Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Humanity! Nope.
Is human authorship the answer for how we got the Bible? Can modern people know better than Jesus who authored the Bible? In essence, is human wisdom superior to all else?
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:A very different way of thinking. The Bible never permits this type of separation. But Bacon came along and he said all knowledge one century after the Reformation, when the Bible became the central point of knowing. Now you can't get any knowledge that direction, because all knowledge is only accessible through your own personal experience and experimentation. Now this got pushed to its logical conclusion with a man named John Dewey. So I'm going to skip ahead to him and talk a little bit about this guy, john Dewey. In the early 1900s, the first 50 years of the 20th century, this guy was the most important person in the history of American public education. No one has influenced American education more than this man, even down to this day.
Speaker 2:John Dewey, you know him because of the Dewey Decimal System right in the library, if you don't, if you still go to libraries these days. But the code system on the spine of the book, right, help you find a book. That's the best thing John Dewey ever did. What he did from 1930 to 1950 was write 50,000 articles, 50,000 articles published and circulated throughout the US, as well as travel and do seminars for those 20 years, which are the backbone of all American public education. What Dewey did was he took Francis Bacon to his logical conclusion. He was a strict, logical, very logically rigorous person. For that I guess he's to be commended.
Speaker 2:Right, but most people are not willing to go as far as as John Dewey was. He said that the only thing that is true for you is something that you have directly experienced. In other words, put it this way If 500 people on one occasion say that they saw that Jesus rose in his resurrection body, he would say that's only true for those 500 people. It's not true for anybody else. You have to directly experience it for it to be true for you. He was the master of relative. All truth is relative, and most people were never not willing to go that far. Now he would say that the master of relative, all truth is relative.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, and most people are never not willing to go that far. Now he would say that you could expand your experience or knowledge by using instrumentation like a microscope to see things that your natural eye can't see, or a telescope to see things further away. But you know, the only things that are true for you are things that you have actually personally experienced. So this, this became a huge, huge problem in our society because now. That's all you ever hear people say. Well, that's true for you, you know and you, and it makes no impact on them. If you talk to them about Christ, this cross resurrection, I mean, it's like water off a duck's back.
Speaker 1:They don't even care because they didn't have any direct experience.
Speaker 2:They haven't had this spiritual encounter that you've had, so to speak. So it's not true for them, it has nothing to do with them. That's your thing, okay, great for you, and they just move on. That's all a result of Bacon and later Manuel Kant, who we didn't talk about, but then, of course, john Dewey. Now what did this do for the study of the Bible and what's happened with the Bible? Let's take this to the second. I skipped this, but let's go back to it Now.
Speaker 2:There's two types of criticism of the Bible. This is just an area of study of the Bible Lower and higher. These are the two areas. The first area, lower criticism of the Bible, is something I accept. This is something I engage in every week in studying the Bible.
Speaker 2:This is the study of manuscript evidence to determine the original reading. You know, I said earlier, we have the original autographs. Those were inerrant. That's what we mean when we say inerrant. But then, of course, since then you've had copies and we've got thousands of copies. We're not really too concerned about all that.
Speaker 2:But there are differences in the manuscripts, like what we call variants right, a variant. So you have to check and see is there a variant here? I think I saw one last week in 1 Corinthians or the week before last week which I could go back and share, but it was the difference in one letter which turned the word from mystery to something else I can't remember. But oh, mystery and testimony, because the Greek words are only like, really one letter different. It didn't really impact the meaning substantially, but you have to study these and check the variance. So people who are doing this are looking at variance. You know things like the ending of Mark, which is a big one Mark 6, 16, 9 through 20. What's the right ending of Mark, which is a big one? Mark 6, 16, 9 through 20. What's the right ending of Mark? You know, because there's four different endings of Mark.
Speaker 2:The KJV only is in debate. Have you ever read the prophecy? Very insistent that the King James Version is the only right version of the Bible. But hey, nobody here is questioning whether the Bible is God's Word. Everybody who's having these discussions believes the Bible is God's Word. So lower textual criticism is fine. All we're trying to do here is just try to make sure we have the right text, the best text. That's all we're doing Now. Higher criticism this is different.
Speaker 2:These are people who studied the Bible, to determine who really wrote it. Who really wrote it and how was this human book put together? This human book that's a result of bacon, okay, because now science is the avenue to knowledge, right? So we approach the Bible that way and we start to ask ourselves how did the Bible come together from a purely human perspective? See, we don't accept, you know, god and all that kind of stuff and the possibility of a person outside this universe who can speak into it. I mean, that's a crazy idea. That idea has long been rejected, that God, if there is one, could actually speak absolute ideas in human language. That is totally rejected. That is not even considered a normal thought for a human being to possibly have. They do not think that God could speak absolute ideas in human language because they think that humans will taint everything. So that idea is not even accepted. So they have to approach the Bible as if it was just written truly by just human beings.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.