How We Got Our Bible

Read the Bible in Chronological Order! Motivation, how to, and helps to get the most out of it!

2022-12-14 by bible805

Read the Bible in Chronological Order--lesson and downloadable schedules — If you’d like to just immediately jump to the schedules to read the Bible in Chronological Order, just click on the image.

Where do we go for truth today? For a connection with reality in living our day-to-day lives and for our eternal salvation?

We certainly won’t get it from the media or the news or from asking one of the new AI chatbots (artificial intelligence online sources that are upending content creation on the web and in business). The only trustworthy place to find the truth is in God’s Word.

The Old Testament reminds us:

The very essence of your words is truth; all your just regulations will stand forever. Ps. 119:160, NLT

When Jesus prayed for his followers just before His crucifixion, he talked with the Father about the importance of His Word:

I gave them your word; The godless world hated them because of it, Because they didn’t join the world’s ways, Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world Than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. John 17:16,17 MSG

It is essential to get God’s Word into our lives and reading the Bible, all the way through, cover to cover, in Chronological Order is the best way to do it. From helping people do this in a variety of settings for many years, and in my personal experience, I’ve found reading the Bible in Chronological Order is one of the most life-changing things you can do. It will strengthen your faith and help you grow as a disciple of Jesus.

This lesson is an overview of the reasons why people don’t read the Bible in chronological order, the benefits of reading it in chronological order, and how to get the most out of it.

Below is a downloadable copy of the eBook collection of schedules and journal pages, and below that the podcast and video of the lesson.

PLEASE pass on and share this lesson with others and plan to follow along with the lessons in the coming year as we go through the Bible in Chronological Order.

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How we got our English Bibles, The long and winding road from Greek and Hebrew to English translations

2022-10-28 by bible805

After the decision was made as to which books would go into our Bibles, it was still a long, complex, and difficult time before most people had what we take for granted—our own Bibles in the language we speak.

When we see staid, serious, old-fashioned pictures of Bible translators we have no idea of their sacrifices and heroics involved in bringing us God’s Word as we have it today.

In this lesson we will talk about the history, but also how we got the translations we have, the value of listening to the Bible, and which translation is the best one for us for our study and application to our lives.

Below is the Podcast, video, a chart of Bible Translations, and notes of the lesson.

A SPECIAL BONUS: the image of the challenge from the lesson that “You are writing a gospel” is a downloadable, 8.5×11 PDF, free for you. CLICK on the image to download it. Other versions of the image, many sizes for print and social media use are available Bibleverse Shop at: https://payhip.com/b/lNHB7

The chart below is from the Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines and is not part of any sales but copied for educational purposes. Click on the chart to download it.
Chart of Bible Translations from Rose Publishing use for Educational Purposes

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Canonicity, the Bible, and Us—how we discover, not determine God’s Will

2022-10-22 by bible805

Who decided what books are in the Bible?

Many have heard the term “Canonicity” used with this topic—what does it mean?

Did the Church make the decision of what’s in the Bible? How did they or whoever was responsible, decide?

These are incredibly important questions for us to answer because if the books that make up our Bibles, the “canon” of Scripture are merely the result of human effort and decision, it doesn’t matter if we read them or what we do with them.

However, if they are from God Himself, given to us through human authors, they are authoritative for our beliefs and how we should live.

The process of canonicity is how the church decided these important issues and that’s what our lesson talks about. Below are links to the podcast, video, and notes, plus a PDF download of the Easter Letter of Athanasius that first listed the 27 books of the New Testament and is also an excellent summary of some of the important points of canonicity.

If you would like to teach this lesson as well as others from Bible805, go to the Bible805 Academy at this link: https://payhip.com/b/Ryipz

Links to the podcast, video, PDF of the Easter Letter of Athanasius, and the NOTES/Transcript of the class follow—

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How we got the New Testament, Part One—History that proves WHEN it was written

2022-10-06 by bible805

Many people assume the New Testament was written hundreds of years after the life of Christ. If that was true, how then do we know that what was talked about in the Bible, his miracles and especially his resurrection from the dead, how do we know those aren’t real, but myths and legends that developed many years after He lived?

These are important questions, and we need to answer them correctly (and spoiler alert—the New Testament was written within a very short time after Jesus’ life by eyewitness writers) not only to answer critics but to answer our internal doubts and fears.

In this lesson, we approach the topic objectively and historically to show you specifically through internal and external evidence WHY we have early dates for the writing of the scriptures. It’s a fun and fascinating lesson that will leave you with increased assurance and peace that you can know and trust the facts of your faith.

Following is the podcast, video, PDF of the chart included in the video, a transcript of it follows the chart:

The Bible805 Academy has a complete teaching module of the class including all the materials here including the video without the YouTube distractions. CLICK HERE to go to it.

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The Time Between the Testaments, and what to do when God seems silent

2022-09-30 by bible805

Time Between the Testaments in the Bible — The New Testament opens with a very different world than we left in the Old Testament and this lesson will tell you all about it.

In the previous lesson in our series on How We Got Our Bibles, we looked at the Apocrypha, the series of books written between the Old and New Testaments and the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible done at that time.

As interesting as the writing of these two collections are (and they are fascinating—so be sure to check out the lesson on them) much more was going on at this time in between the Testaments and if we aren’t aware of it, it can be a rather jarring when we finish reading the Old Testament and jump into an entirely different world in the New Testament where Judea is now controlled by Rome politically and has the new religious groups—the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

How all these changes happened and who these new religious leaders will be covered in this lesson.

In addition, this time is often referred to as “The Silent Years” and we’ll look at why that description isn’t entirely accurate along with advice for what we need to do when it seems that God is silent in our lives.

This is the third lesson in our series on How We Got our Bibles and the next lesson is on How We Got the New Testament.