While the books bible represents the inspired word of God, the Bible also represents different time periods in the course of human history. While God might not change, people and civilizations do. The New Testament is the “newest” part of the Bible. This means that it was written most recently so it is the part of the Bible that is closest to us in our relationship to the authors. People read the New Testament for a variety of reasons. It can be read as a moral instruction, as a history, or as an exciting saga. While “Both in the Old and New Testaments life is offered to mankind ultimately through Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man” people can choose to focus on certain parts of the Bible to get certain things out of it. The New Testament represents the current covenant that God has between his people as mediated through Jesus.
The New Testament can be divided into several sections. There are the four gospels, which are composed of the gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. There are also the Apostle Paul’s different letters. There are the letters to the Romans, the Corinthians. There is also the apocryphal book The Book of Revelation. There is also the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which details the early exploits of the apostles. The original language that comes to through the translation of Greek manuscripts. When reading these books like stories, the major conflicts have to do with Israel’s rejection of Jesus and the public doubting whether or not Jesus was God or man. Then there is the story of the early church and the many struggles and persecutions they went through.
But the most important part of the New Testament is the moral teachings that are imparted through the book. The current moral doctrines associated with Christianity today come to us from the New Testament of the Bible.
While we believe that the books in the New Testament are the divinely inspired teachings of God, the Bible did not come to us magically floating down from heaven in its present for. Just like God had to work through people to turn trees into paper in order to have paper to print the Bible on, the Bible also came to use through mankind being directed by a divine will. The books of the New Testament are known as the “canon of the New Testament” and they are the books that constitute the Christian Bible. While there are some books in the old testament that are shared by other religions such as Judaism, the New Testament is the Christian canon of the bible. The books that were written in the present day bible were done being written by the year 150 AD. It was during council meetings of the early church, such as the council of Trullan in 692 that led to the final decisions about what books would be in the Bible as we have it today. There is history dating back to the third century that the same twenty-seven books that we have today were widely in circulation in the early church. Through different council media and divinely inspired decision making, the New Testament was compiled in the form that we read it in today.
There are both personal benefits and societal benefits to reading the Bible. The Golden Rule is arguably the most important doctrine of Christianity and this lesson is related in the new covenant, which is detailed in the New Testament. But the New Testament is especially important because Christian morality comes from it. For one, the Bible is a frequent topic of conversation. So a person should not just read through the Bible once and then decide that they have heard the story. There is a benefit to really spending time with a Bible in order to familiarize oneself with the important moral lessons being imparted within the New Testament of the Bible. In debates, a person will not be able to hold his or her own if they are not familiar with the New Testament teachings.
In the New Testament is the teaching that salvation can only come through Jesus. While the Golden Rule is one of the most important moral teachings of the New Testament, salvation coming from Jesus is one of the most important cosmological understandings that are related through the New Testament.
The New Testament, while it was not written close to two thousand years ago, is more relevant than ever in today’s world. In todays world there are lots of looming questions at all levels of society. There is uncertainty. But the message of the New Testament is that if a person trusts in God, he or she has nothing to fear. A person who is able to live by this message will have peace and mental tranquility. Since this lesson is one of the lessons of the New Testament, this is one of the most compelling reasons to study it.
REFERENCES:
"New Testament." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-
NewTesta.html
Burkette, D. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2001043103.pdf
Shenck, K. (n.d.). Jesus Is Lord: An Introduction to the New Testament.
