New Testament

As previously mentioned, the New Testament falls into three categories based on their literary makeup—the historical, the epistolary, and the prophetical. The four Gospels make up about 46 percent and the book of Acts raises this to 60 percent. This means 60 percent of the New Testament is directly historical tracing the roots and historical development of Christianity.

Having finished the survey of the historical books, we now come to the twenty-one epistles of the New Testament, twenty-two if one includes Revelation as an epistle. Because of its unique apocalyptic nature, however, in this survey we are distinguishing it as The Prophetic Book of the New Testament.

We now come to the final eight epistles of the New Testament canon, seven of which have often been called the General or Catholic Epistles, though Hebrews has been excluded from this description. The term Catholic was used in the sense of general or universal to distinguish them from the Pauline Epistles which were addressed to churches or persons.

With the book of Revelation, we have the conclusion and consummation of the Bible as God’s revelation to man. As Genesis is the book of beginnings, Revelation is the book of consummation which anticipates the end-time events, the return of the Lord, His end-time reign, and the eternal state.