Grant Swart
In a more light-hearted poll, we create a hypothetical situation which could leave some of us with a difficult choice. Although the scenario is totally fictional and most unlikely, it is nevertheless something to think about, and have a little fun with while watching how our fellow readers regard the various books of the Christian Bible.
For those who might have forgotten the numbers, there are a total of 66 books in the canon of the Christian Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. There are 1189 chapters in those 66 books containing 31,173 verses and approximately 773,692 words. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox versions of the Bible also contain a collection of uninspired books written during the “silent centuries” (400BC – 27AD). Christians reject the Apocrypha as having not been inspired by God and view all these books as secular uninspired history written by men without the aid of God. But, that is not the subject of this poll, as we covered the subject of the Apocrypha in another poll last year.
Our fantasy situation is this. You will be compelled by the ruling authorities to go to a foreign country for an extended period of time to pick pink striped bananas, count goats and to disprove reports which say that Elvis is selling second-hand pizzas in that country. There you will find yourself among a population consisting of mostly unbelievers and people who follow false religions. So, you will have to do some evangelizing and Bibles will be scarce.
As Christians, we should never leave home without our sword, which is the Word of God, our Bible. Paul tells us this clearly in Ephesians 6: “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
However, these same ruling authorities have determined that you may only take three books of the Bible with you, and therefore you will have to leave 63 behind. Hopefully, you would have committed most of what is written in those to memory. There will be no internet media, electricity or cell phone signal in that country and you will have no access to the Bible via other means once you are there. So, don’t try to find a way around it now, you may only have three.
So, the question is, which three would you choose to take along? Which three Bible books do you regard as the most important to you, the most instructive or just simply your personal favourites?
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For the Love of His Truth 
It’s hard to choose just three, maybe you should of narrow it down to three most important historical OT books, OT prophetical books, OT Writings,gospels, Pauline epistles, and non-Pauline epistle.
or just simply three OT, three NT…just thinking
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the bible reader
Thank you for your thoughts. However, if I had made it that you could have more choices, it would be very easy to choose. If we had so many choices, in the light of the scenario I sketched in the article on the poll, we might as well have made it most of the Bible.
We could also have ended up with very long and confusing results as it would not enable us to determine what our readers favourite books are overall. Limiting the choice to three books only, OT and NT combined, it makes us think a little harder on which books we might need most, in bringing the Gospel and the message of the Bible to others.
It’s also aimed at being a little fun, while determining whether what we consider as important or prefer, is actually more or less the same as other believers. The results could be interesting.
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If I had just three, they would be Job, Luke, annd Romans. Some scholars think Job is the oldest book of the Bible; it has a little bit of everything – wisdom like Proverbs, poetry like Psalms, prophecy like Isaiah, creation accounts like Genesis, and it deals powerfully with one humanity’s greatest problems, the problem of evil. Luke is the most thorough and detailed Gospel. Romans has the clearest presentation of the Christian worldview.
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Well if I had to chose I would chose one on the tongue which would be James because I have a major problem with it. Then I would chose Hebrews because I love to hear about faith and the tabernacle and of course I always want to have Psalm for confession, songs of praise and confort.
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I think Genesis, as it puts all the scientists to shame in the very first verse. In order to create / form something one needs, Time, Force, Action, Space and Matter. Gen 1:1 – Genesis also alludes to the Trinity and also refers to the coming of the Messiah.
Then Matthew – the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Revelation – the blessed hope we have of Jesus Christ returning to reign as King over all the earth for ever and ever.
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Thank you for commenting here.
Of course you are quite correct, and I love that you refer to the great importance and relevance to science of Genesis 1:1. It is such a great pity that certain scientists regard their profession and the great scientific leaps they perceive having made forward, as having disproved the existence of God, or at least as having disproved the literal account of creation.
The creation account is without any shadow of doubt, the greatest scientific feat in eternity past. When one considers the overwhelming scientific evidence which supports the Genesis account of creation, it becomes even clearer that those who oppose a literal understanding of the creation, are simply naive and blinded by the god of this world. Of course, they would regard my previous statement as being ludicrous, uninformed and barbaric.
It is painful at times to observe the level of importance which deceived scientists attach to their extremely limited knowledge. Of course, I would not presume to lay claim to even a fraction of their acquired skills or intellectual capabilities, but then again, why would I need to when I have God? Quite boring, their view of the world is, when seen in the light of the wonders of actual creation. Quite unsettling to see how they have made little gods and idols out of their own kind for themselves.
Having exhausted most of their ideas in their quest for more appealing and greater gods, I see they have recently done an about-turn and have started searching for a much smaller god in, what they are calling, the “god particle”. We wish them best of luck, bon-voyage and many happy returns as their imaginations whizz off in a circular metal pipe at the speed of light, underground somewhere in boringly ordinary Switzerland.
Anyhow, all I really wanted to say was thanks for the comment and the votes. I agree with two out of three of your choices. I voted for the same two. Which two, you ask?
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I am at a loss as I know you agree with Genesis, but Matthew could not possible be the one you could not agree with – without the birth of Jesus Christ, we would not have him redeem us on the cross and without His resurrection we would not have the victory over death. Without Revelation, there is no hope for us to carry on in this life, as it is the only book of the Bible that is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Rev 1:3 says, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, AND KEEP THOSE THINGS which are written i it, for the time is near.” lol you have me stumped. Help me out my misery or should I say mystery.?
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Hester
Since I placed this poll on the blog, I have been monitoring the voting with interest. If you go to the “Results” tab, you will see that, currently, the leading books according to all the voters are Romans, John and Genesis, in that order. This position hasn’t changed much since the votes started coming in on the poll quite a few weeks ago. Romans has been at No1 and John at No2 since the first day. Genesis and Revelation switched places between 3rd and 4th a few times, but it seems that Genesis has now been firmly entrenched in 3rd spot. Matthew is currently in 10th position and has never been any higher than 9th.
So, you and I agree on Genesis. We also agree on Matthew, with which very few others agree. Your third book was Revelation, whereas I regard Romans as indispensable. All very interesting and quite a bit of fun! Of course, we know that the received canon of the Bible is God-inspired and the complete Word of God and should be studied in its entirety. We are most humbly thankful to be able to have access to the whole Bible, as in many countries believers either do not have access to even a part of it in any form, or they are persecuted for their Christian faith.
Thanks again!
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