Christian/Religion Studies

The Bible:

The Bible is a collection of Holy Scriptures which are the religious texts of Judaism and Christianity.  These scriptures are held as the truth of life to Christians and are believed to be Holy and from God. The Bible is said to be authoritative. The Bible has many lessons, songs,  stories, histories, corrections, letters and more. Considered "The Word of God", "the Holy Scriptures," "the Inspired Word" etc. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.  This book starts with Creation of all the universe, then goes on to the creations of all things on Earth.  The Bible is in two collections, the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). Many churches state that they are New Testament churches but they still read from or quote from the Old Testament during services or Bible Studies etc. The New Testament could be called the Gospel. There are four Cannon (accepted)  Gospels which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Matthew was the son of Alpheus and a  tax gatherer (publican).  Working out the Cannon of the Bible took some time and has a colourful history on its own. The likes of Irenaeus and Origen were using collections of scriptures that closely resembles what we call today as the Cannon. For many years there were disputes over some of the books and whether they should be included in the Bible Cannon, the book of Revelation was one of these. After a few centuries most were satisfied with the Canon selection of books that today make up the New Testament. It is important for Christians to know (and believe) that the Canon holds the true text that came from the Apostles that Jesus taught. And for some time, with so many Epistles and Gospels available it was hard to define what was acceptable to go into the Canon. Of course there were those who wanted certain books to be accepted due to what it was that they believed in. Today many books are called Bibles. Such as the Carpenters Bible, ot the Electricians Bible. These are collections of information said to be what the person who is an electrician "must have" in order to do his job efficiently and safely.