A Biblical Timeline Banner Gives A Creative Mode To Help Teach Biblical Characters And Events And Facts
In our weekly Bible class some years ago, one person who had been a Christian and laboured in the Church for years, made this statement,"Yes, but Abraham had the Law and so he understood about......" (they were not talking about the pre-mosaic law) I wonder how many Christians will actually pick up the inaccuracy in this statement. Moses existed five hundred years after Abraham and so it is impossible. I have since compiled a Biblical timeline banner and explained more visually the time period of individuals and occasions.
Regrettably, a numerous Pastors and teachers in our churches continue to preach superficial, shallow, flimsy, light weight sermons and their members barely grow in Bible knowledge and understanding. Preachers love to preach'moral essays' and'warming affirmations' because supposedly, if we really love people this is what we will do. Unfortunate it seems, if God's people are falling through the cracks'for a lack of knowledge' as long as we're positive and loving to all. In truth, the more relevant we become to the world, the less relevant we're to the world.
Some years ago, I was teaching on the resurrection, death, burial and life of Christ Jesus, and a retired pastor and strong preacher of the Bible, who had been in the ministry for forty years, marched up and reproved me smartly over some interesting points I made and he remarked 1Ti 1:4'Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.' I quietly asked him if I had been preaching anything of a heretical nature at all, to which he said"No". I continued to explain that in the case of that particular verse, it was not speaking to exploring the Bible but to the false teaching and philosophy of Gnosticism, but he would not accept it. Let me ask, how can a forty year preacher & laborer in the Gospel, not understand and know about a thing that possibly half the books of the New Testament refer to?
How can he study and preach the Bible fully without knowing about a thing that was so influential in the New Testament church? And then how can the congregation hope to comprehend these things and be able to interpret their Bible effectively, if they are not told?
Why is it that we dwell on our pet subjects and feel good sermons?
We instruct on a verse from Lamentations and a passage about Paul and a theme from the book of Galatians and then the example of Moses or the faith of Noah - bits from here and everyplace, but we do not put it all together in a clear understandable, simple to remember, perspective with a decent Bible TimeLine including Church History as well. Constantly we're bombarded with new books, modernist ideas, a number of them dangerously edging toward Liberal theology, but if we were to be coached the basic principles of Church history, we then would not be so doomed to do the same again.
Let's us as teachers and preachers stitch together the aspects of the Bible and God's plan into a seamless tapestry that our people are able to draw on for the remainder of their lives, to help them to comprehend God, His Eternal Plan, the role of the Church and how to better translate the Bible to live by.
It's not difficult to do, and it's not boring if we're prepared to put in a bit of study with prayer and fervor, and just perhaps you can utilize a Bible Timeline too.
For added info concerning a Bible TimeLine go to our Bible TimeLine Chart site and check out the Bible study tool.
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