It is encouraged that everyone is familiar with the Bible because it discusses our past and even our future as Christians. Many people knows the gist of what the Bible is presenting, but it’s also not surprising for those people to not know the details of its content. Pastor Wade Butler discusses the Bible in an hour to help you gain a better understanding of it and he does so in four ways. In chart one, he discusses the Bible as a whole, charts two and three discuss the Old Testament, and finally in chart four, the New Testament is presented.
In chart one, Butler shows an infinity sign to show God creating time and all who inhabit the infinity of time. The three circles represent God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The arrows shows that God created the world, the Heavens, and all that inhabits it. The Thorous symbol represents male, and the Phosphorus symbol represents female. This means that God created man and woman - humanity. The image that shows a boat and what appears to be rain represents the great flood that the Lord sent to destroy humanity. The man with three rings on top of his head shows that God made a promise to man (Abraham). You will then see a man with three rings replacing his head presenting Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Messiah. The Lamb with the cross just shows God’s love for us by sacrificing his only begotten Son to save our lives.
The first book of the Bible is Genesis and it starts with God creating the world out of this infinite amount of emptiness and darkness. He creates humankind, Adam and Eve, who fall into darkness after being tricked by the serpent into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God decides to destroy humanity. With this in mind, he puts his trust into a man named Noah, whom he instructs to gather his family into a great boat along with pairs of the animals as He prepared for the great flood. Once Noah gathered all the living animals and his family into the ark, God sent a great rainstorm that lasted forty days, flooding the Earth for nearly a year. Once the flood was complete, God called Noah and his family off of the ark and held up his end of the bargain. When they exit the boat, Noah and his family realize that the world has been covered in its moist green pastures once again. God instructs humanity to act a certain way again, but of course humanity becomes corrupt again.
God calls into a man named Abram, from Sarai in upper Mesopotamia, and promised him that He would create for him a great nation for his descendents. Abram leaves home to live in Canaan and becomes wealthy when he spent some time in Egypt. With 318 men he defeated an army of thieves that invaded the land of Sodom, where his nephew Lot lived at that time. The King of Sodom was very impressed with Abram and deemed him righteous. God was impressed as well, and decided to make a deal with Abram. He promised that Abram’s descendants will be more than the stars in the night sky. Sarai, Abram’s wife, was unfortunately unable to have children out of concern of Abram not having an heir. Sarai offers her maid, Hagar, to Abram so she can bare him an heir. Hagar was not pleased with this and scorned Sarai. Sarai was aware of Hagar’s hatred, Hagar tried to flee the land. God convinced Hagar to stay and bare Abram’s first son, Ishmael who was to be a “wild ass of a man” (Genesis 16:21). God once again asks that Abram’s descendants be circumcised as a symbol of their promise, and God promised a son from Sarai. God renames Abram to “Abraham,” meaning “father of many,” and renames Sarai to “Sarah.”
Four hundred years later, the family of Abraham - the Israelites - are now slaves of Pharaoh. Pharaoh had become intimidated by the fast rate of Israelites being born and made them slaves. He believed that if he did so they would not have time to procreate, but he does not know the power of God. They continued to multiply, and Pharaoh becomes frustrated. Then Pharaoh has a light bulb moment: why not kill off the Israelites and save Egypt all at one time? The Egyptians worshipped the Nile as a goddess, and if they didn’t hold up their end by granting it living sacrifices, then the Nile may threaten to flood Egypt. Pharaoh decides to cease the slaves' multiplication by offering the male babies to the Nile. God noticed that this could be the end of the family of Abraham so he needed to act fast. He then saved a baby by the name of Moses from the clutches of Pharaoh’s murderous hands by bringing to his loving hands. Pharaoh discovers Moses and adopts him as his own. Moses grows up and eventually discovers his origin and destiny, to defeat Pharaoh and free his people. Pharaoh was of course defiant and God sent ten plagues on Egypt. The last plague was the worst of all, bringing Egypt to their knees along with Pharaoh: God sent the angel of death to smite the firstborns of Egypt, along with Pharaoh’s eldest son. The Egyptian was ridden with grief and drove the slaves out. Of course Pharaoh regrets his decision of setting the slaves free, and sends his army after them to kill them. They arrive at the Red Sea where God stops them with a pillar of fire. He then parts the Red Sea, where God takes his grip off the sea drowning the army and Pharaoh.
The Israelites go to Mount Sinai where God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses. God commands them to only worship him and gives them many different ethical and religious laws. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are books that continue to explain the laws and promises of God, which the people of God need to follow to gain entry into the promised land. Despite God’s rules, the people continue to disobey, so God makes them wander the wilderness for forty years in search of the promised land. When Moses passed away at the end of Deuteronomy, the fall of the nation became official in 587 B.C. In Joshua and Judges, the Israelites finally arrive to the promised land and quickly defy God once again. They believed they could start worshiping deities of that land. The nations in the surrounding areas began to invade them, and God had to save them. He helped them establish judges, or rulers, to ward off people who wished them harm.
First and Second Kings shows the decline of Israel’s success. God blessed David with a son by the name of Solomon, and he was granted immense knowledge. When Solomon becomes King of Israel, he expands their empire and builds a temple in Jerusalem. Solomon begins to worship other deities, and as a result of his disobedience God separates Israel into two parts: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The two rulers lead the two kingdoms away from worshipping God, and even though the prophets Elijah and Elisha tried to fix it, the two kingdoms fall under Assyrian and Babylonian rule. Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people were banished.
During the time of their banishment, several other books of the Bible were written. The book of Esther tells of a Jewish woman who becomes queen of Persia and saves her people from genocide. The book of Psalms is filled with poetry and songs of praise and wisdom. The book of Job talks about the pain of human suffering. I personally have always enjoyed the book of Job because it really shows the power of faith. Job lost his family, and yet he praises God everyday and does not curse him. He still loves him regardless. This reminds me that no matter what I am going through, I can get through it and God has me.
Chart four explains the New Testament and the presenting of Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are three of the books of the Gospel; each one tells a similar story. They speak about the birth of Jesus of Nazareth by the virgin Mary, his ministry and the gathering of his disciples, the crucifixion on the cross to save our souls from eternal damnation, and resurrection. The Gospel of John focuses on the conundrum of Jesus as the Son of God. Acts goes to tell the story after the resurrection talking about the day of Pentecost and the first church. The “Epistles of Paul” are the first fourteen letters and chronicle his travels to the early churches in the first and second century. It is believed that he definitely wrote the first seven, but there are seven more that still exist. The following letters are the catholic epistles because they address the churches as a whole instead of as a community. These letters are believed to have been written by the students of the apostles who gained their knowledge from Jesus Christ. The first of the letters was written by James, the leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem. The next books, First, Second, and Third John, are letters written to John the Evangelist. The biggest lesson to be learned in the New Testament is that Jesus died on the cross because he loved us so much that he was willing to give his life for us. The book of Revelations talks about the prophecy in which God himself will come rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked.
