Ever felt that way? Everybody does, at times. Either we just don’t keep up with the nuts and bolts of our Christian knowledge and are sucker-punched by the devil so we don’t know where to turn, or we listen waaaay to much to the superstar religious guru of the day who knows all the answers and will reveal it to poor slobs like us.

Contrary to what people think, the Bible is clear and sufficient.

The Apostle John must have had some tense moments when he wrote his Gospel. Matthew, Mark and Luke had already “hit the bookstands” and his Gospel wasn’t anything like theirs. The Holy Spirit evidently decided telling the same story over three times was enough! There were other things Jesus did and said which should be recorded for future generations. So he led John to write a unique Gospel. John takes five entire chapters out of a 21 chapter book to tell of the events that took place during Jesus’ last night on earth. At the end of his Gospel he writes a defense of his work.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. John 21.25

Can’t write down everything! (Remember that—we’ll come back to it later.) Well, why did he write down what he did?

John wrote a second, earlier defense of his Gospel, a defense which tells us why he wrote his Gospel. It could just as well be the reason why the entire Bible was written.

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20.30-31

Just looking at John’s words, explain why some things are in the Bible and other items that we might really like to know about, aren’t!

Now discuss your answer in light of these burning issues.

• Extraterrestrial life

• Dinosaurs

• Lost Tribes of Israel

• Jesus’ boyhood

• Date of the Last Day

• Are there dogs in heaven?

But does the Bible talk Jesus? Explain Jesus’ view of it. He told the religious scholars of his day,

What connection do the following have to Jesus and the way to heaven?

Can you pick out the events in Jesus’ life these verses point to?

What connection to Jesus do stories like Daniel in the Lion’s Den and Joseph in Egypt have to do with Jesus?

Look at the following passages and put together a consistent teaching concerning the clarity of Scripture.

How clear is it?

Why do some people and groups think the Bible is not clear?

Interpret these passages and settle the religious controversies of years! (For extra credit can you tell which group doesn’t see these passages so clearly?)

Great! (You are soooo good!) Now explain these passages.

What’s the problem? You an unbeliever? (Before you let me condemn you, find comfort in these passages—and then give me a full answer.)

Now we get into a real issue. How do we know what God is telling us? His ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts! How can human language possibly be expressive enough to communicate heavenly truths to us? Evolved language cannot communicate heavenly truths.

Is the language of the Bible up to the task?

Before you react, look at these Scriptures.

Consider how effective the words of Scripture are in these two cases:

Remember John’s gripe—you couldn’t write down everything Jesus did? How do we know the Holy Spirit has written down enough? There are churches that believe the Holy Spirit has not written down enough, that there is either continuing revelation through a living prophet or that there is a treasure of the unwritten teachings of Jesus that the apostles passed on verbally and are still in that form in the church until they are officially brought out into the public in the written teachings of the church.

What is the “all things” Jesus is talking about and (thinking about what we’ve already covered) where do you expect to find these “all things?”

What was the role of apostle. How do you know they would write it down?

How would you feel about a church that says there are two streams of tradition, the written tradition of Jesus and the apostles, which we have in the New Testament, and the unwritten tradition of Jesus and the apostles, which is preserved in the church?

Consider the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16.19-31. What is the point of the parable?

When caught without an answer to the Lutheran Reformers, the Roman Catholic Church issued a series of decrees from its Council of Trent. A scholarly and thoroughly Biblical Lutheran, Martin Chemnitz (the old saying was, without the second Martin, the work of the first Martin would have been lost) responded to the Doctrines and Decrees of the Council of Trent. He absolutely and exhaustively tore apart Trent’s assertion that, yes, the written tradition is all sufficient for getting to heaven (as you Lutherans say), but it is not all sufficient for leading a moral life here on earth.

Can you paraphrase Trent’s position?

Now, in a lot less words than Martin Chemnitz, can you answer the Council of Trent on this point from the basis of the following Bible passage?

The Bible was written in three languages, Hebrew (most of the Old Testament), Aramaic (primarily portions of Ezra and Daniel) and Greek, the New Testament. In very different ways, these languages were well chosen.

Biblical Hebrew is classical Hebrew. The language of modern day Israel is literally resurrected Biblical Hebrew. The Hebrew language is not rich in vocabulary, it focuses on verbs (with most nouns being formed from the verbs) and has no written vowels! If English were written like Hebrew, “Lord” would look like LRD. Only by remembering what the unwritten vowels were and going by context could you know it was “Lord” instead of “lard” or “lurid.” This would be instrumental in the transmission of the text (we’ll cover that next week).

The beauty of Hebrew, however, was Hebrew poetry, the type of Hebrew most of the prophets wrote in. Hebrew poetry was not based on rhyme, but on repetition of thought in different words!

Here’s an examples:

Why would it be rather easy to figure out what the Hebrew poet was saying?

The Greek of the Bible is known as Koine (common) Greek. It was not the classical Greek of Sophocles and Socrates (the language that the comedy writer Aristophanes mocked as being indecipherable), but spoken Greek, the language of the common man. But what a language it was! It had seven tenses of the verb (we only have six), five different moods of the verb, all instantly recognizable by their various forms, and complete declensions for every noun! By putting it all together you knew exactly what it said! And, by the time of Christ, this was the world language. Greek had a rich vocabulary. For example, there were three words for “love.” (We’ve got only one!) If you wanted to clearly express yourself, the Greek language allowed you to express every nuance, emotion and tone. If Old Testament Hebrew was a sledgehammer, New Testament Greek was the modern symphony orchestra.

Next chapter: Is My B-I-B-L-E Reliable?

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