UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
It begins at creation (4,000 BC)
and goes 1,000 years past the rapture (shortly to happen).
It is written by God assisted
by 44 earthly authors, over 1600 years on three continents.
The Bible declares past, present
and future history.
One third of the Bible is prophecy
that fore-tells of events before they happen.
It is a book crammed full of facts
and figures, dates, times, places, events, names, amounts, quantities,
people. All factual and verifiable.
In the Bible, God declares
(states without contradiction) who he was, is and will be.
In the Bible, God states what he has
done, what he is doing and what he will do.
This is despite what anyone
thinks or believes.
He was, is, and will be, judge,
jury, executioner and, of course, the Saviour of the world.
The Bible has two parts –
the Old Testament and the New Testament. (A “testament” is simply
a testifying or declaration.)
THE OLD TESTAMENT is about the nation of Israel with three basic promises 1. God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed all nations should be blessed. 2. God’s covenant (agreement) with the Hebrew nation, that if they would faithfully serve him, they would prosper as a nation. If they forsook him and served idols, they would be destroyed as a nation. 3. God’s promise to David that out of his family would come the great Messiah and Saviour of the world who would establish his universal kingdom without end. THE NEW TESTAMENT is about this Messiah and the world’s Saviour, the man Jesus Christ.
1. Jesus
Christ has already come the first time as the Son of man and ending at
the cross.
2. Jesus
Christ will come in the air at the rapture of all
true Christians.
3. Jesus
Christ will come the second time, to the earth at Armageddon, as the Son
of man.
The theme of the Bible is the return of Jesus Christ to sit on
the Jewish throne of David in Jerusalem. (See Revelation chapter 19)
Between the first and the second
comings, there is a section in the middle of about 2,000 years.
This is commonly called the ‘church’
age, the end of which, Christ appears at the rapture, with all true
Christians being physically caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Between the rapture and Armageddon, God pours out his wrath
on the earth for seven years. This is called the time of great
tribulation ending with the battle of Armageddon on the plain of Megiddo in
Northern Israel. This battle has God rescuing Israel from all the attacking nations
of the world.
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3. A
VERY BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE 7,000 YEARS OF THE BIBLE
God creates man (Adam) and places him in the garden of Eden around
4,000BC (BC means before Christ). This is approximately where Kuwait is today
and is where the two rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates flow into the Persian
Gulf. Adam and Eve, being real people and the parents of us all, sinned and
fell from the perfect creatures God had made them to be. They were cast
(removed) out of the garden. The world then becomes dreadfully evil and after
1760 years God destroys the world with Noah’s flood (2340BC) but eight
people are saved in the ark.
God then separates man into the different races
with different languages at the tower of Babel and they go in all
directions. God then divides the one huge land mass (2,000BC), that existed
then, into the various continents we have today, with the various races on each
continent.
God starts again and chooses Abraham (1876BC) and
takes him out of Babylon into the land of Canaan. Abraham’s descendants
migrate down to Egypt (1661BC) and grow to become a large nation for 70
years. Then after a further 144 years of brutal slavery, God leads them out of
Egypt under Moses (the Exodus), where they wander for forty years
in the desert. They enter their promised land of Canaan (1406BC) and are ruled
by a series of Judges for a few hundred years while fighting the
surrounding nations.
After the reign of the kings of Saul, David
and Solomon (40 years each), the nation is divided (930BC). For the next
324 years, these two kingdoms are ruled by various kings and spoken to by
various prophets. These accounts are found in the Old Testament in the books of
Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and the 16 prophets. The North part, the ten tribes,
called Israel, lasts about 200 years and is taken captive by Assyria in 722BC.
The South part, called Judah, lasts a little longer, and in
606BC, is carried away captive by Babylon. A remnant return in 536BC to
re-establish their national life. They build their temple under Haggai
and Zechariah (516BC) and Jerusalem’s wall is completed by Nehemiah
(430BC). Around 420BC the prophet Malachi delivers God’s last words to
the nation.
Soon after the Old Testament is closed. This completes
the first 4,000 years shown on the chart.
After 400 years, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Old
Testament prophecy, appears. He lives a sinless life, dies for the sins of
man and rises from the dead. He commanded his disciples to preach the story of
his life and the redeeming power of his blood to all nations.
The gospel of salvation with eternal security is found
in the 14 books of the New Testament in the writings of the apostle Paul.
Shortly, there will be the rapture,
where all true Christians will be taken off the earth to meet the Lord in the
air, and a period of 7 years, called the Tribulation, will
follow, where God will pour out his wrath upon the earth. This ends at the battle
of Armageddon in the North of Israel, where God rescues Israel from its
enemies - all nations of the earth.
Christ then rules and reigns with all true believers
for 1,000 years, after which the universe is melted and destroyed,
and a new heaven and a new earth, along with a new universe, is
created for ever more and preserved in a sinless state.
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Harley Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.
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