The New Testament

The process of the recognition and collection of New Testament books began in the first centuries of the Christian church.

Very early on, some of the New Testament books were being recognized. Paul considered Luke’s writings to be as authoritative as the Old Testament.

In 1Timothy 5:18, Paul writes, “For Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages.’”

“Do not muzzle an ox” is a quote from Deuteronomy 25:4. “The worker deserves his wages,” is a quote from Jesus in Luke 10:7.

Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture.

He writes in 2 Peter 3:15-16, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Some of the books of the New Testament were being circulated among the churches (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27).

The first “canon” was the Muratorian Canon, which was compiled in A.D. 170. The Muratorian Canon included all of the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, and 3 John. In A.D. 363, the Council of Laodicea stated that only the Old Testament (along with the Apocrypha) and the 27 books of the New Testament were to be read in the churches. The Council of Hippo (A.D. 393) and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) also affirmed the same 27 books as authoritative.

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How and when was the Bible put together?

The term “canon” is used to describe the books that are divinely inspired and therefore belong in the Bible. The difficulty in determining the biblical canon is that the Bible does not give us a list of the books that belong in the Bible. Determining the canon was a process conducted first by Jewish rabbis and scholars and later by early Christians.

Ultimately, it was God who decided what books belonged in the biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God’s convincing His human followers which books should be included in the Bible.

Compared to the New Testament, there was very little controversy over the canon of the Old Testament. Hebrew believers recognized God’s messengers and accepted their writings as inspired of God. While there was undeniably some debate in regards to the Old Testament canon, by A.D. 250 there was nearly universal agreement on the canon of Hebrew Scripture.

The only issue that remained was the Apocrypha, with some debate and discussion continuing today. The vast majority of Hebrew scholars considered the Apocrypha to be good historical and religious documents, but not on the same level as the Hebrew Scriptures.

Last week we looked at an example of how the Bible survived an effort to extinguish it. During the next two weeks we’ll look at how books were determined to be inspired and how the Scriptures were preserved.

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Voltaire got it Wrong

Voltaire lived from 1694 to 1778. He was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity.

During his life he wrote more than 20,000 letters and some 2,000 pamphlets and books and was a successful playwriter. While a Deist, he vehemently opposed the Christian faith and wrote many rather scoffing works expressing his disdain for the faith and the Bible.  

In 1764 he wrote, “The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart” (Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, 1764).   

“We are living in the twilight of Christianity” (Philosophical Dictionary).

In a 1767 letter to Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, he wrote: “Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world…My one regret in dying is that I cannot aid you in this noble enterprise of extirpating the world of this infamous superstition.” 

Voltaire ended every letter to friends with “Ecrasez l’infame” (crush the infamy — the Christian religion). 

Only fifty-eight years after his death the former home of Voltaire in Geneva, Switzerland, was indeed serving as a storehouse for Bibles and Gospel tracts. While the Evangelical Society of Geneva did not actually purchase the house, Henri Tronchin, president of the Society, resided in the house, and used some of the rooms to store Bibles which Voltaire so vehemently opposed and prophesied Christianity’s downfall! Yes, an ironic twist of divine Providence.

Let it also be noted, only sixteen years after Voltaire’s death, in 1794, the presence of the Bible began making in-roads in the town where he spent the last eighteen years of his life, Ferney, France. On the very printing presses which Voltaire employed to print his irreverent works was used to print editions of the Bible and which were printed on paper that “been especially made for a superior edition of Voltaire’s works. The Voltaire project failed, and the paper was bought and devoted to a better purpose of printing Bibles!”

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Cast All Your Cares

Hold your arms straight out—in front of you or to the side, it doesn’t matter.

Easy, right?

Now leave them there until you finish reading this devotion.

Have you ever said, “It’s no big deal”, “That was a long time ago”, or “That doesn’t bother me”?

So often we deny our emotional hurts or minimize them because we think admitting we hurt may sound like whining or we believe that no one else cares about our pain. Sometimes we believe something shouldn’t bother us so we determine that it won’t, as if we controlled our emotions with our minds.


The truth is that most of us try to carry unnecessary weight we accumulated years ago. Some of us have been holding onto pain for decades.


We aren’t built to carry internal pain indefinitely, just like we aren’t built to hold out arms in the air indefinitely.


You do still have them up, don’t you?

Even the simple act of holding up your arms becomes unmanageable over time. Eventually you will need assistance because the pain becomes unbearable. Whether aid comes from another person or a physical support like a table or desktop, is up to you. But your body will soon require you to get help.


Our internal pain is much the same way. We can carry it for a short period with minimal side affects, but after time we need help. In fact, our bodies will require us to find a way to deal with our emotional troubles. Some use people and relationships to hide their hurt while others use alcohol, drugs, sex, entertainment, food, work, anger, etc., etc., etc.


1 Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.”


We are designed to need God. Until we accept that and give our cares, anxiety, pain, and suffering over to him, we carry a burden we cannot handle.


When you finish reading this devotion you will have two choices of what to do with your arms. You can struggle and seek outside help to keep them up, or you can lay them down to rest.


You will also have two choices of what to do with your emotional pain and baggage. You can continue to seek help from other sources to ease and mask the pain, or you can lay it down by giving it to the One who asks for it.


“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.


One final thought: Notice the first word in 1 Peter 5:7 is casting, implying a continuous action. As long as sin remains in the world, relational pain will be a frequent experience.


Let’s give to God daily (or more often when needed) our cares and burdens so we can rest.


Father, forgive us for attempting to carry what only You can. And thank you for offering to handle everything that we cannot. Take our hurts, our disappointments, the times we have been abused, cheated, and lied to, and help us to forgive and to heal. In Jesus name, Amen.

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Daily Reliance on God

God delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt with miraculous plagues, parted the Red Sea so they could escape Pharoah and his army, led the Israelites with a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night, then gave them the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.

Even with all of those miracles, they didn’t have enough faith to take the promised land. When Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan, ten gave a report filled with fear while only two believed God could deliver the land.

Numbers 14:3 says, “Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

The people believed the ten and refused to take the land, so God had them wander the desert for 40 years.

What happened?

God provided manna to eat while their shoes and clothes did not wear out. These were the people who walked around Jericho for seven days and watched the walls fall down at the shouts of their praise.

Miracles are wonderful, but it’s the consistent, daily reliance on God that helps us overcome our fear and bondage.

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Exodus

The book of Exodus is full of familiar stories, including the story of Moses, the plagues of Egypt, the Passover, parting of the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments, and the golden calf.

The major event in Exodus is the Passover, which is our clearest Old Testament picture of our individual salvation through faith in the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God commanded the community of Israel to take a year-old male lamb without defect, slaughter them at twilight, and spread the blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes.

That night God struck down every firstborn of every household that wasn’t covered by the blood of the lamb.

Safety came not from being an Israelite but from applying the blood. Israelite families who didn’t obey God by putting the blood on their doorframes lost their firstborn. Egyptians who obeyed and spread blood on their doorframes were spared.

Genesis 8:4 tells us that Noah’s ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month, which we learn in Exodus 13:4 is the month of Abib (later called Nisan).

God tells Moses in Exodus 12:6 to slaughter the lambs on the 14th day of the month. And in 12:14, God tells the Israelites to celebrate the day (14th of Nisan) for generations to come.

In Luke 22:1-20, Jesus is crucified on the Passover, the 14th of Nisan. He rose three days later, the 17th of Nisan (or Abib), the same day the ark came to rest.

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Genesis

Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is the first and one of the most exciting books in the Bible.

The first 11 chapters occur at a breathtaking pace and leave us asking many questions.

How long did Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden before the fall?

How could people live for so long?

What really happened in Genesis six that caused God to flood the world in judgment?

What exactly was the tower of babel?

In the first 11 chapters, God created the world and then pronounced three judgments at the fall, the flood, and the tower of babel.

The pivotal moment of the book comes when God steps into history and makes a covenant with Abraham.

Genesis 12:2-3 reads, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

With Abraham, God begins his plan of salvation for the world.

The remaining 39 chapters of Genesis tell the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, ending with the nation of Israel in Egypt.

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One Purpose for the Bible

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the fourth of four weeks to show the centrality of the Bible

There is one purpose for the Bible.

Paul writes in Romans 15:4 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

What? Everything that was written in the past. In other words, the Old Testament. Some want to dismiss the Old Testament, but that is a grave mistake. It was written for us.

Why? To teach us. God has acted throughout history. He guided people to preserve His words so He can teach us how to live our lives in a manner that frees us to love Him and to love others.

Purpose? Through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. God did not give us the Bible so we could have an easy and prosperous life. Yes, following his commands does mean less self-destruction and more peace-filled lives.

But we live in a fallen world and God has promised us suffering and hardships while on Earth. He also promises a future utopia and eternal life with Him.

In summary, the Bible has one central theme, on central character, one central author, and one purpose.

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One Central Author of the Bible

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the third of four weeks to show the centrality of the Bible

There is one central author of the Bible.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

To Paul, all Scripture would have referred to what we know as the Old Testament. He says that the Jewish Scriptures were God-breathed, meaning that God worked through the authors of the Old Testament to weave His message throughout.

Peter explains further in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

God didn’t put the biblical authors in a trance or dictate to them, except where He shows up with specific messages. He allowed the authors to be themselves in their time period and the Holy Spirit guided them accordingly.

So even though the Bible was written by over 40 writers, God Himself is the lone author. That’s how our holy Scriptures became consistent, useful, and powerful.

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One Central Character in the Bible

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the second of four weeks to show the centrality, or unity, of the Bible

There is one central character in the Bible.

Psalm 40:7 says: “Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.’” (The KJV has “the volume of the book is written of me”)

The writer of Hebrews quotes this passage in Hebrews 10:5-7: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “…Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll…”

The scroll or the Jewish Bible, what we know as the Old Testament, was written about the Messiah, and since Jesus is the Messiah, the Old Testament is all about Him.

He explains this to his disciples in Luke 24. He walked with two of the disciples going to Emmaus after he had risen from the dead. They did not recognize Him and Jesus didn’t tell them it was him. Instead, He listened to them and then corrected their false expectations.

Luke 24:27 says: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, doesn’t arrive until the New Testament, but a proper understanding of who He is and what His mission was about requires an understanding of the Old Testament. After all, it was written about Him.

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