Beholding the Beauty

Eureka! Eureka! Eureka! No, I'm not running naked down the streets of old Syracuse . Why so excited, Steve? Call it a little thing, but it always bothered me when Paul writes in Romans 3:10, "As it is written," and proceeds with a litany of accusations against the world that, with the exception of the rest of verse 10, is not found as a single passage anywhere in the Bible, yet it seems like he's quoting a single passage. For eight verses, Paul is quoting Old Testament Scripture. But where is it found? Some Bibles have references in the margins. Most Bibles reference the following verses, and have Paul bouncing all over the Scripture. Go ahead, look them up and compare. I'll wait. Rom. 3:10b-12 Ps. 14:1b-3 Rom. 3:13a Ps. 5:9 Rom. 3:13b Ps. 140:3 Rom. 3:14 Ps. 10:7 Rom. 3:15-17 Is. 59:7, 8 Rom. 3:18 Ps. 36:1 You're back. Ok, that's a fairly decent compilation. So that solves the "where's it written?" question. 1 Sort of. It's alwa...

From here. St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 3:3) …”you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” This gives a new meaning to the “New Testament Church.” Now we can see that it means the Church which is the “New Testament,” and this same New Testament continues to be read in the Churches who have preserved that same faith. It is simply not enough to study the Scriptures. We must become the Scriptures so that all might read Christ in our heart and know the Truth of the gospel. Talk about the gospel will not save the world. Only the gospel enfleshed in human lives can be said to constitute preaching. This is what Christians are ordained (Baptized) to do.