66 seems right to me

How many books make up what we commonly call the Bible? Most will say 66 books, but few can explain why it is 66 and not 65 or 70 or some other number. There are, after all, dozens of books that claim to be this gospel or that, written by a supposed disciple or near to be.

There are many books outlining the reasons and ideas the author believes these 66 books, and only these books only make up the Bible. There is much good and some questionable information between the covers of these books, and I am not here to comment on them. But I do have a thought, if God is who He claims to be, and knew each of us from before the foundation of the earth, He would certainly know the ultimate total of the books that would become the Bible. The question is would He tell us in advance? Given the fact that He has told us almost everything else important, and that He would know some would try to add and subtract from His Word, I believe He would. Stay with me here.

We are probably all familiar with the fact that the directions to build the temple, the blue prints if you will, and implements in it, akin to the specification books, were shown to Moses by the Lord Himself on the mountain, Exodus 25:40. The Lord gave strict instructions to build the Temple and implements exactly as instructed as recorded in chapters 25-31 of Exodus. Hebrews 8:1-5 and Colossians 2:17 remind us these instructions on building the Temple and implements are correctly included in the phrase “a shadow of things to come.” They are exactly that, as we will see.

The lamp, or golden candlestick as it is often called, in the Temple was to shine light in the Holy of Holies, and that would make it the picture of the Word of God; The Bible. To call it a candlestick is really incorrect. A candle burns by consuming itself. This was truly an oil lamp. It burned by being filled with oil, and oil of course, is a picture of the Holy Spirit all through Scripture.

This oil lamp, or lamp stand, described herein long before the full cannon of Scripture had been written or completed, was to be made of solid gold, gold means deity, and was to be beaten (you do the math) from one piece of gold meaning unity. It had a central shaft, a yarek meaning thigh or loins, from which all the branches came. It was to have three “knops” or buds, three being the number of the trinity. The shaft and the branches combine for a total of seven lamps, seven meaning complete or perfect. From the three in one supporting shaft came six branches, six is, of course, the number of man, three on each side, Old and New Testament; Gentile and Jew; before Christ and after Christ, you pick.

Each branch is to have three bowls, three knops, and three flowers. There are nine fruits of the Spirit, nine gifts of the Spirit. Nine is the number sometimes called the Holy Spirit in the Church.

The yarek has four groups of bowls, knops, and flowers making a total of twelve. Twelve is the number of apostles, the number of layers to the foundation of Heaven, (thus Godly government) or the City of God, the number of inches in a foot, OK, OK just checking to see if you are awake, but that is why we shouldn’t use the metric system – just kidding.

Adding it all up there are 66 total ornaments on the lamp stand in the Temple of God. Yep, the light in the Holy of Holies, which represents the Word of God is provided by an oil (Holy Spirit) burning (which needs to be refilled) lamp stand with 66 ornaments corresponding to the 66 books of the Bible, with 27 ornaments on one side(books in the New Testament) and 39 ornaments on the main shaft and the other side (books in the Old Testament), all formed from one solid piece of gold, not from many pieces from different places brought together, and as long and the lamp is filled with the Holy Spirit, … err … I mean oil, it will burn forever. When the Spirit goes, the light goes out.

66 books seems like the correct number to me.

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