The Bible In Historical Order

Our next task, now we understand something of the purpose of God and the theme of the Bible is to outline the main historical features found in the Bible and put the books in chronological order. Not every book is dated, but its approximate time can be indicated.

The Old Testament

Not a history book, although the only perfectly reliable source of what we term ancient history. It will now help to place these many books in chronological order, and at the same time demonstrate the importance of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and the major milestones of its development

[Attachment 5 Chart 03 Please contact us for charts and attachments]]

After creation the major event is the flood when Noah and his family were preserved. The choice for the seed fell on Shem, the youngest? of 3 brothers.

The world for many years began to sink into wickedness and idolatry and Abraham a descendant of Shem was told to leave his native city Ur and move to the land of Israel (or Canaan as it was then). He was promised the land, although he was never given any in his lifetime.

Those promises were confirmed to Isaac, then Jacob who had 12 sons from which came the twelve families or tribes which collectively constituted the nation of Israel.

To escape famine the household went down into Egypt, by then consisting of some 70 persons. All this is contained in the book of Genesis.

Eventually a change of dynasty in Egypt reduced them to slavery from which God delivered them under the leadership of Moses.

Some 600,000 men and their families trekked towards the land promised to Abraham through the desert of Sinai.

Here they were given God's laws for the regulation of the nation, sacrifices were prescribed in detail, all with the object of pointing forward to the great sacrifice that was to come. A place for the offering of sacrifice was prescribed, it was a portable tent-like structure placed in an enclosure, which was called the tabernacle. In this, if the nation were faithful, God would dwell, and be approached in the innermost section (called the Most Holy place) by the High Priest once a year. Again all the details are highly typical of the work of Jesus Christ. Details are to be found in the book of Exodus and Leviticus.

The book of Numbers covers some of the events in the wilderness and Deuteronomy contains the last speeches of Moses to Israel.

Israel emerged from the wilderness under the leadership of Joshua to conquer Canaan, and for some 400 years the head of Israel was called a judge, generally raised by God to organise them to defeat their enemies. The last judge was Samuel. The books of the Bible bear explanatory titles.

Next came the kings, the second king David, being described as a man after God's own heart. David was of the tribe of Judah, the city of Jerusalem was selected as the capital city and adjacent was the temple site on Mount Zion.

The Psalms are Hebrew poetry, many being written by David and include prophetic writings. Many have a particular bearing on the life and experiences of Jesus Christ.

Under Solomon's peaceful reign the kingdom had reached its zenith. David said that Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, so we see that this was regarded as the kingdom of God. A temple was built to replace the tabernacle.

After Solomon, turning now to the second page, Israel was divided, the northern tribes, set up their own king and persisted in a grievous sin of conducting their own system of worship in their own territory.

The kingly line from David in Judah was left with only 2 tribes, but with its greater faithfulness it continued longer than its larger neighbour. The narratives of the books called Kings and Chronicles summarise the history from a Divine point of view./

God had promised Israel great blessings for obedience. Disobedience would be punished by them being rooted out of their land and scattered. Prophets were now sent by God to warn the people and foretell the impending disaster if they refused to listen. And so from this era we are blessed with an abundance of revelation concerning the Jews themselves, their neighbours and descriptions of the work and purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guilty Israel were carried captive into Assyria, and Judah followed later being taken away to Babylon.

Thus Jewish dispersion began.

Still the prophets continued their work looking far into the future now when the Jews would return to their land and the kingdom of God would be established. Both Daniel and Ezekiel prophesied in exile in Babylon.

A remnant returned to Jerusalem, after the Medes and Persians had conquered Babylon and the temple was rebuilt. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah cover the main historical events of the period as groups of Jews returned to their land, and Jerusalem and its walls were rebuilt. So the books comprising the Jewish scriptures were completed, and God's oracles were for the time being concluded with the prophecy of Malachi.

The Medo-Persian empire was replaced by the Greek. For a time independence was gained by Judas Maccabaeus and his successors, until Judea was subjugated by the Romans in BC63. But never was the throne of David restored, never did a son of David aspire to the kingly power, until as we have already seen, the claim and title devolved upon Jesus of Nazareth.

The NT

So we are brought to the third page and scripture is now written in Greek. The life of Jesus is recorded by four independent accounts. Matthew and John were 2 of the 12 disciples that Jesus chose, Mark was a close friend and companion of the disciples, while Luke was a Gentile convert involved in the establishment of the early church with particular involvement at Philippi in Greece.

The substance of these accounts, covers the birth of Jesus, his baptism at the age of 30, his preaching work, his miracles and parables, his rejection by the Jewish leaders and his death and resurrection. Jesus indicates that he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and the subject of his preaching was the gospel, or the good news, of the kingdom of God. We have seen that Jesus was appointed king and he sought associates who would rule with him in his kingdom. To the disciples he promised that they would sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. He testified that Abraham. Isaac and Jacob would enter this kingdom. He taught his followers to pray for this kingdom to come, and for God's will to be done on the earth.

After the death of Jesus the disciples were commissioned to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" - and the conditions for salvation from sin and death are clear - they are belief of the gospel and baptism. Jesus said "he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned."(Mk 16:16; Mt 28:19,20)

Now the disciples were also called apostles. The word is transferred from the Greek, 'Apostolos', meaning, literally, 'one sent forth'. These 12 were the ones that Jesus especially designated as sent forth to preach the kingdom of God (Luke 9:1-10).

So it is now easy to understand why the next book after the gospels is called the Acts of the Apostles.

The book commences with the 12 asking when the kingdom would come, Jesus says that it was not for them to know, they were to be his witnesses, in Israel and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

As Jesus was taken into heaven then angels reassured them that he would come back in the same way.

So Jesus was preached to the Jews initially,

Acts 3:19-21,25,26

Now the original believers were of course all Jews, however the nation at large had rejected their King and they also rejected his followers. Bitter persecution of the Christians by the Jews arose.

Non-Jews were also to be incorporated into this people of God's choice in place of the non-believing Jews. Special revelation was given to Peter, and one of the fiercest enemies of the Christians, Paul of Tarsus, had his life completely turned around because Jesus himself appeared to him when he was on the road to Damascus. He was especially chosen as the apostle to the Gentiles.

At a meeting of the church at Jerusalem this difficult adaptation of how Gentiles would be incorporated was finally determined.

Acts 15:6,7,11-14

Thus the majority of the Acts is given over to the missionary work of Paul as he tirelessly traversed the Roman empire. The book was written by his faithful companion Luke, who wrote one of the accounts of the life of Jesus.

The remainder of the new testament is comprised of what are known as epistles. The Greek is epistello, meaning to send to, primarily a message and hence a letter. There is a broad line between the formality of a public message designed for publication and the less formal writing which we would call a letter. Generally these books are formal in content although there are purposeful letters addressed to individuals, such as Timothy and Titus.

The majority were written by Paul and provide definition of teaching and also practical application in the rules for daily living of a holy life which is required of those professing to be a people of God.

By AD 70 the New Testament was virtually complete and the Jews reaped the consequences of their rejection of the Son of God. In accordance with Bible prophecy they were scattered and rooted out of their land.

Christianity had spread far and wide, and all that remained to complete the word of God, was from the pen of the aged apostle John. His last message from Jesus was designed to warn believers and set out in symbolic form the extended history of the struggle between believers against a general hostility which must continue until he should return.

Thus all that was necessary for the salvation of man was comprised in a this wonderful volume.

Promises & Prophecies

However although revelation from God might have ceased, that did not mean that men and women thereafter cannot see his workings with nations upon the earth.

The word of Prophecy educates us and confirms our faith.

A brief synopsis is available of the highlights in our handout. Clearly we cannot cover much more tonight, but we can briefly show you how diverse the prophecies are.

They concern the Jews, as you might expect, but they also concern the Arabs, other nations of the middle east and the whole sweep of empires as well.

They relate, not only to the past, where fulfilled prophecy provides wonderful confirmation of Biblical accuracy and its divine origin, they relate to the present day, to the return of the Jews to their own land, the land to be fruitful again, and also to the imminent future - the invasion of Israel, world war and the return of Christ.

Our first slide summarises how the prophecies tell of the punishments for disobedience would fall on the Jews. These were events that were foretold before they were even established as a nation in the land of Israel 3,500 years ago.

Jesus foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, but he also confirms the words of the OT concerning their regathering.

Now there is material here for many lectures - we can only give selected summaries in the time we have allotted to ourselves.

Let's just home in on this aspect for one minute - the regathering of the Jews.

After all the dire warnings of calamity foretold in Deuteronomy 28, including such expressive words that in the morning they would say "would God it were evening", and in the evening "would God it were morning", so lamentably fulfilled in the concentration camps, after all this, the silver lining of mercy graces the words of Moses in Deut 30.

Deut 30:1-3

This final restoration of the Jews is the constant theme of the prophets. We could spend many evenings looking at them. Jeremiah, eg, makes these declarations of their return shown on the slide:

"I will cause them (the Jews) to return"
"I will not make a full end of thee (Israel)"
"I will watch over them to build and to plant"

Ezekiel addresses his message to the mountain land of Israel. Those mountains which had been the seats of idolatrous worship would be laid waste, lying ravaged in gentile hands - and yet it would only be for a set time.

So the 20th century has witnessed a remarkable revival, with a land reclaimed and yielding fruit to the world, just as the prophet had foretold "Yield your fruit to my people".

The Jews were to return in unbelief of their Messiah. They have done nothing themselves to merit the Divine favour, they are, as scripture says, beloved for their father's sakes. They must still be made to yield and so disaster awaits them. Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 describe the conflict which must take place before they recognise their God.

Back to the summary slide we emphasise that the whole life of Christ can be found in the Old Testament for he came to fulfil all that had been written concerning him.

The second summary slide demonstrates how the prophetic vista encompasses the succession of empires that would arise, and the domination of a counterfeit Christian religion.

The diverse fate of nations surrounding Israel is also portrayed, some to be destroyed utterly, some to continue. One to be forgotten and a place for flocks, another to be overthrown yet flocks would not congregate there. The Arabs to be a great nation.

Finally what is of supreme interest is the prophecies concerning our own times. We believe these concern our imminent future - the invasion of Israel, world war and the return of Christ.

Once again we must emphasise, as this last slide shows, prophecy is to be found in the whole Bible. It is necessary to harmonise the whole of scripture teaching.

The broad outline of the future course of the world, we confidently proclaim, is
1) A time of peace following the restoration of Israel
2) What is described as the Day of the Lord, and the Time of the End is to take the world by complete surprise
3) Israel will be invaded from the North
4) All nations will be drawn into the conflict
5) In this dreadful time- God will intervene, Jesus will return as promised coming a second time
6)All opposition will be put down, peace will follow, and Israel will be restored as the premier nation.

All of this, and much more is contained in plain Bible statements