But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17 NRSV)

“All scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching
for reproof
for correction,
and for training in righteousness.
So that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient,
equipped for every good work.”

"All Scripture"
*ALL* scripture....
What was the Apostle Paul writing about here?
He was writing sometime in the mid-60s AD
He was writing to one of the greatest, earliest leaders of the Church
He was writing to his disciple, to his spiritual son, Timothy
at a time before most of the New Testament,
except for most of Paul’s letters
and some of the letters from some of the other Apostles,
was even written.
He was writing before the New Testament had been canonized.
He was writing before the writing of the book of Revelation, certainly.
He was writing before the writing of Hebrews.
He was writing, almost certainly, before the writing of the Four Gospels
In short, Paul was writing before the writing of MOST of the New Testament
except his OWN letters.
And, yet, the Apostle says “All Scripture...”
Let me put the question to you.
What part of our current Bible was Paul calling "Scripture?"
If it hadn't been written yet, how could the Apostle possibily be including it
as being a part of "all Scripture?"

My friends, the Apostle is speaking of the Old Testament,
of the Hebrew Bible
of the portion of the Scriptures that had been given down
by Moses and the prophets....
The law, the writings, and the prophecies.
The Scriptures which Timothy had, indeed, read from his childhood.

The Apostle said, in verse 15:
“...and how from Childhood you have known the sacred
writings, that are able to instruct you for salvation for faith in Christ Jesus.”
For St. Paul the Scriptures were, first and foremost,
the first half ... the first 3 quarters of *this* book.
The Old Testament.

Now, I’m not saying that this scripture doesn’t apply to the New Testament.
I am simply saying, firstly and most importantly,
that this refers to the Old Testament.
And what does he say about the Old Testament?
St. Paul says that the Hebrew Scriptures are able to instruct you for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.

My friends, even if the Church had never canonized the New Testament;
Even if the church had never selected the four gospels;
Even if the Church had never decided to get Paul’s letter together
and read them as a collection;
Even if the Church had never decided to canonize the history of
the Early Church as found in the Acts of the Apostles;
Even if the Church had never decided to put in,
with the rest of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation;
Still, my friends, we would be able to pick up the Hebrew Scriptures
and be enlightened as to the New Covenant,
and be saved through faith in Christ Jesus.
That was, after all is said and done, the only "Scripture" that Paul knew.

Now, praise the Lord that the Church in the first three centuries of its existence
decided to select and lift up certain books, letters, and Gospels as being
authoritative for Christian faith and practice.
But the selection process by which they arrived at this list wasn’t an easy one.
Over the first 3 centuries of its existence, the church went through many struggles.
Indeed, in the first 150 years struggles over the nature of what
Christians should believe, and what scriptures they should use
literally tore the church in two.
The canonization process -- this process of selection -- began in response
to an early heretic by the name of Marcion.

Marcion hated the Old Testament.
He couldn't understand it.
He believed that the God spoken of there was mean.
He killed people,
He told people to kill other people,
He told people to kill their children
He was a horrible God, this Old Testament God,
He must have nothing to do with Jesus,

And so Marcion said: “let’s do away with the Old Testament!”
"Let’s do away with the Hebrew Scriptures,
and all the rest of that Jewish stuff!
We’re gentiles, why should we have anything to do
with horrible people, like the Jews?
Let’s take the Gospel of Saint Luke,
and let’s take Saint Paul’s letters,
and that will be our Bible!"

Well, the Church outside of Marcion’s group
really knew that his attitude was very wrong.
They were already reading from the Hebrew Scriptures,
and they had St. Paul’s own word that the Hebrew Bible
was useful and, indeed, fully inspired.
And so, they established that the Old Testament Scriptures
would continue as the foundation of the Christian Bible.

To the Hebrew Bible they added:
The four Gospels representing the four major parts of the Church,
Mark for Rome and Italy
Matthew for Antioch and Jerusalem
John for Alexandria and Ephesus
Luke for Greece and Macedonia.
In addition to these four Gospels, they added all of St. Paul’s letters,
thus resulting in the core of the New Testament

Then, over the next 200 years
The Acts of the Apostles was added,
The Letters of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude
And, finally, after much fighting,
the book of Hebrews,
the Letter of St. James,
and the Revelation of St. John.
By 368 AD it was DONE.
It had taken a lot of debate,
a lot of prayer
a lot preparation to actually make sure that they
had the right books to go into the New Testament.

But, even before they had canonized the New Testament
The Church had access to to Revelation about Christ in the Old,
and that’s where we’re going today.
Turn real quickly now, jumping back with me to Jeremiah 31...
one of my favorite passages of Scripture
I was so pleased to see it listed in the lectionary for
this Sunday in conjunction with the Epistle and Gospel readings.

“...This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 21:33-34, NRSV)

My brothers and sisters, there are many debates in the church today
about the nature of the Word of God.
There are many debates in the Church today about which translation
of the Scriptures one should use.
I spent a gread deal of time writing
about the many various translations that are available today,
and about how each and every one of them reveals
and communicates the Word of God to a different
group of people.
With Children and youth you need to have a translation
which is simpler and easier to understand.
For people who are interested in the precise meaning of the words
as they are found in the original languages,
you have to have a literal, wooden translation,
For people who are interested in the beauty and the flow of the poetry of the Scriptures
the King James and the New King James, and other like-similar translations, are perfect.
Each translation has it’s proper constituency, but all reveal
--all communicate--
--all contain--
the Word of God.

How?
While me make reference to the Scriptures as being the Word of God,
and when I read the Holy Gospel on Sunday Mornings
and I say “This is the Word of God for the people of God”
and you reply “Thanks be to God.”
You know of whom we are speaking...right?
Jesus Christ,
The Word.
In the beginning “the Word was with God” and, indeed, the word “was God.”

The Scriptures contain and communicate and reveal the very Word of God to us,
Authoritatively
Without exception and without a doubt,mcompletely.
The Scriptures are Holy Inspired by God, as St. Paul said.
But, unless they are written on your heart
--unless the Word of God, Jesus Christ our Lord,mis printed on your heart--
this might as well be a leather bound copy of Shakespeare Plays.
If it were not for the truth that the Holy Spirit in-grafts the Word of God
--Jesus Christ our Lord--
on our hearts, as God Himself promised us through Jeremiah,
this Bible would be just another book.
A book of good sayings and beautiful poetry,
A book of stories and of histories, true,
But it would be meaningless,
it would be devoid of saving power
without the indwelling presence of Christ.
For it is God who gives us understanding as to the meaning
of the Scriptures.
It is God’s Holy Spirit who makes this wonderful record
real and alive for us and **in** us.
We get in so many fights in the Church as to the nature of the Scriptures,
But we should NEVER get into such fights.
For the proclamation about the Word is very clear....
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching.”

Firstly the Old Testament....
and, as we just saw from Jeremiah,
the promise of the New Covenant
the promise of Christ’s presence
is there.
And, secondly, we Christians can proclaim that
this is also true of the New Testament Scriptures.

The Apostle Paul then goes on to say:

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead,
and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message;"

The Gospel
The Oral Word of God
The Proclamation that we have in the New Testament
The story about Christ,
about his life
his teachings
his death
his resurrection
his coming return!
Timothy, I solemnly urge your to proclaim the message!
The Scriptures are *not* here and they are *not* written on our hearts
for our own edification and our own holiness alone.
The Scriptures are here to be proclaimed!

Why did the Church write down the Gospel?
Simply so that it could ensure that the Good News would never be forgotten,
misunderstood, perverted, or ignored.
This Book, and the Good News it contains,
is to be proclaimed....
And not just by those of us who wear vestments on Sunday mornings.
But, by you!
The Body of Christ!

“But, Dr. Neal, the Old Testament is weird!
How can I understand this well enough to proclaim it!?
I’m just a simple person!”

My friend ... Peter was a simple man.
He was an uneducated fisherman.
And, while he didn’t have the greatest brains,
he had a lot of common sense
and a lot of patience.
I hate pole fishing.
It’s boring!
You sit in a boat ... and you know how I hate boats ...
You sit in a boat and it rocks.
I prefer fly fishing.
Now, with fly fishing you can move around more than you
can with a cane pole. And, you’ve got to have good wrist action.
There is an ART to fly fishing....there is NONE to pole fishing.
But fishing in general takes a lot of common sense, and a good keen eye
and, most especially, patience!
And, my friends, that’s what it takes to be a fisher of men.
It takes patience, a keen discerning eye, and the simple willingness
to read and understand what the Scriptures have to say
for, while at times they may seem weird,
with the guidance of the Holy Spirit
they are truly simple and beautiful.
Listen to this:

For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

Now, if that doesn’t reflect the present day
I don’t know what does.
Itching ears.
A desire to hear novelty.
Not the in-grafted word, but something “new.”
Paul said it clearly and completely....
“All scripture is inspired of God.”

When I was in graduate school, I studied many languages.
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Akkadian ...
I studied the science of Textual Criticism.
And, I’ll never forget the first time I was honored
to go into the manuscript Vaults at Duke University;
I’ll never forget what I felt inside
as the librarian took out four plates of glass,
and in between these plates of glass
were these brown, thin, delicate,
incredibly old fragments of a Papyrus manuscript
of the New Testament.
Dr. Efird sat the plates down on the table,
leaned over,
and started to point to the words that were written on them.
“What you’re looking at right here was written down
--copied down from an older copy--
in the year 175 AD.
And this is a fragment of Paul’s letter to the Romans.”

Standing there, with tears streaming down my cheeks,
I read the Word of God from the hand of someone
only 100 years removed from the Apostle Paul.
I’ll never forget it.
This was a fragment of an EARLY collection of Paul’s letters.
A fragment that had been copied down
MAYBE from the original copy of Paul’s letter to the Romans,
but, more likely, from a second generation copy.
It was just a fragment that we looked at ... 14 verses ...
But I could read it!
With my heart in my throat I came to realize
what an incredible miracle we have in the Holy Scriptures.
For, through the hands of faithful monks
--down through the centuries--
The Scriptures were copied and recopied,
checked and rechecked,
and while tiny little minor scribel errors crept in
--the leaving out or the doubling of a word here or there--
With all the different copies of the Scriptures that were available,
God ensured that the Holy Scriptures would remain intact,
and correct,
and truly Holy
for, with all the copies that we have, we are able to
filter out those minor little errors.
We have copies, my friends, of the New Testament
that go back to less than 100 years after the writing of the originals!
My heart was in my throat as I read from that fragment of Paul’s
Letter to the Romans.
My heart was in my throat as I gazed on those little faint Greek words.
My heart was in my throat because I knew I was reading the inspired
Word of God!
And, even as marvelous as that was
--even as incredible as it was to be given the great honor of reading that fragment--
Each and every one of us has an equal honor in being able to open up
our Bibles and being about to read the inspired Word of God!
Old Testament and New!
And, most especially, each and every one of us is honored
to have the Lord God almighty write it upon our hearts.

Don’t, ***please*** don’t neglect the Word of God!
Read it, and let God write it on your heart again.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen