The Bible: An Overview
Dr. Randy White
God created the heavens and the earth.
God created man to live in the Garden, in harmony with Himself, each other, and all of nature.
Man did the one thing that was prohibited.
God took man from the Garden and man had to live a life of difficulty until death, with the only hope of renewal being a child who would give the serpent a fatal blow. The Hebrew Scriptures give the story of looking for that child.
Until Messiah was born, man would be born and would die with no hope of immediate salvation, going to Sheol when they died.
Cain was the first possibility but refused to conquer his impulses, killing his brother. Cain lived out his days in the land of Nod, becoming the progenitor of a line of evil men.
Seth was born to Adam and Eve and became the progenitor of the line through which the Messiah would be born.
Satan, in a desire to evade the fatal blow, sent his demons to pollute the human race, creating the Nephilim.
Because of the Nephilim, the entire human race save Noah (the only righteous one) needed to be eradicated, so God flooded the earth and began again with Noah and his sons.
After the flood, the family was told to be fruitful and replenish (swarm) the earth.
Noah prophesied that Shem would be the progenitor of the Promised One.
Genesis 10 records the replenishment of the world.
A descendant of Ham did not like the Godly instruction of covering the earth and determined to gather humanity together into one city. God destroyed this plan by confusing languages, resulting not only in different languages but also the re-swarming of the earth and the development of ethnicities.
God soon selected a man named Abram, promising a great nation would come through him, that this nation would possess the land then known as Canaan, and that nation would bless all ethnicities.
Abraham failed to trust God and produced an offspring that became a perpetual enemy, but God promised that this enemy nation would also be great. (A reminder for all time that man should never rush God or take God's work into his hands)
Eventually, Isaac was born as the promised son of Abraham. Isaac has two sons, and of the two sons, God revealed that Jacob the younger would receive the promise of Abraham. The older brother Esau and his descendants became enemies of Jacob.
God changed Jacob's name to Israel, and he became the father of 12 sons,“fathers" of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Joseph, at the time the youngest, appeared to be the one through whom the promise would be given. When Joseph was thought dead by Jacob, Jacob proclaimed that he would go to Sheol in mourning (believing the promise was unable to be fulfilled).
Joseph saved his brothers from starvation, but the sin of their brothers led the tribes to Egypt, where they would become slaves.
Jacob revealed that Judah would be the progenitor of the Promised Redeemer.
After 215 years of slavery, and 430 years from the promise to Abraham, the new nation of Israel was born through the mighty hand of God, which freed the slaves from Egypt, using the leadership of Moses, a Hebrew raised in Pharaoh's palace.
Moses sent spies into the land after leading them to Egypt, but the nation chose to fear rather than trust God, and so that generation was sentenced to die in the wilderness. The nation wandered in the wilderness for 40 year as every person above 20 years of age died.
After 40 years, Joshua and Caleb were the only two left of the previous generation, Moses died and, according to God's instruction, Joshua was to be the military leader who would lead the nation into the promised land.
“sold" on a lease of 49 years.
“judge". Judges were mostly military commanders used of God to restore safety to the nation.
Eventually, the nation wanted a human King rather than a theocracy. God allowed the nation to create a monarchy, and Saul the Benjamite was made the first King. His rule was erratic and oppressive.
After Saul's death, David became King and was promised a dependent who would perpetually reign over the house of Israel, and over all nations. This Son of David would be the promised Redeemer.
David's son Solomon became King after David's death, but his reign becomes burdensome to the people. After his death, the nation divided in a civil war, with ten tribes becoming the nation of Israel and two tribes becoming the nation of Judah.
Israel (the northern kingdom) quickly got out of God's will and was unfaithful to God continually. Every king was an evil king. God sent one prophet after another until he allowed the nation of Assyria to destroy the monarchy. The tribes fled into Asia, Europe, and Africa, and some remained in the land or returned later“lost."
Judah (the southern kingdom) was sometimes faithful, sometimes sinful. Her kings were always a direct descendent of David/Solomon/Rehoboam until God allowed the nation of Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and exile the Kingdom in 586 BC. God sent several“Times of the Gentiles."
During the exile, God sent prophets to encourage the people that He had not forgotten His promises.
After the 70 years, God raised up prophets, civilian leaders, and men of God to lead the people back to Jerusalem, which was rebuilt and reinhabited, but the Old Testament closes with the nation living in the land but unfaithful to God and under the ultimate rule of the Persians.
Between the Testaments, the Greeks overcame the Persians, and then the Romans defeated the Greeks. The New Testament opens in much the same way the Old Testament closes, except with the Romans as the ultimate rule. The nation is still longing for the promised Messiah.
Daniel, a prophet of the exile, had given a timeline which had been revealed by God. This timeline revealed that 483 years after the return of the exiles Messiah would be cut off. The New Testament opens with the clock at 450 years after the return, so the Messianic expectation is high among the Jews.
The New Testament opens with the birth of Jesus, and numerous assurances that Jesus is the Promised Redeemer of Genesis 3:15 and all the Hebrew Scriptures.
The four gospels present Jesus to Israel as the Promised Redeemer, who would fulfill every prophecy of redemption from Genesis 3:15 onward. The Jewish nation rejects her promised Messiah, just as had been prophesied. Also, according to prophecy, the Messiah is raised from the dead and, 40 days later, ascends to heaven.
The book of Acts picks up with the ascension, where 120 believers, including 11 Apostles, are instructed to wait for the fulfillment of the promise to send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit arrives on the Day of Pentecost, and the Spirit of God empowers the 120 to take the message of Jesus as Messiah to Israel first, then, with her acceptance, to all the world. This is in fulfillment of Joel 2:28-29.
Israel fails to accept the risen and ascended Messiah, so God destroys Israel and puts them into a blindness which continues to this day. Along with this blindness, God established an unforeseen period in which the nations would accept the Messiah as their personal Savior before Israel accepts Him as her King“the church". The church is entirely new in the work of God.
In the Pauline epistles, the church is given instructions for living that are separate from the Law of Moses and the Commonwealth and covenants of Israel.
The church (and its individual members) is under the guidance of Scripture, and each Christian has the wisdom and freedom to make God-honoring decisions without the oversight of an ecclesiastical body.
The church does not replace Israel but has Scripture to show that God will someday restore Israel and fulfill his promises to her, and before that can happen, the church must be taken away, which will occur in an event we call the rapture. The rapture is not taught anywhere in Scripture before the creation of the church because the rapture pertains only to the church.
After the rapture, the prophetic end-times events of the Old Testament begin to unfold. The book of Revelation elaborates on these events.
“times of the Gentiles" will end with the Second Coming of the Jewish Messiah, who will judge the nations, and the Kingdom of God will begin.
The Kingdom of God is a 1,000-year period in which Satan is bound, unable to deceive the nations, and the earth lives in peace and harmony, much like the Garden of Eden. Finally, man will exercise the full dominion of the earth which was intended to be his.
At the end of the 1,000 years, Satan will be released for a short time, and many will follow him, showing the full depravity of man. Satan and his followers will be cast into the eternal lake of fire. Those who are faithful and true will live for eternity in the New Heaven and New Earth, with New Jerusalem as the capital city.
