I signed up to attend a Walk Thru the Old Testament event being held at Parkview Christian Church on October 23 and 24. I had no idea what to expect. Brian White, the senior minister at Parkview, had said it was an interactive event that would teach us the Old Testament.
The event, when all was said and done, totaled about five hours. We spent two hours on Friday night and 3 hours on Saturday morning. I will say that it was exactly what Brian said it would be. By the end of the event, we had learned–or walked thru–the entire Old Testament.
Mark Stradiot, our instructor, was so engaging and encouraging that time just flew by. The course itself uses key words and hand motions to help its participants remember major events in the Old Testament. There, of course, was not time to get into every little detail. What it did do was ignite interest in learning more. Plus, it helped make some things clearer as the course gave a chronological view of the scripture.
While I would encourage everyone to participate in a event like this, here are some key points that I learned from my walk through the Old Testament.
- How to remember the number of books in the Bible–This is something I never could seem to remember. However, Mark gave us a good way of remembering.
- There are three letters in the word “Old” and nine letters in the word “Testament.” Put those together and you have 39. There are 39 books in the Old Testament.
- There are three letters in the word “New” and nine letters in the word “Testament.” Multiply 3 x 9 and you get 27. There are 27 books in the New Testament.
- How to remember the different types of books in the Old Testament–The 39 books of the Old Testament are divided into books of history, poetry and prophecy. If you can remember that there are five books of poetry and that the other two sections are evenly divided, you will find there are 17 books of history and 17 books of prophecy.
- Key words and hand motions really do help you remember–I really admire Mark Stradiot. He has to be a man of tremendous courage to give presentations that require set-in-their-ways adults to get out of their comfort zones. He had us standing up, doing hand motions, repeating key words in sing-songy fashion and cheering to go “all the way back to creation!” But it worked. In five hours we walked through the Old Testament and close to 1 month later, I can still do it.
Though this trip through the Old Testament wasn’t what I thought it would be, it turned out well worth the time. I hope to get a chance to take a walk through the New Testament sometime. Until then, I can walk you through the Old Testament in 77 hand motions.
