Mastering the content of the New Testament is a big challenge, even for the sharpest minds. I don’t know about you, but I know that I am not the sharpest pencil on the desk! I’m not the dullest either. But finding things in the 260 chapters can be a challenge. But that is where Acrostics come in and help us. We are going to learn the content of the whole New Testament and be able to pinpoint where everything is by the end of the year. So how are we going to accomplish this?
We are going to use Acrostics. An Acrostic is a word or phrase that guides us into further depth. We use something similar when we text message. LOL! Most people know that LOL means Laugh Out Loud. Each letter of LOL gives us a hint about the content of the rest of the word. This is what an Acrostic does. But let me give you a simple example from the New Testament to get us started.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Barry Huddleston who wrote The Acrostic Bible, Walk Thru the Bible Press, 1978. Unfortunately, it is currently out of print. You can find used copies, but they are limited. I give him credit for the Acrostics. They are his work.
Example
The first book we are going to master is the Gospel of John. The Acrostic Theme for the whole book is John the Gospel of Belief. This Acrostic gives the theme of the whole book.
There is one letter of this Acrostic for each chapter of the book. Then each of those 21 letters is used to give the content of the chapter with a four or five word phrase. Here are the first four chapters which are the John of the Acrostic for the whole book.
Chapter 1 Jesus is the Word
Chapter 2 Outstanding miracle at Cana
Chapter 3 Heavenly birth taught Nicodemus
Chapter 4 Need of Samaritan woman
Get the idea!
We will continue the introduction tomorrow!
The Arnold Journey 