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>>Ankerberg:And then you have the core elements, the traditional teaching that comes in creedal
statements. You have got the singing, the hymns, that are just loaded with theology.
And you have got the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But then the apostle’s
letters start to come out. We said they came out, you know, pretty early; in the 40s. If
Jesus died in the 30s, the fact is, that is 10-15 years down the pike. That is a pretty
short period of time. And then they start to die off in the 60s-70s, and John probably
up there close to 100, but they’re all dead by 100.
The information that they gave to us is what we are centering on now. And that is that
they claimed, when they spoke orally, to be communicating the word of God. And then when
they wrote their books, these letters, the community believed what they were saying,
that these were Scripture. They believed, I am not arguing for inerrancy right now,
what I am just saying is the Christian community at that time said this stuff is special, and
they collected it. And the special stuff was all done by the time we got to 100 AD.
Now, one of the ways you can find that out is that the apostles had students, okay? And
now you came to, say, Clement of Rome, who is around 95 AD. And you have got Polycarp
who is the student of John. And you have got Ignatius, and you have got Papias, and then
a little later on you’ve got Irenaeus. And then you start going down this list of the
students of the students. But what I want to focus on and where I need your help, Darrell,
is the fact is, what did some of the students say about the writings of the apostles and
who wrote it and how it came down?
>>Bock: Well, very early on, in fact, in the very first writings we have from this outside
the apostolic period, we get the recognition that that period was unique, and that there
is something going on uniquely in that period that the church is related to and that builds
around. So, for example, we get Clement of Rome writing in his epistle of First Clement
chapter 42, “The apostles received the gospels for us from the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
was sent forth from God. So then Christ is from God and the apostles are from Christ.
Both therefore came from the will of God in the appointed order. Having therefore received
a charge, and having been fully assured through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
and confirmed in the word of God with full assurance of the Holy Spirit, they went forth
with the glad tidings that the Kingdom of God should come. So, preaching everywhere
in country and town, they appointed their first fruits when they had proved them by
the Spirit to be Bishops and Deacons unto them that should believe.”
So we have got Christ; we have got the apostles who represent the message of Christ; we have
got them preaching around the world; we have got them planting and leaving churches and
leaving Bishops and Deacons in charge. That’s what that quote is saying. But there is a
recognition that there is something special happening with the apostles, and that we don’t
have more apostles, you know. We don’t have more apostles after the apostles die, in this
technical sense of the term. That is a unique group because of their direct exposure to
Jesus Christ.
>>Ankerberg: And what is interesting, Dan, is the fact is that you have Clement being
appointed by Peter. Wasn’t he appointed by Peter to be the Bishop at Rome?
>>Wallace Yes.
>>Ankerberg: So here you have got again another student of a living apostle making that kind
of a statement which is, you know, in terms of historical literature this is pretty solid
stuff.
>>Wallace Exactly. In fact, there has been a good deal of evidence that when Eusebius
is beginning to think about the canon, what he does is he goes back through the annals
of all the records he has got. And he can trace what is called the homologoumena, that
is, the books, the core books – and I know we will get to this in another program – but
the core books that everyone has accepted by the end of the 2nd century. Twenty books
at least that they say, we know these go back to the apostles. And Eusebius went and traced
it through the major churches of the Mediterranean world from Bishop back to Bishop back to Bishop
back to Bishop back to the apostles.