Your letter came a few days ago and I’ve finally found the time to sit down and write back. I apologize for the delay. Speaking of apologies, don’t apologize for asking questions. I want to know what’s on your mind. I’ve asked a lot of the same questions, including the one you posed in your last letter. Why does the Bible seem to be such a mixed collection of writings? I agree, it can be confusing. And I’ll try to explain why I suggested you start reading the Bible with one of the Gospels.

I shared in an earlier letter how we can have confidence that the Bible is God’s inspired Word. But God used human authors to put the words on paper (or parchment in most cases). It’s sort of like those celebrity books where the famous person’s name is in big letters as the author but then in smaller letters it says, "as told to..." and lists a professional author who actually wrote it down using his skill with words. God, arguably the most famous being of all, used a large collection of authors. And because God is eternal and wasn’t limited to the few productive years of a normal lifetime, we find that He used about 40 human authors spread over 1500 years!

I remember trying to memorize the books of the Bible as a kid. I had been given an illustration where each of the 66 books of the Bible was represented as a separate book on a bookshelf with its name printed on the spine of the book. That illustration continues to remind me that the Bible is really a library of 66 books squeezed into one handy volume.

Imagine yourself standing in front of such a set of bookshelves containing the 66 books of the Bible in individual volumes. The first thing you notice is that there are two bookshelves side by side, each with books on their four shelves. The left bookshelf contains the 39 books of the Old Testament. The right bookshelf contains the 27 books of the New Testament. The Old Testament writings were completed by the time of Jesus and were the holy Scriptures He studied and knew. The New Testament writings were written soon after Jesus’ time on earth.

The first shelf of the Old Testament bookshelf contains the first five books of the Bible, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. They’re called the Books of Moses, or the Books of Law. They tell the story of creation, the flood, and the birth and early years of the nation of Israel, the people God chose to work through.

The second shelf holds 12 books of the history of God working with His people over a period of hundreds of years.

The third shelf of the Old Testament contains five books of poetry: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.

The fourth shelf contains 17 books of the prophets through whom God pleaded for His people to turn back to Him, promised both judgment and blessing, and predicted the coming of Jesus, the Messiah.

The first shelf of the New Testament bookshelf holds the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These describe the life and teachings of Jesus, with special emphasis on His death and resurrection.

The second shelf contains only one book, the book of Acts. It tells the story of the early spread of Christianity.

The third shelf holds 21 books which are letters, sometimes called epistles. They’re written to both churches and individuals by such men as Paul, John, Peter, and James.

The last shelf contains only one book of prophecy called Revelation. It largely describes events yet to happen.

This library of books called the Bible has as its main subject God and His relationship with people. The story line is a constantly changing drama of people turning from God, coming back to God, and learning important aspects about their relationships with God. And it’s a story of God in continual, loving pursuit of the people He loves.

Most good stories reach a climax where the key conflict is resolved. The remaining portion of the book usually pulls together the loose ends and gives additional explanation and meaning to what has happened. God’s story with His people is like this. The relationship reached a crucial point when God came to us in human flesh through Jesus, and the conflict between God’s good and the evil that was destroying His people reached a climax on the cross of Christ. It was there that the conflict with evil was resolved with Jesus’ paying the price and penalty for our sins. The entire Old Testament leads up to this climax of God coming to us as Jesus, recorded in the four Gospels that begin the New Testament. The remainder of the New Testament explains the ramifications for us of what Jesus did.

It’s a small library as libraries go, the 66 books often being bound in a single volume. But I feel I’ve only just begun to discover the great truths of God it contains.

A fellow seeker after truth,
Dave