For instance, it took centuries for them to realise fully that God always cared for them. God was always close to them – never distant nor disinterested. God wanted everyone to learn about these experiences. Therefore, the Holy Spirit roused thoughts and feelings in individuals and groups who recorded these experiences in writing. An example is the Book of Exodus, which conserves some of the earliest writings. As numerous people wrote about God's teachings, it was not always clear what was inspired by the Spirit and what was not. Over time editors inspired by the Holy Spirit were able to recognise what was not from God and they deleted these writings. Those editors then combined different inspired writings and discarded seemingly opposed details which did not measure up to the key teachings. One example is the story of the Passover. As the Hebrews were escaping Egypt, God protected them. In the following text the inspired editor's concern was about God's power over the allegedly invincible Egyptian army. After the Old Testament are the books of the New Testament. The New Testament consists of twenty-seven books which tell of the teachings and life of Jesus as well as events during the first-century of Christianity. These books are attributed to eight different authors, six of whom are numbered among the Apostles and two among their immediate disciples. Within the New Testament are the books of the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters (Epistles). Some refer to the Acts of the Apostles as 'the gospel of the holy spirit'. It is placed as the first book after the Gospels. The Acts of the Apostles tell of the growth of the early church under the power of the Holy Spirit. The book was written by the same author as the Gospel of Luke. The author originally intended the Acts to be like a gospel that focussed only on the Holy Spirit. The Acts begins with the Church in Jerusalem and ends with the Church spreading to Rome, the centre of the empire.
