The Story of the Bible-I
Introduction. The Bible is the greatest book ever written. Actually, it is a collection of books and other forms of literature, but taken as a whole, there is nothing else like it. It claims to be the Word of God, and I believe the evidence proves it to be so. I will, in other articles, provide some of that evidence.
Most people reject the Bible as God’s word, of course, for various reasons, mainly because it condemns the lifestyle they wish to live. God gave us all a conscience and that conscience bothers us when we violate it. The teachings of Jesus (the final words of God to man) definitely offend the conscience of most people. That leaves us with two choices: either repent and get our lives in harmony with God’s word, or find some excuse to reject the Bible. Obviously, the latter choice is the option chosen by the vast majority of mankind. They will all get to tell God why some day. We see today the tragic, sad condition of a world that is increasingly moving away from God’s truth. In many instances, the Bible predicts this sort of thing and the results (read, for example, Deuteronomy 31:20; Galatians 6:7). The only way the world can go forward is to go back to the Bible.
I want to write this series on “The Story of the Bible.” I’m actually not sure how many articles I will have here; I’m going to keep each essay fairly short so as not to encroach too much upon readers’ time. But I do want to provide a general overview of what the Bible means. Most people don’t really know. I’ll give the “structure,” the “framework” of Bible teaching here, and add some meat to the bones in the future, as time and the Lord permit.
I do want to say, as I close this first essay, that, in one sense, the Bible is not a difficult book to understand. It is the mind of God and thus does contain some (humanly) unfathomable thoughts. But in its basic outline it’s very simple. Here it is:
The theme of the Old Testament: Christ is coming.
The theme of the gospels: Christ is here.
The theme of the remainder of the New Testament: He is coming back.
Start there in your Bible study. We shall, and we shall build upon it, beginning with the next essay.