For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory:  ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’  And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

II Peter 1:17 & 18

What does Peter mean when he says, ‘For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.’  Our text answers the question by referring us to a specific incident in the life of Christ, which Matthew records. He details that Christ took Peter, James, and John and ‘led them up on a high mountain by themselves.’  There, ‘He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking, with Him.’  Peter refers to this when he says, ‘For we did not follow cunningly devised fables.’  He includes himself with two other witnesses who saw exactly the same thing.  We can expand this far beyond this one occasion to a host of others where the disciples, who became the Apostles, saw and heard that which Christ said and did.  When the enemies of Christ challenged them and forbad them to speak of Christ, their response was, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.’  The foundations of Christianity rest upon eyewitness accounts related by more than one person about numerous incidents.  Therefore it stands upon solid ground and is worthy of our faith and our declaration.

Our All-powerful and All-wise God,
we rejoice that our faith stands upon a firm foundation.
We praise You that You have given to us the testimony
of the eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory:  ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’  And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

II Peter 1:17 & 18

What does Peter mean when he says, ‘For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.’  Our text answers the question by referring us to a specific incident in the life of Christ, which Matthew records. He details that Christ took Peter, James, and John and ‘led them up on a high mountain by themselves.’  There, ‘He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking, with Him.’  Peter refers to this when he says, ‘For we did not follow cunningly devised fables.’  He includes himself with two other witnesses who saw exactly the same thing.  We can expand this far beyond this one occasion to a host of others where the disciples, who became the Apostles, saw and heard that which Christ said and did.  When the enemies of Christ challenged them and forbad them to speak of Christ, their response was, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.’  The foundations of Christianity rest upon eyewitness accounts related by more than one person about numerous incidents.  Therefore it stands upon solid ground and is worthy of our faith and our declaration.

Our All-powerful and All-wise God,
we rejoice that our faith stands upon a firm foundation.
We praise You that You have given to us the testimony
of the eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

II Peter 1:20-21

Who wrote the Bible?  We recognize that there are about forty different authors of works we include in the canon of Scripture.  In our text, Peter clarifies how the Scriptures came to be.  He says that the Scripture is not of private interpretation, that is, it is not the product of the individual writer’s imagination or opinion.  Rather, Peter traces the origin of the Scripture to the Holy Spirit.  He remarks that these authors, ‘spoke as they were borne along by the Holy Spirit.’  It is important that we understand this for several reasons.  It will lead us to the conclusion that if the Scripture is of such origin, then it is inspired, inerrant, and infallible.  Peter was, referring primarily to the Old Testament, which Christ said testified of Him.  Peter declares that the Holy Spirit was in operation in the Old Testament in the lives of these who were testifying of the coming Christ.  This inspiration occurred during the course of their natural, daily lives.  Therefore, we conclude that these writers of Scripture had the Holy Spirit dwelling within them and filling them to write what would become the foundation of the New Testament.  The writer of the Scripture is the Holy Spirit.

Our Glorious and Wise God,
we rejoice that You have given us the Scriptures.
We praise You that You have used people
to write the Scripture as You inspired them,
that we may have before us the very words of God.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning