PAUL'S SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY

Refutation of Heretical Teachers (cont'd)

2 Timothy 3:14-17

TIMOTHY TO ABIDE IN THE WORD OF GOD (3:14-17)

This passage continues Paul's discussion of the heretical teachers and teachings afflicting the churches of Asia (southwestern Turkey). Up to this point Paul has been primarily describing the characteristics of the teachers and their teachings. Now he focuses on the primary way that Timothy is to respond to these false teachers.

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, (15) and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (16) All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Continue In The Things You Have Learned And In The Scripture (3:14-15)

Before looking at the word "continue," look at the 2 things Timothy is to continue in: (1) the things he has learned from trusted people in his life, and (2) God's Word. For Timothy specifically the 3 people he most likely learned from were Lois (his grandmother), Eunice (his mother), and Paul.

We all need to look at the people God has placed in our lives and see what He wants to teach us through them. Through some people we learn in a negative way, while through others we learn in a positive way. In the area of ministry the one I learned most from was the first pastor I worked under. He taught me (1) keep your nose clean, (2) work hard, and (3) always follow the Lord. Did I learn from him because he was my first pastor? Maybe so; yet when I look back at that time in my life I saw he had a healthy, growing church. Although he respected the committee system of the church, there was no doubt as to who the church's leader was. He continues to affect my life today because of the effective minister he was at that church.

Moreover, Timothy was to abide in the "sacred writings." By "sacred writings" Paul is undoubtedly referring to the OT since these were the only recognized "sacred writings" when Paul was writing 2 Timothy. What is interesting about Paul's comment is that he is claiming that the OT leads people to the salvation in Christ Jesus. One of the major goals of the early church was to show how the OT predicted the coming of Christ, His sufferings and death, His resurrection, and His reign from heaven. This is the reason the NT quotes the OT so many times.

Note though that the OT gives us the wisdom which leads to salvation in Christ Jesus. He didn't say the OT or the Bible saves us; salvation is only in Christ Jesus. We have to be careful in our handling of the Scriptures. We and fundamentalists have several things in common: we both believe that Scripture is God's Word and that Jesus saves us. The primary difference between us and fundamentalists is that they almost substitute the Bible for Jesus. The Bible is not Jesus. It is God's Word; however, it does not save us. It leads us to Jesus who saves us. Our faith is primarily a relationship, not a rigid interpretation of the Bible which leads to all kinds of rules and regulations. The Bible is not a rule book; it is a guide which leads us to Jesus.

Now look at the word "continue." How are we to continue in God's Word and in the things we have learned from others? First, we are to expose ourselves to God's Word with a sincere, open heart. That means spending time in God's Word--through Bible reading, individual and group Bible studies, Scripture memory, the preaching of God's Word. We need to be honest with ourselves whenever we encounter God's Word. If God is speaking to us, we need to acknowledge that, even when what He is saying makes us very uncomfortable. Next, we are to obey what God communicates to us. Finally, we are to continue to mull over in our hearts and minds the things God is speaking to us. We don't just hear it and walk away from it. Once God has spoken to us, we need to return to those words repeatedly until they have had their desired effects on our lives.

The Inspired Nature of Scripture (3:16-17)

Why should I abide in God's Word? Because it is inspired and profitable. By "inspired" Paul literally means "God-breathed." So many people get caught up in the precise way that God communicated His Word to people. Many claim that God had to dictate the Bible to people; otherwise, it could not legitimately be God's Word. Such people will have a hard time with Luke's claim that he had sources and conducted an investigation before he wrote his gospel (Luke 1:1-3); they will reduce words of the author of Hebrews who writes that God spoke to the prophets in "many portions and in many ways" (Heb. 1:1), not just the one way of dictation. Because the Bible is divine, we should not be surprised that we mere mortals don't understand all the ways God delivered His Word to us. The primary point is that we believe the Bible is God's Word.

Because the Bible is inspired by God, we believe the Bible to be inerrant, infallible, and authoritative. We believe it to be inerrant in the sense that it is free of errors, infallible in the sense that it never fails the believer, and authoritative in the sense that it has an indisputable claim on our lives and actions. Obeying the Scripture is not an option; it is mandatory.

Second, I should abide in God's Word because it is profitable. In other words, I get more out of the Bible than what I put into it. We can't say that of many things in life. How many of us feel like a whole evening is wasted after we have sat down to watch our favorite TV show? How many of us walk out of a movie theater in disgust because we wasted $6.50 on a crummy movie? How many of us spend so much time, effort, and money on a trip and at the end of the trip feel like we could have put our money, efforts, etc., elsewhere? That will never be said of the Bible. It is always profitable. (It only makes sense that it is profitable since it is God's Word.)

Scripture according to Paul is profitable "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness." The word translated "teaching" is literally the word for "doctrine." The context of this verse is that of confronting heresy and heretical teachers. These are attacking doctrine. Scripture gives the information we need for correct doctrine. When we stray from true doctrine, the Scripture reproves us, that is, it shows us where we erred. Third, it corrects us, that is, it puts us back on the right track for correct doctrine. Finally, it trains us in righteousness, especially in the path of right doctrine.

We don't have to limit this though to doctrine and responses to heresy. The Scripture profits us as we use it to teach us how to live God's life, to reprove us when we stray from God's life, to correct us as to how to return to God's life, and finally, to train us how to stay on the course of God's life.

The final result is that the man of God will be "adequate, equipped for every good work." This has behind it the idea of an athlete who must get in shape, that is, be fit for the race. Anybody can run out on the course and run a race; however, they'll be defeated and most likely even humiliated because they were not fit to run the race. Scripture though fits us for the race that Christ has set before us. We have no idea what the race holds for us; Christ does though and knows that His Scripture and our response to it are what prepare us for what lies ahead.

EVIDENCE FROM HISTORY THAT SCRIPTURE IS DIVINELY INSPIRED

It is a mighty claim that states that the Scripture is God's Word. Only at the end of time will this be "proven"; however, there is tremendous evidence at the present time which supports the claim that the Bible is God's Word. Even if we did not "hear" God speak to us through the Bible (which many atheists assert), the history of the Bible and how God has preserved it alone should be evidence enough that Scripture is God's Word. This history of the Bible is one of the most extraordinary tales in human history.

At the present time we have no less than 5000 manuscripts of the Greek NT in existence; most of these date from the first 200 years after the NT was written. This is phenomenal in the study of ancient texts. For example, as we shall see a little later, other ancient documents don't even begin to compare in this area. In fact we have one fragment from the Gospel of John which was copied in approximately 130 AD, 40 years after the composition of the book! Moreover, the story of the preservation of the manuscripts of the Greek NT shows that only by a miracle could the NT have been preserved.

With regards to the Hebrew OT, evidence in support of this claim is overwhelming. Until 1947 people claimed you could not really trust the Hebrew OT because the earliest copy of the Hebrew OT at that time dated from around 1000 AD, at least 1400 years AFTER the last book of the OT was written. Because of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, we now have copies of the Hebrew OT dating from 100 BC-100 AD, approximately 300 years after the last OT book was written (Malachi). The discovery of these in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd boy puts us back to 100 AD at the latest. What's even more phenomenal is that those who copied the OT books from generation to generation made so few errors in translating them that for all practical purposes the copies of the Hebrew OT from 1000 AD match perfectly those copies from 100 BC.

Below is a table which compares some of the most important documents from the ancient world with the Greek NT. Notice how late the copies of these other texts are and how few of them are in existence. Compare them with both the number of existing copies of the Greek NT and the early date of these copies.

Name of Author/Book	Date Originally Written	Earliest Known Copy	Time Span
Caesar's Gallic Wars	50-58 BC	900 AD	950 years
Works of Plato	~360 BC	900 AD	~1260 years
Works of Aristotle	~350 BC	1100 AD	~1450 years
Suetonius and the Lives of the Caesars	150 AD	950 AD	800 years
Plays of Sophocles	~420 BC	1000 AD	~1420 years
Euripides	~430 BC	1100 AD	~1530 years
HEBREW OT	1400-400 BC	100 BC-100 AD	THREE HUNDRED YEARS
GREEK NEW TESTAMENT	45-97 AD	130 AD	~FORTY YEARS

It is ironic that people who will accept without question Caesar's Gallic Wars will turn right around and say that the NT is substantially flawed. Sir Frederic Kenyon, former Director of the British Museum, claimed that the span between the writing of the NT and the existence of the earliest copies of the NT is so negligible that we can confidently claim that the NT has come down to us as it was originally written. In other words, we have the NT as it was originally written by the apostles and their associates. (See Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict, 40-41.)

Attempts to Destroy the Bible By Means of Physical Persecution

Diocletian

Since the earliest days of Christianity, Satan has attempted to suppress Scripture by various forms of persecution. The reason he has tried to suppress Scripture is that it is so foundational for Christianity. Although we worship God and not the Bible, our primary and preeminent knowledge of God comes from the Bible. Diocletian, Roman emperor from the latter part of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century AD, attempted to use the state religion as a unifying element. Encouraged by the Caesar Galerius, Diocletian in 303 issued a series of four increasingly harsh decrees designed to compel Christians to take part in the imperial cult, the traditional means by which allegiance was pledged to the empire. This began the so-called "Great Persecution." One of the primary goals of the Great Persecution was to destroy Scripture since he understood that Scriptures were foundational for Christian belief. In 303 AD Caesar Diocletian issued an edict to stop Christian worship and to destroy the Scriptures. An imperial letter was sent everywhere ordering the razing of churches to the ground and the destruction by fire of the Scripture.

Although the situation looked really bleak for the nascient church, Scripture survived. It is a stroke of divine irony that 25 years after this edict the new Caesar Constantine ordered 50 copies of the Scriptures to be prepared at the expense of the government, an incredible number for that day and age. Instead of persecuting the Scripture, the government was now publishing it. One of these copies 1500 years later made a dramatic impact upon our modern-day Bibles.

John Wycliffe

A second wave of physical persecution came at the hands of the church. John Wycliffe, a professor at Oxford University in the 14th century, reasoned that if the people in England were to know the truth, then they must have the Word of God in their own language. Under his direction, the Bible was translated into English for the first time. The job was not completed by his associates until 1395, eleven years after his death. Repeatedly condemned and burned by church authorities, copies of Wycliffe's Bible continued in use for over a century, until printed Bibles took their place.

Wycliffe died of his stroke on the last day of the year (Dec. 31, 1384). The religious authorities had never excommunicated John because they feared public opinion--the people loved John and his fame was international. So he was buried in consecrated soil. Thirty years later though the Council of Constance revenged itself on his criticism by condemning his teachings and ordering his bones to be dug up and burned.

The burning of Wycliffe's bones though could not end his influence. As John Foxe said in his book of martyrs, "Though they digged up his body, burnt his bones, and drowned his ashes, yet the Word of God and the truth of his doctrine, with the fruit and success thereof, they could not burn; which yet to this day...doth remain." (See www.gospelcom.net/chi/DAILYF/2003/12/daily-12-30-2003.shtml.)

The work of Wycliffe greatly influenced William Tyndale who made the first printed translation of the New Testament in English. With the creation of the printing press by Gutenburg, it was impossible to suppress the translated Word. It is only fitting that the world's most prestigeous missionary force in the area of translating Scripture is called Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Attempts to Destroy the Bible By Means of Intellectual Persecution

Voltaire

When attempts to suppress the Scriptures by means of physical persecution failed, attempts at suppressing the Bible now hinged upon intellectual attacks against the Bible. The Age of Enlightenment saw some of the most vicious attacks ever against the Bible. Voltaire, noted French atheist, author, humanist, rationalist (1694 - 1778), held up a copy of the Bible in the air and smugly proclaimed, "In 100 years this book will be forgotten and eliminated...". (See www.bible.ca/indexBible.htm.)

The 1700's-1800's

Albert Schweizer's magnum opus Quest for the Historical Jesus details continental scholarship of the 18th and 19th centuries and its withering attacks on Scripture. For example, these claimed that Jesus faked the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. His disciples were actually in a cave behind Him handing out loaves of bread which Jesus claimed He had miraculously multiplied.

F.C. Baur and Radical German Theologians

F. C. Baur--radical NT scholar of the early 1800's and leader of the school of theology at the University of Tuebingen--tried to undermine the authority of the NT by claiming it was not written until the late 2nd century, a full 150 years after the events recorded in the NT occurred. He claimed that since this was "true," you could not accept the NT as an historical document. His attacks had a withering effect upon the continental churches. His movement was so damaging in undermining the Bible that Karl Barth, a young Swiss pastor, was so shaken in his confidence in the Bible that he claimed he had no longer had any message to preach. This was a positive turning point in the history of Christian theology in the 20th century. Within 30 years he had become a true modern Father of the Christian Church.

Now For The Rest of the Story!

Voltaire had claimed that the Bible would be extinct within 100 years of his death; however, fifty years after the death of Voltaire, the Geneva Bible Society used his own house as their publishing headquarters in Paris, France to produce Bibles. Another stroke of divine irony.

Baur had undermined the credibility of the NT by claiming it was written in the late 2nd century; however, at the beginning of the 20th century was discovered in Egypt a fragment of papyrus now known as the John Rylands papyrus fragment (p52), containing John 8:31-33,37-38, now in Manchester, at the John Rylands University Library. After being tested, it was discovered to have been written around 130 AD. If this manuscript was copied in 130 AD, then the original from Ephesus had to have been written approximately 40 years earlier in order to give the manuscript time to be accepted and circulated among the churches. This places the composition of the Gospel of John, one of the last books of the NT written, at around 90 AD. This places the rest of the NT before 90 AD, well within the life span of those who were either apostles or heard the apostles preach. (See www.rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/fragment.htm.)

One story in particular shows us the great care God took in perserving His Bible. "In 1844, the German scholar Constantine Tischendorf was touring the East in search of old manuscripts, that is, documents written by hand. In the library of the monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai he noticed a basket filled with pages of an old manuscript. Tischendorf was shocked! This was the oldest Greek writing this seasoned scholar had ever seen, and the pages were from the Greek Old Testament. Taking 43 pages out of the basket, Tischendorf asked the librarian about them. To his horror he learned the pages had been placed in the trash basket for fuel, and two basket loads of such papers had already been burned! Though the monks admitted there were more pages of the manuscript, Tischendorf's enthusiasm made them wary, and they would not show him any more. They did allow Tischendorf to take the 43 pages he had rescued with him, however, and Tischendorf urged the monks to use something else in their fires!" The question was whether or not they would burn them all before he could rescue them.

"In 1853 [nine years later] Tischendorf returned to the monastery, but the monks would not show him the remainder of the manuscript. Six years later, Tischendorf again returned to the Sinai monastery, this time under the patronage of the Russian Tsar Alexander II, patron of the Greek Orthodox Church. On this visit, a monk took Tischendorf to his room and pulled down a cloth-wrapped manuscript which had been stored with some cups and dishes on a shelf above the door. Tischendorf immediately recognized the pages as the remainder of the book whose pages he had rescued from the trash pile. He suggested the monastery present the manuscript to the tsar of Russia as protector of the Greek church, which they agreed to do. When the communists took over the Russian government, they had little use for such a Christian manuscript, so in 1933 the Soviet Union sold the manuscript to the British Museum for £100,000 [in today's currency well worth over millions of dollars]."

The manuscript became known as the Codex Sinaiticus (because it was found at Sinai), and it is one of the most important early manuscripts of the Bible. Dating from about the middle of the fourth century, Sinaiticus is one of the earliest complete manuscripts of the New Testament we have. Some have even speculated this might be one of the fifty Bibles the Emperor Constantine commissioned Eusebius to prepare after he had made Christianity a legal religion in the Roman Empire. In spite of Voltaire's boastings and Baur's attacks, within 100 years after Voltaire's death, the NT remained the most important book in history.

Archaeology

Another approach used to discredit the Bible involved archaeology. In the early part of the 20th century Kathleen Kenyon, noted archaeologist and atheist, who was blatantly hostile to the Bible, attempted to prove by means of archaeology that the Bible was full of inaccuracies and errors. One of the simplest "myths" to expose in the Bible would be the collapse of the walls at Jericho as recorded in Joshua. She goes to excavate Jericho and to her horror discovers that although there is evidence of walls in the periods leading up to the time of Joshua and after the time of Joshua, there is no evidence of a wall during the time of Joshua. Why are there no walls around this city when at every other period in her history Jericho had walls? The conclusion was inescapable. She left Jericho in denial and disgust.

Another classic example of archaeology dispelling the myths of skeptics involved Pontius Pilate. For the longest the only mention of Pontius Pilate in history was in the NT. Well, the skeptics were sure that he had to be fictional because Roman records would have certainly documented this most important official in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. His not being mentioned was proof the NT Gospels were bogus--until a large stone bearing an inscription with his name on it appeared during the excavation of Caesarea. Sometimes it seems like God is just waiting for people to make outrageous claims against the Bible before He unearths evidence to counter their claims.

Now that archaeology has had a chance to disprove biblical claims, William Albright, known as one of the foremost biblical archaeologists of the 20th century, states, "There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of the Old Testament tradition." Nelson Glueck writes, "No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference." Archaeology cannot "prove" the Bible to be true; it can only "disprove" it--something it has never been able to do. (For more on this, see www.allaboutfamilies.org/sh/percep200222.html.)

Though physically persecuted and intellectually ridiculed, the Bible remains the most influential book and the number seller throughout the world. "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of God abides forever" (1 Pet. 1:24-25).