2/22/17
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
In this week’s Epistle, from 2 Peter 1, the apostle points out the certainty of the Gospel. In our day there are all sorts of truth claims out there. A confusing truth claim that we have recently developed is that of “fake news” or “alternative truth.” The long and short of it is that there are competing claims to truth. Some of the claimants have good sources, some do not. It was not all that different in the apostolic age.
Peter says that the facts of the Gospel are just that. They are facts. The prophecies of Christ were not some sort of secret hidden knowledge. The writers of Scripture were not just making it up as they went. They were speaking in agreement with God.
The revelation of Jesus, God the Son, is even more plain. When Peter was writing there were still plenty of people alive who had seen Jesus face to face. They had heard his teaching. Many had eaten with him. The apostles were writing eyewitness accounts of the truth. They were not making anything up. If they had been, they would certainly have been disproved.
Jesus, the one whose life and work can be verified, came to his people and presented himself, after rising from the dead, as the one who would make all who believed on him rise from the dead also. Why do we doubt it? He has proven reliable in every other regard. It is the most reasonable thing in the world to believe that this claim is also trustworthy.
Peter, then, presents Jesus as the true and final revelation of God. He is the one we can trust. This is no alternative fact.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
In this week’s Epistle, from 2 Peter 1, the apostle points out the certainty of the Gospel. In our day there are all sorts of truth claims out there. A confusing truth claim that we have recently developed is that of “fake news” or “alternative truth.” The long and short of it is that there are competing claims to truth. Some of the claimants have good sources, some do not. It was not all that different in the apostolic age.
Peter says that the facts of the Gospel are just that. They are facts. The prophecies of Christ were not some sort of secret hidden knowledge. The writers of Scripture were not just making it up as they went. They were speaking in agreement with God.
The revelation of Jesus, God the Son, is even more plain. When Peter was writing there were still plenty of people alive who had seen Jesus face to face. They had heard his teaching. Many had eaten with him. The apostles were writing eyewitness accounts of the truth. They were not making anything up. If they had been, they would certainly have been disproved.
Jesus, the one whose life and work can be verified, came to his people and presented himself, after rising from the dead, as the one who would make all who believed on him rise from the dead also. Why do we doubt it? He has proven reliable in every other regard. It is the most reasonable thing in the world to believe that this claim is also trustworthy.
Peter, then, presents Jesus as the true and final revelation of God. He is the one we can trust. This is no alternative fact.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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