Opening THE Book 15 with Rev John K-S

1st August 2019
 

Rev John Kinchin-Smith
Assistant Minister, St Andrew’s Church

Let’s recap where we’ve got to, since we began a year ago, in our “opening” this most amazing book we call the Bible – and for those who’ve perhaps joined us more recently. The Bible contains 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The Old Testament tells the story of God’s plan for the world from its creation. It was written down during the years from about 1400BC until about 200BC, although many of its stories are far older. The Old Testament books can be divided into groups of different kinds of writing. The first five books (Genesis to Deuteronomy) are known as “The Law”. The next section (Joshua to Esther) are known as “The Historical Books”. After that come the Psalms and Wisdom Literature (Job to Song of Songs). Finally we have “The Prophets” (Isaiah to Malachi)
 
The New Testament tells the story of Jesus and the beginnings of the Christian Church. Again, we can divide the books into groups. The First four tell the story of Jesus and are known as “Gospels” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The Acts of the Apostles follows, telling the story of the first Christians until about AD64. There are then 21 “Letters”, written to churches or individuals by St Paul, St Peter, and others. Finally we come to the Revelation of St John, a complicated book that contains visions of the End of the World
 
There is no other book in the world with such wide scope, not only detailing the history of the world from its very beginning until its end, but also explaining why we are here, why there are evil and suffering in the world and what is the purpose and meaning of life. The Bible also teaches us about how we should live our lives and how to find true happiness and fulfilment. Above all the Bible teaches us about God, his character and loving purposes and how we can come to know him
 
As St Paul wrote in his Second Letter to Timothy (chapter 3): “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed”

as published by St Andrew's Church in the Gorleston Community Magazine

The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Yarmouth, and are intended to stimulate constructive and good-natured debate between website users

We welcome your thoughts and comments, posted below, upon the ideas expressed here

Click here to read our forum and comment posting guidelines