The Bible as a high stakes book!  It’s about your saving your life. The Old and New Testaments are “God-breathed”, authoritative, trustworthy and hold the key to salvation. The Bible is our owner’s manual. While the Old and New Testaments were written by a diverse group of people in different times and places, their words were supervised by the Holy Spirit and thus, the Bible is inerrant. (Meaning free from error and true, true, true.)

The Old Testament, comprising 39 books is divided into three parts and is sectioned off as the Torah, the works by the Prophets and the Writings. The emphasis of the Old Testament is the hope for the future kingdom where Israel is restored through a Messiah and the nations of the world will be blessed.

The New Testament fulfills the Old Testament’s prophesies and is critical to our faith because in it, God, through the Holy Spirit is giving the reader a life boat to salvation. Historically, the New Testament as well as the Old Testament influenced the world by establishing literacy, beliefs, social organization and morals.

The New Testament consists of 27 books to include the Gospels, Acts, Letters and Revelation. These writings are canon, an authoritative collection of writings that are concursus, that is, work inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned by human writers.

The validity of these writings can be catalogued by Greek manuscripts that number of well over 5,000. These include papyri, uncial and minuscule manuscripts and lectionaries. Although there might be a few differences in the recounting of events in the New Testament gospels, the similarities on the whole are apparent and importantly,  the writers were either apostles of Jesus Christ, thus eyewitnesses’ or, who wrote under an apostle’s authority.

The importance of studying the New Testament gives the believer the ability to understand the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, to mature in faith, to be helped by the Holy Spirit, to teach, explain, and defend beliefs knowledgably and rationally. And ultimately,  to find salvation in Jesus Christ. Start reading today!