Reviews by Hubie Goode: Historicity of the Old Testament Part 5

 

Historicity 

of the Old Testament

part 5

One of the things discussed in my post about the Historicity of the NEW TESTAMENT was the continuing witness of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper by early Christians as having been a linchpin to which scripture was accepted by these churches as being authentic when copies of scripture were presented to them years after the initial events. These two ordinances were established by Christ himself and then adopted by new believers as they became part of new churches and then spread out into the surrounding society. Had this not been the case, the New Testament, which describes the establishment of the ordinances, would never have been received as genuine in the first years of the church. They would have instead been rejected out right as false, due to the fact that the establishment was already in force and also had been relayed as being from other sources, and not Christ himself; if indeed these ordinances were in force at all. And if they had not even existed, then the rejection of scripture would have been even more of a non-event. But that is NOT what happened.

The Passover ceremony reflects in many ways the same sort of witness when it comes to the Old Testament. Higher critics attribute these books to other writers and priests hundreds of years after the life of Moses. The implication flatly stating that Moses existence is in dispute.

The book of Exodus describes in great detail the directions of God concerning the Passover celebration and its yearly observance. It delineates the events of the first Passover and Israel’s miraculous delivery from Egypt, which is commanded to be remembered by the children of Israel every year.

But suppose NONE of this had really happened. In supposed fact, let’s say a group of priests who lived about 700 A.D. got together to promote a formalized system of worship they had created in order to solidify their control over the populace of its day. They then developed a body of religious literature, with the help of various sources, in particular cementing their own position of religious power.  They then attributed the authority of scripture to the writing of Moses for the “name dropper” effect of credibility.

But, this would have been immediately rejected by those for whom the writing was intended as soon as the Passover feast was presented, for such a thing had NEVER been established, and the people would have known how phony the whole thing was. The response of course, would be that the documents which ordered the Passover observance had been lost in antiquity and therefore the feast was unfortunately forgotten with time. Many hard headed Israelites would have been reticent to ignore this decree as the documents describe an expensive and demanding priestly rule and restriction. They would have demanded firm proof of the authorship of Moses before ever coming under the “totalitarian” demands of scripture. Kings and rulers would have been especially dismissive as the books relay a rule by God over the people and not my a monarchy, as the governmental structure of the nation. The priests presenting these papers to the people would have been condemning themselves as the documents describe the necessity of the priesthood as the keepers of the religious institutions of Israel and were therefore no longer trustworthy.

The documents also describe the creation of other institutions such as, the Tabernacle, perpetual offerings, annual feasts and also the Levitical priesthood themselves. In fact, the priesthood was NOT to own land, as their inheritance comes from God, and this would have put a crimp in the power mongers for sure. None of these could have been instituted on the basis of rediscovery of ancient text, as they often punish the presenters themselves.

But let’s say that all these institutions had sprung up on their own with no help from Moses. Then the priesthood itself decided to crystallize them all with the creation of scriptures. In real life, effects require causes, and believability asserts that it is more likely that Moses delivered these decrees to the nation of Israel than it is that such “anit-egocentric” writing was easily accepted as truth. Due to the nature of the story line involved, the facts of the story are central to the existence of Israel itself, and therefore the institutions would have to have happened, and or been written about, but in any case established, immediately after the formation of the nation. 

However if the histories really took place, if Moses was actually the great leader and lawgiver that scripture indicates, then the institution of the Passover and the other articles of practice would never have been accepted by the people unless they corresponded with what they already knew to be true without great evidential proof of Moses’ authorship.

The writers could have been the most clever deceivers and charlatans ever known to mankind. They somehow made it all up! The creation, Earth’s history, the moving lives of the patriarchs, thrilling stories of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and then wandering in the desert for forty years, everyone dying in the desert and never seeing the promised land, the Ten Commandments and their impossible moral code which only points toward mankind’s complete inability to place himself in good standing before God. For thousands of years now, the world has been duped!

It is higher critics who have really been exposed here. Can anyone who reasons in such a way really be an honest man? Our neighbor’s true nature is plain to see for each of us and any tome which was “made up” that does not speak to the ego of man in some way, but instead to his pathetic fallen existence before God, would have been long forgotten.

The Old and New Testament stand! The testimony of the Passover. The unanimous acceptance of scripture by the early Christian church and their Jewish counterparts. The careful studies of Bible scholars. The penetrating discoveries of scientific archeology. The impact of the Old Testament on all of world history. The testimony of Christ himself.  All these thing unite in a message that the Old Testament, and in fact the Bible itself, is undeniably true.