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Chapter 2
The Testimony of Scripture
The authority of the Bible comes not from the caliber of its human authors but from the character of its divine Author.
—John Blanchard
It is twenty minutes before the symphony is scheduled to start. The audience has gathered in anticipation, waiting for an entertaining evening of musical excellence. There is an excited hum from the gathered patrons, for this is the event of the year.
The stage is empty save for the seating that has been arranged for the orchestra. In front of the chairs stands the podium from which the program will be conducted.
One by one, the musicians slowly come out to take their place and pick up their particular instruments. Each one begins to warm up. Some are going through finger exercises. Others may be putting in a final practice of a difficult measure. There may be a final tweak to the tuning of one of their strings. Everyone is doing their own thing to get ready for the performance.
What emits from the stage is a cacophony of disjointed sounds, none of which is in harmony with the others around them. It can be described as an assault on the ears. Each sound on its own might sound very melodic, but taken all together, it is a jumble of sounds with no discernable rhyme nor reason.
At the appointed time, the conductor walks across the stage. A hush settles across the audience. As he mounts the platform and taps his baton on the music stand, the eyes of every musician are transfixed on the conductor.
Paused at the ready.
Waiting for his direction.
With a sudden flourish, the conductor hits the downbeat, and the orchestra erupts with the most beautiful symphony the audience has ever heard. Each instrument is playing with perfect harmony, every part as important as the next. Years of practice and lessons are driving each individual performance. They join together and lift the listeners to heights of ecstasy as only tightly crafted music can do.
They are playing a composition of the conductor. He knows exactly how he wants it to sound. What is produced is a unified, beautiful work of art.
Similarly, the Scripture can be viewed as a work of art—complex yet beautiful in the weaving of it.
Throughout the Old Testament, God would reveal to each individual prophet a nugget of truth. Each nugget is beautiful in its own right, yet none of the prophets saw the entire picture. They saw only in part.
A golden nugget here.
A prediction there.
But, they were incomplete standing alone.
Then, the author of the symphony walked across the stage. As the conductor mounted a hill called Golgotha, a hush settled upon all creation. All were still and silent as they gazed upon the spectacle.
With a flourish, the stone rolls back, revealing an empty tomb. From its depths comes a symphony written by the very hand of God himself. All creation erupts in an explosion of Joy. All who have been patiently waiting to hear its opening notes are transported to heights of rapture.
Everything makes sense now. It has all come together. He is risen!
And it was all foretold in bits and pieces throughout the Scriptures.
Down through the ages, God had used many different men to record in written form his holy Word. They would come from a variety of backgrounds. Prophets, shepherds, dreamers, and kings were all employed to bring together the canon of Scripture.
Behind it all, there was one single author. One guiding hand directed its transmission. Breathed out from the very essence of God, it was the gradual unveiling of God’s plan to redeem man.
What a wonder it was when the composer of life himself walked across the stage of humanity. The one whom the prophets had unknowingly spoken of presented himself to mankind. What had been written was now living among us—the living Word of God.
During his time here, Jesus had made some rather bold claims concerning his nature. I am amazed that there are some today who try to say that Jesus never claimed to be deity. A close reading of his words makes it very clear what his claims were.
At one point, Jesus had made the statement that Abraham had rejoiced to see his day. When the Pharisees had challenged him on that point, Jesus replied, “Before Abraham was, I am!” He clearly identified himself as the “I am” of the Old Testament.
In the upper room, Jesus had said to his disciples, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and my Father are one.”
It was a bold statement, yet he did not openly present himself as such to the general populace.
There were two major questions that occupied the thought of the religious leaders of Jesus’s day:
“By what authority do you perform these miracles?”
But underneath all of these inquiries was the underlying question, “Just who in the world are you?”
The dispute had at times become acrimonious. The Pharisees fairly seethed with anger while Jesus, though firm in his answers, kept a calm demeanor about himself.
The discussion had been ongoing for several months. It would come to a head with the healing of the lame man by the pool of Siloam. Jesus had said to the lame man, “Arise. Take up thy bed and walk.”
The most amazing thing had happened. Everybody knew this man could not walk, yet he got up, took his bedding, and jubilantly began to walk away.
Ah, but here was the rub. It was the Sabbath. He had not gone but a few steps when he was stopped by the Pharisees and told, “It is not lawful for you to carry a burden on the Sabbath!”
When they determined that it was Jesus who had healed the lame man, they once again brought out the old challenge: “...
