The Four Gospels, Acts, Epistles, And Revelation

Written at various times (AD 50 to AD 90) under various circumstances, the New Testament is a canon of 27 books, which comprises the Four Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation. Some of the books were readily accepted and widely used by the early Christians. Withal, the canon as a whole was only universally accepted by the Church in the fourth or fifth century. Through the ages, Christians comprising Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles) believed that God inspired the New Testament canon of 27 books, and they deemed the corpus as authoritative over life and faith matters.

Jesus Christ is the main message of the New Testament. The other primary elements of the message are (1) its relation to the Old Testament with its revelation of God and His acts

Agabus’ prophecy about the famine in Acts 11:28 only affected people living in those times. In Acts 21:10 -11, Agabus’ prophecy was person specific. It applied only to Paul.

Other practices in the New Testament were culturally conditioned. For example, on the apostolic team’s second missionary journey, Paul circumcised Timothy a young co-worker at Lystra. Was this practice of physical circumcision a binding divine commandment for all or a culturally expedient decision? Evidently, Paul’s practice on that occasion was based on the latter. Timothy was a half-Jew, and Paul circumcised the young man to appease the Jews living in those quarters (Acts 16:1 -2). Timothy’s circumcision was a matter of cultural expediency and has nothing to do with securing salvation. In fact, Paul taught in Galatians 5:2 that to receive circumcision in an attempt to achieve salvation voids Christ’s work.

Clearly, the New Testament text is specific in application. However, the issues addressed in the New Testament text are unique to human nature and faith matters. Therefore, the text’s essential truths have universal applications.

Universal application of New Testament

With regards to salvation, God’s plan remains immutable. Jesus Christ is the still the way, the truth and the life. Man’s perennial problem is sin and God is the only remedy. The Gospel is still the means by which God calls fallen man to receive salvation. Redeemed people ought to live in keeping with their new nature, and to mature spiritually bringing much fruit to God’s glory as they await Christ’s return. Therefore, the New Testament corpus is still applicable to contemporary life, though proper exegesis of the text is vital for proper application so as not to reduce the timeless truths into legalistic requirements or meaningless