In your left hand. . . in your right hand. . .
1/20/2010 3:49:27 PM
What is contained within the cover of your Bible

Good Day~

As a little tiny girl, when my feet couldn’t come close to touching the ground, I remember sitting next to my mama at the Missionary Baptist Church in Fremont, California.  Usually not

understanding the sermon anyway, I spent a lot of time looking at my little rainbow Bible my mom had given me—it had pictures and was child-size, and of course, was the King James

Version.  Often, I would section off the Old Testament from the New and look at them—I thought it wasn’t fair that the Old Testament was larger.  (oh, brother)  Now, of course, I 

know why—the Old spanned more than a thousand years, while the New just 80 – 90 years.  If you were clasping your closed Bible in your hands, your left hand would grasp the Old Testament, and your right hand, the New Testament--

Old Testament

-It is a written record of the history of Israel, written between 1440 b.c. and about 400 b.c.

  It is important to remember it is not ordered chronologically.

-There are 39 books in the Old Testament which can be classified as:

   The Law of Moses – first five books – the Torah

   The Prophets – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel + 12 minor prophets

   The Writings – Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes,

       Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles

 

-The Protestant church accepts identically the same Old Testament books as the Jews had, and as Jesus and the apostles accepted.  The Roman Catholic Church, since the Council of Trent in 1546, includes 14 books of the Apocrypha

-There are 400 years between the testaments—sometimes called the ‘400 years of silence’

 

-finished before 100 A.D. (knowing that is critical to supporting the veracity of Scripture)

  contains in 27 books:

   The Gospels – the four gospels record the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ,

                         and His training of the disciples

   History - the establishment of the early church and its spread through Mediterranean lands

   Letters – After Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road in Acts 9, we are able to read his

                    letters to the churches—the ‘epistles’

   Apocalypse – the book of Revelation, written by the apostle John when he was on the Isle of

                     Patmos                                                              

 

The NT was written by the apostles of Jesus Christ, or companions of the apostles.  This means that the authors were either eyewitnesses of the events they described or they recorded

eyewitness firsthand accounts (if you are interested, take a look at: 2 Peter 1.16; 1 John 1.1-3; 1 Corinthians 15.6-8; John 20.30,31; Acts 10.39-42; 1 Peter 5.1; Acts 1.9; Acts 2.22; Acts 26.24-28)

 

It is valuable to know that the first three gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) were written at a time when many were alive who could remember the things Jesus said and did. . . and many would still be alive when the fourth one was written as well.  They would have been refuted and the writers discredited if they recounted or represented falsehoods.

     Note to self:  Scripture is defensible.  While the Bible is inspirational and useful for instruction and application to our lives, it can be defended!  You now have

               one arrow in your quiver when talking to a skeptic—the gospels were written when people were alive who could have refuted them, their claims about Jesus’ life,     

       death, miracles, resurrection—they didn’t, that’s because they were true. 

 

In closing, I turn to the psalmist—the ‘man after God’s own heart’ who said,

“Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” Psalm 119.89

May God's face shine upon you today,

Christine