The Story Of The Bible

One might ask: Why did God allow fourteen centuries to pass between the making of the old covenant and the making of the new? The old covenant didn’t seem to be “working”; why, then, the delay?

Two practical reasons can be suggested. First, Israel’s long history clearly demonstrated the power of sin, and God’s repeated punishment of His rebellious people demonstrated to all mankind that God would not tolerate sin.

Second, without the fourteen centuries of Israel’s history, it would have been hard to explain why Jesus had to die, why a new covenant was even needed. With the Old Testament in hand, the early Christians were able to present the Gospel more clearly and to persuade people more effectively that the only way to escape God’s wrath and gain eternal life was by believing in Jesus and accepting Him as Lord and Savior. If this was true for the early church, it is no less true for us today.

God’s overriding desire is that as many people as possible freely turn to Him in FAITH and enter into fellowship with Him; this was His very purpose for creating mankind in the beginning. By waiting until the right time to send Jesus, many more people have now had the chance to come into the kingdom of God. And God has used the lessons of Old Testament history to help make this possible.

One final thing needs to be said about the story of the Bible: it hasn’t ended yet. Something needs to happen before the end can come: the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). And the “beginning of the end” will come when Jesus returns to earth. Both the Old and New Testaments look forward to that day. When Jesus comes again, many more people will come into God’s kingdom—including the repentant people of Israel. And at the very close of earth’s history, a final judgment will take place (Revelation 20:11-15), and those who have placed their faith in God and in His Son will be ushered into a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-4). Jesus said: “Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1-2).

How can people believe such promises, such prophecies? First, by believing in Jesus Himself; when Jesus comes into a person’s life, that person will no longer doubt that Jesus word is true.

But in addition to that, we can believe these prophecies by reading the story of the Bible. Already scores of Old Testament prophecies have come true in history—often with astounding accuracy. If so many prophecies have already come true, we can be assured that the prophecies yet to be fulfilled will come true also. Yes, the day of the LORD is indeed coming (Joel 1:15; 2:28-32; Mark 13:26-27). But no one knows the day or hour (Mark 13:32-33). Meanwhile, we are to keep watch and to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of God (Mark 13:35-37; 2 Peter 3:11-14).

Jesus said: “I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20).

If Jesus came today, what would He find us doing?

¹ Only the followers of the three major monotheistic religions—Islam, Judaism and Christianity—worship a Creator God who is distinct from His creation. Note that these three religions all have their origin in the Abraham of the Old Testament. They are therefore rooted in history.

Virtually all other religious traditions blur the distinction between the Creator and creation, between the divine and the natural; this results in various forms of pantheism and polytheism. These religions offer no answer to man’s basic problem, the problem of evil, because they offer nothing beyond the naturalistic universe that can overcome evil and change man’s basic nature.