Participation In A Traditional Church May Save Your Life

2 Thessalonians 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

The people this verse was written to had just been reminded of the saving plan and labor of God who had, by His Gospel work, secured their place in the everlasting glory to come. But those verses were nested in foreboding darkness... the darkness of the end-times. What will keep that end-time generation anchored in light through those dark times? Paul says it is the truth they have been taught and have believed. Paul called this saving light “the traditions”. The word tradition literally means “the content of instruction that has been handed down.” BDAG

Paul knew the importance of each generation holding to the truth of God’s Word. All it takes is the defection of one generation for the comfort of truth gained by faithful Christians to be lost, and generations can then be left with no light for their path… even when the darkness of the end-time apostasy comes.

A church should work hard at building an enduring tradition of truth which can be handed down from generation to generation. Noah consistently labored over decades to build an ark that would carry his family through dark days of judgment. A traditional church is constantly building an ark of truth for each successive generation.

A traditional church is easily recognized. I'm not talking about architecture, music, or whether they sit on pews or chairs. A traditional church is one where the Bible is actually taught, whether the people sit on pews, floors, or on rough wooden planks, or use 50 gallon drums to keep rhythm as they sing. A solid tradition of opening the words of the Book is the norm not the exception. In each worship service and class the real meaning of the verses in the Bible is the focus, not the traditions of men about those verses, or religious rituals. There can be no greater legacy than Truth. And those who find themselves in the darkness will see this beacon of light as their family's ark of safety.

The generation who will be here to endure the end-time apostasy, and the worldwide judgment mentioned by the Apostle Paul, must follow Paul’s admonition in this verse. They must “stand fast” and “hold” to the Word of God. This must be their demand: give us the Scriptures, for in them we have eternal life and enduring strength. That generation will be standing on the shoulders of generations before who also faithfully held to “the traditions”. A church which stands on “the traditions” is a church built on solid ground.

How Did The Wise Men Know What The Star Meant? The Answer Is Really Interesting...

Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

Have you ever wondered who those wise men were? How did they know about Jesus' birth? How did they know what the star meant? Well… the answers are pretty interesting.

The words “wise men” are translated from the word “magi” or, in this instance, “magoi”. This word and other evidence helps us locate their home country. Magi is an old Persian/Babylonian word (Thayer, BDAG). So since this region was east of Israel, and these men were called magi “from the east”, and Persia/Babylon had a long history with Israel, we can be fairly certain they were from the region now called Iraq and Iran.

The Background: Babylon was the country that defeated Judah in war and then took the defeated Jews back to Babylon as captives. Babylon later became part of the Persian empire. The captives carried their Bibles with them, and some of them became great men in the Babylonian government. The Jewish prophet Daniel, for instance, was powerful and famous while in captivity. He was one of the “wise men” of Babylon and was appointed the chief magistrate over all the wise men. Daniel 2:13; 2:48 Later the Persian king Cyrus gave the captive Jews liberty to return to Judah. Ezra 1:1-3

The prophecy of the star at the birth of Jesus is found in Numbers 24:17. The wise men who were looking for Jesus knew about this prophecy, so it is obvious that the Jewish Bible was kept by the wise men of this region after the Jews returned to Palestine. In their libraries the wise men would have had access to the works of the great Jewish wise man Daniel who prophesied of the coming Messiah, and other Jewish Holy Books. So the wise men looked for the new born King of Israel because they read it in the scriptures.

It was through the ministry of Daniel, and other captive Jewish scribes, that the well-educated scribe Ezra had the complete (up to that point in history) preserved Bible when he returned to Jerusalem with the other freed captives. Ezra 7:6, 10, 11, 12, 25, Nehemiah 8:1-8 Ezra had the Scriptures, so did the wise men, and so do we.

The presence of the wise men after the birth of Jesus supports the truth that the Book of Numbers predates the Babylonian captivity. This was a problem for modern skeptics who believed Numbers was written after the captivity. Other skeptics guessed that Daniel and the other Jewish scribes wrote the Book of Numbers, and the rest of the Old Testament, while in captivity to bolster the Jewish claim to Palestine. Then in 1979 a silver amulet was found in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem with Numbers 6:24-26 etched into the silver. This amulet predated the Babylonian captivity, and is clear extra-Biblical evidence that the Old Testament book of Numbers existed before the captivity... so there is now even more evidence that the Jews took the scriptures into captivity which centuries later led the wise men to Jesus.

The wise men searched for this new King because they believed the Bible, and their faith guided them to Jesus... the Bible will do the same today for those who follow the light of that prophetic star.

Jesus' Birth Was Prophesied In Books Of The Bible Hundreds Of Years Before His Birth

Here are a few of the Old Testament prophesies concerning Jesus' birth. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain manuscripts of the Old Testament dating from 300 BC to 70AD. I have noted whether any part of the book containing a prophecy is in the Dead Sea Scroll collection and what the estimated date is of the manuscript(s). There is no evidence that the residents of Qumran, the closest community to the location of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ever came into contact with Jesus. 

1. The time period of His birth:

Prophesied: Daniel 9:25

Fulfilled: Luke 2:22

There are 8 Daniel manuscripts in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). The oldest is dated before 150 BC.

2. The city of His birth:

Prophesied: Micah 5:2

Fulfilled: Luke 2:4-7

There are 2 Micah manuscripts in the DSS. The oldest is dated in the 3rd century BC.

3. That His mother would be a virgin:

Prophesied: Isaiah 7:14

Fulfilled: Matthew 1:18

There are 22 Isaiah manuscripts in the DSS. The Great Scroll is a complete copy of the book and has been dated to around 100BC.

4. That He and His family would escape to Egypt.

Prophesied: Hosea 11:1

Fulfilled: Matthew 2:13-15

There are 3 manuscripts of Hosea, 2 commentaries, in the DSS. These are dated between 100 and 75BC.

5. That the innocents would be slaughtered:

Prophesied: Jeremiah 31:15

Fulfilled: Matthew 2:16

There are 6 manuscripts of Jeremiah in the DSS dated around 200 BC.

6. He is the Son of God:

Prophesied: Psalm 2:7

Fulfilled: Luke 3:22 (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11)

There are 39 manuscripts of the Psalms dated between 200-100BC.

7. He will be called Lord:

Prophesied: Psalm 110:1

Fulfilled: Luke 2:11

There are 39 manuscripts of the Psalms dated between 200-100BC.

8. That He would be a member of the tribe of Judah:

Prophesied: Micah 5:2

Fulfilled: Luke 3:33

There are 2 Micah manuscripts in the DSS. The oldest is dated in the 3rd century BC.

9. A descendant of Abraham:

Prophesied: Genesis 22:18

Fulfilled: Matthew 1:1

There are 24 Genesis manuscripts in the DSS ranging from 200-1BC.

10. A Descendant of Isaac:

Prophesied: Genesis 21:12

Fulfilled: Luke 3:34

There are 24 Genesis manuscripts in the DSS ranging from 200-1BC.

11. A descendant of Jesse:

Prophesied: Isaiah 11:1

Fulfilled: Luke 3:32

There are 22 Isaiah manuscripts in the DSS. The Great Scroll is a complete copy of the book and has been dated to around 100BC

12. A descendant of David:

Prophesied: Jeremiah 23:5-6

Fulfilled: Luke 3:31

There are 6 manuscripts of Jeremiah in the DSS dated around 200 BC.

A Bridge To Clarity

Romans 15:20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named,

The Apostle Paul, the writer of this verse, was chosen by God for a special kind of work. He was the first pioneer missionary. This means he was sent to work with people who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ, and had no cultural context or influence from Christianity.

Because Paul was a pioneer missionary his books take on a special value to modern Christ followers. They were written to first generation churches. So Paul's writings are a bridge to clarity unburdened by centuries of tradition. If there is a form of Christianity which doesn’t look like this record then we can be fairly sure it is loaded down with traditions not found in the churches started by Paul.

Paul also had to work through the complex merger of two types of people in some of these early churches: Jews, who had a long history of customs and traditions, and non-Jews, who had no knowledge of ancient Jewish customs. So in Paul's letters we have a record of this cultural clash. Because of this clash the writings of this missionary Apostle give us a clear guide to resolving differences between the New Covenant and the Old. His writings are also a guide to handling the traditional, cultural, and doctrinal differences between people who serve the same Lord.

The Bible becomes a bridge over the chasm of the centuries. We can cross that bridge to Paul's writings and bring a purity back with us into today. An uncluttered reality. And for those who are not willing to cross that bridge, we have guidance on how to structure and maintain a vibrant relationship with them.

This Apostle has become a dear friend and counselor to me through the years. His writings have changed my life and thinking in so many ways. I have a list of Paul's confirmed writings below:

Romans

1 & 2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1 & 2 Thessalonians

1 & 2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

The Authority Of Scripture

Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus was in a sabbath day service in a Synagogue, and chose this Old Testament passage to read publicly. It shouldn't surprise us that many of Jesus’ quotes contain Old Testament Scripture, because He used the Bible as the foundational authority on earth. He didn't write a replacement text… He expounded the old text. Someone might argue that He began the New Testament, and that’s true, but the New is forever premised on the Old. We can’t fully understand one without the other.

Supporters of some other religious texts have tried to identify their text with the Bible, but these texts are not authoritatively interwoven into the old texts like the books of the Bible are woven together and dependent on each other. Jesus didn't point out any errors in the Old Testament, or protest that the Jewish fathers had rewritten Scripture, or argue that a translation wasn't correct. He had no need to do that, since His teachings perfectly coincided with the writings of the Old Testament.

Divine inspirational authority rests upon the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, not upon the personality, writings, or the intelligence of any modern man. The Christian who would speak with authority must use the Old Words… God’s Words. The preacher’s work is not to find new words and ideas, but to expound the Old Words… God’s Words: The Bible. That's what Jesus did.

Messengers Who Miss The Message

Matthew 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

In the previous verses Jesus and his disciples were verbally confronted by the very people who daily displayed the Old Testament ceremonial symbols exactly as commanded in the Bible. Doesn't that seem strange. The people who were tasked with preserving and presenting the symbols were blind to the meaning of the symbols. They were messengers who missed the message.

Through the process of time these religious power-brokers had become the exclusive definers of the symbols. They were the self appointed gatekeepers of God's intent. To them, the symbol was theirs to disclose, and it had to be fulfilled as they explained and expected.

In that corruption we find the fatal flaw that moves sincere followers of God into the hardened religions of men. We are not to control the message, we are to hear and convey the message. It was God's message, not theirs. We who are tasked with displaying God's message must ever remember it is His message not ours. We must seek out the Author's intent and convey it as clearly and openly as possible. In a sense, it must always seem distant from us... above us... outside us... not from us. The message of God should be seen by us as a wild, uncontrollable thing that will not survive in a cage, but is comfortable living near us.

When the message bears the fingerprints of our greed it is soiled... stained. Oh to be as John the Baptist was when he saw the substance of the symbol. He immediately pointed at the fulfillment and said, “Behold the lamb of God...” John's philosophy was simple but vitally profound: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” It was not about John, and it is not about us... when it is about us, we miss the message.

When Will They Get Their Bibles?

The picture to the right is of two words from a Greek New Testament manuscript over 1000 years old. The text is John 1:1. Can you read it? No. Well… let me transliterate it for you: “o logos”. How’s that? Can you understand it now? No. Well… let me translate it for you: “the Word”.

It is easy to forget that the Bible was written originally in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic not English. It had to be translated for English readers. Many Christians lost their lives in this translation work because it was often illegal. Our English Bible was delivered to us by the hands of martyrs…

What about the rest of the world’s 6,912 languages? Do they have the Bible?

It is reported that only 429 world language groups have the whole Bible in the language they understand best. There are 2,251 languages spoken by 193 million people who don’t have any of the Bible translated into their language. They have never read John 3:16 in their language because it’s not available.

How will the Bible be translated into their languages? By Christians who are willing to give their lives to prepare and go to these people. We are thankful to sponsor a missionary family, the Rogers, who are committed to this endeavor and are now preparing themselves for this great work.