How would you like to embark on the ultimate literary adventure? An excursion that will result in practical, strategic awareness of the entire Bible - a perspective from which you can navigate your own personal adventure that will enrich a lifetime and even more? It's not just a fascinating study; it's a participation that will determine your eternal destiny.
We'll reach far beyond the earth's prehistory, behind the mists of legend and folklore to discover the greatest drama of all literature. We'll encounter the greatest evil - betrayals, revenge, deceptions and the ultimate Prince of Darkness. We'll also encounter the greatest good, the highest achievements, the greatest courage and sacrifice; in fact, the ultimate sacrifice - the Kinsman Redeemer of all mankind!
We'll find ourselves in a courtship between a sovereign God and His rebellious offspring. We'll explore the ultimate ironies of all literature - hidden surprises on every page. We'll experience the rise of the great empires, as well as their fall, through dreams and visions and secret encrypted messages. We'll discover letters written to great leaders from extraterrestrial sources, outlining their careers and achievements in advance, giving them instructions on how to proceed. We'll thrill to the hero conquering enemies against impossible odds, betrayals of thrones and retributions, vendettas and conspiracies extending to many generations.
We'll also probe the greatest mysteries ever to confront mankind - the nature of time and the issue of predestination vs. free will. We'll explore the purity of God and the frustrations of man; the search for good, the reign of evil and the nature of evil - where it comes from and why.
We'll discover that this ancient record anticipates the most modern discoveries of particle physics and cosmology, hyperspace and time travel. We'll discover that we are part of a virtual reality that is transcended by a larger one, that both benevolent and malevolent beings intervene in our lives from other dimensions.
We'll stand in awe of the biography of a Superman: His origin, His mission, His manifest destiny, His understated powers, and His betrayal by which He will accomplish His "Mission Impossible" - the Creator Himself entering His creation to repair the damage introduced by a dark intruder who previously ruled planet Earth.
We'll also discover that we're participants in a cosmic war. And we'll discover that we're in possession of an integrated series of messages from an extraterrestrial source that describes the origin, career and destiny of the super-beings behind the scenes of our physical universe and the political events we see. We'll discover that each of us is both a pawn and a prize in a cosmic warfare - a hyper-dimensional conflict between good and evil that will come to a climax soon. In fact, we believe we are being plunged into a time of conflict unlike any other. It's the ultimate adventure, involving each of us in the interval between the miracle of our origin and the mystery of our destiny.
What are the secrets that have created empires and tumbled thrones? Has an intergalactic warfare caused the scars on the planets in our solar system? Is it still going on? If God is good and created us, where did evil come from? Are demons simply super-hackers attempting to penetrate the gateways of the software we call soul and spirit? Where did we come from and why are we here? If we are objects of design, what is the purpose of it all? Where are we headed?
The Only Book...
There is only one Book on earth, only one Book in the history of mankind that can answer those cosmic questions and demonstrate its transcendence over time and space. It has the audacity to hang its credibility and authenticity on its record of recording history before it happens. Only one Book holds the key to your eternal destiny: the ultimate love story, written in blood on a wooden cross erected in Judea some two thousand years ago.
What an ambitious project - going through the entire Bible in 24 hours! Of course, our study will not exhaust the inexhaustible. But we can learn the Bible sufficiently to navigate among its many adventures and the many discoveries it contains. If this study is successful, it should ignite in each of us a passion, perhaps an obsession, that will inflame a lifetime of adventure, excitement, insight and satisfaction not available through any other means. But you are the deciding factor; you are going to determine the end of the story - on the precipice of cosmic doom, or on the threshold of eternity.
To begin our lifelong study adventure, we will need a solid foundation. Actually, our exploration will build on three foundations. First, though the Bible consists of 66 separate books penned by over 40 authors over a period of several thousand years, it is an integrated message system. Every passage, every word, every number, every place name is there deliberately. A skillful design pervades the whole. The second foundation is that this message system is from outside our dimensions of space and time. It is literally of extraterrestrial origin. Third, every word and every phrase of the Bible turns around central themes. The Old Testament theme is the account of a nation - its origin, destiny, ups and downs, and its history yet to unfold. The New Testament is the account of a man, the Creator of the universe Whose appearance is the central event of all history.
Once you grasp these foundational truths, many of the so-called dilemmas and paradoxes about the Bible start to evaporate.
The Timeline of History
A timeline through history would start at creation and the fall of man and would span approximately 6,000 years. The progress of major events on the line would be the flood, then the call of Abraham, then the exodus from Egypt and the birth of the nation Israel. Later is the dynasty of David, then Solomon's kingdom after David's death.
A civil war broke out after Solomon's death and the nation split in two - the Northern Kingdom eventually got destroyed by the Assyrians, and the Southern Kingdom went into exile for seventy years, a very important watershed in Israel's history which will be key to many of the things we consider. An interesting fact about the book of Genesis is that it covers the creation up to, but not including, the Exodus, a period of about 2,500 years. The rest of the Old Testament covers a small fraction of that - from the exodus to just beyond the exile and the return.
After the Old Testament closed, there was a 400-year period called the silent years. No prophet's voice was heard. God appeared to be silent until He sent His messenger, John the Baptist, who ushered in the New Testament period. A fascinating contrast is that the Old Testament was compiled over several thousand years; the New Testament was compiled and published within one lifetime.
The central theme in the entire panorama is the advent of Jesus Christ, who came, ministered and went to the cross. Then, after the New Testament period came the Diaspora, when Israel was scattered all over the world. Finally, miraculously, just as the Bible had predicted, on May 14, 1948, Israel was again restored. For centuries scholars debated whether the prophesies in the Old Testament and the New were literal or symbolic (would Israel ever be regathered?). Those debates should have ended in 1948 when Israel became a nation again.
Let the Adventure Begin!
It is absolutely astonishing how many controversies about the Bible evaporate once you recognize two things we mentioned at the beginning of this article: the Bible is designed as a whole, not just in broad terms but down to the very letter; and time is not linear and absolute, but a physical property that varies with mass, acceleration and gravity. God doesn't just have lots of time; He is outside the dimensionality of time altogether!
Many Christians are unable to defend their faith because they haven't connected the dots. Learn the Bible in 24 Hours will connect the dots.
