Many Books, yet One

The Bible exists among us as one book. Yet it is in fact composed of more than 60 books, written by over 40 different authors, and its compilation extended from the days of Moses (1400 BC) to the days of the apostle John (end of 1st Century AD), a period of 1,500 years. Its narrative goes right back to the origin of man. It presents the Lord God of heaven and earth as Creator of all, who has a purpose with the human race, which extends through history right up to the present day; and then goes further and tells what will happen to that race in the future.

1631 KJV New Testament titlepage 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is no other book in the world which has such a range and scope as this. But its writings are not just philosophical predictions. They are rooted in human history, dealing with actual nations and real people. The Bible deals with man’s early career, passes a devastating judgement on him at the Flood, and proceeds to detail God’s purpose with a particular people, the descendants of faithful Abraham, in their deliverance from the oppression of Egypt and their inheritance of the land of Canaan. It faithfully records the history of that people, the lives of their men of faith, their constant failure to do God’s will, the judgements which came upon them through the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and the eventual overthrow of their kingdom. It takes up in the New Testament the record of the coming of Jesus Christ, the preaching of the gospel by his apostles, and ends with their writings to the early communities of believers in the 1st century CE. But the word of prophecy they spoke extends in time into the future.

Now the remarkable fact is that over this long period of 1,500 years the Bible speaks of one God, having one purpose. The earliest books of the Old Testament and the latest of the New are bound together by one outlook and one conviction, so that they become in fact one revelation. How this could be in a world of human fallibility is something we must seek to understand.

– Fred Pearce

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Preceding: The Word of God in print

Next: Inspired Word

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Find also to read:

1. Man’s plans prevailed by God’s purpose
2. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
3. Who Wrote the Bible?
4. Why believing the Bible
5. The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
6. Unsure about relevance Bible
7. Scripture Word from God
8. Bible Word from God
9. Bible guide Taking the Bible as a lead
10. Bible a guide – Bijbel als gids
11. Bible Basics
12. Absolute Basics to Reading the Bible
13. Bible for you and for life
14. The Bible is a today book
15. Power in the life of certain
16. Bible power to change
17. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
18. Plain necessary food of the Gospel
19. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation

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Related articles

• Evidence for The Bible (gospelgetics315.wordpress.com)
  Much in the Bible demonstrates advanced scientific knowledge – that is, God revealed through human scribes information that only He knew long before scientists discovered these truths.
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  While the autographs, or original manuscripts, of the Bible have not survived the ravages of time, no other book from the ancient world has more, earlier, or better copied manuscripts than the Bible.
• Torah (conversationinfaith.wordpress.com)
  Among other things, Torah tells the early history of Israel from Abraham, and Isaac, to Moses and Joshua. Beginning with Genesis 12  and the call of Abram to Deuteronomy 34 where Moses looks out over the Promised Land just before his death, Torah offers an epic tale of God calling a people and the people’s response.
• Biblica Cleans Up the Bible with New “Books of the Bible” Release (christianwritingtoday.com)
  Most Christians are aware that there is a curse at the end of Revelation for anyone who messes with the Bible. The Apostle John said, “If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophesy, God will take away his part from the Book of Life…”
• How did we get the New Testament? (altruistico.wordpress.com)
  We know that the books in the Old Testament are important because they not only foreshadow the Lord Jesus, but He also taught those who followed Him from them. Though the 27 books of the New Testament were written after Jesus was crucified and resurrected, they were recognized as authentic because they were written by people who had direct contact with Christ and were divinely inspired. Just like a book was considered canonical when Moses or David wrote it, a book was recognized as authoritative when an apostle such as John or Paul wrote it.
• On How the Bible Belt Brainwashed Me (or How to be a better Christian) (reflectingchristian.wordpress.com)
  For many years, I tried to cherry-pick the Bible. I believed that the Old Testament could be discarded since as a Christian I need only follow the New Testament. After all, Jesus Christ only speaks in the New Testament. I eventually realized that I had to recognize the Old Testament too, since Christ himself said he had come to fulfill the Old Testament.
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  As a Christian, I am a follower of Christ. The great thing about the Bible is that it gives us the story of Christ. His story.
• The Gospel of Mark and a Revolution Betrayed (cynicmeetshope.wordpress.com)
  Depictions of Christ as a revolutionary figure prompt some to raise the spectre of “politicizing” Christ, as they warn of the danger of manipulating his words to fit a political, often left-leaning, agenda.

  What such critics fail to recognize is that any social institution that involves the use of power – and this includes religion – is inherently political. The status quo has long used religion to fit its own agenda, to justify inequality, to assuage elite guilt at their role in a system that perpetuates systemic depravity, and to leave the poor pining after hoary illusions that betray the essential meaning of the Gospels.   One has only to look at the oppressive history of the Roman Catholic Church, the legacy of George W. Bush, fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Islamists alike – and today’s US Tea Party – to see this as fact.
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  In tracing the origins of Biblical literature to a civilisation born out of a turbulent past, one begins to understand many of the prescribed rituals, stories and myths that underpin the Bible’s radical, even revolutionary, undertones.  Whether inspired by concrete historical events or divine inspiration or both, the Bible is a reflection of a people’s struggle for self-identity and nationhood.

• Carnal Christians….by Ray Gano (amomlookingup.wordpress.com)
  Carnal Christianity and the refusal to live a holy life is becoming the norm. But what is sad is that this is all being done under the name of “Grace.”
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  We as bible believing Christians are called to be the salt and the light. You can see that 5 had the oil (holy spirit) and because of that, they had “light,” or the ability to share the gospel.
  Until you have the holy spirit living within you, you are not to effective at being a good witness or sharing the gospel.
  Without the holy spirit things of God do not make sense to you.
• Myth 6: God Approves of the Use of Images and Icons in Worship (illustrationstoencourage.wordpress.com)
  Are images, as the churches claim, simply a means of approaching and honoring what they represent? “At first,” states The Encyclopedia of Religion, “images may have served primarily didactic [teaching] and decorative purposes; at least, they were defended on such grounds. But soon they came to fill admittedly devotional functions. This was especially true of the icons that became a prominent feature of Eastern Orthodoxy.” However, the prophet Isaiah rightly asked: “To whom can you compare God? What image can you contrive of him?”—Isaiah 40:18, The New Jerusalem Bible.