The Word of the new covenant gospel must forever be proclaimed. Through all the ages and even into eternity, the gospel must be verbally declared. Particularly by those select people called and commissioned to the gospel ministry, the Word shall be spoken. It must be articulated for people to hear. But even further, by all the disciples, all the brothers and sisters, all the followers of Jesus as their Lord and Christ, the gospel must be spoken. Nothing can ever replace the speaking out of the good news of the new covenant. “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” Speak it out! Proclaim it to the nations! This spoken Word embodies the true and abiding hope of the world.

Introduction

In the progress of redemptive history, the preaching of the Apostles preceded any writing of new covenant scriptures by at least a generation. The apostolic preaching of the gospel began immediately after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, which would have been about 33 A.D. But the first writings of new covenant scriptures came approximately twenty years later, with Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians in about 50 A.D. For approximately a whole generation the newly forming church of Jesus Christ depended for its inspired directives primarily on the preachings of the Apostles. The God-inspired new covenant canonical writings were not completed for another 40 to 50 years, until about 90 to 100 A.D. The extent to which this original proclamation of the gospel permeates the book of Acts testifies to its significance.[i] The writings of the old covenant scriptures continued to provide direction for the church’s self-definition. But the proper application of these prophetic scriptures in a new covenant context depended heavily on the ongoing analysis of their significance as provided by the preaching of the Apostles.

The question may be appropriately asked, Why did God order that these years must pass before the inspired scriptures of the new covenant could finally be produced for the direction of the church?  Several observations may be offered in response to this question.

(1) Time for “Occasions” (“Situational Circumstances”) To Arise

The new covenant documents, even the four gospels, must be read as occasional documents. That is, each of the writings of the New Testament were composed in response to certain concrete circumstances in the life-experience of God’s new covenant community. Paul’s letter to the Galatians addresses in the most stringent terms one of the first and most persistent heretical challenges to the true Christian gospel. His first letter to the Corinthians deals with numerous problems related to a proper Christian lifestyle, including party spirit which divides the body, sexual immorality, discipline in the church, the use and abuse of spiritual gifts, the freedom of the Christian conscience, order in worship, the nature of the bodily resurrection, and the collection of offerings. His later pastoral epistles address the question of the maintenance of the “faith once delivered to the saints” as well as church traditions that must extend beyond the apostolic age. 

All these challenging circumstances would not present themselves within each of the various churches immediately upon the first re-formation of a people of God under the auspices of the new covenant. Lengths of time would have to elapse before all the “occasional” challenges of the emerging church would present themselves. In its proper time, the apostolic response to differing challenges to the well-being of the church would anticipate many aspects of the subsequent, prolonged history of Christ’s church. In the meantime, the public proclamation of the basic apostolic gospel could and must run to the ends of the earth.

(2) Time to Allow the Old Testament to Establish Its Foundational Role

As the speeches of the Apostles demonstrate so clearly, the faith and life of the new covenant people of God must rest squarely on the revelations found in the old covenant scriptures. With few exceptions, the messages of the Apostles recorded in the book of Acts look back to the prophecies of the Old Testament as the basis for their proclamation. A delay in the formation of the canonical scriptures of the new covenant would keep the way clear for this principle to be firmly established in behalf of future generations living under the new covenant. If the significance of the old covenant scriptures is widely ignored or altogether lost among numerous groups of Christians today despite the clear directives found in the preaching of the Apostles, how much more would their significance be obscured if the new covenant people of God had had access to a completed new covenant canon immediately upon the birth of the church? So it was quite appropriate that the gospel found its first formation through the apostolic preaching of the gospel in clear dependence on the old covenant scriptures apart from a completed canonical scriptures of the new covenant. 

(3) Time for “Chosen Witnesses” to Confirm Their Testimony

So long as eyewitness reports by “chosen witnesses” of the realities of the gospel were still available, the need for an inspired, written record of the new covenant regarding the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Christ was not so pressing (Acts 10:39-41).

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