This week in our series Bestseller, we’re going to be talking about how the text of the Bible came to us in the form we have it, and who decided what was going to be included. The first topic, how the Bible was copied, deals with whether or not the texts we have are accurate to the originals. How do I know that the Gospel of John in my Bible is the same thing John wrote? Who’s to say that people didn’t add things on as they copied? Was the first copiest named Xerox?

If you flip to your Bible’s table of contents, you won’t see The Gospel of Thomas, and you probably won’t see I or II Maccabees either (unless, of course, you happen to be Catholic, or have a Bible that includes the Apocrypha). What gives? Why is Mark included, but not Thomas? What about Judas “The Hammer” Maccabees? Who decided those guys weren’t inspired?

I hate to sound like a cheesy carnival barker, but I’m going to anyway: “For the answers to these and even more amazing questions…come to LifePoint Church Sunday, April 20th!”

These are two of my favourite historical topics, so you can bet that I’ll be writing about them after the series is over. So, even if you can’t make it to LifePoint this Sunday, and don’t give me some lame excuse like: “oh, but Kevin, I live in California”, you’ll be able to read my thoughts on the topics.