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The Catechism in Questions & Answers
- Introduction
- Contents
- 1. What is the source of our belief in God?
- 2. How does God reveal Himself?
- 3. How does God reveal Himself in nature?
- 4. How does God reveal Himself in history?
- 5. How does God identify Himself?
- 6. Where are revelations of God recorded?
- 7. Does God also provide revelations about the future?
- 8. Are there any other insights into God’s actions?
- 9. How are human beings to conduct themselves with respect to God’s revelations?
- 10. What do we understand by the idea of faith as a response to God’s revelations?
- 11. How do human beings come to believe?
- 12. What is Holy Scripture?
- 13. Who is the author of Holy Scripture?
- 14. Have the texts of the biblical books been handed down in a reliable manner?
- 15. How did the biblical books come to be collected?
- 16. What is the structure and content of Holy Scripture?
- 17. What is the content of the Old Testament?
- 18. What is the content of the New Testament?
- 19. How are the books of the Old Testament organised? How many of them are there and in what order do they appear?
- 20. What books of the Bible are numbered among the Apocrypha?
- 21. What value does the New Apostolic Church assign the Apocrypha?
- 22. How are the books of the New Testament organised? How many of them are there, and in what order do they appear?
- 23. What is the significance of Holy Scripture for the New Apostolic Church?
- 24. Who is commissioned to interpret Holy Scripture?
- 25. What is meant by the expression: “Jesus Christ is the centre of the Scripture?”
- 26. What is the significance of Holy Scripture for believers?
- 27. What are contributing factors in strengthening the believer’s faith through the study of the Bible?
- 28. What is the foundation and content of Christian faith?
15. How did the biblical books come to be collected?
The biblical writings were collected over the course of centuries. This not only came about as the result of human contemplations, but also especially through the will of God.
The Christian canon of the Old Testament is based on the Hebrew canon of Judaism, the writings of which are presumed to have come into being over a timespan of about 1,000 years.
The revelations of God The canon of the New Testament consists of the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of the Apostles, and one prophetical book, namely the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The writings of Apostle Paul were the first to gain esteem in the early church. The gospels— of which the gospel according to Mark is the oldest— and the other writings were added later on. The writings of the New Testament came into being over the space of approximately 70 years.
In order to preserve and hand down these original accounts of the Christian faith, they were compiled into a collection that ultimately came to be certified as “canonical” in the course of various synods.
The collection of writings that are definitive for the teachings of a particular religion are called a ‘canon’. For the Christian faith, these include the writings of the Old and New Testaments.
The term ‘synod’ is derived from the Greek word synodos and means ‘gathering’ or ‘assembly’. A synod is understood as the assembly of an ecclesiastical body that has the authority to pass binding resolutions.