What is the Bible About?

The Pentateuch comprises the first five books of the Bible, found in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament begins with the book of Genesis, which explains how God created the whole universe. He created the universe without corruption, but through the rebellion of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, corruption and sin entered the world, along with death. God promises the world that a savior will come from the line of man and overcome the evil of the world. The world grows more evil, and God finds it necessary to punish the evil on Earth. He sends a worldwide flood to preserve the family of Noah and his three sons, along with their families. Some centuries later, God calls Abraham out of a foreign land and promises him a land and a people, the old covenant. This is the beginning of the Jewish people and their history, tracing back to the fathers of the Jewish people. The book ends with the Jewish people living in Egypt during a time of famine.

The book of Exodus begins with the story of how the Jewish people became enslaved for four hundred years by the Egyptians, and God used Moses to deliver the people from bondage. Through Moses, God sends a series of plagues to judge the Egyptian people for their evils, with the final plague being the death of the firstborn. God orders the Jewish people to take the blood of a lamb and paint it over their door frame, and their houses will be spared. After this plague, the Jewish people are freed from Egypt and travel towards the promised land that God had pledged to Abraham, when they are chased by the Egyptian army seeking revenge. God provides a means of escape for the people by parting the Red Sea and allowing the Jewish people to escape through it.

The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were written during the period when the Jewish people wandered through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. They describe the rebellions of the Jewish people, their complaining, God's judgment of the people, and God giving them a law to live by.

The book of Joshua describes the people of Israel going into the land of Canaan and conquering the cities, forming what would become Israel.

The nation of Israel moves from a theocracy, a government led by God, to a kingdom.

This kingdom rises and falls based on leadership, ultimately splitting into the northern and southern kingdoms. Both kingdoms fall into sin, and God punishes them through captivity by the nation of Babylon and the destruction of their capital, Jerusalem.

God restores the nation after 70 years of captivity, and it rebuilds itself while still failing to properly honor God.

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon are books written in songs, poems, and sayings of wisdom.

Job- A debate between friends over suffering and God answering, explaining how he is above us and sees what we cannot, and how above us he is.

Psalm- songs of the Jewish people that frequently prophesied of Christ

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes- sayings of wisdom to live by, but that are not absolute truths

Song of Solomon- the picture of a God-glorifying relationship between a man and his wife.

The prophets spoke throughout the history of Israel; they spoke God's direct word to his people.

They provided guidance to leaders, judgment on nations, miracles for the people, and declared God's supremacy over the Pagan gods.

The Gospels are composed by the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the books written describing the historical life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Matthew, a former tax collector, became a disciple of Christ; Mark, the traveling companion of Peter, the chief disciple; Luke, a gentile historian who documented and interviewed witnesses; and John, the youngest disciple.

Each Gospel describes a different perspective of the person of Christ, Matthew explains the Messiah coming by the Jewish prophecies written for the Jewish people, Mark describes the life of Jesus as a suffering servant written to the non-Jewish audience, Luke describes Jesus as a documented historical man that had come to be the savior of the world, and John is the most theological explaining more of how Jesus is God!

The gospels begin with the account of the birth of John the Baptist. He was prophesied to announce the way of the Messiah, and he is Jesus' cousin, born a few months before Jesus.

Mary, engaged to Joseph, was visited by the angel Gabriel, who appeared to Mary and Joseph in separate dreams, telling them that Mary, while a virgin, was pregnant with the messiah, Jesus, the one who comes to free the world. Mary and Joseph, in accordance with a Roman census, travel to Joseph's hometown of Bethlehem, and while there, are unable to find proper lodging and give birth in a stable. A star is over Jesus and leads to the wise men, magi, from the east coming to seek out the messiah, which the Roman puppet king of Israel finds out and orders a genocide of children to kill Jesus, yet Mary, Joseph, and Jesus escape into Egypt.

At the age of 30, Jesus begins his earthly ministry. During this time, many in Israel are coming to John the Baptist, who is preaching repentance to the sinful people of Israel. When Jesus approaches, John proclaims him to be the "Lamb of God" come to take away the sins of the world, a reference to God's command to sacrifice lambs to atone for their sins.

Jesus then calls 12 specific men to serve as his disciples: Peter, James, John, Judas Iscariot, Judas, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Simon the Zealot, Thaddeus, and James, son of Alphaeus. Jesus then spent 3 years in ministry, performing miracles, delivering sermons, telling parables, rebuking the religious elite of the day, prophesying his own death, and declaring himself to be God. This last declaration led to the plotting of the ruling class of Jews, the Pharisees, to plot Jesus' death, accusing him of blasphemy.

During the week of Passover, the remembrance of God passing over Israel when they took the lamb's blood and put it on the doorway to receive mercy from God, the Pharisees acted on their plot. Through the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, who was bribed with 30 pieces of silver, the Pharisees conspired with false witnesses to convince the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus was guilty of plotting against Rome and of trying to establish an earthly kingdom. The Pharisees arrested Jesus with the help of Judas, causing the disciples to flee, and put him on a trial at night with false witnesses, a violation of the Jewish law. They covered Jesus' face with a hood and repeatedly struck him, mocking him, asking him to prophecy who was hitting him. The Pharisees bring Jesus to Pontius Pilate, who, believing him to be innocent, tries to keep Jesus from death and instead has him tortured to appease the Pharisees. They lash him with a nine-tailed whip 39 times to the point of almost death, leaving him with little skin to his torso. The Roman guards would mock him by putting him in robes that would be the same color as a king's and ripping them off when his skin would heal to it. They would also take a crown made of thick thorns and drive it into his head, causing him to bleed profusely from his head. Pilate then brought him and a murderer, Barabbas, before the people and gave them a choice of who would be let free, as it was a tradition during Passover to let a prisoner go. Through the manipulation of the Pharisees, the crowd chanted for Barabbas to be free, and thus Jesus took upon the death sentence that should have been Barabbas'.

The chosen instrument of death by the Romans was a cross, two pieces of wood nailed to each other, on which the victim would hang by their hands and feet until they suffocate from the closing of their shoulder blades on the windpipe. Christ was forced to carry his cross, 300 pounds, in his weakened state for a third of a mile. His captors chose to drive nails into his wrists and ankles instead of tying him to the cross, and when his cross was lifted, it caused dislocation throughout his body. Jesus spent 6 hours on the cross being mocked, thirsting, and being given vinegar to drink, giving instructions for his disciple John to care for his mother Mary, and finally declaring "It is finished" and dying. Jesus did not suffocate to death. After his death, he was stabbed, and blood and clear fluid came out, suggesting that his heart had ruptured. Jesus died of a broken heart. The Pharisees or the Romans did not simply orchestrate Jesus' death; God ordained it. Jesus lived a perfect life that we could not, and when he went on the cross, he suffered not only man's wrath but also God's. He endured the punishment because we could not fulfill the need for justice for our crimes against God.

Jesus was buried first in a mass grave, then in the tomb that was owned by a secret disciple who was quite wealthy through the help of a secret disciple who was one of the rulers of the Pharisees, who tried to persuade the other Pharisees not to pursue him. His tomb was blocked with a boulder, and two teams of four Roman soldiers were guarding the tomb to prevent anyone from stealing the body. Three days later, two women who had joined Jesus' ministry had come to the tomb to find the guards had fled, and an angel sitting on the boulder had been moved from the entrance of the tomb. The angel told them that Jesus is no longer there. Jesus revealing himself alive to these women having been resurected from the dead conquering death itself, he would go onto reveal himself to the disciples and teach them for another 40 days and giving them a commission to tell them of the good news that Christ has taken upon the sins of the world in his death and conquered the kingdom of death providing freedom for all who have faith in him. Jesus then told them he would return one day and ascended into heaven, leading to the age of the church.

The book of Acts, also written by the gentile historian Luke, gives a historical account of the early church after Christ's ascension.

It importantly describes the effect of the persecution by the Jews led by Saul, whom Jesus would confront on his way to a city to kill and torture Christians.

Saul changes from a man who was described as breathing out violence against Christians with all the authority and riches afforded by the Pharisees to living a life of persecution and humility. He is regularly beaten, arrested, and almost killed, and suffers as he shares the gospel of Jesus Christ that he once persecuted.

The disciples go on to all die by persecution, from Peter being crucified upside down, Paul being beheaded, Thomas being killed in India, and other disciples dying brutally; only John went on not to be killed but died in exile. The disciples did not go on to live in wealth, fame, or comfort; they gave their lives sharing the gospel.

Saul began going by Paul after his conversion, as he was called to serve the Gentiles, and he traveled through the Roman Empire, starting Churches.

The majority of letters written to these churches are by Paul, but are also written by Peter, John, and those connected to the disciples.

These letters provide explanations of beliefs, how to live, and corrections to churches that had gone astray in sin.

The book of Revelation describes the end times of this present world, how Christ will return and take up his Church, God ending all evil in the world with the final judgment of the unrepentant, the defeat of Satan, and the ushering in of the New Heaven and New Earth.