A Biblical Timeline Presents A Graphic Representation To Aid And Help Biblical Events And Characters And Principles
In our Sunday Bible class some years ago, a woman who had been a Christian and worked in the local Church for years, said,"Yes, but Abraham had the Law and so he understood about......" (they were not referring to the pre-Moses law) I wonder how many Christians will actually pick up the inaccuracy in this statement. Moses came about about five hundred years after Abraham and so it is not possible. I have since then compiled a Biblical chronological chart and explained visually the chronology of individuals and events.
Alas, a numerous Pastors and Bible teachers in our churches go on and preach superficial, shallow, flimsy, light weight sermons and their congregation barely grow in Bible knowledge and understanding. Preachers love to give us'moral essays' and'warming affirmations' because supposedly, if we truly love our people this is what we'll do. Unfortunate it seems, if God's men and women are falling through the cracks'for a lack of knowledge' so long as we're positive and loving to all. Truly, the more like our world, the less relevant we're to our world.
Some years ago, I was speaking on the death, life, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and a retired pastor and strong preacher of the Bible, who had been a pastor for 40 years, came up and reproved me smartly over some interesting points I made and he stated 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 humbly asked him if I was preaching anything of a heretical nature at all, to which he answered"No". I continued to describe that in the case of that particular verse, it was not referring to exploring the Bible but to the false teachings and school of thought of Gnosticism, but he wouldn't have it. Let me ask, how can a 40 year minister & laborer in the Gospel, not understand and know about a thing that probably half the books of the New Testament discuss?
How can he study and teach 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 figure out these things and be able to interpret their Bible well, if they're not told?
Why is it that we dwell on our pet topics and feel good preaching?
We instruct on a verse from 3 John and a passage about Ezra and a topical from the book of Revelation and then the example of Paul or the miracles of Jesus - bits from here and there, but we do not put it all at once in a visible understandable, simple to remember, perspective with a capable Bible TimeLine and Church History as well. Constantly we're bombarded with new books, modernist ideas, a few of them dangerously edging toward Liberal theology, but if we were to be coached the fundamental principles of Church history, we then wouldn't be so doomed to do the same again.
Let's us as tutors and preachers sew together the aspects of God's Word and His plan into a seamless tapestry that our people can draw on for the rest of life, helping them to figure out God, His Eternal Plan, the function of the Church and ways to better translate the Bible to order our lives by.
It's not difficult to do, and it's not boring if we're ready to put in a bit of study with prayer and fervor, and just perhaps you can employ a Bible Timeline too.
For more information about a Bible TimeLine check out our Bible TimeLine Chart web site and consider the scriptural study tool.
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