The Bible...how it came to be

 Have you ever wondered where we got our Bible from? We read it each Sunday in worship and we accept its authority in our lives, at least some of us do. 
There are some important basic terms that we need to understand:
Autograph - the original texts were written either by the author's own hand or by a scribe under their personal supervision.
Manuscripts - until Gutenberg first printed the Latin bible in 1465, all Bibles were hand copied on to papyrus, parchment and paper.
Translation - usually translated from the original Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic.
The earliest collection of written words of God was the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments thus form the beginning of the biblical canon - Exodus 31.18. We read in Deuteronomy 31.24-26 that Moses wrote additional words that were also to be stored in the Ark of the Covenant - these being the first five books of the Bible. The content of the OT canon continued to grow until the end of the writing process with Malachi around 435BC. After the date of the reign of Artaxerxes there is no further additions to the OT canon.
We have in this intervening period until the emergence of the NT books the books called the Apocrypha which are not accepted as being canonical. The NT canon began with the writing of the apostles - to be an Apostle you had to have me the risen Christ, hence Paul's Damascus road encounter - not just for his conversion but also so that his writings would be canonical. By AD397 the Church in the East and West had agreed on the canon of Scripture.
Old Testament: written in Hebrew and Aramaic, but there are no known autographs of any OT books. The Dead Sea Scrolls date from 200BC-70AD and contain the entire book of Isaiah and portions of every other OT book but Esther.
Geniza Fragments - portions of the OT in Hebrew and Aramaic discovered in 1947 in an old synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, which date from 400AD.
Ben Asher Manuscript - five or six generations of this family made copies of the OT using the Masoretic Hebrew text, from 700-950AD. Two examples of the Masoretic text-type:
Aleppo Codex - contains the complete OT and is dated around 950AD. What is unfortunate is that in 1947 a quarter of this text was destroyed in anti-Jewish riots.
Codex Leningradensis - the complete OT in Hebrew copied by the last member of the Ben Asher family in AD1008.
400BC - the OT began to be translated into Aramaic. This is called the Aramaic Targums - it helped the Jewish people, who began to speak Aramaic from the time of their Babylonian captivity, to read the OT in their own language.
250BC - the OT was translated into Greek - Septuagint or you sometimes see it written as LXX (Roman numeral for 70) because it is believed that 70 to 72 translators worked on the translation. This was the translation used by the early church and copies of it exist from 100AD.
 As you know our Bible is made up of 66 books, 39 in the OT and 27 in the NT. These 66 books were written over a 1500 year period by more than 40 authors. They are arranged in broad groups:
Legal - Genesis through Deuteronomy, generally accepted to have been authored by Moses. These are called the Torah or the Pentateuch.
Historical - Joshua through Esther - these 12 books trace the historical development, the disobedience, the downfall and the deliverance of the people of God, the nation of Israel.
Poetical Books - Job through Song of Songs (Solomon). Job is a book of poetic laments mainly concerned with suffering and then we have the book of Psalms full of praise, pleas etc and finally the words of Wisdom of Solomon.
Prophetic Books - we call some of the major and the minor prophets - which has to do with the length of the book and not the importance of the author or its content. This takes us from Isaiah through to Malachi. These books address the people of God after the kingdom of Israel has been divided into a northern and southern kingdoms. These books contain God's call, through the prophets, to His people to repent of their sin and to return to Him.
New Testament - written in common Greek. There are over 5,600 early Greek Manuscripts of the NT still in existence today, written on papyrus (earliest) and parchment (later copies). The earliest manuscript which dates most closely to the original autograph is dated 125AD, within 35 years of the original - it is designated p.52 and contains a portion of John 18. The 'p' stands for papyrus.
By AD 200 we have extant copies of the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews, along with a large part of John's gospel. By 225AD we have copies of Luke and John in papyrus and 25 years later we have the four gospels and Acts in a complete papyrus - p45 Chester Beatty biblical papyrus. 350 AD Codex Sinaiticus we have the complete NT as we know it today and it also contains almost all of the OT in Greek - discovered in a monastery at Mt. Sinai. The NT is made up of the following types of books:
Biographical Books - the four gospels. Each gospel was written to a different audience and emphasise different aspects of Jesus' life, ministry, death and resurrection.
Matthew - is a Jewish gospel, concerned with the kingdom of God. Christ is the King and the Teacher in this gospel
Mark - Jesus is the Servant in this gospel. Peter is the eye witness disciple for Mark.
Luke - being a doctor has a lot of healing miracles and conversational Jesus, who is Son of Man.
John - written for a Greek audience and he deals with Jesus as the logos - the Word made flesh.
Historical - Book of Acts which provides us with the story of the spread of the gospel and the birth and growth of the early church.
Doctrinal books - Romans through Jude. The main author being Paul who wrote 13 of those books, with James, John, Peter and Jude being the authors of the rest. These books apply the gospel to the life of individual believers and community of believers.
Prophetic or Apocalyptic - John is given a vision of the end times when Christ will return in glory, judgment and power.
There are four key links in the chain - Revelation/Inspiration; Canonisation; Transmission and Translation.
Inspiration - I want to make it clear that when we speak of inspiration we are not thinking of God taking over someone's mind and the person becoming a human typewriter. God did not bypass the faculties of men to write Scripture. 2 Timothy 3 verses 16-17 tell us that Scripture is inspired. Paul uses a word which literally translated means 'God-breathed' (theopnuestos) when he speaks of inspiration. You cannot speak without breathing and breath means that you are living - hence God-breathed - the Word of God has life and is a living thing. So God breathed out his Word which was written down by human agents. 
Canonisation - was the process by which the Church came to recognise, accept and agree upon the 66 books in Scripture. The Church accepted the OT as those books that were accepted by Judaism in the time of Christ - 39 books. When it came to what would be included in the NT the church applied the following criteria:
Apostolic authority - that is, they must have been written either by and apostle themselves, who were eyewitnesses to what they wrote about, or by associates of the apostles.
Conformity to what was called the "rule of faith" - in other words, was the document congruent with the basic Christian tradition that the church recognised as normative.
Third, there was the criterion of whether the document had enjoyed continuous acceptance and usage by the church at large.
Example - the gospel of Thomas was rejected because it did not have apostolic authority, no early church father ever quotes from it. It does not conform to the rule of faith as it contains 114 secret sayings of Jesus - one of which denies salvation to women unless they become male and it fails continuous use because of the lack of manuscript evidence and no quotes from the early church fathers.
Transmission and Translation - the accurate writing down and translation of the bible from the original languages to the languages of today.  Take sometime this week and read the preface to your bible and see what was involved in the translation of your bible into English.
In finishing let me make a few practical suggestions to you concerning our use of the Bible:
The Bible was written to be read out loud - not to read as we read - but to be heard and to be read not as a snippet but as a complete book. Jonah was written to be read as a complete story, not just a few verses here and there.
How do you read your bible? Let me use an illustration to get you thinking about how you read your bible. I want you to think about how you eat a cinnamon lozenge or similar sweet? Do you pop it in your mouth and then after a few seconds bite down on it and crunch it to pieces or do you savour every moment of it? Allowing it to dissolve and melt in your mouth? The latter is how you should read the Bible -  read - Isaiah 31 v 4 - the word their 'growl' is how we are to read the Word of God. The Hebrew word 'growl' is hagah which is usually translated as 'meditate', as in Psalm 1 verse 2 or Psalm 63 verse 6. The word 'meditate' is a tame word for reading the word of God. Reading the Bible is an active, participatory event. It is not about wolfing down information but about taking time, thinking, ruminating, savouring the words of God. You see we need to regain a 'deep trust in the power of words' (a phrase used by the poet Coleridge) which will bring us into the presence of God and change our lives. Rainer Maria Rilke said this about reading, and I think it is essential for us to apply it our reading of Scripture: the writer requires a reader who "does not always remain bent over his pages; he often leans back and closes his eyes over a line he has been reading again, and its meaning spreads through his blood."
That is the kind of reading we need to cultivate and reclaim when reading the Bible. Reading which enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood, and becomes holiness, love, wisdom and witness in our lives.
Kafka said this about reading, "If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?...A book must be like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us." Be honest with yourself - don't you need the Word of God to act as an ice-axe to break through the frozen ice of your life? Well that will only happen when you read the Word of God - taking time and purpose to hear and not just biting and crunching it as information.
Amen.

We are sent...

We are sent...Acts 1.6‐11
Allow me to ask you a question: Have you ever been sent with a message to someone?  Of course you have.  No doubt, as a child your mum or dad sent you off somewhere with a message or on an errand.  So we understand what it means to be sent.  We are given a task, a message, a mission to complete by someone. 
Acts is the second of Luke’s books in the New Testament. His gospel covered roughly 33 years of the life of Christ and this book covers roughly 33 years of the life of the Church.    The book of Acts is addressed to Theophilus (v3), who was most likely an official resident in Rome.  The two main characters of Acts are Peter and then Paul. The two main topics of conversation are the kingdom of God and the Spirit of God.  Most people know  of  the  Day  of  Pentecost in  Acts  and  even  then  it  is  misunderstood, misinterpreted and misapplied.  But that is for another day.  Read 6‐11.  I want to concentrate on verses 6‐8.


Verses 6‐8 The Mandate to Witness.  These three verses actually set the scene for the book of Acts. In these verses the church receives its commission. You know what a commission is?  A commission is an authoritative order, charge or direction.   For example you can receive a commission in the armed forces – the certificate comes with a royal seal and signature – assigning you authority and rank.  So as we read these verses I want you to keep in mind that definition – that the disciples and the church of God receive an authoritative order, charge and direction.
Verse 6 – Luke begins verse 6 with a simple little word ‘so.’  If you read through the rest of Acts you will see that it is one of his favourite words for connecting paragraphs together.  The disciples ask Jesus a question:  Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?’  They had still failed to understand what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God. They had seen Christ die on the cross and rise from the dead but their minds are still focused on the restoration of Israel as a nation.   Could I suggest that many people who claim to follow Christ still misunderstand the kingdom of God and still focus on temporal things within the Church.  The disciples were expecting a political and territorial kingdom to be restored to Israel. Jesus had something entirely different in mind. They also expect it to happen immediately – ‘at this time’, showing once again their temporal understanding of the things of the kingdom of God.


Verse 7 – the disciples need their thinking and understanding to be revised and to understand the divine commission that they are about to be given.   For all of us we need to understand exactly what it is we have been commissioned as a church to do. Leaders, you especially  need to take this on board. The disciples had been asking about the restoration of the kingdom of Israel.  Jesus answers by telling them that the times and dates of seasons are not of their concern.   They must be willing to be ignorant of such details and to be content with what God does reveal.  How I wish so many people would take heed of this verse.  The endless books and hours wasted by Christians trying to figure out what God has not revealed, and had not planned to reveal to man, vastly swamps the time and effort put into obeying what God has revealed.  The ‘times and dates’ is Luke’s shorthand for the character of the age preceding the final consummation of  God’s plan.    God  has set this  by  His  authority and  therefore Jesus tells the disciples, and us, that it is not to be subject to the speculation of men.


Verse 8 ‘But’ – one of the great words of Scripture – bringing our attention to something significant, and here is no different.   The disciples and we also, are not to speculate about times and dates because we will receive power and a commission from God.  Read this verse closely and slowly – here is your commissioning as a Christian.
First – you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.   In 10 days from now the disciples will receive the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.  You received the Holy Spirit when you came to Christ Jesus and were born again.  When you confessed your sins, died to yourself and you rose again a new creation in Christ Jesus.
They will receive power for a purpose: to be witnesses. Do you notice the little word ‘my’ before the word ‘witnesses.’   There is the authority, the commissioning authority, directive to action – my witnesses. They are not to go and tell people what they think or what they wish to hear. They are to bear  testimony,  witness,  to  Christ  Jesus  –  to  His  life,  death,  resurrection,  ascension,  and  his imminent return.
Their commissioning comes with a promise and a gift (the Holy Spirit), as does ours.  The concern of the commissioning is the person of Jesus Christ.  The power of the commissioning is the Holy Spirit
and  then  comes  the  plan  of  their  commissioning  –  begin  in  Jerusalem  and  travel  outwards. Therefore you disciples, you the church, are to be a missionary body which: Acts on Christ’s behalf in the extension of His ministry.   Do you understand that commissioning today?   Do you realise you are an extension of the ministry of Christ?   That is part of the commissioning given to the Christian church by Christ to and through the disciples on the day of His ascension into heaven.


The focus of that commission was, and is still, the proclamation of the kingdom of God in its witness to Christ Jesus. We sometimes hear the media talk about ‘staying on message’. The Christian church must stay on message – the witness to Christ Jesus.  You must stay on message – the witness to Christ Jesus.


This commissioning is guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit. He is the promised gift to enable us to be Christ’s witnesses today.   The army does not commission and officer without training and equipping him for the task ahead.  God has equipped you with the gift of the Holy Spirit and He has provided you with His revealed Word to train you in righteousness so as Paul says to the young Timothy – that you might be thoroughly equipped to do every good work, every good work that God has prepared in advance for you to do.


This commissioning comes with a plan – to start in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria and finally the ends of the earth.   Your commissioning is to start in your church, your city and then the ends of the earth.  Some of the early disciples never left Jerusalem, some got no further than Judea, some Samaria and then some travelled the known world of the day bearing witness to Christ.  It was not that every one of them had to travel to the ends of the earth, BUT – hear this, every one of them was to bear witness.  Every one of them was commissioned to authoritative directive of being a witness.  You may never go beyond your church but that does not excuse you from being a witness.  Some of you may bear witness further afield, but all of us must bear witness.
I want you to note  the kingdom of God is spread by witnesses and not soldiers.  Secondly, I want you to note that the expansion of the kingdom of God is gradual.  soul work is slow work.


We are a sent people.  We have been commissioned by Christ to be His witnesses – are we doing that?

In the power of the Holy spirit

John 14.15‐27 In the Power of the Holy Spirit
Sometimes with hindsight you realise the significance of something that someone has said to you.  It might have been a last conversation with a loved one or a friend.  The same is happening in the passage    In John’s gospel from 13.1‐17.26 we have the farewell discourse of Christ with His disciples.  They are in the Upper Room, celebrating the Passover,  with  Christ  inaugurating  the  Lord’s  Supper.    Our  reading  this  morning  from chapter 14 is set in the context of Christ preparing His disciples for his impending departure. The cross is only a matter of hours away.  They do not know or realise that fact but Christ knows.  So turn with me to chapter 14 verses 15‐27.

Verse 15 – sets the scene of this part of the discourse between Christ and His disciples.  This verse ties the passage to the previous 14 verses.   The prospect of doing greater things, which Christ has mentioned in verse 12, requires enabling power.  So Christ begins with ‘If you love me...’ ‐ this is the controlling part of verses 15‐21.  He does not assume they love Him, nor does He assume that they do not love Him.  He projects a condition and stipulates its entailment.  In 13 verse 1 we read that Christ had demonstrated His love for them and in the same chapter verses 34‐35 He had commanded them to love one another.   Now He speaks of the first time in the gospel of John of their love for Him.
He makes an uncompromising connection between love and obedience.  If you love me you will obey my commandments.   Love and obedience are coupled together and both are associated with the coming of the ‘Comforter.’   Let no one  be under any illusions love and obedience go together in Christianity.  I cannot obey Christ unless I love Him first and I cannot claim to love Him if I do not obey Him.  These words make it perfectly clear that following Christ has ethical and moral implications for behaviour.   read  Romans 8.15 – it is the glad obedience, not the obedience of a slave which is spoken of in 14.15.
Verses 16‐17 – Christ asks the Father to give them  ‘another Comforter’ or ‘another Helper.’ The Greek word here is Paraclete – it means one who is summoned to come alongside, to aid, and advisor, advocate, mediator or intercessor.    The word Paraclete  which  is  translated  ‘comforter,  counsellor  or  helper’  does  not  have  the  21st century understanding of those words.   A ‘paraclete’ was not like a marriage guidance counsellor or psychotherapist – that is non‐directive, there to listen to bring comfort.  No it is more of the imagery of a prosecuting counsel in a courtroom.   That changes your imagination and understanding of Christ’s words here.  This ‘comforter’ is one who makes us strong and brave by being strong and brave beside us.   He strengthens us, a bracing consolation and not a relaxing sympathy is what Christ is speaking of here.
Did you note that Christ prefaced ‘Comforter’ with ‘another.’  Meaning another of the same kind as Himself.   Jesus has been their comforter, their advocate and the one who has strengthened them.   The ‘comforter,’ who we know from verse 26 is the Holy Spirit, is another such advocate.  He is divine, from the Father, the third person of the Trinity.
Then in verse 17 Christ tells them that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is directed towards the disciples.   He will direct their decisions, counsel them continually and remain with them forever.   Look at what Christ tells them.  The Holy Spirit is the ‘Spirit of truth.’   He is the essence of truth and He also imparts truth, convincing and convicting of the truth.  In verse 6 of this chapter Christ said He was the truth, now in verse 17 Christ tells the disciples the Spirit is also the truth.  There are both the subjective and the objective aspect of truth here. the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth – there is no bias or blurring of judgment in the work of the Holy Spirit.
Christ then points out that the world cannot accept, cannot understand, cannot see, and cannot receive the Holy Spirit.  He is invisible to the world around because the world will not recognise Him.   The King James Version of the Bible uses the word ‘beholdeth Him not’, which paints the picture of a world which is totally unaware of His presence and work.  The world, and those of the world, does not enter into a personal relationship with Him, but it is not so with the disciples, nor us. Look at what Christ says to them, and to us.
His presence was already with them but later, when Christ goes to the Father, the Holy Spirit will indwell them because they know Him.  There is a present continuing reality here – they know Him and He is with them.   There is also a future reality ‐ He will be in you.  In these words Christ makes a distinction between the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and that of post‐Pentecost New Testament.  His presence was already with them (OT) but He would dwell in them (NT Pentecost experience).  True followers of Christ not only know the Holy Spirit with them they also know the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – there is a difference, Christ says so here.


Verses 18‐19.  In 13.33 Christ has called His disciples ‘little children’ here He refers to them as ‘orphans.’  He promises that He will not leave them ‘desolate’ or as ‘orphans.’  An orphan at the time of Christ was literally desolate, with no hope and no future.   This is not how Christ will leave His disciples, nor His people.  He will not leave them to battle on their own through the world.  What a comfort those words will be to them in a matter of hours and in the days ahead.  They do not realise the significance of those words but years later when John is writing his gospel he realises their significance.  I wonder did he put his pen down at that moment and lean back in his chair and think – He knew.  He knew that in a few hours Judas would betray Him, Simon would deny Him, I and the rest would run away.  He knew we would be ‘desolate’ but He did not leave us ‘desolate.’  Then, maybe, just maybe with
tears rolling down his face he realised the significance of those words spoken in that Upper
Room that night.
Now Christ speaks again of His leaving, His departure.  In a ‘little while’ – they don’t realise how soon this will be.   The cross is only a matter of hours away.   The shattering of their world is imminent.   He assures them that though the world will not see Him they will – speaking of post resurrection appearances which would be the guarantee of life eternal for them.  He will not leave them desolate orphans – because He has defeated death they will live.


Verse 20 – Christ now speaks with certainty to them of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  He now reveals to them the unity of purpose in the Godhead, the Holy Trinity.  A new intimate relationship between God and believers is coming through the Holy Spirit.   Here is the confirmation of His continuing presence in their lives and His continued ministry in their lives.   Here also is the clear revelation that the Father and the Son are One and that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One.   The Father in the Son and the Son in them through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Here is the curse of Genesis 3 being removed.  The expulsion of man from the Garden of Eden, from God’s intimate presence is reversed.  The barrier  of  sin  which  broke  the  relationship  between  God  and  man  is  removed.    The indwelling of the Holy Spirit reconciles man to God.


Verse 21 – Christ now reiterates verse 15, showing its importance in the life of the disciples and in our lives as believers.  Love is the basis of the relationship with God.  John has written in 1 John 4.9‐10 that God’s love is in the gift of Christ His only begotten Son.  In 1 John 5.3 he writes that our love is manifested in obedience.  Loving Christ pays unmatched dividends
– bringing unity with Christ.– this is not some trade off, some bargaining chip.  Obedience does not purchase the Holy Spirit.  The lover keeps the commandments of the loved one.   His commandments they must make their own, to take them into their innermost being and observe them in their daily lives.  This is not some intellectual task that they have to grasp but an ethical, moral purity that they must live daily.  Obedience is the mark of true love for Christ.  He cannot make it any clearer to them or us.


Verse 22 – Judas, not Iscariot, maybe Thaddaeus (Matthew 10.3, Mark 3.18) or Judas of James (Luke 6.16, Acts 1.13), poses a question.  He could not understand how Christ could be seen by them but not the world.  He still had not understood the messiahship of Christ. Surely if Christ is the Messiah He must startle the world with His kingship.  The cross would shatter that understanding for Judas, and the other disciples.
Verse 23 in answering Christ does not speculate about His Messianic kingdom.  He doesn’t actually answer Judas’ question.   Instead He once again focuses their attention on the broader revelation that would come through obedience to His known teaching and through the work of the Holy Spirit.  He reveals to them that the presence of Christ and the Father in their lives would be conditional on obedience.   Yet, please hear this obedience is not a condition of God loving us.  God loves us no matter what.  Obedience is a condition of His indwelling though.  Obedience is a consequence of the love of God in their lives, in our lives! Whilst Christ is going to the Father to make a dwelling place for them (verse 3), simultaneously He and the Father make a dwelling in them, in us.  The curse of Genesis 3 is reversed, the Creator and the created are reconciled by the Holy Spirit.


Verse 24 – Christ equates His teaching with the Father’s will.   Thus loving Christ is demonstrated by one’s obedience to the revealed will of God, the Bible.  Mere duty does not generate obedience to Christ.   Only love can and does.   The life of communion with Christ will be expressed under ethical, moral conditions.  Love for Christ implies obedience to Him.  Christ expresses all this negatively in that He speaks of the man who does not love Him.  It is like a husband telling His wife He loves her but being unfaithful to her.  No matter his words his actions reveal the extent of his love.  He can claim he loves her.  He may even convince himself he does love her but his actions reveal the truth – he does not love her. Christ says if you love me you will obey my commands.   You see for John, the beloved disciples, love was no abstract emotion.  Love was, is, something intensely practical and it involves obedience.


Verse 25‐26  here are parting words of comfort.  The next few hours will shatter their lives. They will never have experienced anything like the darkness they are about to witness.  It will literally tear their world apart.   Christ knows this and so speaks these words of reassurance and comfort to them.   Through the Holy Spirit the presence of Christ will be perpetuated amongst them.   ‘In my name...’ the Spirit is officially delegated to act in His behalf.   The function of the Holy Spirit is to teach them the will of the Father, to remind them of what Christ has taught.  He does this by instructing them from within, bringing back to their minds the commands of Christ and prompting them to obedience.  Please note what Christ has said here concerning the function of the Holy Spirit – to be a teacher of the will of the Father which has been revealed in the commands of Christ.


Verse 27 – what a powerful verse to end on.  Here Christ repeats the words of comfort of verse 1.  We could spend eternity on this verse and never but scratch the surface of its meaning.  Peace – is not the exemption from trial or conflict.  The disciples were about to learn this in an unimagined way.  Christ Himself is troubled by the cross.  His soul is in turmoil over what is to come.   The peace which He speaks of here, which He imparts to them, is the calmness of confidence in God.  Here is an impartation of a gift – Christ’s own peace to them and to us.  Please note this is supernatural, as Christ makes clear by saying it is not as the world gives.   He leaves them peace in the imminent face of unspeakable suffering.  A peace born of a living relationship with Christ and deepened though a growing surrender of life to His gracious rule through obedience to His commands.   Here is the assurance of the Father’s love and approval.   This is to be a source of courage for and encouragement to the disciples, and to us.




We are summoned to the Upper Room, to trust in Christ (v1), to banish our anxiety and to face the challenge of God’s call to us.


Obedience of Life = Love of Christ – how is that seen in your life?  How has it been seen in the past week?  Would people have known that you loved Christ by how you lived?


Peace – not the absence of conflict but the calm confidence in God – even in the face of unspeakable suffering.  When your very world is shattered and plunged into darkness, He promises eternal peace.
Amen.