S. HOW DID THE EARLY NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES?
HOW DID THE EARLY NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES? The early church continued in the apostle’s doctrine by reading the Scriptures (the whole letter written to them by the apostles and applying the truths of that letter).
“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine” (2 Timothy 3:16).
“And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea” (Colossians 4:16).
“I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren” (1 Thessalonians 5:27).
How did they hear and understand the letter as it was read to them? They did not have to mentally check the Scriptures by the various doctrines and creeds that have been taught, most of those creeds did not come into existence until the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Nor did they have to check out what was read by their favorite TV preacher that may be adding doctrines the early church never heard of. They pretty much could take the apostle’s writings at face value. If the Apostle said, “It would be better to not have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it to turn your backs on it” (2 Peter 2:21), they probably took it at face value. They didn’t have to say, “Well, what does (you fill in the name – your favorite teacher or preacher) say that this means?” “According to John Calvin or Jacob Arminius it could not mean this! I believe in eternal security, I believe in spirit, soul & body teaching, I believe in …..!” The New Testament was written in Koine Greek. It was the common language (the street language) of the people of that day. God was not trying to hide the truth from his disciples (the early Christians in the New Testament church). They took what the apostles said pretty much at face value. It’s only because of our various doctrines and teaching that we have read the Scriptures and then changed its meaning by reading into it something that is not there or taking something away from it. That’s a No, No! (Revelation 22:18-19).
I personally adhere to the first-century church and what the early believers understood when they first heard a New Testament letter read to them. I personally do not believe that we should take Scriptures out of context (that which proceed and/or follows any part of a discourse). I personally do not adhere to a twentieth-century mystical interpretation that reads into the passage doctrines that the early church did not know nor perceive. Don W. Krow