The New Testament: The Letters or Epistles, and Revelation.

The Letters (or epistles), 21 in all, were written by various Christian leaders; Paul, James, Peter, John, Jude, and anonymous Hebrews, to provide advice and guidance to early Christian communities regarding the church.

Revelation is the last book in the New Testament and its author is not entirely agreed upon, though it is traditionally attributed to the apostle John. It is written in a genre common to Judaism at the time, apocalypse, and filled with images and symbolism. It begins with seven letters to various churches in parts of Asia, and then offers a presentation of the meaning of life, and predicts the fall of Rome and the conversion of Jerusalem into a heavenly city, and some say the end of the world.

This concludes our brief summary and history of the Christian Bible. It is an incredible piece of literature, and many Christians spend a lifetime reading and interpreting it to understand how God wants them to lead their lives. Its use of history, metaphors, and symbolism make it diversely interpretable and therefore highly controversial because of its importance within Christianity, and believers’ strong attachment to its messages.

Sources:

Patheos.com

bbc.co.uk/religion

lifehopeandtructh.com

Who Wrote the Bible: Presbyterian belief.

Dr. Rev. Timothy Coombs' explanation of who wrote the bible.

Who wrote the Bible?

The Christian Afterlife

 The Christian belief regarding the Afterlife is a huge topic because of the Bibles apparent ambiguity on the subject. Each denomination and individual Christian seems to have their own ideas about what the Bible tells us happens when we die. This depends on what passages are taken literally or metaphorically. Generally, they all appear to vary to some degree around the theme of eventually spending eternity in either Heaven or Hell.

 Heaven is a place, physically or spiritually, where one spends eternity basking in God’s love, free from suffering and sin. Whereas Hell is a place where sinners and non-believers are punished.

 The Roman Catholic Church also believes in two other places called Purgatory and Limbo. Purgatory is a place where people with unconfessed sins go before they may continue to heaven. It is traditionally viewed as a place of torment and unimaginable pain, for the purpose of purifying the soul. Limbo is a place where unbaptized infants spend eternity suspended between heaven and hell. Though many Catholics still believe in Limbo, a concept they devised in the 13^th century, the Catholic Church officially denounced the idea of it in 2007, stating that God wants all to be saved and would certainly make an exception for babies who didn’t have time to be baptized.

 Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Limbo cover just a few general Christian beliefs about the Afterlife, and there are far too many to cover in this post. 

Sources:

Religioustollerance.org

Religionfacts.com

Reuters.com (Catholic Church Buries Limbo after centuries)

Cathar.info

The New Testament: The Gospels

 Many Christians believe that God sent his son Jesus Christ to earth from heaven to save the people from their sins and show them the way to lead a righteous life, and others believe that God himself come to earth in the flesh to show people the way. No matter how it is interpreted, this is the story told in the New Testament.

 The New Testament was written in Greek by many authors between approximately 50 and 100 AD, and is centered on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is traditionally divided into three parts: The Gospels, The Letters or Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. Each book has it’s own author, context, theme, and rhetorical purpose. There are many versions of the New Testament, and more are published all the time. They all tell basically the same story, but have subtle differences, strengths, and weaknesses depending on the version’s purpose. They are called “versions” but are more accurately described as different “translations” from the original Greek version.

 The Gospels tell the story of Jesus from different peoples points of view. It covers Jesus’ teachings, the gathering of his followers, his persecution by the Romans, his trial, his crucifixion, and, in Acts, his resurrection. It is thought that Jesus allowed himself to be crucified as a sacrifice to God for the people’s sins and to show people not to fear death. Three days later he was resurrected by God, or because he was God, as was prophesized in the scriptures of the Old Testament. He spoke with many people over a period of forty days before he returned to Heaven. Jesus promised the people that if they believed in Him, his sacrifice, and his resurrection, then God would forgive them for their sins and they would be granted eternal life.

Sources:

Bible.ca

Sparknotes.com

Patheos.com

bbc.co.uk/religion

The Old Testament: History, wisdom, and prophets.

The basic Old Testament contains 39 books, including the books of Moses. But not all Christian denominations recognize all of the books as being true to the original prophetic scriptures, and some do not recognize some of the books at all.  Protestants include 39 books, Catholics include 46 books, Eastern Orthodox includes 51 books, and other denominations vary in the books they include.

Following the Pentateuch, the Old Testament is broken into four parts: Historical Books, Wisdom Books, Major Prophets, and Minor Prophets. But, again, each denomination differs in how the Old Testament is broken down and arranged.

The Historical Books tell the story of the Israelites after the death of Moses. In this story the Israelites conquer Jerusalem, the land promised to them by God, but because they continuously disobey God and worship other deities they end up being conquered by other nations, Jerusalem is destroyed, and they are eventually sent into exile around 587 B.C..

The Wisdom Books are thought by some to be the most important books in the Old Testament and contain narratives and poetry about the lives of the Israelites in exile; stories exploring the nature of human suffering and God’s justice; and instructions on ethical behaviour.

The Major Prophets are called such not because of their importance, compared to the Minor Prophets, but because of their size. These books cover the warnings, teachings, calls for repentance, and words of encouragement by people chosen by God to tell the Israelites his messages.

The Minor Prophets tell of the Israelite’s temptations of evil and loss of faith in God, and give reason for God’s eventual deliverance of Jesus to save them.

Sources:

Sparknotes .com

Biblegateway.com

bbc.co.uk/religions

The Old Testament: Pentateuch

 The Christianity of today developed in the first century C.E out of Judaism, and is based on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Yeshua, or Jesus Christ as he is known in English. The life of Jesus is narrated in the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament. But before Jesus was born basic Christian beliefs about God still existed; they just hadn’t been formalized into Christianity, and of course Jesus did not yet exist.

Pentateuch
lifehopeandtruth.com

 Christian beliefs stem from the ancient Jewish scriptures of the Torah, which make up the first five books of the Old Testament called the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the book of Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This was the original Hebrew Bible, and is generally recognized by all Christian denominations. Traditional belief is that the Torah was written by the Israelite leader Moses, and that parts of it were dictated to him by God, which is why they are also referred to as the Five Books of Moses. But there is also long standing belief that the Pentateuch had many authors, due to the differences in style between the books, the description of Moses’ own death and burial, and other discrepancies between the texts; but that is another story entirely!

  Regardless of who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, it tells the history of God’s creation of earth and of humans; the stories of the ancestors of God’s chosen people, the Israelites; the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt and their beginnings in Israel, including God’s “laws” telling them how to build their society; and Moses’ final days, death, and burial. Included in God’s “laws”, from the book of Exodus, are the 613 commandments that Gods uses to tell his people how to lead a happy and fulfilled life, and have a proper relationship with God. These commandments fall into categories that became know as the Ten Commandments, and are taken very seriously by most Christians. The Ten Commandments discussed in this blog are generally accepted, but keep in mind they do vary between denominations.

Sources:

Patheos.com

bbc.co.uk/religion

Infidels.org

Lifehopeandtruth.com