A brief overview of Christianity and the Bible

A brief overview of Christianity and the Bible

The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of Christianity and the Bible from a layman Christian’s perspective, for the seeker or the new Christian.

The Bible, the sacred Scripture of the Christians, is essentially God’s letter to mankind, to explain to them everything they need to know about God Himself, about man themselves, about man’s big problem which is essentially sin and death, and about the way that they can be saved. The Bible is also a history book, completely unique in the sense that it starts at the very beginning of creation and ends with the destruction of this current world, and the creation of a new one, events which of course have yet to happen. It is essentially made out of two parts, known as the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is also the sacred scripture of Judaism, which is the main religion adhered to by the Jews throughout the last 3,500 years even up till today in the reborn nation of Israel in the Middle East.

The writing of the Bible itself spans across about 1,500 years in 3 languages by diverse authors of different backgrounds. However, what connects all these authors is the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit who empowered them to write the truth of God, through their own unique styles and character.

Basically, it all starts from the very beginning, the origin of the earth. The first book of the Bible in the Old Testament, Genesis, tells us how God created the world in 7 days, making the sun, the moon and the stars, the beautiful trees and plants that give life and diverse animals of all kinds to fly in the air,  swim in the sea, and to roam the land. He then created the crown of His Creation, Man, with the main job of taking care of the beautiful earth He had made. What’s most unique about man is that he was made in the image of God. He was able to think and reason, and communicate intelligently with God. God was able to come down to the earth to walk and fellowship with man in a precious relationship between Creator and creation. However, with the gift of intellect and reason that God gave man, man was also given the ability of free choice.  Man had the capacity of choosing by his will whether to obey God or to disobey God, to do things God’s way or do things his way. And sadly, man chose to do things his way.

God only gave Adam and Eve, the first man and woman one rule, not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the center of the Garden. However, tempted by the devil in the form of a snake, both Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. Once they disobeyed God, sin entered the world. Sin is essentially turning away from God, and because of sin, death entered the world, and man who was initially created to be immortal, now have their days on earth numbered.

Why did God allow free choice for man? Why not make us like robots without the ability to choose to disobey God? We may not fully understand but basically God made us to have a will and an intellect to have a relationship with Him and give Him pleasure with two-way intelligent response and communication. Who wants to marry or befriend a robot that does not think for itself but only obeys instructions without any thought of its own?

In spite of their sin, God was still kind to Adam and Eve, and covered their nakedness by providing for them garments of skin as clothes. Some innocent animals had to be killed to make the garments, and from this God showed the important principle that the sacrifice of an innocent being was required to atone (make payment) for the sin of man. This principle is very important in our faith, as it shows why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross for the sins of the world. Only the sacrifice of a being of completely innocent blood could be acceptable to bring forgiveness of sins in the eyes of God, and Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, because of His absolute purity was able to be the ultimate sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world to bring forgiveness to all who believe in Him. The principle here is also the principle of substitution, a willing innocent person taking the place of a guilty person. Jesus Christ willingly died to take our place so that we might have eternal life. We also see from the very beginning, God’s kindness and forgiveness, in not treating men as their sins deserve.

A short while later, Eve gave birth to two boys, Cain and Abel, and the first murder happened when Cain murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy. This happened because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice from the firstborn of his flock but did not accept Cain’s sacrifice of fruits from the soil. Again, there is that principle of only the sacrifice of blood as acceptable to God. God punished Cain because of his terrible sin but the at the same time also showed Cain kindness by giving him a seal of protection so that he would not be killed. Again we see God’s justice and His kindness.

Sadly, as mankind spread, they became more and more evil and sinful, and it came to a point when God’s heart was filled with pain and He regretted creating man on the earth. So he decided to destroy the earth by a great flood and start all over again. To do this, God chose a family of only 8 headed by Noah, who followed God’s instructions to build a huge boat that also housed at least a pair of every kind of animal for 40 days and nights of continuous rain, which covered and destroyed all life on the land. This event also showed us how the just character of God ensures that He punishes sin, and continuous sin will build up to a point that He will take action and pour out His judgment.

After the flood, Noah and his family repopulated the earth again, but soon his descendants started to make the same mistakes again, coming together as one to try and build a huge tower reaching up into the Heavens, which was called the tower of Babel. Their motive again, was their own pride and sin, and God had to intervene to confuse the language of men, and cause them to scatter all across the world. Otherwise, their build-up of sin would again bring God’s judgment quickly on all mankind.

A few hundred years after the flood, the Bible now focuses on one man Abram, who is called by God to leave his comfortable home in Ur of the Chaldeans, which was a major city in the early Mesopotamian empire and go to a land where God would show him. Abram obeyed God, and God promised him that he would become the father of a great nation who would inherit the land of Canaan. God’s plan was to build up a great nation through Abram’s line who would be His model nation to the whole world that would show everyone His power and righteousness and character.

Later, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, saying that he would be the father of many nations. Today, Abraham is cited as the patriarch of not only the Jews and Christians but also by the Muslims, which make up probably at least two thirds of the world. At that time, Abraham did not even have one son, but he believed God and the Scripture writes that God credited it to him as righteousness. This is a very important principle for Christians, as we take the same basis of faith as Abraham.

Later in the new Testament, the Apostle Paul explains that in the same way God credited righteousness to Abraham because of his faith, God also credits righteousness to us through our faith in Jesus Christ. Our righteousness does not come from anything we have done but solely through our faith. What is faith? It is the confidence of what we hope for and assurance of what we not see (Hebrews 11:1). So if we put our faith in Jesus for our salvation, God’s righteousness is placed upon us, and we are justified, made just as if we had not sinned. We should note however that true faith is always followed by actions. Abraham’s faith in God was proven when he proceeded to move out of Ur and spend his life in tents following God’s leading. Our faith in Jesus is proven by a life redirected to follow Him and seeking to do God’s will.

One very important incident in Abraham’s life was when God tested him by asking him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, who was miraculously born in his old age as God had promised. Just before he actually carried out the act, an angel stopped him, and showed him instead a ram caught by his horns in the thorns of a thicket which was used as the sacrifice instead. Abraham named the place “The Lord will provide”, and 2,000 years later, on the same mount, Jesus Christ, with a crown of thorns, died as a willing sacrifice to God for the sins of mankind.

Later, Abraham’s son of promise, Isaac, begot twin sons, Esau and Jacob, and God chose Jacob to continue the chosen line. God renamed Jacob Israel, and it was from his twelve sons that the nation of Israel grew to almost 14 million Jews in the world today. Among the twelve brothers, the most pre-eminent was Joseph, who had an amazing story. Being Jacob’s favorite among the twelve, Joseph was soon despised by his jealous brothers and was cruelly sold as a slave to traders and passed off as killed to their father. Joseph was then sold off to the captain of the Egyptian palace guard where he quickly rose to rank of chief servant because of God’s favor and his exemplary attitude. Unfortunately, his master’s wife fancied him, and upon his righteous rebuff accused Joseph of attempted rape. His master threw him into the king’s dungeon, but even there, God was with Joseph and he earned the favor of the chief guard who put him in charge of the other prisoners. One day, he was able to interpret the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners, a cupbearer and a baker of the Pharaoh. Later on, when Pharaoh had a troubling dream, the cupbearer told Pharaoh about Joseph, and God enabled Joseph to interpret the dream as a sign of 7 years of bountiful harvest followed by 7 years of famine that was to come. Pharaoh was so impressed he made Joseph his second in command, and during the time of famine, Joseph was able to save Jacob and his whole family from Canaan.

The story of Joseph is actually synonymous with that of Jesus. Joseph was his father’s favored son, stooped down to be a slave, dropped down even lower to prison, and then rose up to be the savior of not only his family but also most of the world subject to the famine. Jesus from His place as God’s favored son, stooped down to be a mortal man on earth, descended down into hell, and then rose again victorious to be the Savior of all who believe in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.

Jacob and his sons settled in Egypt, and grew to a number of almost 2 million. However, a Pharaoh that did not know Joseph made Israel’s descendants, which were called the Hebrews, slaves for Egypt, and they were so ill-treated they cried out to God for help. In one of the most cruel edicts in history, Pharaoh ordered that all Hebrew baby boys be killed. Fortunately, one baby boy named Moses escaped when his mother put him in a basket of reeds on the river Nile. Providentially, he was found by an Egyptian princess who adopted him, and even allowed his real mother to raise him in his early years. He grew up and received a royal Egyptian education, but got into trouble at 40 years of age for killing an Egyptian who had been mistreating a Hebrew.  Before Pharaoh got to him, he escaped and spent the next 40 years in the wilderness as a shepherd. Later, God called Moses to return to lead his people out of Egypt. Of course, the Pharaoh refused but after God’s worked 10 powerful plagues over Egypt, Pharaoh finally consented.

The Passover is the most important celebration to the Jews up till today, and remembers the 10^th plague vividly. The Hebrews were asked to slaughter a lamb and put the blood on the doorpost of their homes so that the angel of death would pass by them. In the 10^th plague, all the firstborns of the Egyptians died that night, but the Hebrews were all safe, and quickly proceeded to leave Egypt.    

Here again, we see how the Passover was a picture of the coming sacrifice of Jesus as the Passover lamb that would bring deliverance to all Christians, who are forgiven through His blood. Christians also celebrate the Passover in a sense through the Holy Communion, when we partake of the bread as the flesh of Christ and the drink the wine as the blood of Christ, remembering the Lord’s great sacrifice to deliver us from sin and death.

Shortly after they left, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued them with chariots and horses but the Lord delivered them by empowering Moses to part the Red Sea for the great crowd to pass. After the Israelites went through, the walls of water came back down and drowned the Egyptian army bringing about a complete deliverance for the Israelites.

The great entourage then set out for the promised land of Canaan promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but along the way, they stop at a mountain where Moses goes up to go and meet with God. God gives Moses the 10 commandments and the first portion of His law, which He commands the Israelites to obey. While he is on the mountain with God, the Israelites below get impatient and even influence Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship after which they indulge in revelry. God almost wipes them out at this point, but Moses intercedes for them and God relents. We again see God’s mercy at work.

The law of Moses as a whole consists of 613 commandments that were to be kept by the Israelites as an entire system. The law as practiced by Israel was meant to show the world God’s amazingly high standard of righteousness, and also how Israel was to relate to Him as well to each other. In essence, the law also pointed the way for the coming of Jesus Christ, who would fulfill the law through His life. For example, the sin offering of bulls and goats documented in the law foreshadowed the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for sins. Basically, the law was put in place to show that God’s standard is so high that no one can actually meet God’s requirements on their own merit, and that everyone needs a Savior, and that Savior came as Jesus Christ. Christians are not to try and obey the Mosaic law as a means of righteousness as it is impossible. Instead, we can only be righteous by putting our faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. Thereafter, we should seek to live by the Holy Spirit and meet the righteous requirement of the law, which is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. On our own, it is impossible to please God, but if we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and with us to serve God and keep our lives holy, we do please Him.

After they received the law, the Israelites arrived at Kadesh Barnea, just outside the Canaan, but chickened out because of the bad report of 10 spies whom Moses sent to spy out the land. The remaining 2 spies, Joshua and Caleb tried to persuade the people that all things were possible with God, who had worked miracle after miracle for them but the people did not listen. The people had arrived there in just 2 years from Egypt but God became so angry that He let the Israelites wander in the desert for 40 years before allowing them to enter again. By that time, the entire generation that had come out of Egypt had passed away except for Joshua and Caleb. And it was Joshua that led the new generation to enter and conquer the land. Hence, with God helping them, they were able to generally take over and settle in the land of Canaan, dividing it among the 12 tribes, although some areas were still occupied by the original inhabitants.

After that Israel entered into a cyclical time when they were ruled by judges.  The general pattern was always the same. Israel would turn away from God and run into trouble, being attacked by neighboring peoples and turn to God again for help. God would forgive and send a judge to deliver them, but after a time of peace, they would forsake God again, and the cycle continued.

The principle is the same for us. When we forget God, our lives will start to go downhill, but when we turn to Him, He will save and deliver us.  

At one point thereafter, the Israelites decided they wanted a king like the nations around them and asked the prophet Samuel to appoint one. The first king of Israel appointed was from the tribe of Benjamin called Saul, who started off well, but ended very badly. One of his main faults was that he became very proud and became more concerned about what people thought about him rather than whether he pleased God. God then asked Samuel to anoint as the new king a young shepherd boy named David, who rose to fame when he defeated the giant philistine Goliath with only a sling and a pebble. Thereafter, King Saul tried to kill David out of jealousy again and again but God delivered David.

David was a great musician and worshipper, a man who loved God like no other. He was called a man after God’s own heart and God loved him so much that He promised him that from his line would come a king whose reign would never end. This prophecy has yet to be fulfilled but will come to fruition when Jesus Christ comes back the second time to take his place as the King of Kings in Israel to reign during the Millenial Kingdom for 1,000 years as shown in the last book of the Bible, Revelation.

After Saul died, David became King of Israel and Israel began to enter its golden age. All Jews today look back at the reign of King David and long for the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring Israel back to its former glory. Now King David was not perfect. He fell into the terrible sins of adultery and murder of one of his loyal men, but by and large, he was faithful to God and loved God more sacrificially than anyone. After David died, his son King Solomon built God’s temple, and Israel’s fame was at its greatest over all the known world. Even the great Queen of Sheba traveled from far to listen to King Solomon’s wisdom, and in his day, there was so much gold and silver that it was as commonplace as stones. However, King Solomon married 700 wives and had 300 concubines and they turned him away after other gods. Nevertheless for the sake of David, God did not end his reign. After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam tried to be tough with the people but instead saw 10 tribes of Israel leave his kingdom and instead appoint Jeroboam as their king. From then on, Israel and Judah were divided with their own kings.

All the Israeli kings were basically bad kings and in the end Israel was attacked by the Assyrian empire and its people captured away and resettled among the nations. Judah in the south had some good kings but also many bad kings, and in the end it was attacked by the Babylonians and the people captured away and resettled in Babylon. God’s promises all came true. Because the people forgot God again and again and turned to other gods, the nations of Israel and Judah were scattered among the nations.

Throughout the time of the kings, God consistently raised up prophets like Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah to preach to the kings and the people to turn back to God, but they would turn away again and again and in the end found themselves completely exiled from their land. Nevertheless, in God’s mercy, during the time of the Persian empire, He raised up King Cyrus who gave an edict encouraging the Jews to go back to their land to rebuild and resettle in it. By the way, the term Jews is actually short from for Judah, and it was mainly those from Judah that maintained their identity and returned to rebuild Israel. God’s mercy is shown again and again throughout history, showing His kindness to those who did not deserve it.

Through the ministry of leaders like Ezra, Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, the Jews gradually returned back to Israel and rebuilt it, although they remained as vassals to the Persian Empire. Thereafter, they became subject to Alexander the Great under the Greek Empire, and later Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire. Now throughout the Old Testament, the prophets gave prophecy again and again about a Messiah, a Savior who would come and be the light and Savior of the world. Majority of the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah to come for the first time to restore the kingdom of Israel.

What they did not realize is that the Messiah did come in the person of Jesus Christ, the first time, with the main purpose of dying on the cross as the sin offering for the world to bring forgiveness not only for the Jews but for everyone who would believe in Him. In fact, the Jews in the South in particular were responsible for instigating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Tellingly, when Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor washed his hands of guilt for the murder of Jesus, the crowd said “let the blood be on us and our children”. Throughout history since then, the Jews have become the most persecuted people in the world culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany where millions of Jews were killed.

However, the Old Testament prophets consistently prophesied that God would restore Israel again. For more than 1900 years, this prophecy rang hollow as the Jews were still scattered among the nations and even greatly persecuted by different rulers. However, in 1948, after World War II, the state of Israel was suddenly reborn out of the blue, and Jews from everywhere started returning to Israel. Despite fierce opposition and even military attacks by the neighboring Arab states, Israel survived and has even grown into a strong, powerful nation today in just a short time. The Israeli state is still under tremendous international and religious pressure, which Scripture prophesies is to culminate in World War III when many nations surround Israel to destroy them once and for all. However, Jesus Christ will return instead to destroy those nations and establish His millennial kingdom with Israel as the lead country in the whole world.

Coming back to the time of the New Testament, the backdrop is 400 years after the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, and starts with the ministry of John the Baptist, whose main job is to prepare the way for the Messiah. He urges people to repent (turn away) from their sins as the kingdom of God is coming, and when Jesus starts His ministry, He continues where John leaves off, telling people to repent and believe in Him for salvation. He also goes around healing the sick, casting out demons and even raising the dead. He also feeds crowds of thousands, changes water into wine, walks on water and stills violent storms by a word. In the book of Matthew and Luke, the ancestry of Jesus is carefully traced, all the way back through David to Abraham in Matthew, and all the way back through David to Abraham to Adam in Luke. In the book of Matthew, we are given the most important sermon Jesus ever preached, the Sermon of the Mount, which forms the Magna Carta, or Manifesto of the kingdom. It starts off with the Beatitudes, (the Beautiful Attitudes), which describes the state of being of the Christian, and then goes into practical examples how the Christian life is lived out. Besides the teachings of Jesus, of primary focus in the Gospels is the crucifixion of Jesus, which is the sacrifice of the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. However, death is never the end, and on the third day, Jesus Christ rose again, and because He did, all of us also have the hope of rising with Him unto eternal life. Later, in full view of His disciples, He ascends in the air back to Heaven, with the promise that He will return again for His own. Throughout the gospels, the main thrust is clear, the way to salvation must be through Jesus. There is no other way. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

The book of Acts, just after the four gospels, document the rapid spreading of the gospel throughout the Roman Empire in just a short time. A primary figure in this early spread of Christianity is the Apostle Paul, who was miraculously called by Jesus while persecuting the church. He quickly becomes a leading apostle in the early church and is later called the Apostle to the Gentiles, because of his outstanding work of spreading the gospel among the Gentile cities.

Most of Paul’s letters are rich in lessons concerning how life is lived out at individual, family and church levels, and also explains critical Christian doctrines of various aspects, most important of which is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone without any element of works. However, at the same time, Paul is careful to point out in his letters the importance of Christians living and walking by the Holy Spirit, and not to go back to sinful living which will lead to death and failure to inherit the kingdom of God.  This does not mean Christians fail to sin, but that there is a strong desire and commitment to become more and more like Jesus Christ, always pressing on towards the pursuit of holiness.

Besides his marvelous gospel, the apostle John also contributes three important letters and also the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible which documents the happenings of the end times which are happening right before our very eyes. There are terrible things and persecution and the conquering of the world by the Anti-Christ that must happen before the end, but finally, we are also given the picture of a wonderful Marriage between Jesus and the Church, and the creation of a new Heaven and a new Earth, and God Himself coming down to live with His people forevermore!

God bless you,

Jason Gong