The Bible: Difference Between Perfect and Complete

Due to the exchange with a cessationist, i was informed of his reaction and below is my brief rebuttal. So since you do not have all that he wrote, this post would seem a pretty much one sided. I agree. However i thought that what is discussed below might provok you to think some more and maybe discuss it.

Have a nice weekend in Jesus name,
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I read and i disagree with most of what he said obviously. I'll just take one, 'cause it might take a book to debunks most of what he said.

If i was you, I would be very careful with ambivalent statements like this:

"The chart was just intended to continue our discussion about whether or not the Bible (new testament) is God's completed revelation and therefore is the perfect of I Cor 13:10." - wrote the cessationist.

He is framing you into something that you didn't say. First, there is no equivalency between "the Bible is God's completed revelation" and "the bible is the perfect of 1Co 13:10." someone who has a partial or a portion of the bible such as having a Gedeon New Testament does not have an imperfect thing. The new
testament book is still a perfect revelation of what God want us to know in those writings, even though they do not represent a complete revelation due to the absence of the old testament. So it is incorrect to assume that God's completed revelation is tantamount to what is perfect. Whatever God has revealed
from the start was perfect though not yet complete to form the canon of the scripture.

Actually i even doubt that the New Testament itself has a complete revelation of what God has ever said and will ever say. It is merely complete for our current doctrinal need. Here are three examples of what i mean:

In John 21:25, John tell us in the Gospel that "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen". This point to the reality that not everything that Jesus ever did in this world is recorded. If they were, the scriptures would have been overwhelmingly huge.

2Co 12:3-4 "And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows); How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." If he heard things that cannot be spoken by a man, that means that we are informed that there is a knowledge he had access to but that he could not tell us. This clearly show again that the Bible contain, certe, the perfect word of God's revelation but not every word that God has ever spoken or will ever speak.

REVELATION 10:4 "And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, 'Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down' ". As you can also see in this text, there was a revelation that only John will ever know; for he was prohibited to write it down and by this making it non accessible to the rest of humanity including the church. These examples are just chosen to present the evidence of what i had just said about our understanding of what the complete revelation or word of God means.

When something is perfect we do not add into it. So it was, during the writings of the old scriptures. Many time, we are informed as we read it, that we should not add or remove because it comes from God. This shows that the Bible itself recognize the difference between that which is pure and perfect and that which
is complete. Man should not add to what God says, only God should. So it was the case from the old testament to the new testament as it is clearly spelled out in the verses below.

Deuteronomy 4:2 "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. "

Deuteronomy 12:32 "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."

Pro 30:5-6 "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."

Rev 22:18-19 "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. "

Gal 1:9-12 "As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."

This last one goes on the same direction that the previous texts. The gospels as we know it, meaning the good news is not from man but it is from Jesus Christ (therefore God). That shows why it shouldn't be changed. It is perfect for its purpose. But as we know it, when Paul wrote that, it was not his last time to
write an epistles hence a scripture. You see the same logic, Moses informed us that nothing should be added or remove and then he wrote again some more few chapters than he said again that what he just wrote should stay unchanged. Then the author of proverbs many century after write many scriptures and tell us that no one should add into them because they are pure (perfect). Then he writes again few more verses. Then many other people kept writing the scriptures as the Lord inspired them. So we see that even in the midst of perfection there is accumulation and growth of scriptural material. This is just to make sure that we do not seduce ourselves in our own thinking believing that perfection means the end of information.


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