The Bible
God`s revelation of Himself to human kind.
"Living to learn while learning to live."
This programme will introduce the books of the Old and New Testaments which go to make up what we call the canon of Holy scripture. This introduction will be an opportunity to review such issues as great events, authorship, dating, context, themes and general purpose of the books and how they link together developing the history of Divine action in a fallen world.
The Bible in the form of the Old and New Testaments consists of 66 books, 39 of which make up the text of the Old Testament and the other 27 are to be found in the New Testament. In the Old Testament there are 17 historical, 5 Poetical and 17 Prophetical books while in the New Testament there are 4 Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, 21 Epistles and Revelation.
If we were to scan the Bible as a whole we would discover that there are 1189 chapters, 929 in the Old Testament while the New Testament has 260. The longest verse to be found in the Bible is Ester 8:9 which in English has 72 words. The shortest verse in the Bible is St.John`s Gospel chapter 11:35. (Jesus wept.)
The Old Testament is a "Redemptive history" which developes a firm foundation for the super structure of the New Testament gospel to be built upon. The progressiveness of the Old Testament revelation leads clearly to the perfection of divine revelation revealed in the incarnation of God in Christ as recorded in the New Testament.
So our journey into the Old Testemant books will open a door of understanding of the way God dealt with chosen people, a chosen nation that would prepare a chosen land for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord and Saviour.
Let us journey together with the people of God and learn from their spiritual experiences of the past so that we can discover the spiritual meaning to our present and the tremendous hope that we as the church have for the future. In the light of that may our testimonies reflect that great sentiment of C.T.Studd, "that if Jesus Christ be God and died for me then no sacrifice is too great for me to make for him." Let us "live to learn while learning to live."
"Welcome to Church Education Trust`s handbook to the Bible."
RTL/CET/2009.