How To Understand The Bible

The Bible Introduction The Bible is made up of 66 books. It was written by many different authors over a period of roughly 1,500 years. Despite this diversity in origins, the Bible presents such a unified story. In short, you could say the Bible is the story of God’s relationship with people. The story begins in the Garden of Eden where God and Adam and Eve have close fellowship, and ends in the Heavenly Jerusalem, where that same close relationship between God and people is restored. The Bible is made up of the Old Testament and the New Testament. “Testament” is an old word that means “covenant.” The Old Testament reveals God’s relationship with people under the law given to Moses, the old covenant. The New Testament reveals God’s relationship with people under the new covenant of grace through Jesus Christ. The new and old covenants are not in conflict with each other, but the new covenant fulfills the old covenant. Jesus came to complete God’s ultimate plan for humankind. He said so in Matthew 5:17: Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. The Old Testament sets the stage for and points toward the New Testament. For the Christian, the New Testament helps to illuminate and explain the Old Testament. Where to start? If you are a new Christian, don’t try to read the Bible through end-to-end. Instead, use a Bible reading plan (such as the One-Year Bible) to read both the Old and New Testaments at the same time. If you don’t want to use a program, start with the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and Acts.

Composition of the Bible Turn to your Bible’s Table of Contents. Let’s take a look at what’s in the Bible: Law of Moses The first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) describe the relationship between God and people, how it was broken, and how God intended to restore that relationship through people who had faith in Him, such as Noah and Abraham. Like the rest of the Old Testament, the Law of Moses was written in Hebrew. These books form the basis of the Jewish religion, and were “the Law” Jesus spoke about in Matthew 5:17. These books were mainly written by Moses, and are also known as the Pentateuch (Greek for “five cases”) or Torah (Hebrew for “the Law”). History books The next 12 books from Joshua to Esther record the history of the Israelites, starting from their return captivity in Egypt to their return from captivity in Babylon—a

period of nearly 1,000 years. By reading the history of Israel over such a long period, we can learn about God and how He related to His chosen people, the Israelites. From the history books, we see that He is loving and merciful, but also holy and just. Poetry The next five books are poetry written by a variety of authors, some known and some unknown. Proverbs and Psalms are the most famous books out of this group. Proverbs contains wisdom for everyday life, and Psalms helps us understand what a personal relationship with God looks like. Prophets There are many prophetic books in the Bible that are collections of prophesies from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, etc. All these prophesies were delivered in the period just before the capture of Jerusalem by the Persians, during the 70-year exile, or after the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. These prophesies are like letters from God directly to His people. Christians believe many of these prophesies also apply to all believers in a general sense.

How we got the Bible The Old Testament The Old Testament Christians use is the same as the Hebrew Bible, but arranged slightly different. The latest book to be added to the Old Testament was roughly 400 years before Jesus’ time, and Jesus read the same Old Testament books we have today. The New Testament The New Testament was written by the disciples and first-hand witnesses to the things that occurred during Jesus’ ministry and the roughly 20 years following Jesus’ death and resurrection. The early church recognized the 27 books of the New Testament as representing the teaching of the apostles, and we believe the Holy Spirit guided the early church in preserving these books.

Attitudes toward the Bible What are the attitudes we should have toward the Bible? Inspired by God At New Hope International Church, we believe the Bible is God’s word and that men wrote it inspired by the Holy Spirit. There are no major factual or doctrinal inconsistencies in the Bible. 2 Peter 1:20-21 Above all, you must understand that no prophesy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophesy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Equipment for Christian life We believe the Bible is useful for every aspect of the Christian life.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Standard for doctrine We must base our doctrine on the Bible, not on people’s ideas or tradition. Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Not to be distorted We need to be careful about distorting or twisting the Bible to fit our agenda. 2 Peter 3:15-16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Useful for personal inspiration and guidance God can speak personal messages to us through the Bible. What God speaks to us personally regarding a particular passage may not apply to others. Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.