Dr. Dwight Pentecost Comments On The New TestamentRecently, I was reminded by a friend about some comments made by Dr. Dwight Pentecost in his book "Thy Kingdom Come". Dr. Pentecost is a distinguished theologian on the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary. Those who know me, also know that I don't follow the teachings of theologians just because of their credentials. In my opinion, believers in Christ should possess their own specific knowledge of God's Word and not have an unhealthy dependancy on others to interpret the Bible's message for them. The practice of relying on a leader's "credentials" and educational background aggravates the problems in the modern church in my opinion. Yet, some theologians see the same corruption and distortions in church doctrine that many of us see. These precious men are attempting to use their knowledge and position to correct these Scriptural distortions. Dr. Pentecost's words sheds more light on our discussion in this study. Below is a quote from Chapter 17 page 184 of his book. "Chronologically speaking, there is a 400-year gap between Malachi and Matthew. Logically and thematically, however, there is no gap at all (meaning that the Law still continued from Malachi to Matthew despite this gap of time). The New Testament immediately takes up where the Old Testament prophets left off. In fact, "technically" the New Testament does not begin with Matthew, but with the book of Acts."Some readers may be tempted to assume that our beliefs concerning the actual "starting point" of the New Testament is some sort of "private doctrine". The reason I include Dr. Pentecost's comments here is to illustrate that other theologians are also attempting to correct some of our flawed traditional beliefs about the Bible. However, including these comments does not mean that we necessarily endorse everything else Dr. Pentecost teaches. Yet, the faculty position he holds at a highly recognized seminary shows that this is not some kind of "fringe" belief. It represents a neglected truth we should all consider very carefully, even though it runs counter to our traditional thinking. |
