How did they do it? |
|
"What? Trying to spread the gospel message without quoting from the New Testament? Impossible!" That may be your first reaction, but just think about it. Scholars tell us that the first New Testament book, either Galatians or First Thessalonians, was written in about A.D. 50, nearly 20 The New Testament as a unit was probably unavailable until the mid-second century. And yet Christianity experienced some of its most dynamic growth during this period when its Bible consisted only of the Old Testament. How did those earliest Christians do it? The Book of Acts is clear: The apostles said, "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (4:20). It wasn't long before they were told, "you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching" (5:28). The early Christians "preached the word wherever they went" (8:4). They were convinced that "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17). What is this "word of Christ"? At the time Paul wrote Romans it could not have been the written Word, because such did not exist. It had to be the spoken Word, translated to each human heart through the life-experience of a living, breathing Christian. It is this oral Word of God that we must restore to modern Christianity. Not that we should throw away our New Testaments--far from it! Let's read more and feed more. But let's also seed more and lead more. Speaking for Jesus in our world, to our FRAN (Friends, Relatives, Acquaintances, and Neighbors) is the key to a revival of dynamic evangelism. Let's commit ourselves to sow, sow, sow; that God may bless, bless, bless; and then let's reap, reap, reap. |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?The Greek noun logos ("word"), famous as a title of Jesus in the writings of the Apostle John (see John 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13), can also refer to the written word of God (Matt. 15:6; Mark 7:13; John 10:25; 15:25). Much more often, however, it refers to the spoken message of the gospel, even when the phrase is "word of God" (e.g., Luke 8:11; Acts 6:2, 7; 8:14; etc.) or "word of the Lord" (e.g., Acts 8:25; 13:44, 49; etc.). This means that the textual variation in Rom. 10:17 between "word of Christ" and "word of God" does not matter as far as whether the verse is talking about an oral or written message. The entire context, such as mentioning the feet of the one sharing the good news (v. 15) confirms that the verse is talking about a spoken message, not a written one. Look for such contextual indicators whenever "the word" comes up in the biblical text. Besides the Scriptures, it sometimes means "news," and sometimes the "message."
Herman Ridderbos. Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures (1988). Dr. Ridderbos stresses that the foundation for the canon lies in the history of redemption itself, wherein Christ gave distinctive authority to His apostles. On that basis Ridderbos examines the authority of the New Testament as it is chacterized in the content of the text itself, in terms of the redemptive-historical categories of kerygma (proclamation), marturia (witness), and didache (doctrine). Recommended for online reading: Peter Lorimer. Page 140 from Lecture 4 in Strivings for the Faith (1880). |
| Return to DeeperStudy Home Page |
years after that glorious Pentecost when Christ crucified was first proclaimed as the only possible remedy for sinners. The last New Testament books, probably the letters of John or Revelation, were likely written in the 90's, close to three generations after the Resurrection.