Post by jrmugz on Apr 2, 2017 18:16:59 GMT
Hey, for this weekly magazine, just a quick summary of The Bible for anyone interested. It's not a religious thread, it's just for anyone who wants to know how the whole thing fits together, since it is the best-selling book, and everyone agrees it's at least interesting, has some profound teachings, etc.
If you get what I put below, you seriously have a better idea than a lot of Bible scholars of what The Bible is all about, and it will be really easy to understand the context wherever you start reading it.
So what The Bible is, is a series of covenants that get bigger and bigger until it finally includes all of us.
So at the beginning with Adam and Eve, God's covenant was just with them and their offspring.
Then with Noah after the flood it became with Noah and his household, scope expanding a little bit
Then we get to where actual history can be traced back to, with Abraham, in Genesis chapter 12.
So with Abraham, God expanded the covenant to include the 12 tribes of Israel, so a lot more people were included in it.
Then with Moses, it was God and the whole nation of Israel, so we the size of covenant expanding even more.
Then with King David, it became a kingdom, so expanded to even more people.
Then with Christ, the scope was expanded to include non-Jews (aka Gentiles) and the church became universal (I think the Latin word is catholic).
So in sum, The Bible is basically the story of God's relationship with Israel, and today all of us who are baptized into Christianity and doing our best to practice it, are ingrafted into the vine of this biblical Israel.
Obviously, the ultimate head of the church is Jesus Christ, who is the invisible head of the church.
The government of this spiritual Israel deal is The Catholic Church. The successor of the apostle Peter is the visible leader of the church, so that would be Pope Francis today. The official teachings of The Catholic Church on the issues of faith and morals are the laws.
Non-Catholic Christians (aka Protestants and Orthodox), are part of it too as long as they have been baptized and believe and practice the basic teachings. Protestants and Catholics all have The Apostles Creed in common.
Sects like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses don't hold to those basic tenants, and believe a lot of different things about those, so that's why they are considered by Christians to be cults, or non-Christian sects, however you want to describe them; but they definitely fall outside of the scope of the new testament covenant with Christ.
Here is a book that breaks it all down in detail and gets into how God ultimately wants us to be in the same Catholic family, etc. I highly recommend it for anyone interested.
Here is a picture that summarizes it all. The covenant mediator is at the top of each column. And there you have it, that's a quick, but very substantive summary of The Bible and what it is all about.
Jim
If you get what I put below, you seriously have a better idea than a lot of Bible scholars of what The Bible is all about, and it will be really easy to understand the context wherever you start reading it.
So what The Bible is, is a series of covenants that get bigger and bigger until it finally includes all of us.
So at the beginning with Adam and Eve, God's covenant was just with them and their offspring.
Then with Noah after the flood it became with Noah and his household, scope expanding a little bit
Then we get to where actual history can be traced back to, with Abraham, in Genesis chapter 12.
So with Abraham, God expanded the covenant to include the 12 tribes of Israel, so a lot more people were included in it.
Then with Moses, it was God and the whole nation of Israel, so we the size of covenant expanding even more.
Then with King David, it became a kingdom, so expanded to even more people.
Then with Christ, the scope was expanded to include non-Jews (aka Gentiles) and the church became universal (I think the Latin word is catholic).
So in sum, The Bible is basically the story of God's relationship with Israel, and today all of us who are baptized into Christianity and doing our best to practice it, are ingrafted into the vine of this biblical Israel.
Obviously, the ultimate head of the church is Jesus Christ, who is the invisible head of the church.
The government of this spiritual Israel deal is The Catholic Church. The successor of the apostle Peter is the visible leader of the church, so that would be Pope Francis today. The official teachings of The Catholic Church on the issues of faith and morals are the laws.
Non-Catholic Christians (aka Protestants and Orthodox), are part of it too as long as they have been baptized and believe and practice the basic teachings. Protestants and Catholics all have The Apostles Creed in common.
Sects like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses don't hold to those basic tenants, and believe a lot of different things about those, so that's why they are considered by Christians to be cults, or non-Christian sects, however you want to describe them; but they definitely fall outside of the scope of the new testament covenant with Christ.
Here is a book that breaks it all down in detail and gets into how God ultimately wants us to be in the same Catholic family, etc. I highly recommend it for anyone interested.
Here is a picture that summarizes it all. The covenant mediator is at the top of each column. And there you have it, that's a quick, but very substantive summary of The Bible and what it is all about.
Jim