Question Concering The Circulation Of The Scriptures

According to the gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Lord was annointed with precious ointment by a woman from a box of alabaster. On that day Jesus prophesied that,

"Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."

With this prophecy in mind, please answer this question: has there been any preacher of the gospel since the days of Christ who did not have access to the record of this woman's good deed to the Savior?

Mark Osgatharp

 

RSR,

I say that prophecy is history written in advance. Can you say "Amen" to that?

Mark Osgatharp

 

Diane,

Jesus said that "wheresoever" the gospel was preached this deed would be made known. Therefore the idea that there might have been a time or place where the record of this event was lost to the Lord's people is unthinkable.

Since this prophecy is found only in the books of Matthew and Mark, it compels us to believe that there was no place on earth where the gospel was preached where at least one of these gospels was not known.

So much for the idea that some of the Lord's churches had only fragments of the gospel available to them - unless, that is, someone would like to try to build an argument that every church that had a fragment had a fragment that contained this incident.

Mark Osgatharp

 

Danny,

Since we know the knowledge of this incident went wherever the gospel was preached, it had to be transmitted and preserved by some method. Since we know it was written down by Matthew and Mark we know that it was transmitted through their writings.

Do you have evidence that some of the places where the gospel was preached received this bit of gospel knowledge only in oral form? Remember that Jesus said it went in every place "wheresoever" the gospel was preached.

Mark Osgatharp

 

One of my reasons for introducing this in the historical section is that the fellows there were charging that I fabricated history by making historical assertions based only on prophecy. But those who say this event was transmitted only orally do the same thing. They assume that the written gospels were not generally circulated till years after the apostles and on that basis assume that this event must have been transmitted orally.

It is theoretically possible the incident was orally transmitted, it's just that I have no evidence that it, in fact, was. I do have evidence that it was transmitted via the Scriptures; namely by the gospels of Matthew and Mark.

Mark Osgatharp

 

Danny,

Because the charge to a gospel preacher is to "preach the word" - not tradition, reason, experience, culture. These things may be used to illustrate the word and show how it applies to our lives, but they are not, or at least ought not to be, the basis of our preaching.

Mark Osgatharp

 

This is an impossibility because athiests can't preach the gospel. As Paul said, "how shall they preach accept they be sent?"

Mark Osgatharp

 

Swaimj,

While the apostles and others who saw the Lord first hand were still living they were the "oracles" so to speak. They were the authoritative voice of truth and they authenticated their message with miraculous signs. Furthermore, there were miraculously endowed prophets raised up within the churches both to deliver and discern the message.

But when they were dead the Scriptures became the exclusive authority for truth. Obviously, the Scriptures had to be written while these inspired men were still alive or they would not have carried authoritative weight.

Not that the Scriptures were the sole, or even primary, method of spreading the gospel. Preaching was the primary means of spreading the message but the Scriptures were the authoritative record of the message for the churches. Without them the message preached would have been just so much hearsay.

Mark Osgatharp

 

Dr. Bob,

You have captured my point precisely. It is not at all reasonable to believe that everywhere someone preached they preached about the woman's deed. God has blessed me to preach all over this country and in one foreign country and I have only ever mentioned this incident a couple of times and can't say I've ever heard anyone else preach about it.

We don't have any record in Acts or the epistles that anyone ever mentioned this woman or her deed. The obvious ramification of Jesus words is that the record of this incident followed in all places in the world "wheresoever" the gospel went. And He didn't say that it would only happen after the Council of Carthage or after the printing press was invented.

I just don't understand why so many people are intent on believing that God let the New Testament fall into oblivion for hundreds of years, unless it be to bolster unbiblical ideas of Catholicism, modernism, and charismaticism.

Mark Osgatharp