A GENERAL INTRODUCTION
TO THE BIBLE
- The need for revelation from God
Once the existence of God has been established, it makes sense to think that such a Creator-God would want to communicate with His creation. Mankind shows evidence of high intelligence, kindness, goodness, justice, and many other unique characteristics. It is impossible for the Creator to be inferior to His creation in any way, since the effect never is greater than the cause. God, therefore, would exhibit—to a much greater degree than the beings He created—intelligence, kindness, goodness, justice, etc.
Thus, some form of personal communication between the intelligent Creator and His intelligent creature should be expected. Without communication from God, how could mankind ever come to know, or appreciate, certain aspects of the Creator, or understand what the Creator might require of the humans He had made? Furthermore, some form of revelation from the Creator would be needed in order to instruct mankind in certain areas, such as the following.
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A revelation from God might take almost any form. God could choose to
communicate with His creation directly by word of mouth, through mes
sengers (like angels), or through dreams and visions. Or, for that matter, He
could choose any way that suited Him. Historically speaking there have been
two different types of revelation.
General
(or natural) revelation designates
the revelation that God has provided of Himself in nature (see Romans 1:
20-21, Acts 14:17, and Psalm 19:1).
Special
(or supernatural) revelation
is the name that designates the revelation God has provided within the Bible.
General revelation comes to man through nature. The first six verses of
Psalm 19 declare that God has given a revelation of Himself in nature that
constantly testifies of the Creator. In Romans 1:20, Paul stated that “the in
visible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power
and divinity; that they may be without excuse.”
The Scriptures teach that general revelation is universal. At no time in
history has God left Himself without a witness of Himself (Acts 14:17). Gen-
eral revelation is universal in both scope and territory. God’s glory can be
seen whenever and wherever a heavenly body is observed. It can be seen in
the glistening of a gorgeous afternoon rainbow, or in the sweet waters of a
gently flowing brook through a rainforest. Though men often refuse to recog-
nize and accept God’s revelation of Himself in nature, it abides nevertheless.
If God desired to ensure long-term results in regard to His communication
with mankind, He could do that by providing a revelation that was both per-
manent and easily accessible. That is to say, it would withstand the test of
time, and could be passed from generation to generation throughout human
history. This might be accomplished by producing the revelation in a writ-
ten form that could be copied and distributed as needed, thus benefiting all
people throughout the ages.
Now we must ask the question: Is there any evidence that mankind has
been given such a revelation? Yes, there is. The evidence clearly establishes
that God has given mankind a permanent revelation in written form in the
book known as the Bible. In the next lesson, we will study the evidence
which proves that the Bible is the revelation of the Creator. For the rest of
this lesson, however, we will look at what the Bible contains and how it is
arranged.
The Bible shows a unity that—on purely human terms—is impossible to
explain. In order to appreciate that unity, one first must come to terms with
how The Book was put together. The Bible was written by more than forty
different men from a wide variety of backgrounds. Nehemiah was a royal
butler. Peter was a fisherman. Luke was a physician. Matthew was a tax col-
lector. Solomon was a king. Moses was a shepherd. And Paul was a tent-
maker. These men wrote from almost every human condition. Jeremiah
wrote from deep sorrow as a result of God’s people refusing to remain faith-
ful to Him. David wrote from heights of joy on the rolling, grassy hills of Ju-
dah. Paul wrote from the very pits of despair as he languished in a Roman
prison. These 40+ men wrote in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and
Greek), from at least two continents (Europe and Asia), over a period of time
that spanned approximately 1,600 years (1500 B.C. to A.D.100). And they
covered a variety of topics that included psychology, geography, religion, his-
tory, medicine, and many others.
All this being true, one might expect that a group of men who were so
different, writing on such unrelated subjects, over such a lengthy period of
time, would have produced a book that was a tangled mishmash of incon-
sistencies, errors, and absurdities. Yet this is not the case. In fact, quite the
opposite is true. The Bible shows such astounding harmony, such consistent
flow, and such amazing unity that no naturalistic explanation can account for
it. It is as if the Bible were a magnificent symphony orchestrated by a single
Conductor. The “musicians” each may have played a different instrument,
in a different place, at a different time, but when the talented Conductor com-
bined the individual efforts, the end result was a striking masterpiece.
Consider this analogy. Suppose you assembled forty contemporary schol-
ars with the highest academic training possible in a single field of study (for
example, professors with Ph.D. degrees in world history). Suppose, further,
that you placed them in a room and asked each of them to write a twenty-
five page paper on a single topic—the causes of World War I. What kind of
agreement do you think would exist when all of their papers were finished?
Likely, these forty scholars would not agree on numerous points; their pa-
pers would be recognized more for the disagreements they contained than
for the agreements. But when we examine the Bible’s writers, we see that they
did not all live at the same time, did not all work together, and sometimes did
not know one another. Most were not highly trained, and what training they
did have certainly was not in the same field of study. Nor were they allowed
to write on a single subject. Yet they produced a book that is unified from be-
ginning to end. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles and 1 and 2 Kings agree
with one another in numerous historical events. Joshua 1 confirms Deuter
onomy 34. Judges 1:1 verifies Joshua 24:27-33. Jeremiah 52:31-34 verifies
2 Kings 25:25,27-30. And so on. This fascinating unity, which can be seen
throughout the entire Bible, confirms the fact that there was a guiding Intel-
ligence behind it. So many writers, over so many years, covering so many
themes, simply could not have been in such astonishing agreement by mere
coincidence.
The Bible is divided into two major sections—the Old Testament and the
New Testament. The word “testament” means a covenant or agreement.
Therefore, the Old Testament was God’s old covenant with mankind, while
the New Testament is God’s new agreement with humanity.
There are 39 books in the Old Testament. The original Old Testament
documents were written mostly in the Hebrew language (with small parts
in Aramaic). Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament (known
collectively as the Pentateuch) in approximately 1500 B.C. Malachi, the last
book in the Old Testament, was written around 450 B.C.
The first book of the Old Testament is named Genesis. Appropriately, its
name means “beginning,” since it records the beginning of the Universe
and everything in it. Adam and Eve were the first people God created (on
day six of His creative activity). They lived in the beautiful Garden of Eden,
where they were free to do anything they desired—anything, that is, except
eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (read Genesis 2:16-17).
One day, Satan, who appeared in the form of a serpent, tricked Eve into
eating the fruit. Eve took the fruit to Adam and, although he was not tricked
(1 Timothy 2:14), he, too, ate the fruit. This is how sin first entered the world.
In fact, about 1600 years after Adam and Eve were ejected from the Gar-
den of Eden, people had become such terrible sinners that the Bible says:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gene-
sis 6:5). Because of man’s wickedness, God sent a flood that covered the en-
tire Earth. Only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives were spared,
along with seven of every kind of clean animal and two of every kind of un-
clean animal.
After the flood, humans began to repopulate the Earth. Most of these peo-
ple sinned by worshiping many different gods (a concept known as “poly-
theism”) instead of the one true God. Eventually, God chose a man by the
name of Abraham to become the father of a new nation of people who wor-
shiped only Him as the true and living God. Abraham believed God, and did
as he was instructed. Some time later, God blessed him and his wife Sarah
with a son named Isaac. Isaac then had a son named Jacob, and Jacob (whose
name later was changed to Israel) had twelve sons who became the heads
of what came to be known as the twelve tribes of Israel.
In time, Jacob and his sons migrated to the land of Egypt, where, unfortunately,
they became slaves. Even so, God blessed them and allowed them to multiply
greatly during their sojourn in the land of the pharaohs. Eventually, after the
Israelites had spent hundreds of years of bondage in Egypt, God sent Moses
and his brother Aaron to set the Israelites free. When they left the land of Egypt,
God gave them a special law that separated them from all other nations around
them.
The Pentateuch explains how Abraham became the father of the Jewish
nation, how the Jews became the chosen people of God, and how God
gave the Old Law to Moses to present to theJews. The Ten
Commandments represented the major rules that the Jews were supposed
to follow under the Old Law (although there were many others as well).
The rest of the Old Testament records the history of the Jews, including
the fact that they begged God for a king so that they could be like the na-
tions around them. Once they had kings, they were led in the wrong direc-
tion spiritually, and eventually returned to worshiping many different gods
(1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles). God sent numerous prophets
to the Jews to urge them to come back to their Creator, but they were a
stubborn, rebellious people who refused to listen (Isaiah-Malachi).
Since the Jews misused and ignored the Old Law, and since many of the
prophets’ efforts had been in vain, God promised that He would send a new
prophet. Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet
like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deuter-
onomy 18:15). This new Prophet would arrive with a new law: “Behold, the
days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).
The Jews of Old Testament times waited anxiously for a Messiah Who was
prophesied to bring salvation and institute that new covenant. But He was
not supposed to be a strong military leader or powerful political activist. In
fact, the prophet Isaiah said that He would be “despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Instead, He was
to be a Savior who would be put to death for the sins of His people in order
to satisfy God’s demand for justice (53:5). The prophet Isaiah wrote of this
Messiah: “I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be
My salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). Thus, under the new law
to be established through the Messiah (His Son, Jesus), God would allow peo-
ple from any nation—not just the Jews—to be His chosen people.
There are 27 books in the New Testament. Matthew is the first, and Rev-
elation is the last. These 27 books are divided into 4 major sections.
The Gospels. The word gospel means “good news.” The first
four books of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John. They are known as the Gospels because they tell the story
of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Since the story of Jesus is
good news for sinful humanity, it is known as the gospel.
History.
This section of the New Testament has only one book—Acts. Acts
was written by Luke, and tells about the “acts” of the apostles,
the beginning of the church, and its early history. After Jesus returned to
heaven, His followers went all over theworld preaching the good news of
His life, death, and resurrection. Because of their preaching, God’s
Word spread throughout the whole world and the church that Jesus had
promised to build (Matthew 16:18) spread like wildfire.The Epistles. “
Epistle” is another word for a letter.
When the apostles preached the gospel around the world, many churches
were started in various cities. The apostles and other writers
needed a way to explain to these churches how to worship and
how to live. So they wrote them letters. For instance, the book
of Romans is a letter written to the church at Rome. Sometimes
these epistles were written to an individual (like 1 and 2 Timothy,
which are letters written by the apostle Paul to his helper, Tim-
othy). These epistles were written to people who already were
Christians, yet who needed some encouragement, answers to
questions, spiritual instruction, and yes, even discipline.
The apostle Paul wrote many of the epistles in the New Testament.
In fact, of the 27 books in the New Testament, He wrote
13 epistles (just under half of the entire New Testament).
Prophecy.
This section has only one book—Revelation. The
reason it is called a prophetic book is because it told the people
in the first century things that were going to happen to them in
the future. Most of the things discussed in Revelation already
have occurred. Unfortunately, many people today misuse this
book to make inaccurate and untrue predictions regarding the
end of time. When reading Revelation, it is important to remem-
ber two things: (1) it uses a lot of symbolic language (much of
which comes from the Old Testament books of Daniel and Ezekiel
because the Jews would understand it while their enemies
would not); and (2) nothing in it contradicts the rest of the Bible.
The New Testament was completed about 550 years after Malachi (the
last book of the Old Testament). However, the New Testament picks up
right where the Old Testament left off. All of the prophets had been telling
about the coming a Messiah Who would save the world from its sin and
establish a spiritual kingdom. The entire Jewish nation was waiting for this
Messiah. The four Gospels tell the story of Jesus, and prove by His miracles
and teachings that He indeed was the prophesied Savior.
The rest of the New Testament outlines the new covenant that Jesus
established. No longer would people offer animal sacrifices such as bulls and
goats (as they did in the Old Testament) in order to receive forgiveness of
their sins. Under Jesus’ new covenant, His own death on the cross would
be the only sacrifice that could forgive sins. It is very important to under
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stand that the new covenant (New Testament) took the place of the old
covenant (Old Testament). That is why the writer of the book of Hebrews
said: “In that He says, ‘a new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete.
Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away”
(8:13). The Old Testament is a wonderful set of books that can teach peo-
ple today many amazing things about God. In fact, the Old Testament pre-
pared the world for Jesus, the coming Messiah. But after Jesus lived, died,
and was resurrected, God created a new system and established a new cov-
enant with mankind. The details of that new covenant are found in the New
Testament—the only place mankind can go to find salvation.
Since 1947, the United Bible Society has distributed over 9 billion Bibles.
Portions of the Bible are available in 2,123 different languages, and the en-
tire New Testament can be read in over 800 languages. The Bible has been
distributed in over 200 different countries. In the United States, it has been
the best seller for more years than any book every produced. Each book of
the Bible complements the others in a single, unified plan. From Genesis to
Revelation, there is a marvelous unfolding of the general theme of man’s
fall from his holy estate, God’s plan for his redemption (as carefully worked
out across the centuries), the sinless life and atoning death of Jesus Christ,
and the ultimate victory of the Christian system. In essence, then, the Bible
is the story of one problem—sin—with one solution, Jesus Christ.
