Things That Divide (Part 2)

In our last issue our focus was on the divine authority of the scriptures. Division can be overcome only and if, people will accept and then practice what God commands. Now we’ll continue with a brief overview of how to establish Bible authority.

Open your Bible and read what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3 at verses 16-17. Note that all-means-all. The entirety of your Bible is God breathed and is profitable. Yet, we need to rightly divide all scripture as we read it. The very scripture teaches us that the Bible is divided into two major divisions we call the Old and New Covenants or testaments. Both are God breathed, both are infallible, and both are profitable and for our learning, but both are not binding on us, the church, today. Read Hebrews 7 verses 18 and 19. First note the words, “there is an annulling of the former commandment…”. Annul according to Webster: 1) to declare or make legally invalid or void; 2) to reduce to nothing : obliterate. 3) to make ineffective or inoperative : neutralize. The Greek word used [ἀθέτησις] means abolition and is used only twice, here in  Hebrews 7:18 and in Hebrews 9:26 which states that Jesus appeared to, “put away” sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Put away is to abolish. The Old Testament, that is the “former commandment” is done away, nailed to the cross, obsolete (Ref. Col. 2:14; Heb 8:7, 8, 13, 9:15, 12:24). Secondly, note in verse 19 “the law made nothing [e]perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” And better hope is Jesus who became, “a [g]surety of a better covenant” (v.22). It is the New Covenant / Testament that is binding on Christians today. To sum this up; The Old Testament Law is no longer in affect, nor is it binding for we have a new High Priest in Jesus (Heb. 8:1), and therefore, a new priesthood (Heb. 7:11-13) thus, a new Law in Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2).

Read Galatians chapter 3 verses 24 and 25. Do you see? There was once a tutor, the old law, but no longer, now we are in Christ by faith.

Therefore, we cannot go back to the Old Testament for authority, and when people do the result is always division.

Today in the religious world there is much division because people fail to understand how to establish divine authority. God, by, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), that is the whole of the New Testament. So, we have the Bible, but how do you establish divine authority? The first and easiest is by “Direct Command” Secondly, we look for what is called, “Divine or Approved Example”. and the third is found in the “Necessary Inference”.

Direct command leaves nothing to the imagination. Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 and read verses 23-24, “23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, [a] ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is [b]broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’” See that in verse 23 Paul tells us where he got this message, that is from Jesus. Now in verse 24 note the words, “do this in remembrance of Me”  (NKJV). This is a direct command, “do this”, and when you read it, you must do it. Similarly, when you read, “go” in Matthew 28:19, that’s a direct command. God is telling the saints to go out and preach, therefore, we must go. When God said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark” (Gen. 6:14), that was a direct command and Noah heeded God’s command and built the ark. When God or the Apostles under inspiration from God directly commands the church, this means you must do it. This is the first form of authority.

Secondly, we search the scripture for “Divine or Approved Example”. One such example is found in the book of Acts. Open to Acts chapter 20 and read verse 7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight”. In this the first things we should notice is that they came together on “the first day of the week”. What day was that? Ask yourself, how many first days of the week are there? You should come up with only one, that is Sunday. So, we see they met, or “came together”, on Sunday. From this example we have authority to assemble on the first day of the week and since we don’t have direct command or any other divine or approved examples for any other day, we must conclude that the “first day of the week”, is the day that the church came together, or assembled. But there was more, right? Not only do we see the day they assembled but we also note that it was for a specified form of worship. You see, Luke wrote they came together to “break the bread”, that is to worship in the taking of the Lord’s Supper. Nowhere else in the scripture do we see any example or command that the church came together on any other day for this act of worship. What this means is that partaking of the Lord’s Supper, was only done on the first day of the week, or the Lord’s Day. That is not to say you cannot, or should not worship God every day, for you can and should. You can daily, sing, pray, teach, but “breaking the bread”, which is partaking of the “Lord’s Supper” is one of two of the five acts of worship God has specified for the “first day of the week”. The other is a direct command to take up a collection which is found in 1 Corinthians 16 verses 1 and 2. Therefore, by Divine or Approved Example the “breaking of the break”, must be done on the “first day of the week”, and not any other day. So, when anyone asks, “Where do you find authority for the practice of the Lord’s Supper only on Sunday?” You point them to 1 Corinthians 11:24, the Lord commanded, “do this in remembrance of Me”, and to Acts 20:7 where we see the divine or approved example for the day.

Finally, we turn to the concept of authority through “Necessary Inference.” One perfect example of this type of authority is recorded in Acts chapter 8. Open your Bible and read verses 26 through 39. Now that you have read these verses, note what is taking place in order beginning at verses 29 and 30. Phillip has been directly commanded to “go near and overtake this chariot”, so Phillip, “ran”. He didn’t question the direct command. Then v.30, Phillip asked the eunuch, “Do you understand what you are reading?” In the next 4 verses the eunuch and Phillip discuss Isaiah 53 which the eunuch was reading and not understanding. Then in verse 35 we’re told Phillip “preached Jesus” to the eunuch. In verse 36 we see the place where we learn how necessary inference becomes apparent. Note, that nowhere do we read that Phillip told the eunuch, “you need to be baptized”, only that, “Phillip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.” So, where is the necessary inference? It is found in verse 36 where the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” What do we learn? First, the necessary inference is that when preaching Jesus, you must preach baptism, and second the baptism included water. Why did the eunuch ask what he did? Because in the discourse, when Phillip opened his mouth, he must have told the eunuch, you must be immersed, baptized, in water. The eunuch didn’t get that from reading Isaiah, he didn’t just, “make it up in his own mind”. He got it from Phillip preaching Jesus.

And so then, we have the “Direct Command”, “Divine or Approved Example” and “Necessary Inference”. I pray, Lord willing, in the next article we’ll have a little more on this in the way of “Specific and Generic Authority”.

As always, in Love

Dave Scarpino

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’” (Romans 4:3)