Master the Bible: How to Get and Keep the Big Picture of the Bible's Story

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Mas ter the B i b l e : How to Get and Keep the B i g P i c ture of the B i b l e ’ s Stor y

F. Don’s additional principle: The many stories of Scripture join together to form the single Story of God. Through the Scriptures, God tells us of his kingdom promise and ultimate plan and purpose for creation in Jesus Christ, Rev. 4.11.

II. From Before to Beyond Time: An Outline of the Story of the Bible (Adapted from Suzanne de Dietrich, God’s Unfolding Purpose . Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976.) Christianity takes time seriously. History is where God is made known. Christians have no knowledge of God without time, for it is through actual events happening in historical time that God is revealed. God chooses to make the divine nature and will known through events that take place within the same calendar that measures the daily lives of men and women. God’s self-disclosures take place within the same course of time as political events: “In the days of Herod king of Judea” (Luke 1.5 NEB), or “it took place when Quirinius was gover nor of Syria” (Luke 2.2 NEB). God’s time is our time, too, marked by a temporal order called a calendar. . . . For Christianity, the ultimate meanings of life are revealed not by universal timeless statements but by concrete acts of God. In the fullness of time, God invades our history, assumes our flesh, heals, teaches, and eats with sinners.

~ Hoyt L. Hickman, et. al. The New Handbook of the Christian Year . Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992. p. 16.

A. Before Time (Eternity Past)

1. Before all else, the one, eternal, true and triune God existed, Ps. 90.1-2; Rev. 1.8

2. The true Lord is God alone and glorious, Deut. 6.4-5; Deut. 32.39.

3. God’s will was and has always been perfect and complete, Rev. 4.11; Rom. 11.36.

4. God is the Sovereign Lord, the King of all kings, Ps. 145.13; Dan. 4.34-35.