His Church

Appendices

APPENDIX I - Inspiration of Scripture

In the days of Jesus and His apostles and throughout the Bible’s history, there were many things done, said and written. By God’s guidance, a very select amount of that written material came to be understood by the Church as being ‘Scripture’. We cannot here give full consideration to the processes and background of the compiling of the Bible. But what does need to be highlighted is that those writings that were acknowledged as being ‘inspired’ (literally, God-breathed) were understood to be, not only applicable to the church or individual to whom they were addressed, but also to every other church and Christian. This means that Holy Scripture was written for all churches, in all places, at all times.

The Bible encompasses many different phases of God’s dealings with mankind. We need to be very clear in our understanding about which Covenant is applicable to us today. The Old Testament is still read by Christians because it is rich in history, prophecy, allegory and much more, but it is not the Covenant in which we live today (though it makes many forward looking references to it). The New Testament was written as a direct result of God commencing a new covenant (agreement) with His people. The period of time covered from the founding of the New Testament Church (on the day of Pentecost) until the close of the New Testament writings is nearly sixty years. If any of the principles of Church development were to have changed, this would have been a quite sufficient period for them to have done so. Whatever else has been said, done or written since, or even during that time, has not acquired the status of being preserved in the ‘Inspired Book’.

APPENDIX 2 - The basis for interpretation

We are given no authorization to imitate known practices and developments of the Church outside of the things recorded in Holy Scripture. However, this does not mean that there never was a developmental phase of the Church’s existence. Herein lies a slight difficulty as, unlike its beginning, we cannot pinpoint a precise moment in time when the Church had become fully developed. We know that by the end of the New Testament writings every critical element of the Church’s form and doctrine had been fully established upon the foundation laid down by the apostles. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18).In some ways there was a transitional phase concerning the change from the Old to the New Covenant: “In that He saith, a New Covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13). The New Covenant technically began on the day of Pentecost, yet the writer to the Hebrews recognises that, in practice, there was a transitional process. In the same way, the outward pattern and form of the Church had to develop from its birth, at Pentecost, throughout this founding era.

On the day of Pentecost Peter said, “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:32,33). The expression used here, in reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit – “shed forth” means to ‘gush out’, like the breaking of a dam. In this kind of ‘outpouring’ we see the mighty power of the waters, but it is not until a little further on before we can clearly see the course that the river is taking! Therefore, when we read of the practices of the newborn Church in its early years following Pentecost, we must always compare this with examples further on in the Church’s life. That is, we need to examine all of the Book of Acts and the Epistles to see if a practice was continued and was not just the result of the initial ‘breaking of the dam’.It is reasonable to conclude that at such “times of refreshing” (outpourings of God’s Spirit), circumstances may be out of the ordinary for a while, but the Church has been given its blue-print for development for all time. The ‘God-breathed’, God-preserved’ Scriptures are the sole basis of authority for everything concerning HIS CHURCH.

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