January 30, 2008 Acts 20:28

01/30/2008

Acts 20:28 - 31 (HCSB)

²⁸Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. ²⁹I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰And men from among yourselves will rise up with deviant doctrines to lure the disciples into following them. ³¹Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears.

Paul was leaving Ephesus and he knew he would most likely never return. He wanted to go to Jerusalem and knew that there; he would face his final challenge. He spoke these words in farewell to the Ephesian church.

An interesting side note, the Greek word for “overseers” is episkopous, from which we get the word Episcopal.

Paul’s warning was that some would come in teaching spurious doctrines; even some from within the church would do so. The Greek literally says that they will be “speaking having been perverted.” The point is that what these people will teach will not be consistent with the Gospel of Jesus. Paul calls these people wolves. A wolf is not one that comes into the flock with simply misguided ideas, a wolf is someone who comes in with the clear motive of destruction.

I was standing in a bookstore yesterday and there on the rack by the counter, was a US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT special edition entitled “The Truth About Christianity” (I believe this was the title – or some variation thereof). I scanned the table of contents and there were things like “the missing books of the Bible” and other topics that cast aspersions on the Gospel.

We know that in the first and second centuries, many spurious teachings emerged under the guise of “Christianity.” Paul specifically warned about this, and sure enough, it happened. As we look back, we can find dozens if not hundreds of ancient documents that expound a gospel inconsistent from that spoken by Paul and the other Apostles (not to mention Jesus Himself). You may have heard a lot of hubbub about “the Gospel according to Judas” that surfaced a few years ago.

While the document (only one manuscript that I am aware of) does appear to be from the first or second century, there is no real evidence that it is *authentic*. It would be the same as if I were to write an autobiography of JFK and then try to pass it off as authentic.

Yes, there are many ancient writings that are not in the Bible, but that does not mean they *should* be in the Bible. Plato’s writings are not in the Bible, but no one argues that they should be.

Let me share with you how our New Testament was assembled. In about 430 A.D. a church council was held in which the plethora of “gospels” were examined. The council very correctly decided that the only accounts that would be considered in the canon of scripture would be: 1) corroborated and verified letters and testimonies from any of the Apostles and 2) corroborated and verified eye-witness accounts.

By corroborated, I mean multiple copies (tens to hundreds) existed that each agree with the others; and verified means that the authenticity of authorship is not in question.

There have been a couple of manuscripts of a supposed “Gospel of Thomas” but they are incomplete and cannot be verified as authentic. The manuscript of the Gospel of Judas cannot be verified either. And since we have multiple accounts *that are verified* that Judas committed suicide, then it is not reasonable to believe that the Gospel of Judas is authentic.

Paul was right; wolves have come in with perverted ideas and try to lure people away. There were wolves in Paul’s day and there are wolves in our day. Watch out for wolves who try to lure you away.

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