The Bible is the foundation of humanity’s knowledge. With God’s words, humanity has an eye-witness account of its origin and a prophecy of tis future. The Bible is humanity’s guide-book to take us from our origins to our future. Its story, therefore, is relevant for today.
The Bible is a book. As a book, it has a storyline. The storyline reveals itself as you read through the Bible as a book. The Bible’s story told through two Testaments concerns God the Creator and His relationship with Humanity.
The Bible is one book of two testaments centring on the Law to give three timeframes establishing universal principles. Over the next few posts, let’s see if we can “rightly divide” (2 Timothy 2:15) the Bible story into four parts; two parts per Testament.
Stories are often preceded by a prologue and followed by an epilogue. The prologue gives background information so that the reader can properly understand the story. The epilogue takes the reader beyond the completion of the story to see how it all ends.
Genesis introduces the Bible story’s prologue and Revelation its epilogue. That means the Old Testament has two parts to the Bible’s storyline: a prologue and the beginning of the story. The New Testament also contains two parts: the rest of the story and an epilogue.
Prologue – The Edenic Relationship
The Bible story of God and humanity begins with the Garden of Eden. The Garden narrative serves as a prologue to the rest of the Bible’s storyline. It begins with the creation and ends with the fall of mankind. It is the foundation for understanding the relationship between God and humanity.
The prologue begins with an explanation of humanity’s origin. The creation of the universe is told quickly, moving to the chief characters in the storyline: God and His image on earth (Genesis 1:26). The prologue not only explains where humanity originated but explains mankind’s original standing with God.
God is the Creator; humanity is the creation.
In the next post, we will look deeper into the prologue and introduce the question: Are works necessary for salvation?
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