The Story of the Bible, Part 1

The Bible, as one book, tells one story.
What is that story?

The Bible is a collection of 66 books containing a total of 1189 chapters. At five minutes per chapter, it would take nearly 100 hours to read. But what does it contain? What, overall, is it all about?

This week I wish to summarize the contents of the Bible over several blog posts. The purpose of these is to state what the Bible says about itself. With Easter approaching, it is a good time to contemplate the Bible, God, Jesus Christ, and salvation.

It starts with one of the most famous quotations from the entire Bible: Genesis 1:1.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

God created everything. The opening two chapters of the first book describe how He made all things, inanimate and animate, in six literal days. Everything He created was "very good" (Gen. 1:31). He placed Adam and Eve, the first two humans, over His creation (Gen. 1:28).

Adam and Eve were given one particular command:

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. 2:16-17)

In Genesis 3, we learn that Satan, in the form of a serpent, came to Eve and tempted her to eat this forbidden fruit. She did, and gave it to Adam; he also ate the fruit. This was the first sin, and prompted the following by God:

• The serpent was cursed (Genesis 3:14).
• The first prophecy of a Saviour, or Messiah, was given in Genesis 3:15.
• The physical universe was put under a curse, under which we have to labor to this present day. Crops would not grow of themselves; degeneration began (see the Second Law of Thermodynamics).
• Death entered the world. This, according to Romans 5:12 and 6:23, was the direct result of the sin of Adam. All of us are now born with a sin nature, and all of us face the prospect of death.
• Clothing was provided by God, to cover the nakedness and shame of sinful mankind.

These opening chapters of Genesis are exceptionally significant to all of human history, as they provide the framework for everything that comes afterwards. Some of the ramifications:

• Evolution is debunked. Not only has it never been observed, it will not be observed, nor will any evidence for it every surface...because it never happened. God created it all.
  
• Mankind is not able to rescue itself from the consequences of sin. A Savior is needed.
• God promised a Savior. The Bible is, in large part, the story of how this Savior came to Earth to save mankind.

The Story of the Bible, Part 7
The Story of the Bible, Part 6
The Story of the Bible, Part 5
The Story of the Bible, Part 4
The Story of the Bible, Part 3
The Story of the Bible, Part 2