The Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Church

What Is Included in the Word of God?

Let us consider the word as it applies to the written Scriptures of divine revelation. It seems quite evident from the Holy Scriptures themselves that the books of the Old Testament were recognized as “holy scriptures.” This is expressed not only by the apostles but by the Savior Himself. Paul in his counsel to Timothy makes reference to the fact— BSPC 10.1

“that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 3:15. BSPC 10.2

This reference to the Scriptures referred at that time only to the writings of the Old Testament, for the books of the New Testament were not then compiled. The same testimony is borne by Peter when he declared that “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:20. Here again it is evident that reference is made to the Old Testament writings. Furthermore, we find the Master Himself, when talking to the disciples on that memorable journey to Emmaus, pointing them to the Old Testament Scriptures to show that He was the Christ of God, the promised Messiah. Note carefully His words: BSPC 10.3

“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke 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.” Luke 24:27, 44. BSPC 10.4

It will be observed that in verse 27 the Savior calls attention to “Moses and all the prophets”; but in verse 44 He refers to the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. Here reference is made to the three parts of the Hebrew writings, or Holy Scriptures. These were arranged in three sections, the Pentateuch, comprising the five books of Moses; the prophets, which included the major and minor prophets of ancient days; and the Hagiographa—the holy writings, which embraced not only the collection of 150 psalms but also such books as Proverbs and others. In the Savior’s words to the astonished disciples during: that eventful walk, Jesus not only endorsed the revelation of God through His servants the prophets but also gave clear endorsement for calling these revelations by the term “scriptures.” BSPC 10.5

The New Testament writings, also coming through the prophets of the early church, came to be recognized as divine revelations from God to man. This conviction developed very early in the history of the apostolic church; it came in part during the lifetime of the apostles themselves. This was evidently so in the case of the letters of the apostle Paul, for Peter, one of his colleagues, declared on one occasion: BSPC 11.1

“Our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him bath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things. In which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:15, 16. BSPC 11.2

These texts reveal that Peter—and he undoubtedly represents other of the apostles and many believers of that day—recognized not only the Old Testament writings but also the epistles of the apostle Paul as “scriptures.” So far as the apostle to the Gentiles is concerned, this can be seen also in his words in 1 Corinthians 2:13; 14:37; and the apostle Peter also recognized that his words as well as those of the other members of the apostolic band had divine authority. (1 Peter 1:12.) Hence, the conviction concerning the writings of the apostles, at least those that were chosen to be part of the New Testament as “scriptures of truth,” was formed quite early, in fact, while the apostles were still active in their ministry for God. BSPC 11.3

Some of the earliest writings extant, outside the Bible, that give the history of the church after the days of the apostles, were known as the writings of the early church fathers. Although we would not quote these church fathers to any extent in matters of faith and doctrine, it is clear from their writings that they recognized the New Testament gospels as well as the epistles and the book of Revelation as “Holy Writings” or “Holy Scriptures.” BSPC 11.4

From an excellent authority we quote: BSPC 11.5

“The ... testimonies of the apostolic fathers, we may remark, without any professed intention to ascertain the canon of the New Testament, they ‘have most effectually ascertained it, by their quotations from the several books which it contains, or by their explicit references to them, as the authentic Scriptures received and relied on as inspired oracles, by the whole Christian church.... There is scarcely a book of the New Testament, which one or other of the apostolical fathers has not either quoted or referred to.... They uniformly quote and allude to them, with the respect and reverence due to inspired writings: and they describe them as “Scriptures,” as “Sacred Scriptures,” and as “the Oracles of the Lord.” There is indeed good reason to conclude, not only from the multiplicity of references, but from the language employed by the apostolical fathers in making their quotations, that the books of the New Testament were not only generally received, and in common use in the Christian churches, but that at least the greater part of them had been collected and circulated in one volume before the end of the first, or in the very beginning of the second century.’”—Thomas Hartwell Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures (1839), vol. 1, pp. 81, 82. BSPC 11.6

Note also the following: BSPC 12.1

“In the letters written by Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, as he journeyed to his martyrdom in Rome in AD. 115, there are pretty certain quotations from Matthew, John, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and possible allusions to Mark, Luke, Acts, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, Philemon, Hebrews, and 1 Peter. His younger contemporary Polycarp in a letter to the Philippians quotes from the Synoptic Gospels, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 1 John. And so we might go on through the writers of the second century, amassing increasing evidence of their familiarity with and recognition of the authority of the New Testament writings. So far as the Apostolic Fathers are concerned, the evidence is collected and weighed in a work called The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, recording the findings of a committee of the Oxford Society of Historical Theology in 1905.”—F.F. Bruce, Are the New Testament Documents Reliable? pp. 18, 19. BSPC 12.2