Bible Lesson/En Topic: Bible in its Entirity. on Helsinki RY 10.08.2024 18.07

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, for the beginning of this Bible hour, we quieten in a prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, give us love towards your Holy Word, so that we would listen to it with pleasure, and that we would also read it, read your Word. You have given your Word to us, to be a comfort, and a teaching, and advice. Protect us in your kingdom, as your children.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

So today, we have a Bible class, or a Bible hour. And the topic is the Bible in its entirety. So this is a very broad topic. And we could find many ways to deal with it, to talk about the Bible as a whole. I have gathered some thoughts for this hour. Briefly, to define what the Bible is, as the source of the Word. Then about God's revelation. And then how to interpret this whole. Then I have a list of the books of the Old and the New Testament. Then I have a mention of the apocryphal books of the Bible. And then what was the Bible of Jesus' time. And then we have both the authority of the Bible. And then the effect of the Word of God. And about reading of God's Word.

So before I start going through this, I would like to advertise this app called Harken. Cool and finish. There are very good books. There are books there where this theme is opened up. Where the Bible is explained. One book is called Keys to the Books of the Bible, which is put together by Arbeca Paulola. Then we have a book that is related to the teachings of Luther, called I Will Not Give Up the Bible. Then we have a book by an old minister Mati Suwa. And the very first chapter in that book talks about the Word of God. How the written Word of God is alive and powerful. It's a living Word. And powerful.

Now we could move on to the second slide here. And the name of a Bible. The word Bible Ramata in Finnish comes from Greek language word Gramata which meant letters initially and also scriptures later on. And this word moved into the Estonian language and then into Finnish language. And in Estonia they have a similar word Ramata which in general means any book means a book. But in Finnish the expression Buhar Ramata which means the Holy Bible means that in our Finnish language we only mean the Bible with this word and we don't refer to any book with this word.

So about the revelation of God so God's special revelation can be found in the Bible. This special revelation no longer continues it has ended there will be no new revelation and the word of God will hold until the end of the world. Even if we didn't have a written Bible the word of God will remain unchanged until the end of the world. Peter writes in the second in his second letter for no prophecy ever came by the will of man but men spake from God being moved by the Holy Spirit.

So therefore the Holy Bible is the word of God written by the saints of God the holy men of God affected by the Holy Spirit. It is not a study book of any discipline but it is a study book of faith for us and from that perspective we should always be reading it and studying it.

Then we talk about the interpretation of the Bible. Peter still in the second letter speaks about the Holy Spirit and how it is the Holy Spirit who opens up the Bible the word of the Bible he says knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation meaning that we cannot open up the word of the Bible with our human understanding we need the Spirit of God to do that.

When we study the Bible and when we study the Old Testament we talk about the Christ there and it is important that also when reading this Old Testament there are people who have thought that it is something that is already gone that it has no significance anymore but when we remember this that when Jesus spoke he often referred to the scriptures we will get back to this again later on and Luther says that in the Old Testament we should look for Christ he speaks of the clothes that the baby has or the cloth that a baby is wrapped in that Christ is there in the Old Testament like that and there's a book written with this title written about these explanations by Luther that he has done when studying the Bible this might not be found at this Harken app but you can find the book at the bookstore or many of you may have it at home.

So when Jesus spoke to his own people he referred to the scriptures. In Luke we find the following words in chapter 24 and he said unto them these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and he said unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

So when we teach about the Bible and study the Bible it is a central principle that it is the Holy Spirit that opens up this word to us this word that has been written before our time.

Still to these passages in the New Testament which refer to the Old Testament we can find references from every author of every gospel Jesus refers to the scriptures or says as it has been written. In John's fifth chapter we will find the words by Jesus for had he believed Moses he would have believed me for he wrote of me but if he believed not his writings how shall he believe my words.

Jesus speaks of Moses says that also Moses talked about him Christ the Savior already in the first book of Moses we have the gospel that was proclaimed to the sinful people the first human couple this promise of a seed of the wife the promise of Jesus Christ.

Then a little bit about the birth of the books of the Bible. During the times of the Old Testament the revelation of God was first preserved as verbal information which went from generation to generation. There's some text in the Psalms that exhorts people to speak of God's issues or works of God to one's children so that they would then later teach their children.

Then later the revelations of God started to be transferred into a written format onto parchment this kind of thin leather onto which they wrote back in the day and researchers have studied that the books of the Old Testament have likely been written 800 to 160 years before the birth of Christ. We find different estimates from different sources and it's not relevant when these books have been written exactly but the oldest books are indeed very old and the book collection of the Old Testament reached its final form roughly on the year 100 so 100 years after the birth of Christ.

So the books had been written before Christ was born but those books that were actually included in the canon of the Old Testament those were selected during the time after Christ so roughly 100 years after the birth of Christ we will come back to this point later and the books of the New Testament that have been written by the end of the first century after the birth of Christ the youngest writings are letters of John and the book of Revelations those are the youngest books that have been found.

Accepting the books of the New Testament was a process that had many phases so the storyline the line of books that was included in the Old Testament was accepted roughly on year 100 and then the New Testament list of books referential list of books was first defined by someone called Athanasius who was the Bishop of Alexandria roughly on year 367 after the birth of Christ and this was then accepted on the third meeting so third synod accepted this list on year 367.

The book list of the Old Testament is the same as what the Jews Jewish people use as their writings of the Old Testament but in our Old Testament these books are in a different order and it looks like the books of the Bible are grouped in different ways. The main way to do this is that we have the Old Testament and the New Testament so those are the main groupings but then we have these books of the Old Testament under different headings not sure if you can see the ones we're showing here but one category is the law the books of law which are the five books of Moses which we call the Pentateuch but then we have the history books the books of historical books and then the poetry and wisdom books and then we have the major and minor prophets.

Then we have four gospel books four gospels then we have the Acts of the Apostles then we have the Epistles a large group of letters by Paul a letter to the Hebrews Jacob's letter Peter's letters two of them and three letters by John a letter by Judas and then we have the book of Revelation these are in the Epistles which mean letters or letter.

Then we have books that have not been accepted into the formal Bible the apocryphal books they have not been included in the Old Testament but these books are considered to be valuable yet they were not included they were not considered to be equally important as the ones that were accepted into the Bible so these apocryphal books are in our Old Bible but not in our 1938 or 1992 Bibles books.

I listed now most of these books these lists you can find in the first pages of the Bible from the beginning of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament and many of you have probably studied the names of these books at your confirmation camp school I remember one of such lists as I had to study when going to my confirmation camp.

But the books of Moses the first books of Moses the five of them are in Finn called the books of law we cannot go too deeply into what these books contain that could be the topic of the next Bible hour that we have here we could study the contents of these different categories one of the books that I mentioned does that describes each of these books briefly.

So in the Old Testament after the first five books of Moses we get the history books and when we split the Bible in this way poetry and we get the poetry and wisdom books Job and Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon and then we get the major prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and Lamentations and then minor prophets Isaiah Joel Amos Abadiah Jonah Mekah Nahum Habakkuk and so forth.

And in the New Testament we have Matthew Mark Luke and John and then we get the acts of the apostles written by apostle Luke and we get Paul's letters to the Romans to Rome to all these different different places Romans Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians two letters then we get Timothy 1-2 then we get Titus then Philemon and Hebrews then we get James.

So there's a bit of a poem in Finnish or kind of a rhyme that people can memorize to remember the order of these epistles in the New Testament.

So then we have two letters by Peter then we get three letters by John and then Jude's letter and then the book of Revelations.

And when we think of the Bible of Jesus time it was it consisted of the books of the Old Testament these books of the New Testament did not exist because the New Testament talks speaks of Jesus himself about the life of Jesus his teachings and his life.

So Jesus referred to the scriptures and what had been written before he refers to Moses the prophets to Psalms we can look one up in Isaiah 53 that speaks of the suffering servant of the Lord which is Jesus.

So we have an idea of which parts of the Old Testament speak of Jesus there are many portions for example when Philip went to speak to speak to the servant of some king the servant was studying one book of the Old Testament and Philip started to preach the gospel about Jesus Christ based on that book of the Old Testament was it the book of Isaiah that he was reading.

So during the time of Jesus the text were written on on this parchment or old paper kind material.

About the authority of the Bible so during the reformation two principles emerged one had to do with the content principle of content so a person can become righteous solely through faith through grace and through the merit work of Christ that's the content and form the principle of form states that the highest authority of a the life of a Christian is the Bible so all other books are subjected to the word of the Bible.

So in Luther's catechism the role of the Bible is highlighted as the highest authority in Christian doctrine and confession so the doctrine and faith matters have to be evaluated against the teachings of the Bible the books of confessions themselves are not authorities but they are subjected to the word second basically in hierarchy to the underneath the Bible.

So all the doctrine at our church have to be evaluated according to the holy word of God so as the congregation of God and as individual children of God this is what we do.

The word of God is precious to us it is the most invaluable gift to all of us most invaluable treasure.

About the effect of the word of God and its meaning sometime people have had the thought that the written word no longer would be effective or living but the written word is living when it's read but we do not reach righteousness by reading.

So in the book by Mati Suo which I mentioned in the beginning this minister Suo speaks about the written word of God he says that when Paul writes that the letter makes one dead he does not refer to the written word in the Bible but he refers to the law that the letter the letter is not dead but the letter has the scripture has a deadly force deadly effect and Paul refers to the law of ten commandments which has the duty to point to an unbelieving person that such a person is dead in a dead state in their soul.

So the word makes one understand this and this written word it is living it is powerful and as such in its written form it can awaken the conscience of an unbelieving person it can awaken this emergency feeling of sin it awakens the need to seek for forgiveness and God hears the prayers of a person who is in distress and God brings righteousness to a person through faith.

In the letter to the Romans we can read that faith comes from hearing and hearing comes through the word of God and in the tenth chapter of the letter to the Romans for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher.

After this Paul ends up with these words that faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of God.

We have one God who is Father Son and the Holy Ghost.

By reading the word of God reading the word of God is a topic that I don't have a specific slide on here to show but Paul exhorted Timothy to read the holy scriptures to the congregation study and teach diligently until I come and he states this about Timothy that Timothy is thanks.

Okay I could not find that portion to Romans Paul writes all these things that the Holy Scriptures contain have been written for as teachings to us so that we would receive comfort and hope from it and Luther comments this part this text as follows notice which book the Apostle designates for Christians to study and understand it is the Holy Bible in itself let our doctrine be there then if therefore our doctrine is from the Bible we should not seek for it from elsewhere but all Christians should every day use this book.

Additionally he shows what kind of fruit will be born by reading this kind of a book that we would have patience and through the comfort from reading the Bible we would have souls would not be would not be possible to comfort a soul with anything less but by letting a person hear the word of God.

The Bible is a book of consolation which can support a person's soul book of hope the Son of God is the central part of this book and this shows to us where our righteousness is it is in the work of reconciliation by the Son of God who has suffered and died on our behalf has resurrected to make give us righteousness and due to this work of reconciliation by the Son of God we have the forgiveness of sins.

And at the end of this Bible hour every listener every child of God can uplift their heart to believe this forgiveness this gospel of forgiveness believe sins forgiven in Jesus name and holy atonement blood this blood has been shed on our behalf to forgive our sins.

Wonder if we have one more slide here you can see on the slide those books that I would recommend to read and listen many of these can be listened in the Gula or Harken app the Bible as well we have all kinds of things to listen to in our time it would be so important that these other things would not displace the word of God that they would not displace the reading and listening to the word of God.

We shall quieten in the Lord's benediction the Lord blesses and keep us the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us the Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen.

Father Mary will get guys off theon