original. Could it be possible that Luke might have kept a copy?

“Since Paul was a friend of Luke, do you reckon Paul might have looked over Luke’s shoulder a day or two and read a little of it and said, ‘Hmm, I think maybe I’d like to have a copy of that’? Well, you wouldn’t have done that, would you, but I bet he would have. Sure they did. Those guys were producing the Word of God!

*****

“II Timothy 3:15 says, [15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

“Notice Timothy had known from a child the Scriptures. Well, he didn’t have the originals; his mom and grandma had copies of the Word of God that were considered to be Scripture.

“Joshua 8:32 says, [32] And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.’

"Verse 35 says, [35] There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.

“You know what Joshua had? He had the complete Word of God. He had it all at that time. And he didn’t miss ONE word. Now, you need to think about that. When you hear somebody say, ‘Well, you know there are all these copyist errors.’ I know, but you know what God’s Word says? It says when Joshua got that copy, he didn’t miss ONE word that Moses wrote down originally.

*****

“Joshua 23:6 says, [6] Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left.

“Notice it’s the book. But how many books did Moses write? Five. It’s in five parts, but it’s one book. You’ve got one book in your lap today that’s in 66 parts. Same kind of testimony, just a few more pieces to it.

“Watch this kicker in Joshua 24:25-27: [25] So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
[26] And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
[27] And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.

“You see what Joshua does? He comes to the end and goes and writes all this stuff down and ADDS it to what Moses wrote! Now you’ve got the whole Pentateuch, or Torah, and they keep it in the ark over there, and now Joshua comes along and has a copy of it committed to him.

“Joshua stays with it faithfully all his life and at the end of his life, he writes down ANOTHER book that they add. The book Moses wrote didn’t just grow from what he wrote in his five parts, but it’s growing from what Joshua wrote. This Book is growing in its parts and in its size!

*****

I Samuel 10:25 says, [25] Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.

“You see how the book keeps growing? Samuel goes in and lays that thing right there with the originals. The Old Book just keeps going.

“II Chronicles 32:32 says, [32] Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

“If you go back and read the heading at the head of I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, you know what it says? ‘The first book of the kings. The second book of the kings. The third book of the kings. The fourth book of the kings.’

“That verse says Isaiah wrote some stuff about Hezekiah and evidently had a hand in writing and putting into the final form ‘the book of the kings.’ That writing would also cover the Book of Judges and Ruth.

“You know what’s happening? The ark’s getting full! The Book’s growing and it continues to grow. Daniel adds to it, Jeremiah adds to it, Isaiah adds to it and Ezra, ‘the ready scribe,’ works on the thing.

*****

“In Jeremiah 40 is one of those strange little passages that shows up in the Word of God that you just sort of say, ‘Wow, isn’t that interesting?’

“You know the story about Jeremiah and the Babylonian captivity. Nebuchadnezzar comes in and takes Israel away and Jeremiah’s the prophet of God, left in the land; ‘the weeping prophet.’

"He literally is under the protection of Nebby. He’s given free reign. He’d been warning Israel that the judgment’s coming. God said, ‘Pack up your bags, you’re going to be there 70 years.’ The fifth cycle of judgment was there and Jeremiah tells them, ‘You’re going off into captivity; the land’s going to enjoy her Sabbaths.’

“Jeremiah 40:1 says, [1] The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.

“Notice what this heathen Babylonian Gentile soldier says to the prophet in Israel. Verse 2 says, [2] And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, The LORD thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place.

“You know what he’s saying? He’s saying, ‘I know what’s happening.’ The Bible says in Leviticus 26 that, ‘When you don’t obey my covenant, then I’m going to put these curses on you, and if you don’t hearken to me, I’m going to put these more on you, and if you don’t hearken still, then I’m going to punish you seven times more and finally I’m going to take you out of the land and what’s going on with you today is just what the Bible said.’

“Now, there’s an old heathen Gentile soldier quoting the Scripture to Jerry. That means that heathen Gentile has done seen a Bible, folks, and has been sitting in a Bible class somewhere and figured out what’s going on.

“Don’t you let people tell you the Word of God wasn’t available. My point to you is, if that guy had the Word of God, don’t you think some of God’s people had it? You better believe it.

“The Bible was distributed so widely and that happens a lot. The wise men, the Magi, when they come to visit the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 2, those men came from Babylon, from the east, from that direction, and they saw His star and came to worship Him who was born king of the Jews.

"Where did they learn that information? Out of the books of Numbers, Isaiah, Amos, Micah. Those wise men had been studying the Bible.

“When you read over in Joshua about Rahab and she says, ‘You know, we heard about what God did when He brought you out of Egypt, but we’ve just been waiting up here for you to come; we know that your god’s THE God.’

“That little widow told Elijah, ‘Your god is the God of Gods.’ God had made His name great in what He had done. The problem was His people didn’t believe what He gave them.

“In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, here come the Gentiles to worship in Jerusalem Israel’s king, just like Isaiah 2 said they ought to do, and what happens? All of Jerusalem is troubled. They’re like, ‘Hummuhnuh, Hummuhnuh, what they talking about, a king?’ You see, the problem was with THEM.”