The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by David Lee of Malaysia, from the tape GC 1301-N, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 16."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1981. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

What was the reason or reasons for God’s silence in the period of approximately 400 years between the Old and New Testament?

John MacArthur's Answer

What he is saying is responding to an historical fact. When God closed the OT canon and then opened the New, there is a period of 400 hundred years. The final books, I guess would be Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, final books of the OT, though they are not the final one in our English order, they are the latest ones, and when they were finished, the OT was complete, it was laid down, the law was there. I think having completed the OT, only God knows why that gap was there, but in a very real sense, it is.…and I want to be careful that you don’t misunderstand me, it is inconsequential that there was 400 years of silence, because the OT was enough. We have had 2000 years of silence, have we not? And Revelation 22, it says, "That if anybody has anything to what is written in this book should be added into plagues that are written therein." "The faith was once for all...", what? "…delivered to the saints", this is "the once for all delivered to the saints…faith." And we have had silence for 2000 years but that doesn’t mean we don’t have the Word of God.

And so God in His wisdom had said all He wanted to say, and He entrusted this to them. Ezra, for example, was a masterful scribe. And it is said that he had memorized every letter of the OT, and that he could sit down and write the entire thing from memory in the Hebrew language. And so the scribes, like Ezra, were putting it into the hands of the people after it had been pulled together. And so there was that period of 400 years in which the OT was available to them and then it was broken, the silence was broken, the next time a prophetic voice broke, who was it? John the Baptist. And he was the forerunner of the Messiah.

So, as to specifically why, that is a very difficult question to ask. But it does not mean that they were not responsible because they had the whole revelation of God as much as we do for the 2000 years since the NT was completed.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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