A Brief Summary of the Bible

From God’s book, the Holy Bible, Genesis chapter 1:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and he called the darkness Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament, and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear," and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the plant yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth," and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and plant yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind, and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years, 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth," and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 And God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and birds that will fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters produced abundantly after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply in the earth." 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind," and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the earth after its kind, and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, he created male and female. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 And God said, "See, I've given you every plant bearing seed, that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I've given every green plant for food," and it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and see, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

That is how God did the creation. He did it in six twenty-four hour days. Then God rested the seventh day.

A man tried to correct me about that. He said, “The Bible doesn’t say twenty four hour days.” But it says the equivalent. It says, “The evening and the morning were the first day,” (and the second day, etc.)

A twelve hour night time plus a twelve hour daytime adds up to a twenty four hour day.

Of course the days will be somewhat longer in summer, and nights shorter, and the opposite in winter, but it averages out.

Now the Theory of Evolution says the plants and the animals and man took millions or billions of years. No, God’s book says six twenty-four hour days.

Was Charles Darwin smarter than God? No, God’s smarter than Darwin. And more creative. And wiser. And more knowledgeable. And stronger. And tougher. And fiercer. And more terrible against his enemies. Enemies of God like Charles Darwin, who is no doubt burning in hell right now for his big lie, The Theory of Evolution, that has helped send other people to hell.

And how do we know there’s a hell? Because Jesus said so. But we’ll get to that later.

Notice that it was on the sixth day that God made the first man. That man’s name is Adam. Later, God took one of Adam’s ribs and made Eve, to be Adam’s wife.

Adam and Eve lived in a very nice place called the Garden of Eden. God made some rules. They could eat of any tree except The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

But the serpent tempted Eve; she ate fruit of the forbidden tree; she gave to Adam, and Adam ate also. They sinned.

So God put Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, and also, animals don’t talk anymore, most of the time, although God used a donkey to speak to a man in the Old Testament.

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. But Cain murdered Abel. God gave a third son, Seth.

Then, when you get up to Genesis chapter 6, 1 And when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were attractive, and they took them wives of all that they chose. 3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred twenty years.

Men became so sinful that “Every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.” But Noah found grace in the sight of God.

So God told Noah to build an ark. In the New Testament, we read in the book of Hebrews that Noah was moved by fear in building the ark. Noah was afraid to disobey God. Good for you, Noah.

“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psa 111:10)

When the ark was finished, God brought the animals. Noah and wife and three sons and their wives, eight souls plus the animals and birds went into the ark. God shut the door.

Then, a new thing. Rain. Prior to that, God had watered the earth with a mist. But now, rain. And not just a little rain. So much rain that the water covered the tallest mountains.

But Noah and family were riding along in the ark.

After the waters receded, they left the ark on Mount Ararat. The other people before the flood had drowned.

God gave us the rainbow as a sign that he would never again destroy the earth by water.

So people began to multiply and spread out a little geographically. People decided to build the Tower of Babel and instead of continuing to spread geographically, they built vertically.

God didn’t like what they were doing, so he gave the people different languages from the language that they had all been speaking, and they stopped building the tower.

There was a man, Abram. He is called a friend of God. God changed his name to Abraham, and promised that Abraham’s descendants would be uncountable.

Abraham believed God’s promise, and because Abraham believed God, God saw that as righteousness in Abraham. The Book of Hebrews says, “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God.”

Why is it desirable to please God? Because if you get on God’s wrong side. If you displease him. If you anger him, he can send you to hell, where there’s crying and gnashing of teeth, where their worms don’t die, and the fire is not quenched, says Jesus, later in the New Testament.

He can also punish you during your life on earth.

After Abraham had waited for the fulfillment of the promise, his son Isaac was born. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. Israel is the name of that man, and also the name of the nation he was head of.

One of Israel’s twelve sons (the twelve “tribes” of Israel) was Joseph. Joseph got to be rather unpopular with his brothers, so they sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. The brothers tried to persuade their father, Israel, that Joseph had been killed by an animal.

But God prospered Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph became second in command in the land. Second only to Pharaoh. That was a very fortunate thing for the other brothers of Joseph and for Israel because famine was coming.

The famine got so bad, that all of Israel went down to Egypt, and were nourished there by Joseph, whom God had sent before them. Joseph forgave his brothers.

But as new generations of Israelites came along, and a new Pharaoh arose who hadn’t known Joseph, the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, and pretty much made slaves out of them for their various construction projects.

But as the time for the deliverance of Israel from Egypt approached, Moses was born.

God appointed Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt. But first, there was the matter of persuading Pharaoh to allow the people to depart, which was no small task, unless you happen to be God.

But after God sent many plagues against Egypt, and Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “Don’t you know that Egypt is destroyed?” Pharaoh changed his mind, and Israel left Egypt.

There was a promised land to go to that God had promised. God also gave Moses the Ten Commandments (see Exodus chapter 20) for the people.

When Moses had brought Israel close to the promised land, twelve spies were sent to spy out the land. Ten of the twelve brought back an evil report, saying that they were like grasshoppers in the sight of the people of the land, but Caleb and Joshua brought back a good report, saying, “We can take ‘em.”

But Israel believed the ten, and murmured and grumbled against God.

God says, “O.K., then you won’t go into the promised land, your children will go in.” And that generation died out over a period of forty years.

But Caleb and Joshua went in with the Children of Israel into the promised land. God gave Israel the victory over their adversaries in the new land.

Israel’s first king was Saul. Then David. Then Solomon. David was skilled at music, and an important General in the Army before becoming king.

David, as a youth, killed the giant Goliath, and the enemy army was routed that day. God referred to David as “A man after my own heart.” David gave us most of the Psalms, the book right about in the middle of the Bible.

Solomon displeased God with too many wives, and wives not of Israel, who led him into some idolatry, so God says, “I’m splitting Israel.” After Solomon, there were two kingdoms: Israel, and Judah, and you can follow the succession of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah in the books of first and second Samuel, first and second Kings, and first and second Chronicles.

God gave Israel various Prophets like Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and the five books categorized as major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. And we have the twelve books in the Bible called “The minor prophets,” from Hosea through Malachi.

The five books in the major prophets category have only four authors. Jeremiah wrote both Jeremiah and Lamentations.

Over their history, Israel and Judah got into trouble with God for disobeying him. God punished them by letting other nations conquer them.

One such conquering was by the Babylonians of Chaldea. So then you had seventy years of the Babylonian captivity, during which most of Israel had been carried away captive to Chaldea. The prophet Daniel was one of those captives. You can read in the book of Daniel how Daniel inquires of God regarding the captive Israel.

God also shows Daniel about the last days of the world, and a time when “the beast” rules the earth. That person is also called the Antichrist, who will rule the earth for a period of seven years that are called, “The Great Tribulation.” More about that in the Book of Revelation.

But Moses told the Children of Israel, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up for you like me. You shall listen to him regarding everything he says to you.” Moses was referring there to the coming Messiah, the savior of Israel.

That Messiah, that Savior, is the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha Meshia, (Jesus the Savior).

The Roman Empire rose up, and God let them have dominion over Israel. The local governor, under Caesar, was Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem who was the one that would give sentence against Jesus.

We see the birth of Jesus in the Book of Matthew. We see his genealogy, traceable all the way back to King David. We find another genealogy in the book of Luke, traceable back to David, but the genealogies are not the same. Why? The one is Joseph’s genealogy, and the other is Mary’s genealogy.

Of course, Joseph’s genealogy is not very relevant, except for appearances, since Joseph was only the step-father of Jesus. Jesus’ father is God. The spirit of God made the virgin Mary pregnant with Jesus. No sex regarding that.

But Jesus did have to come down to earth. He was the promised Savior. And why did we need a Savior? Because of our sins.

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23)

Now in the Old Testament, God made provision what to do about sin. We have the Laws of Moses. Moses didn’t figure all that out. God gave it to him, and he gave it to the people.

If you sinned, you brought your appropriate animal sacrifice, which the Priests and Levites processed. They made burnt offerings.

But in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul tells us “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats can take away sins.” (Heb 10:4)

Strictly speaking, animal blood doesn’t remove sin, but in the Old Testament, God accepted the animal sacrifices as payment for sin.

The Bible says that was a “foreshadowing” of the ultimate and once-and-for-all sacrifice of God’s Son Jesus as actual payment for the sins of the world.

So then, does everyone in the world have his sins forgiven? No.

But brother Fred, you just said Jesus paid for the sins of the world. Yes, I did.

I took Amtrak to Chicago. Because of delays in the trip, I missed my connection. So my trip would take a day longer. They gave me a voucher for a motel room, and a slip of paper worth some money for food.

But you couldn’t buy anything with that slip of paper. You had to take it across to the ticket counter and exchange that slip of paper for real money.

It’s like that with Jesus’ paying for the sins of the world. He paid for the sins of the world, but it only counts for you if you cash it in properly. It’s there for you, but it still doesn’t count unless you do something.

And what is it that we must do to cash in on payment for our sins?

Jesus answers that in John chapter three: “You must be born again.”

And Jesus told us there’s a heaven and a hell, and that we will all go to the one or to the other.

You get born again when you hear, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23), “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 6:23), “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart God raised him form the dead, you’re saved, for with the heart man believes for righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made for salvation.” (Rom 10:9,10)

You have to say yes to God. If I take a dollar bill out of my pocket and ask you if you want it, you can say yes, or you can say no.

You say a simple prayer, telling God you accept his salvation through Jesus. Then God accepts you as one of his Christians. Now you’ve cashed in your salvation. Of course, you are required to follow through, and keep living for Jesus, and doing the things Jesus said to do, and the Lord will help you, and your new destination is heaven, not hell.

So Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. His parents fled with Jesus into Egypt because Herod wanted to kill the new king, Jesus. Herod didn’t like the idea that there was a new king who perhaps would dethrone him.

Later, they went from Egypt to Nazareth. That’s why Jesus was called a Nazarene, because he lived in Nazareth.

Jesus started his earthly ministry at about age thirty. He preached to the people, he healed the sick, he cast out demons (or, devils), he raised the dead back to life.

But he wasn’t making friends among the religious leaders of Israel. Jesus hadn’t climbed their ladder. He hadn’t joined their club. And why should he? He was the very Son of God. He was their maker, though they were completely unaware of it.

Jesus is the greatest man who ever lived. But then, you will, of course, have an advantage, if you happen to be the only begotten Son of God, as Jesus is. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (book of Revelation chapter 1).

Jesus had twelve disciples. But he said to them, “One of you is a devil.” Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus' twelve discoples, but not really a believer in Jesus. Judas was also the treasurer who kept the bag of money for the disciples, and Judas was a thief, it says in the Book of John.

Judas became the betrayer of Jesus. At one point, Satan entered into Judas.

Jesus told his followers they would do well if they made his words the foundation of their lives. He said you must endure to the end. Jesus said, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I say?”

If you’re going to be a Christian, find out everything Jesus said in the Bible, and do it. And God will help you to do so. He’ll work with you. Most of Jesus’ words are in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Judas Iscariot brought a band of Officers and men to Jesus and they arrested Jesus.

The Governor, Pontius Pilate, found Jesus not to be deserving of execution, but the Jewish leaders, including the High Priest, wanted Jesus dead. They pressured Pilate to execute Jesus. So Pilate went along with it, and Jesus was crucified.

Jesus' dead body was taken down from the cross and put in a tomb.

On the third day, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus appeared to his disciples, and to more than 500 Christians.

He told them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, but first, he wanted them to wait at Jerusalem (Acts chapters 1 & 2) for the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, which was first received on the Day of Pentecost.

So the disciples preached the Gospel. Judas had hanged himself. The Apostle Paul was added to the disciples of Jesus. Paul gave us more than half of the number of books in the New Testament.

John the Beloved, one of the twelve disciples gave us the Gospel of John, First, Second, and Third John, and the Book of Revelation, which foretells end-time events.

If you have a red letter edition of the Bible, the words of Jesus are printed in red ink, while the other words not spoken by Jesus are in black ink.

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