When the Christian leaders came together to decide what would be included in the Bible, they included only the books that further emphasized the story of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, the Christian Bible is just a long slog of Jewish history, then the Gospels of the New Testament, which was the main point, and finished with stories of the first missionaries and what they said and did for the early church. Then there's the book of Revelation, but that wasn't the point. The main point of the Bible was Jesus Christ and 3 of the 4 books of the gospel (Mathew, Mark Luke) are just repeating themselves while John is the breakthrough story with the most detailed account. Now, some people think that something did indeed happen sometime, all those years ago, when Jesus was said to have walked the Earth. Recent evidence, such as the significant discovery a few short years ago that the Shroud of Turin was authentic, dating from the time of Christ. The previous test that debunked it years ago accidentally took a sample from a damaged piece of the cloth that had been repaired in the middle ages. So, something did indeed happen at the time of Christ as more recent evidence seems to suggest.
For anyone with a real interest of true Christianity.....next to the Bible I would suggest the book "I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be an Atheist". It is a truly exhaustive apologetic on the subject.
Actually they had always been mostly in agreement since the 2nd Century A.D. The later synods deliberately stuck with only the 'books' they could verify the provenances of and excluded a lot of passion literature, questionable sources and the like, but were still popular reading nonetheless among Christians. The 'canon' synods were more about govt. policy, Constantine, etc. than genuine theological conflicts within the chruches themselves, and presenting a unified front against the pagan cultists and violent racist Jewish hatred against Christians. One well known exception was the 'book' of Hebrews', which was included due to the importance of it re Jewish converts and Gentiles, Christianity being a reformed Jewish sect and early was almost entirely made up of Jews before its membership grew to embrace the universalism implied by Moses and monotheism in general. The Eastern Orthodox and what became 'Catholicism' with a capital C were largely compatible until the Great Schism. It's a Wiki article, but it provides a starting point for further study. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East–West_Schism My personal opinion is the schism is mainly about the division of money and property, with the theological arguments are just a foil. Political power of the western Church was also on the rise.
A few days ago I listened to an exceptionally good overview of what somebody might want to research if they are beginning to wonder about the afterlife.... and how Messian Yeshua - Jesus can fit in as our JUDGE........ This exceptionally good summary begins at the 1:06:00 mark in this video.... the first part is mostly worship....... Toward the end of the lecture by Pastor John Arnott he talks about this former Atheist... who had a near death experience...... and this has got to be one of the most profoundly encouraging NDE accounts... by an Atheist... that I have ever heard in these last thirty five years....... For the record John and Carol Arnott simply ask near death experiencer Ian McCormack questions... and they let him talk...... At Home with John & Carol Featuring Ian McCormack My take on the NDE of Ian McCormack is that Jesus and the Holy Spirit love Atheists... and have an amazing plan for all Atheists... .once they get to the place where they have some humility..... and some truthfulness......... and some willingness to accept the help of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus our Messiah..... Mr. Ian McCormack does NOT have an easy time with the idea of FORGIVENESS ... for those who had wronged him before his brush with death....... we can all learn from how he learned about this critical aspect of spirituality.....
