Deseret Weekly | 1890-05-31 | Page 1 | Necessity of Continuous Revelation

NECESSITY OF continuous revelation continued TUB THE NEW TESTAMENT but it will be said no otie one the jews perhaps contend that the old testament alone all that itts necessary to know the new testament is a supplement to the old testament and the two together contain the falness of gods goda revelations the prophecies of the old testament are fulfilled in the new and to the volume thus completed nothing must be added to Is there anything at all in the nev testament to verify this statement so universally accepted as true among the christaan Oh ristian 11 Protes worlo or does the new testament confirm the conclusions we have arrived at in the perusal of the old the new testament contains five historical books viz the four gospels and the acts of the apostles fourteen letters written by paul three by john two by peter one letter by jamef and one by jude to which collection comes one prophetic book b by john the four gospels are brief blo graphical grah ical sketches records of a few of the works and teachings of our ur lord I 1 it t may be supposed that those d disciples Is of D christ that were able to write like matthew and john would keep journals while they followed their master witnessing his works and listening to his teachings these journals would after the crucifixion and ascension naturally be read in private and public they would be copied and distributed in the various branches of the church and form texts for discourses and thus be augmented with such incidents incident or sayings which were sull still retained in the memories of those who had been eye witnesses in this way several versions of the doings and sayings of our lord began to circulate some no doubt contradicting others until the necessity became universally felt to have some authentic record showing exactly what was reliable of the many circulating reports and what was not reliable and the result is 18 the four gospels by matthew mark luke and john at what precise time these gospels were completed iti in their present form is a question not yet settled between the various erl critics ties but that they contain the memoirs of our lord as published by those apostles by mouth and by pen need not be doubted the testimony of antiquity is conclusive on this point according to general tradition in the early church the annotations of Mattli matthew few were written in the vernacular tongue of palestine syro Chal dair a trad lilon lon very probable indeed but as greek at this time was the literary language the original was soon translated into this tongue under the supervision of matthew himself abort thirty years after the crucifixion it may be safely assumed the that our gospel accord ing ug to st matthew is in the main identical with this original document of the Apos apostle Je the aim of this gospel is clearly to prove to the jews that jesus is the promised messiah it frequently refers to the prophets refutes the various jewish sects and tries to prepare the jewish nation for the acceptance of the gentiles into the kingdom of god chile matthew was penning his gospel for the jews mark was preparing his chiefly for the converts among the gentiles this mark was not an apostle and had not been an eyewitness eye witness to the life and do ikeda eds of our lord but he was a native of jerusalem and an intimate je friend of the apostles he accompanied paul on some of bis journeys and attended peter for a consider able period and during i ibis his time he be no do debt u bt w wrote rote th the e gc acs sl el tb that at bears his bis name according to the dic dictated tatem of peter some have called this tb abe e gospel accord I 1 ing ing to st peter 11 and peter himself in his bis second epistle refers reft rp persape per Lape Lapp to this thin gospel when be says we made known unto you the power and coming of our lord jesus desur christ the gospel according to luke was written in rome by luke the physician one of pauls most faithful companions and friends the author states that many had undertaken to collect the facts preached concerning christ and believed among the ing ta to the traditions handed banded down from eyewitnesses eye witnesses and consequently in order to secure a collection that would be reliable he himself had diligently searched out everything that at the time of the writ ing was available these dat datade athe result of diligent research luke endeavors to put before the readers in chronological order while lle the abe two previous evangelists pay but very little attention to chronology the gospel was waa written under the au supervision of paul the rhe latest of the gospels is that of john it is said to have been written at Fp ephesus Ephe hesus eus where john resided presiding over the branches originated by paul john having before him copies of the abe three previous gospels naturally omits many data there recorded introducing others which be had bad preserved from oblivion the chief aim of john Is s t to set forth the divine nature of our lord the previous evangelists dwell mostly on the works of our savior in galileo galilee john omits most of that te cording his works in judsen judeen I 1 let it be remembered that this book is the last written of all the books of the bible about 97 years after christ and that its aim is to correct the errors of doctrine then becoming common COMMOD among the churches concerning the true character of christ I 1 TESTIMONY OP OF THE TELE GOSPELS we may now ask when th these bloks were writ written teu were they intended to contain all that would ever be necessary for men to know concerning gods plans and purposes thus making all further revelation superfluous what do the gospels teach concerning this question the very first pages of the gospel confirm the lesson we have drawn from the old testament that revelation is necessary for the establishment of a new dispensation por for the gospel dispensation is ushered in and established through revelation zacharias is visited by an angel luke i 1 1120 11 20 Gb gabriel riel appears to mary luke h i 2638 26 38 john the baptist is commissioned by gud to preach and baptize john i 1 0 6 33 that jesus was messiah is manifest to john through revelation the nie spirit descends and a voice from heaven is heard jolin john 1 32 34 matt iii 16 17 anti and this pol 1 ut I 1 particularly arly noteworthy all the ancient prophets biad predicted the coming of the messiah some of them bad given details about where he should be born his parentage and the he precise time for his coming and yet it was necessary when he came to give new revelations pointing him out to the most devout servant of god then living previous revelations are here clearly seen not to render now revelations useless and as the gospels thus begin with revelations so they close with declarations that revelation should continue for in his farewell address to his disciples christ says 1 I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now howbeit when he be the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but what whatsoever he shall hear bear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come john joha 16 1213 christ here expressly states that his ministry did not net complete gods revelations there were many other things to learn than those which he had bad communicated munica ted and among these were also things to come all of which the spirit should communicate to the twelve revelation then I 1 was not to be done away with at the departure of our lord the last verse of the fourth gospel the last verse ever written in our New Testament states moreover that the things recorded in the gospels are only a small fragment of all that could be written concerning the works of christ these works and the lessons to be conveyed were no doubt necessary and yet we have no record of them the gospels therefore openly admit that they are not intended to be a complete record of all that is necessary for man faan to know they claim to ao be written for the purpose of directing men mens menis Is hearts to jesus john 31 and point out his promise to continue the revelation of truth through the spirit this thid is the important testimony of the gospels all the works and the teachings of christ were not enough for the guidance of the first christians they needed and were promised further revelation to us has come a record not of all of christs teachings but 9 aily ily of a avery very few merely a frag ment if till all the teachings of christ civi given ij during ills his ministry upon the earth were riot not sufficient for the guidance of the apostles apostle s how bow much less can the gospels which contain only a small part of those teachings teach inep be sufficient for other men med the thought is as irrational as it is without foundation in the word of god THE REMAINING BOOKS the only question now remains do the acts of the apostles and their epistles supply us with all the alie teachings that the spirit of truth according to our saviors promise was to reveal to 10 the apostles and which were necessary for their guidance if not continuous revelation will be just as necessary after the new testament di dispensation as it was after the mosaic economy the rook book called the acts of the apostles is i written by luke and may be considered as a continuation of his gospel in this book we can trace the growth of christian churches during the greater part of the past century after christ it covers the period from the time of the crucifixion to the second year of the first imprisonment of paul in rome borne A D 63 and there it breaks off even without recording the issue of the trial the book maybe may be divided in two parts the first twelve chapters describe the growth of the church of christ among the jews in palestine chiefly through the labors of peter the last sixteen chapters treat of the spread of the gospel among other nations chiefly through the labors of paul of the works of the artst of the apostles we have no account tradition has it that matthew suffered martyrdom in ethiopia philip in thomas in india and so on but of their work for the promulgating the gospel in the different parts of the world we have no records what they taught what difficulties they encountered how they preached suffered and endured may be conjectured but it has bas not reached us in any historical record nor is the acts of the apostles a complete record of the works of the t tw 0 servants of god whose ardent labors are noticed it is as fragmentary as are the gospels many important transactions referred to elsewhere are omitted there is no account whatever of the branch in jerusalem after the imprisonment and deliverance of peter nothing is told of the introduction of the gospel in rome borne the capital of the world at the time nor dues does it say anything of paul paulis Is many voyages which he incidentally mentions 2 cor xi 25 considering all this it seems as if the spirit of truth had been anxious to guard against the impression that this book was intended to conclude gods revelations to mankind let us consider the facts christ had promised to send the spirit of truth to his chosen twelve what this spirit was to reveal was of course as essential and debessai necessary Dec essai essaiy y to salvation as anything that our savior had revealed himself but of all this that the spirit according to the promise lias has revealed to the twelve ouy only a small part has been recorded how can this small part be cleat to UP since it was not sufficient to the first christiana but besides bes idies this the book of the acts shows plainly the necessity of continuous revelation for wherever the gospel is being accepted the gift of receiving revelation is being imparted through faith peter in his first ts ermon declares that the time has now come when the spirit shall be poured out upon all fleich prophecy visions dreams were to attend the believers acts ii 1718 and accordingly whenever the gospel is preached and believed these manifestations fe follow the heavens are opened to stephen and he is permitted to see the son of god od on the right hand band of the father acts vi A 55 56 an angel of the Lord appears and directs philip acts christ appears to saul acts iam 6 through the vision of an angel cornelius is led to send tor or peter and he receives supernatural gifts atts ato xa 48 an angel delivers peter from prison acts xiii 8 the holy ghost reveals to the brethren in antioch that they should send paul and barnabas on a mission acts xiii 4 through the spirit the Ap apostles ostIve and elders are able to settle the dispute about the doctrine of circumcision acts xv 1 81 31 twelve men in ephesus receive the holy ghost through the administration of paul and add prophecy and speak in tongues acts 17 1 7 wherever the gospel message is delivered and believed in palestine in greece in asia minor the results are the same the holy ghost is ia given aud and his presence is manifest through these gifts the acts of the apostles has taught us this important lesson that the gift of receiving revelations was not confined to the twelve nor was the gift to cease with them the gift itself was inseparable from the gospel where there is no gospel there are no revelations but where the true gospel of jesus christ rist is there is revelation also we ane p promise romise of receiving the holy gho ghost st the he promised spirit of truth that was to lead into all truth and to reveal things to come is a universal promise for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar oft off even as an many as the lord our god shall call P acts 11 39 the epistles of the apostles confirm most emphatically the necessity of constant revelations from god the apostolic churches could not do without such revelations hence the necessity of the churches communicating with the apontes Apo stes and the apostles writing their epistles embodying the will of god for instance an error arises as was the case in colossie Colos Co lowee paul was at the time in rome but the church in colossie Colos sent a special messenger to paul viz epaphras who explained the situation to the apostle and caused the letter the to be written as a refutation of that particular error the scriptures were not sufficient for the guidance of the the new emergency required a new communication from god a new revelation and god gave it through paul his servant so with all the epistles each has a particular object none is a treatise on theolo theology ly putting forth all that is necessary to know for all ages and all men there is not one written for that purpose the first epistles of paul 1 and 2 Thess thessalonians alonians 52 and 53 A D express the joy and satisfaction of the apostle on account of the manner in which the people of thessa bonica had received the gospel he cautions them against the sins prevalent in that great city and comforts those who mourned over the loss lose of dear relatives the dead in the lord will be resurrected at the coming of the lord and this event is more fully explained in accordance with the prophecy of daniel concerning the little horn 11 dan viii the next epistle that to the galatians A D 53 or 57 is a warning to the churches in that district not to mix up the rites of the mosaic law with the ordinances of the gospel as the two were so different from each other as ishmael and isaac sinai and zion and Andt to give this admonition force the writer proves that his knowledge of christian truth was derived not from human teaching but from god through immediate revelation wherefore the apostles of the lord had haa recognized recognize d him as their equal chia eh chi 1 2 the epistles to the corinthians were written A D 57 in reply to a letter received by bj paul from the branch in corinth requesting tits his advice on certain points ch vii 1 also to correct some errors of which he had heard by