The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 210

I/O

HOLY SCRIPTURES

them now. but the Holy This

be recorded.

is

IN

NEW TESTAMENT

Spirit will declare

them unto you," must

the postulate of the whole matter.

dition of the churches, their long duration in the future,

world-wide extension demanded

And

show

The

con-

and their

it.

was made; but not immeSo long as the Church was confined to a small circle, and the remembrance of Christ remained fresh and powerful, the apostles' spoken word was sufficient. The decree of the Synod of Jerusalem was probably the first written document that proceeded from them. But when the churches began to extend across the sea to Corinth and Rome, and northward to Ephesus and Galatia, then Paul began to substitute written for verbal instructions. Gradually this epistolary labor was extended and Paul's example followed. Perhaps each wrote in turn. And to these epistles were added the narratives of the life, death, and Resurrection of Christ and the Acts of the Apostles. At last the King commanded John from heaven to write in a book the extraordinary revelation given him on Patmos. the facts

that the provision

diately.

The

result

was a gradually increasing number

of apostolic

and

non-apostolic writings, probably far exceeding that contained in

New

show that he wrote But even if he had not thus informed us, the fact would have been sufficiently well established; for it is improbable that such excellent writers as Paul and John should not have written more than a dozen letters during their long and eventful lives. Even in one year they must have written more than that The controversy of former days over the assertion that no apostolic writings could have been lost was most foolish, and showed little reckoning with real life. It is remarkable that from this great mass a small number of writings was gradually separated. A few were collected first, then more were added, and arranged in certain order. It took a long time before there was uniformity and agreement indeed, some writings were not universally recognized until after three centuries. But in spite of time and controversy, the sifting took place, and the result was, that the Church distinguished in this great mass of literature two distinct parts: on the one hand, this arranged set of twenty-seven books; and on the other, the remaining writings of the

Testament.

many more

than

At

we now

least Paul's epistles

possess.

;

early origin.

And when

the process of sifting and separating

was ended, and

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen