Understanding Your Religion
7 Major Doctrines that Define Christianity
The New Testament Record
The Doctrine of Inspiration - Part 2
Teaching Strategy
The focus of this lesson is a review of how the Bible was put together. Of special note in this lesson is the criteria for the selection of books to be included in the New Testament.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Know: Understand how the Bible came into being.
- Feel: Value the importance of the Bible in our relationship with God.
- Do: Apply the will of God in our lives as revealed in scripture.
Body of the Lesson
Discussion Questions
Below are suggested questions to use during the guided discussion portion of the lesson. There are also suggested responses to questions to help students grasp the various concepts. These are provided to assist the discussion and are not considered as “right or wrong” responses.
The early Christians received much of their instruction in the form of letters from the Apostles and others. These would be passed between various congregations or individuals in the region. In the early years since the apostles and others were still alive and teaching, many of the letters were not kept. But as the writers began to die and incidents of false teaching were threatening the church, Christians began preserving the writings of the apostles and others.
- The canon of Marcion – A false teacher who rejected the Old Testament and recognized only the epistles of Paul and part of Luke's gospel.
- Persecution – Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, it was illegal to have a written copy of the Christian scriptures. This forced them to keep only the most precious and accepted works.
- Codex form – When church leaders decided to bind the letters that were scrolls into book form, they had to decide which should be grouped together.
- Authorship – If a speaker was considered inspired, then his writings were also inspired. This included those who were closely associated with the apostles.
- Value of book – This describes whether a writing was authored by one of the apostles or an accepted associate and not by a third party. These pseudo-inspired books would be compared against known inspired writings. The inspired books had harmony of thought, purpose and style.
- Circulation – Those included in the canon had been traditionally recognized by all the churches. No new writings were accepted.
- Gospels
- History
- Pauline Epistles
- General Epistles
- Prophecy
Their message is the same as the other books of the New Testament where the author is known.
There is no major difference doctrinally among the various translations. If there are mistakes, it is in the form of punctuation, names of places or locations, etc., which are obscure in the original languages as well. For example, the percentage of error in modern translations from the Greek text is less than 1/10 of 1%.
One of the major ways God demonstrates His love for us is how He preserved His will through the written word. It has been preserved through the ages and has been distributed worldwide in keeping with God's desire for all to be saved.
Paul recognized and taught us that the only way God's will is revealed is through His written word, and the only way this is taught is by the church. God does not use divine inspiration any longer to reveal His word. It is now our responsibility to know God's word so that we can preserve our own relationship with God and bring others to Him.