Preparing for the New Testament - Come follow me with Sam

 Welcome!  We get to study the New Testament this year!

The New Testament is unique because it chronicles the life of the Savior during His Mortal Ministry as He walked His own creation. For the first time ever we have a perfect example teaching us, and showing a higher way.

We also get to read about the effect this had on his disciples and we have a few of their teachings.

We finally have the recorded event of the Atonement. 

Sometimes people get the impression that simply reading about the physical act of the Atonement can get them greater understanding of what it means for them. But mostly what is recorded is the physical process, whereas the Atonement is primarily a spiritual process to change us to be like God, and secondarily a physical process to raise our flesh to a godlike attainment. I have found that to get the most out of the reading of the Atonement, I need to be living and wrestling with the atonement in my own life, and then the understanding comes when I read about it.

Break down of the New Testament

There are many ways to split the New Testament. Here is how I think about it.

The Gospels

The Gospels are four accounts of Christ's ministry and teachings. It would be a mistake to treat these like a biography. They are instead focused on delivering what the authors believed was the most important things to note in Christ's mortal life, as well as events before the Ascension.

In a previous post, I talked about their purpose and compared the gospel's purpose to Joseph Smith's accounts of the first vision. 

  • Matthew is considered to be primarily aimed toward convincing the Jews that Jesus is Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah
  • Mark is the shortest and considered to be primarily aimed toward a gentile audience without the background of the old testament.
  • Luke is the longest and considered to be a comprehensive polished account that would help a general audience understand the events, causes and effects of Christ's ministry. 
  • John is considered to be primarily aimed toward believers to better understand the Christ they worship. He has the most unique content of the gospels

The Acts of the Apostles

This is essentially a continuation of Luke, and chronicles what the apostles did after the Ascension. We can learn so much of the effect Christ had on them by observing how they act afterward. We can also see many important elements of what Christ's church should look like by studying these accounts.

The Pauline epistles

The Pauline epistles are (you guessed it) written by Paul to various audiences. Paul was not one of the original 12 apostles, but the effect of Christ on him is unmistakable. He is able to teach us of many things, especially pertaining to who we should be and how to avoid falling into traps.

The other epistles

These other epistles are written by other apostles and are some of the closest insights we can get to what they want us to understand about following Christ.

Revelations

Revelations can be a difficult book to go through if you take it seriously. It completes many things about Nephi's vision


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