When

If one believes that the important revelations occurred in the distant past, then it is logical to try to preserve the earliest chronicles of those revelations. All later accounts would only be distortions of the original event.

Mainstream Christianity recognizes and accepts all the revelations from the Old Testament (Matthew 5:18). In addition, Christians accept the new revelations from Jesus and his disciples as written in the New Testament. Fascinatingly, the New Testament ends with words that nothing in the bible can be changed (added to or subtracted) in any way or the perpetrators will suffer all the plagues mentioned in the bible. Revelation 22:19.

Since the bible is suppose to be a chronicle of God's revelations, bible literalists are forced to believe that all significant revelations worth including in the bible have already happened and there are not going to be any more before the end of the world (at the second coming).

Contrast this to the idea that God continually reveals Himself to the world all the time where there is really no preferred time period. Such a viewpoint would consider the bibles as important literary accounts of belief systems, but not as the inerrant word of God.