@sonship
The order of the books in the Bible is arbitrary and was not fixed in the order we are familiar with today until the 15 c. The order we are familiar with today had more to do with the advent of printing than any theological significance.
https://www.thenivbible.com/blog/order-of-books-of-the-bible/
@sonship saidIf you were looking for nuggets in that area of the bible surely this is the best, and would give people the most hope in the current deceitful (Rev 13:14) and worrying times
The last word of a long message is often the most important word.
What is the final, concluding and last word of the entire sixty six books of the Bible?
" The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen."
That is the last word Revelation 22:21. What does it mean to you? I hope to speak of what it means to the Christians - "the saints".
21:3-4
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
The message that we should be telling people is: - There is hope !!!
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The order of the books in the Bible is arbitrary and was not fixed in the order we are familiar with today until the 15 c. The order we are familiar with today had more to do with the advent of printing than any theological significance.
I don't believe the order is arbitrary for a moment.
Matthew, Mark, Luke John are biographies of Christ.
It is understandable that they would be arranged FIRST.
And it is not unreasonable to believe the Holy Spirit had something to do with giving the brothers wisdom as to how they should be arranged.
Matthew - has its emphasis on Christ being a King.
Mark - has its emphasis on Christ being a Slave.
Luke - has its unmistakable emphasis on Christ being the most normal and proper Man in all history.
John has its emphasis on Christ being God Himself.
Now you may READ them in any order.
I say the King, Slave, Man, God Himself is an order inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Following the four biographies is the Acts of the apostles after His ascension.
The order is significance I would say. Following Acts of the apostles (a book which seems to have no ending) you have Romans as Paul outlay of the basics of the Gospel of God.
Following this you have a book which says "Welcome to the TYPICAL new testament church". That is First Corinthians. A typical church as no utopia but a body filled with problems and challenges for Jesus Christ to handle within men's lives.
This is followed by the Second Corinthians where Paul is FORCED to have to speak as a fool defending his own apostleship.
This should be just enough to suggest the Spirit of God was fiving wisdom to the arrangers of the order of the NT books. It is not completely arbitrary.
I think it reveals wisdom from God.
At the same time there is no rule broken if one does not want to read them in that particular order.
John seems to have the last word in:
1.) the gospels
2.) the epistles (arguable I think)
3.) the last book in the New Testament - Revelation.
4.) The last book in the entire book of the Bible - Revelation.
I think Jesus Christ utilized this most faithful lover of Christ to utter the last word.
Jude, I feel, proves that the apostles after the first apostles were faithful to REPEAT what the former group had TAUGHT.
All the so-called pastoral epistles are together.
And the kernel or nucleus of Paul's in depth revelation are in the four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philppians, Colossians.
Letters to the youngest churches, are in the two Thessalonian letters.
James gets his own book as an important link from the past old covenant to the new covenant.
Peter gets his two books arming the believers with longsuffering for the long distance run.
One whole book is dedicated to the matter of the disciples reaction to the institution of slavery - Philemon an important little book showing the practice of the one new man taught in Colossians.
I will stop short of going through all the books. But this is offered as evidence of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit influencing the arrangers of the books in the New Testament. Whatever the order - men and women should READ the books.
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If you were looking for nuggets in that area of the bible surely this is the best, and would give people the most hope in the current deceitful (Rev 13:14) and worrying times
21:3-4
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
The message that we should be telling people is: - There is hope !!!
This is very good and very true.
Thankyou !
He is in the believers as the hope of glory.
" . . . God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ IN YOU the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27)
And He comes to be glorified in His saints.
" When He comes to be glorified IN His saints and to be marveled at in all those who have believed . . . " (1 Thess. 1:10a)
This greatest of signs, the New Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God with men, is about that indwelling grace that is with the saints growing to the point of consuming them up entirely. That is the as God was brought into humanity, by grace He brings saved humanity into God.
This tremendous nugget you suggest is all the more reason for the saved to be reminded - "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints."
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@sonship saidBut they were assembled into their current order by human beings.
I don't believe the order is arbitrary for a moment.
Are you unaware of this?
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@ghost-of-a-duke saidApparently so...
But they were assembled into their current order by human beings.
Are you unaware of this?
@sonship Does it seem odd than none of the New Testament books were written contemporaneously with the main character Jesus? It does to me, but equally odd is the dead sea scrolls of books that did not make the canon. Many will give credence to the bible based on the findings there however little is said of the other books. Does this give confidence in the bible? Who got to decide which were inspired and which weren't?
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@joe-beyser
These sound to me as typical and standard excuses for unbelief Joe.
Ie.
1.) Nobody wrote while Jesus was traveling and teaching. They should have been writing in real time during His three and one half year ministry.
2.) Gnostic books and many other works written a century latter like Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Peter, should have been recognized by the "church fathers" as having the same value as the apostle's books.
3.) Many people who grumble in unbelief at what is in the New Testament want to dumb in and down down. They wish to dilute what is there they complain about some other writings that SHOULD have been included.
I think your comments are pretty standard excuses for unbelief in the NT. I think you should deal with what is THERE, hearing it, and mixing it with faith.
I don't think you should grasp for various excuses to dismiss the New Testament. The apocheryphal and pseudopigrapha writings may be interesting for various reasons.
I think the battle of what was apostolic and authoritative as God's oracles has fought long ago and no longer needs to be disputed.