Rom 3:1-2 KJV
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of
circumcision? (2) Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them
were committed the oracles of God.
Biblical Israel was entrusted with the spoken
words of God. This verse does not distinguish between the inspired accuracy of
the original writers and the inspired accuracy of later copyists and editors.
The calling of God includes the effectual special spiritual capacity to fulfill
that calling according to His purpose. And His purpose is that the posterity of
Israel would have His original spoken words intact. And that we Gentiles, like
the Syrophenician woman of Mark 7.26, might have the crumbs that fell from the
table and the food that the children rejected.
Exo 19:8 KJV
And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath
spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
Originally all Israel pledged to do all that
their God, Jehovah would directly tell them to do.
(Those words later spoken directly to Israel at
Sinai have a special character in explicitly defining sin to Israel as did the
spoken instruction to Adam. See Rom 5.13-14, Luke 18.20.)
Exo 20:19 KJV
And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let
not God speak with us, lest we die.
Israel
was terrified by the direct hearing of the word of God. So the covenant was
modified so that the spoken word would come by way of mediators, first Moses
and then the prophets and writers of the Old Testament.
Deu 29:14-15 KJV Neither with you only do I make this covenant
and this oath; (15) But with him that standeth here with us this
day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this
day:
The
covenant was made equally with those at Sinai and with their descendants. Equal
accuracy of the words is maintained by precise, inerrant, inspired writing,
copying and editing.
Eph 4:11 KJV
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists;
and some, pastors and teachers;
Those
special spiritual offices established at the beginning of the Assembly also provided
inspired writing under the law. At the beginning there were no Gentiles.
Inspired copying and editing were also provided as long as there was valid living
testimony under the law. That is, as long as there were members of the faithful
remnant, those begotten again under the law (John 3.3), who had not yet become
members of the Body of Christ (Rom 12.1).
1Co 9:20-21 KJV
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them
that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under
the law; (21) To them that are without law, as without law,
(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain
them that are without law.
Paul
here affirms the transitional nature of the first forty years of the Assembly.
There were two groups of saved persons, the true Israel and the true Assembly. There
is also a parallel with the first forty years of Israel under Moses (1Cor
10.1-6). The first forty years in each case are markedly different than the
later history.
Luk 16:31 KJV
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
A
great task of the apostles, particularly John, was to tell those who believed
Moses that they should accept the better covenant. When all these had been
brought in, this task of the apostles, under the law, would be complete.
Rev 6:8 KJV
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was
Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the
fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death,
and with the beasts of the earth.
This
vision may well represent the spiritual extinction of Israel between the time
of the apostles and the future removal of the Assembly from the earth.
From
religious history we know that the only branch of first century Judaism that
lasted beyond 200 ad is Christianity. The work of the great rabbi, Akiba, at
about that time, and his successors, documents the radical change in the
religion of those calling themselves Jews.
Eze 37:10 KJV
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
This vision represents the spiritual revivification
of Israel at the beginning of the Tribulation.
During the period in which Isael is spiritually
dead the special spiritual inspiration of writing, copying, and editing is ceased.
It is part of the covenant with a spiritually living Israel, and that life and
that covenant are suspended.
It is Providence working through natural means
that has kept Scripture from significant error during this time.
The availability of the complete written
revelation and the spirit of the life that is in Christ Jesus nullify the
effects of these minor errors and ambiguities.
I2C 141013aa Rom3v1to2 Inspiration of Bible | I2C | 141013 1521 |
