Today I had one of those Holy Spirit revelation moments!
Do you know this passage:
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away … For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:9-12).
There have been a couple of times where this passage has come to mind while I’ve been on my search to discover the truth about the Bible and to understand what it is, what it’s not, and how to know.
I’ve searched out the origins of our Bible in its “present form,” as I’ve previously written. I’ve searched out how the earliest Christians “after the time of the Apostles” understood the Bible, as I’ve previously written. I’ve searched out how different Christian groups have viewed the Bible, as I’ve previously written. And I’ve searched out the process of Christianity and its changes over time, as I’ve previously written.
I have spent hundreds of hours studying the Bible and researching its history over 30+ years now, and as a result, I hope to share some insights with you.
For me, 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 has been the breakthrough in putting all the pieces together.
The Apostle Paul, in this section of scripture, is giving us insight into the difference between having part of the picture vs the whole story. Or between having some of the puzzle peices vs the completed puzzle.
Our Old Testament, which Paul is referring to here (yet he’s also speaking about his own lack of knowledge of the future), had only part of the picture of Christ and of His first coming. For neither the Law nor the Prophets of the Old Testament saw the future clearly. They saw it only in “shadows.” Both Paul and Peter (in 1 Peter) note this.
Now, what you may not know, but should know if you’ve read my posts, is that the Old Testament didn’t go “silent” at the last book (the book of Malachi) as taught by much of Christianity.
But over the next four hundred plus years certain Jewish groups continued to pray, study, and to seek the LORD. They also wrote alot about how they were reading and, more importantly, how they were “interpreting” the books of Genesis to Malachi.
And it’s here, in those 400 years, that a type of “pre-Christianity” begins to take shape (see the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Pseudopigrapha for more information.) But it’s in those 400 years where new ideas and new interpretations of the Old Testament begin to preview our New Testament. During this time, the shift from Hebrew to Greek took place. And along with that shift came new words and a new way to interpret Old Testament passages. All of this prepared the way for the New Testament
Then Jesus arrived!
And though we have been taught that the book of Matthew is the first book of the “New” Testament, it is actually only one of the last four books of our “Old” Testament. What I’m saying is that the four gospels are the END of the Old Testament, not the beginning. The true beginning of the New Testament isn’t until the book of Acts. For Jesus came as the “end/fulfiller/completer of every single thing that the entire Old Testament (meaning Old Covenant) stood for.
My point so far is to show that there was a “process” and “progress” in information and understanding that came about after the last book of our Old Testament, requiring time and changes in order for people to really understand Jesus and His messages once He arrived. For if He had come directly after the last book of the Old Testament, no one would have understood Him, and his messages wouldn’t have made sense.
It’s only because of the changes that occurred during those 400 years between Malachi and Matthew that Israel could understand Jesus message and be open to it
So now to the point of this post
In the same way that the Old Testament was only a “shadow” of the New Testament. And in the same way that the Prophets of the Old Testament could write “by the Spirit” and YET what they wrote was set within their own time and context and generation and could not be SEEN BEYOND their understanding and generation (as any deep dive into how the Old Testament looks if you never knew the New Testament. Meaning you and I have way more insight than they did. And because of that, it’s very difficult for us to not read our Old Testament from a New Testament “perspective”).
So, just as the Old Testament authors could only see “in part” and could only prophecy “in part” prior to the actual Person and event arriving, meaning Jesus the Messiah, so too are the New Testament authors only able to know “in part” and write “in part” and understand “in part” and only according to their cultural worldviews, generation, and moment in time.
And though for centuries Christians have been taught that the New Testament authors were writing based on “inspiration” (and normally this implies they were given messages from outside of time, downloaded from heaven, and insight beyond their days) but in actuality they were LIMITED in their understanding and were unable to see beyond their cultural settings and their present time in history.
Meaning that just as knowledge, insight, and spiritual developments continued after Malachi, and that the Old Testament authors “didn’t have” the entire picture, so too does the Spirit continue to speak, reveal, add too, and bring more revelation to the Body-of-Christ AFTER the book of Revelation.
All this to say, the belief that the Holy Spirit stopped speaking or revealing information at the last book of the New Testament, is absolutely false.
But along with this, I have historical proof within the first few centuries after the book of Revelation was written that the Church at that time believed that the Spirit was continuing to speak, reveal, and teach like the original Apostles did, but now through those Bishops and Church fathers who continued in the place of Paul, Peter, and John.
Now, whether or not you believe they did is not the point. The point is that the Christians, right after the days of the original Apostles, believed God kept speaking, and this tells us that they at least understood that the book of Revelation wasn’t the end of God’s Word.
Aletheia: Truth in the Darkness 