The Word
of God Is Living and Active – Hebrews 4:12.
.The
Scriptures Are One Book in Christ
..
The Spirit of Christ present in the Old
Testament
“[Christ's words] are not only those
which he spoke when he became a man and tabernacled in the flesh; for before
that time, Christ, the Word of God, was in Moses and the prophets… [their
words] were filled with the Spirit of Christ.”
– Origen of Alexandria, Bible scholar and teacher (184-254 AD)
The hidden meaning of Christ's coming
All Scripture describes the coming of
the Lord. The New Testament is hidden in the Old; the Old Testament is
brought to light in the New. Those who are unspiritual have always failed
to see this hidden meaning. Yet even before Christ those who were spiritual
could find the Words of God hidden in the words of the prophets, and so
through this understanding could be set free.
– Augustine, bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD)
The Scriptures Are Singing of Christ
“You recall that one and the same Word
of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance
that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was
in the beginning with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is
not subject to time… In any passage you care to choose, the Scriptures
are singing of Christ, provided we have ears that can pick out the tune.
The Lord opened the minds of the Apostles so that they understood the Scriptures.
That he will open our minds too is our prayer.”
– Augustine, bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD)
Christ foreshadowed in the Old Testament
“Every part of Holy Scripture announces
through words the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, reveals it through facts
and establishes it through examples… For it is our Lord who during all
the present age, through true and manifest foreshadowings, generates, cleanses,
sanctified, chooses, separates, or redeems the Church in the Patriarchs,
through Adam's slumber, Noah's flood, Melchizedek's blessing, Abraham's
justification, Isaac's birth, and Jacob's bondage.”
– Hilary, bishop of Poitiers (300-368 AD)
God has said everything in his Word
“In giving us his Son, his only Word
(for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this
sole Word – and he has no more to say... because what he spoke before to
the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All
Who is His Son.
Any person questioning God or desiring some vision
or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of
offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living
with the desire for some other novelty.”
– John of the Cross (1542-1591 AD)
See related articles:
-
The
Unity of the Scriptures, An introduction by Don Schwager
-
Christ
In All the Scriptures, by Dr. John Yocum
-
How
to Read the Bible, by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware
-
The
Authority of Scripture, by Steve Clark
-
The
Scriptures Are One Book in Christ, quotes from early church fathers
-
Approaching
Scripture As God's Word, by J.I. Packer
-
In
the Bible It Is God Who Is Speaking to Us, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
-
You
Can Understand the Bible, by Peter Kreeft
-
Formational
Versus Informational Reading of the Scriptures, by M. Robert Mulholland
Jr.
-
How
to Silence the Scriptures, by Soren Kierkegaard
-
Reading
the Scriptures with the Early Church Fathers, by Don Schwager
-
Scripture
Study Course, by Don Schwager
|
