Welcome to the New Testament

For those who are just now joining us here at RTB, welcome! For those who have been with us since the beginning of the year, congratulations on getting through the entire Old Testament! Take a moment and catch your breath, because now we start a new leg of our journey, racing through the New Testament in just 12 weeks. I say “racing” because we will certainly be covering a lot of theological ground each day — far more than we can possibly comment on here in our little discussion forum. On the other hand, though, the actual amount of daily reading is not at all that much — only about 10-15 minutes of reading, plus whatever additional time you might want to spend in prayer and contemplation (which I strongly encourage).

If you are new to RTB, you should know that for this year we are not going straight through the Bible, beginning to end. Rather, we are taking things in chronological order, following the path laid out by the Thomas Nelson Chronological Study Bible. That means, for instance, that we’ll be reading all the Gospels at once, interweaving these parallel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry together. Then we’ll proceed with the book of Acts, with detours into the Epistles wherever those letters may fit in the historical timeline. One look at our October Reading Schedule should give you a good idea of how that plays out, at least for the Gospels. (By the way, please remember that there is a fair amount of guesswork involved in piecing together a 2,000-year-old timeline, particularly in the Gospels. The path our guide follows is probably reasonable, but so might be any number of other possible paths.)

Most of us are probably more familiar with the New Testament than the Old. On the one hand, such familiarity is good because, as we read one passage, we may anticipate other, later passages and connect the dots more easily. On the other hand, familiarity can also lure us into thinking that we already know all there is to know, so we stop paying attention. So I pray that, each and every day, we look into the Scriptures afresh, guarding against “over-familiarity” and seeking the Lord with our whole hearts.

Our goal here is not simply to read words on a page each day and to collect a gold star on December 31 for reading a whole lot of words on a whole lot of pages. Our goal is to come to know Jesus Christ — and to know Him more and more deeply. I am glad you all are with me on this journey. Let’s get started.