The Old Testament is the Account of a Nation

The Old Testament is the account of a nation, the Hebrew.  The New Testament is the account of a Man, the Son of Man. God foun and nurtured that nation to bring that man into the world. (Genesis 12:1-3.) God himself became a man, so that we might know what to think when we think of God. (John 1:14; 14:9.) His appearance on the earth is the central event of all history. The Old Testament sets the stage for this. The New Testament describes it.

Christ Lived a Perfect Life

Christ lived a perfect life. He was kind, tender, gentle, patient, and sympathetic. He loved people. He worked miracles to feed the hungry. Weary, pain-ridden, and heartsick came to Him, and He gave them rest. (Mt. 11:28-30.) We are told that if all of the deeds of kindness that He did were written, the world could not contain the books. (John 22:25)

Jesus Died to Take Away the Sin of the World

Jesus died to take away the sin of the world. Jesus is the Savior of men. He rose from the dead and is alive today. Jesus is not merely a historical character, but a living Person–the most important fact of history. Jesus Christ is the most vital force in the world today. He promises eternal life to all who come to Him.

The Bible Was Written That We Might Believe

The whole Bible is built around the story of Christ and His promise of everlasting life to men. It was written that we might believe and understand, know and love, and follow Him.

The Bible-God’s Written Word.

Apart from any theory of inspiration,or any theory of how the Bible books came to their present form, or how much the text may have suffered in passing through the hands of editors and copyists. Accept the Bible books as we have them in the Bible as units. Study to know them in their contexts. You will find that there is a unity of thought which indicates that One Mind inspired the writing of the Book, the whole series of Books. The Bible bears on its face the stamp of its Author; it is in every sense the Word of God.

The Bible is God Given  II Tim. 3:10-17

The Bible is to be treasured  Deut 11:1-9; Josh 1:8-9

The Bible is to Be Kept Psalm  119:9-18

The Bible is a Lamp  Psalm 119: 105-117

The Bible is Food  Isaiah 55:1-11; Matt. 4:4

The Bible is Fulfilled  Luke 24: 36-45

The Bible is Complete  Revelation 22:8-21

Books of the Bible Are Complete in Themselves

Each Book of the Bible is Vital to What Precedes and Succeeds.

Read the Bible books one at at time.  Read a book in a week. This is not impossible. How much time do you spend watching T.V. or surfing the internet in 24 hours? How much time on newspapers, magazines, and fiction? The longest of the Bible books doesn’t take more time than some of us devote to these other activities in a day.

Divide Bible Reading Into Sections

Some of the larger books in the Old Tesatment are: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah. These might take some hours to read with care. If  this is too much for one sitting, divide them into seven equal parts. Put your reading into strict limits. Don’t give yourself time to lose the impression made by the first reading before you get to the second. And don’t suppose that you can grasp the content and the intent of any book in a single reading.

You don’t suppose that as you walk down the corridors of a gallery and look at the pictures. You see some pictures, but you don’t really know what they are about. You must sit and study the picture.

More Interesting Facts About the Bible

Bible Subjects include God, man, sin, redemption, justification, and sanctification.

Grace and Glory.

Jesus.

Christ quoted from 22 Old Testament books. In Matthew there are 19 Old Testament quotations; Mark, 15; Luke, 25; John, 11;  Hebrews 85 (quotations and allusions); Revelation, 245.

Christ quotes from the very passages most avoided by the Bible’s critics: The flood, Lot, manna, brazen serpent, Jonah.

Some Bible Trivia

There are 31,102 verses in the Bible.

There are approx. 775,693 words in the Bible.

The longest chapter is Psalm 119.

the shortest chapter is Psalm 117.

Ezra contains all the letters of the alphabet except “J”.

The longest verse in the Bible is Esther8:9.

The shortes verse in the Bible is John 11:35

The longest book in the Old Testament is Psalms.

The longest book in the New Testament is Luke.

Do You Come to the Bible With Eagerness?

Read the Bible With Purpose and Persistence

The Bible is not a book of texts, it is a story. It is a revelation, to be begun and ended as we would start and continue other books. Don’t trifle with the Bible. Don’t divide it into short devotional paragraphs and think you have understood its messages. Don’t trifle with it.

It may be excusable for some poor soul who can hardly read to open the Bible and take whatever his eye lights upon as the message from God. Many people do that, but the Bible isn’t meant to be misused in such manner. We must come to it in a common sense fashion. Believe that every book in it is about something and read and re-read until you find that something. We have been reading the Bible piecemeal. Now we must turn to reading the books as wholes and not tinkering with the texts. No mere part of any book of the Bible will give you the whole message of the book.

The Bible Speaks For Itself

First we read the book, not books about the Book, nor turn to commentaries. They will come in good time, perhaps. Give the Book a chance to speak for itself, and make its own impression, to bear its own testimony. The text of the Bible throws a lot of light on the commentaries. Commentaries often get us on the wrong track. Looking first at man’s opinion is like putting on colored glasses and then reading through them the interpretation of a human mind. First find out “What saith the scriptures”.  Read the Bible seeking illumination, and He will flash light upon the page as you study humbly. The Bible  is a revelation.

No scripture is of any private interpretation.  II Peter 1:20

The Word of God is Alive

The word of God is alive, and every part is necessary to the perfection of the whole. Not that every part is equally important. (I would rather part with one of my fingers than one of my eyes, but I would rather keep them both.) So it is with the word of God. All of it is necessary to make a perfect whole, but some portions are more precious than others.  You can’t take away the Song of Solomon and still have a perfect revelation. The Song of Solomon needs John’s gospel, and John’s gospel needs the song.  Both are parts of an organism, and that organism is not complete if one part is missing.

The Bible is a Whole

The Bible is a whole, and can’t be tampered with. To add anything to it or take anything from it would mar its absolute perfection.  (Rev. 22:18-19) The canon of scripture is closed. Other works may throw valuable light on it, but this stands unique, alone, and complete. These parts all partake of the perfection of the whole.

The Bible is  One Story, His Story

Behind ten thousand events stands God, the builder of history, the maker of the ages. Eternity bounds one side, and eternity bounds the other side. Time is in between. Genesis, origins, – Revelation, endings. And all the way God is working things out. Go down into the minutest detail everywhere, and see that there is one great purpose moving through the ages; the eternal design of the Almighty God to redeem a wrecked and ruined world.

Study the whole Bible

The Bible is one book, and you cannot take it in texts and expect to comprehend the magnificence of Divine Revelation. You must see it in its completeness. God has taken pains to give a progressive revelation, and we should read it from beginning to end.  Reading little scraps can never compensate for doing deep and consecutive study on the Bible itself.  We must get back to the book, and then we will not tolerate scrap work.  We would never try to read any other book, even the lightest novel in scrappy fashion.

Study the Bible By Divisions

Another way to study the Bible is by its divisions: Law, History, Poetry, Major and Minor Prophets, Gospels, Acts, Paul’s Letters, and Revelation.Here we find great unity, for “In the volume of the Book it is written of Me,” says Christ. Everything points to the King!

Each book has a message, and it is ours to discover what that message is. Read until you discover the message of the book. It is easy to discover the purpose in John.  But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (John 20:31)

It is not always so easy but it is possible.

The Flow of the Bible

In Genesis we have the beginnings, in Revelation we have the endings. From Exodus to Jude we see how God carried out his purpose. We can’t dispose of any part of it. Bible history takes us back into the unknown of past eternity and its prophecies take us into the otherwise unknown future. The Old Testament is the foundation and the New Testament is the superstructure. A foundation is useless unless a building is built upon it. A building is impossible unless there is a foundation.

The Connection Between Old and New Testament

The Old Testament and New Testament are essential to each other. The new is in the Old contained; the Old is by the New explained. The Bible is a divine library, a sublime entity, origins in past to issues in future, processes between connecting two eternities.

There is law in the books of Moses. History is found in Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and other books. Philosophy is in Job and Ecclesiastes. Poetry is in Psalms and the Song of Solomon. Prophecy is in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel and the Minor Prophets. You can find doctrine in the epistles and Revelation in the Apocalypse and Daniel.

Remember, these were given to us by 40 different men over about 1,600 years. They were brought together, bound, and called “The Book”. Begin at Genesis and read through to the end and the book is seamless and timeless. We pass from one style of literature to another as easily as if we were reading a story. Well, indeed, we do have here a story produced by One Mind, (II Peter 1:21), though not written by one hand.

While divine, it is human. The thought is divine, the revelation is divine, the expression is human. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Here is a book unlike all others. The Book, a divine revelation, a revelation from God to man communicated through men, moves smoothly from its beginning to its great end.

We can never gain an adequate knowledge of the Bible from going to church or just listening to sermons. We must study the Bible on our own. The Bible reveals the will of God so as to lead man into it. Each book has a direct teaching. Find out what it is and conform to it.

The Bible is a library, but it is also “The Book.” It is a story, a grand story, that moves on from beginning to end. Here is something that is phenomenal in literature. Suppose you were to cover the great fields of knowledge; law, history, philosophy, ethics, and prophecy. If you brought them all together and bound them into one book, what would you call it? What unity would you expect to find in such a jumble of subjects? An infinite number and variety of themes and styles are found in the Bible.

The Bible was brought together across centuries. The likelihood of unity in such a work is so small, yet this is the story of the Bible. It has numerous authors and themes but is unified under one great theme: God’s relationship to man and His plan for our lives and the world.

There is no royal road to a knowledge of the  Bible. To be sure, the Spirit of God will lead us into all truth, but God’s command is that we study to be approved, workmen unashamed.  (II Timothy 2:15)  We must give the Bible attention with intention.  Intention will stimulate attention.  Perhaps there is so little attention in Bible reading today because there is so little intention.

We must come to the Bible with a purpose. Many say, “The Bible is so great I don’t know how to begin.”  People say this correctly and sincerely. And it is true that we must have a method, or we will get little result.

The Bible can be read from Genesis to Revelation at pulpit rate in about 72 hours.  Do you want to read the Bible through?  Leave 80 hours for it. Plot out that time. How much time can you give each day?  How many days a week? Everybody is busy, but we must make time for God’s word. If we are going to get to know the Bible, we must arrange time for it. We must adjust our lives to make room for Bible study.

In the Bible the foundation for Christianity is laid in the revelation of the one and only true God. God chose a people, the children of Israel to show forth this truth and to preserve a record for himself. The Bible tells us of the origin of sin, and how the curse separated man from God. It tells how utterly impossible it is for the law to bring man to the salvation he needs.

That by the law shall no man be justified in His sight.   Romans 3:20

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23
Then it gives us a promise of a Savior, One who came to seek and to save that which was lost, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Luke 19:10;  Matt. 20:28)  Through the ages one purpose is evident, to prepare a way for the coming of the Redeemer into the world.

The Divisions of the Old Testament are Law, (5)  History (12), Poetry (5), Prophecy (17, 5 major and 12 minor).

The Divisions of the New Testament are Gospel, (4) History, (1), Prophecy (1), Epistles (21, Pauline 14 and General 7).

The Old Testament begins with God; Genisis 1:1. The New Testament begins with Christ; Matthew 1:1. Adam to Abraham is the history of the human race. Abraham to Christ is the history of the chosen race. From Christ on we have the history of the House of God, commonly but mistakenly called “The Church.”

The New Testament was written to show us the character and teachings of Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant. The New Testament was written by at least 8 men. Four of them (Matthew, John, Peter and Paul) were apostles. Two, (Mark and Luke) were companions of apostles. Two (James and Jude) were brothers of Jesus.  The New Testament was written at various times inthe second half of the first century.