Fourth Year Ministries

Q: How was the Bible put together? How did they decide that they needed a new testament and what was included/left out? A: What a great and foundational question! It is truly unfortunate that more Christians don't ask this question. Many assume that the collection of writings that we base our life and eternal destiny on are reliable and worthy of our trust. Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian believes in the same collection of writings referred to as "the Bible." Most Protestant groups agree that "the Bible" is the collection of 66 books found in most modern English translations (e.g. the NIV, ESV, NASB, etc.) which contains 39 books in the "Old Testament" and 27 books in the "New Testament." Other groups, like Mormons, add to the canon of Scripture additional books as authoritative writings. This isn't an addition to "the Bible" per se but is an attempt to add to the canon which is the group of authoritative b...