Bible Statistics

Did You Know That ?

The Bible:

Middle book, Micah; largest book, Psalms; shortest book, 2 John.

The name Jehovah (Yahweh, Lord) occurs 6,855 times.

The human authors number about 50.

Old Testament:

Thirty-nine books, 929 chapters, 23,214 verses, 593,493 words.

Middle book, Proverbs; middle chapter, Job 29; middle verses, 2 Chr 20:17-18;

shortest book, Obadiah; about 30 extrabiblical books mentioned.

New Testament:

Twenty-seven books, 260 chapters, 7,959 verses, 181,253 words.

Middle book, 2 Thessalonians; middle chapter, Romans 13, middle verse, Acts 17:17;

shortest book, 2 John; shortest verse, John 11:35.

The name 'Jesus' occurs 700 times in the gospels and Acts, less than 70 times in epistles.

The name 'Christ' occurs 60 times in the gospels and Acts, some 240 times in the epistles and the Revelation.

Are our Good Works something that we are going to perform by predestination?

In the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, we read "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

The verse above follows the better known verses 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast".

And so we find that the order of salvation for man is set forth thus: a. by God's grace; b. through faith; c. unto predestined good works.

We find that God has "before ordained" man's lifelong response, his good works, to the salvation that He has provided for him. Since men are rewarded in terms of their works (I Corinthians: 3).

God has established men's inheritance before the foundation of the world. Men will work out their assigned roles, according to the decree of God. If this is not true, then what is it that God ordains beforehand? Is God betting on possibilities? Could we be saved by grace through faith, and then do nothing by bad works? If we did that, we would not be Christians (I John 1: 3-6).

God can only be confident that His people will walk in the good works that He ordained beforehand if He will see to it that what He has ordained comes to pass, case by individual case.

What good are God's pre-ordained possibilities in a world that God does not control and is subject to the random outcome of events?

What good are God's pre-ordained possibilities in a world governed by the hearts of specific individuals who can fall from grace and who can refuse to honor God's pre-ordained possibilities for doing good works?

Do all things work together for good to them who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)? The only way this promise could be true is because God has already ordained our good works.

God is not totally dependent on our autonomous good works in order to make all things work together for good. If He has ordained it, it will surely come to pass.

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