God's Big Picture: A Bible Overview

Product Information

God's people, in God's place, under his rule and blessing- that's how it all starts... (Genesis 1-2) Christian Guides to the Classics: The Devotional Poetry Of Donne, Herbert, And Milton with Leland Ryken

The premise of this book is that the Bible is one unified story, and the main character is Jesus Christ. Even though we aren't formally introduced to Him until the Gospel of Matthew, everything up to that point foreshadows Him and points to Him. I realised I had a pretty deficient/minimal understanding of what “the Kingdom of God” meant! He summarises it as - “Gods people… in Gods place… under Gods rule and blessing.” The course is taught by Vaughan Roberts, author of the best selling bookof the same name and is a must for anyone wanting to dig deeper into the Bible and comes in an accessible format with Vaughan as a helpful guide.

Does TULIP applies to the Old Testament believers? Are Old Testament believers saved through the "Arminian" way or the "Calvinist" way? Of course, God's Word does contain passages that are not literal history. You will find prophesy, the parables of Jesus, the Proverbs, and songs of praise and worship, but these are clearly identified as such. What Roberts does is dismiss passages that are presented as historical (up until the wisdom of man distorted our interpretation of the Bible). In doing so, Roberts sets aside foundational truths and challenges the reader to wonder "If God's Word isn't literal here, if there is symbolism and allegory here, then perhaps even more of the Bible is symbolic and allegorical." This is a dangerous road to follow and one that leads many to select those portions of Scripture they agree with and dismiss the rest as nice stories or symbolism, certainly not worth building a life around. Worse, non-believers are left to scoff at a book that even self-described Christians admit is filled with symbolism and stories that should not be taken literally. As someone who holds to Covenant Theology framework, unfortunately I couldn't give 5 stars because there are some disagreements in this book with Covenant Theology, especially with regards to the Holy Spirit. The author of this book probably has not considered the following questions which were considered by the Reformers a long time ago A million lives lost in the desert, the farewell speech of a dying man, and then battles, chaos and coronations... (Numbers - 2 Chronicles) Roberts defines the kingdom of God as "God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing" (21). Roberts's definition of the kingdom of God is significantly important for the entire book. Throughout the book, he chronologically traces the kingdom of God following this definition. Each chapter provides the reader with a chart helping them understand where God's people, place and rule were within particular areas of history. In addition to this chart, there was another chart, which showed the progression from creation, fall, history of Israel, Christ and the new creation (157). The final chart presented the line of Israel beginning with Abraham progressing to the Northern and Southern split, the Southern exile and release, Jesus and the last days (158).

A disastrous line of idolatrous kings, the catastrophic destruction of God's kingdom, and amidst the rubble, new shoots of hope...The God's Big Picture Bible overview course traces the story of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation to see how it all fits together, telling of God's wonderful plan to save the world through Jesus Christ. This means God sees the mess, injustice and suffering in the world and in our own lives, and He on a mission to set things right by re-establishing his kingdom here on earth. To be honest, it helped grow my view of the gospel - when Jesus dealt with our problem of sin, in our place, on the cross, it was set within His bigger grace-filled plan to renew all things by restoring his Kingdom. Perhaps God's people would do better if they had a king to rule over them? In 1 Samuel - 2 Chronicles God's promise of a king is seemingly fulfilled by Saul, David and then Solomon. The last two kings bring great periods of peace and prosperity to Israel, but ultimately each one fails to bring the everlasting peace and kingdom that God has promised. We conclude that these partially fulfilled promises must be pointing to something greater. This book was an excellent, clearly-written summary of a topic that ought to be too big to be contained in such a small tome. But Roberts did an excellent job of making his point without belaboring it. After reading it, I wanted to know more about how all of creation, from the time of its genesis, was waiting for Jesus to come and redeem it. And, now that we have seen Him revealed, those of us who believe are waiting for Him to return in glory. But, as we wait, we have the Word of God to remind us to wait with joy for what is surely coming. I'm still looking for a beginner biblical theology book similar to God's Big Picture but written from a covenant theology perspective. Seems like Covenants Made Simple: Understanding God's Unfolding Promises to His People written by Jonty Rhodes might be what I'm looking for, but I have yet to read it so I'm unable to comment on this book at the moment.

I whipped through the book in just over an hour. I then laid in bed and marveled at the big picture of God's Word.

How far do you take this line of reasoning? How much are you willing to bend God's Word and see it as "symbolism" before you finally arrive at a version of the Bible where you have defined your own version of truth? This perseverance of the saints depends, not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; the abiding of the Spirit and of the seed of God within them; and the nature of the covenant of grace; from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof. Having seen the 'people' and 'blessing' promises partially fulfilled we're now looking out for the promsie of 'land' to be fulfilled. But, because of further disobedience, we read in the book of Numbers that God's people are delayed forty years in getting into the land he has promised them. Once in the land things don't get much better: the nation descends into a cycle of sin, judgment and grace. God provides judges to rule his people. As Roberts writes in his preface, his aim is "to provide all Christians, from the new convert to the mature believer, with an overview of the whole Bible that will help them see how the different parts fit together." He does that by using the framework of the kingdom of God, using a definition of the kingdom as "God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing". And, as Edmund Clowney and Graeme Goldsworthy (and others) have opined, Roberts states, "The Bible must be understood and read as one book with one ultimate author, God, and one ultimate subject, God's plan of salvation through his Son Jesus." In addition, it also appears to be incompatible with the Anglicanism 39 Articles, particularly article 17 because it stated that all whom God hath chosen in Christ (which I believe this implies OT believers too) received the same benefit of everlasting salvation (perseverance), effectual calling, justification, adoption and transformation into the image of Christ through the Spirit of Christ.