Did Christ intend the Gospel to be proclaimed by the circulation of the Bible? -- No; it was mainly by preaching that He intended to convert the nations. Our Lord said: "Go, make disciples of all nations." "Preach the Gospel to every creature." "He that heareth you heareth me." Christ did not say: "Go and make all nations read the Bible." The Apostles never circulated a single volume of the Bible, but "they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them" (Mark 16:20). The New Testament was not written till Christianity was already established. Christ bade His Apostles teach all men "to observe all commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). He commanded them to preach, not necessarily to write. God did not intend Holy Scripture to be our rule of faith independently of a Living Voice. Even under the Old Law, the Jews, in spite of their great veneration for Holy Scripture, never dreamed of a private appeal to the Word of God. When a religious dispute arose, it was decided by the high-priest and the Council. Their decision was to be obeyed under penalty of death. Thus the Jews did not appeal to the dead letter of the law, but to the living voice of the tribunal that God had established. When Christ came on earth, He did not change this order of things. On the contrary He commanded the Jews to obey their constituted teachers, however disedifying their private lives might be. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, "The Scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, that they command you, observe and do" (Matt. 23:2-3). Until the Protestant outbreak in the sixteenth century (1517), no attempt had ever been made to have any people governed by the dead letter of the law in either civil or religious affairs. No one certainly pretends to live in society according to his own private interpretation of the civil laws. When cases come up, they are always decided by a competent tribunal.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 11:35:17 +0000
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