The One Hour Bible Story

What Happened and When

by David Schutten
Using the Bible Story retold by Rod Smith, Nelson NKJ Study Bible,
NIV Daily Bible in Chronological Order, Know Your Bible (Barbour Publishing),
Blue Letter Bible, various timelines especially matthewmcgee.org/ottimlin.html,
and the writer’s own common sense.

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GENESIS
In the beginning (about 6000 years ago according to the generations of Adam) God, through His
Son Jesus, created the heavens and the earth. The earth was dark and chaotic at first. (Perhaps
just a gas cloud of the atoms and molecules that make up earth’s elements and water crystals, all
suspended in the newly created void of space but dense enough to have a surface or “face”.)
Then God began creating order from the chaos. He called forth light, separated the darkness from
the light and called them Night and Day. That was the first day.
On the second day, He created an expanse to separate the water on the earth from the water
above the earth (clearly a supernatural command, though His light may have had the necessary
warmth to cause liquid and atmospheric water). He called the expanse above the earth Heaven.
On the third day, He separated the water from the land. He called the water Seas and the land
Earth. Then he called the Earth to produce plants.
On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon, at least a few trillion stars and billions of galaxies.
On the fifth day, He made sea animals and birds.
On the sixth day, He made land animals. And on that same day, from the dust of the ground, God
created man - the one creature made in His own image. He called him Adam. Then God looked
at all that He had made and said it was very good.
On the seventh day, He rested. Not because He was tired, but because it pleased Him and would
later serve as a healthy example for us.
God then declared that one thing was not good – the man was alone. He had the man look at all
the beautiful beasts and birds and give them names. Then, when it was obvious that man had no
mate, God put Adam in a deep sleep, opened his side, removed one of his ribs and closed up the
wound. Using Adam's rib, God created a woman. (I imagine they each carried certain dominant
human traits. For instance, Adam may have been dark-skinned and dark-eyed while Eve could
have been fair-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed.) At any rate, Adam was delighted and called her
Eve. Now everything was good.
God prepared a wonderful place for Adam and Eve to live called the Garden of Eden.
They could do whatever seemed good to them and eat from any tree of the Garden – except one.
God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If
they did, they would die.

Sometime between Year 1 and the birth of their first son, Cain an event occurred that caused all
creation to fall from its idyllic state. A former archangel named Satan, spoke to Eve through a
serpent and deceived her saying that surely God didn’t mean she’d actually die if she ate fruit
from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - in fact, she would become like God.
Eve believed the lie and ate some fruit. Then, she gave some to Adam and he ate it as well. The
effect was immediate. Adam and Eve’s innocence vanished. They knew they were naked and the
knowledge made them ashamed. When they heard God walking through the garden they hid.
God called Adam. Ashamed and afraid, he came forward with Eve and, fearfully, they confessed
their sin.
God cursed the serpent, perhaps for allowing its cunning to provide a foothold for Satan and
declared that from then on, serpents would move on their bellies. Evidently not their original
mode of travel. God told Eve that she would have increased pain in childbearing. Then, because
Adam had not prevented the sin, God cursed the ground. From that moment on, Adam would
have to work hard to live.
Then God, speaking to His Son and the Holy Spirit, declared that Adam and Eve would have to
be expelled from the Garden of Eden to prevent them from eating from the Tree of Life and,

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presumably, living forever in their fallen state. But He made a promise to Eve that someday a
descendant would crush the power of sin.
After Adam and Eve left the garden, they had two sons – probably right away to obey God’s
command to be fruitful. They continued to have children who, before there were enough people
on the earth to avoid incest, had to marry one another. Eve named her first two sons Cain - a
farmer - and Abel, a shepherd. One day, the brothers presented their offerings to God. Abel’s
heart was right. Cain’s wasn’t. So God accepted Abel’s offering but told Cain that he would have
to rule the sin in his heart, otherwise it would rule him. And it did. In anger and jealousy, Cain
killed his brother.
God placed a curse on Cain so the land would not grow crops for him and that instead of being a
farmer, he’d be a wanderer. So Cain left Adam’s household and went east. He and his wife
(evidently one of his parents’ daughters or granddaughters) had a son and named him Enoch.
Possibly to rebel against God’s telling Cain that he would be a vagabond, Cain founded a city
and named it after his son.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD

^
SETH BORN

Soon, God blessed Adam and Eve with a son to replace Abel. Eve named him Seth. He was born
when Adam was 130 so if Cain and Abel were born shortly after leaving the Garden of Eden,
they may have been over a hundred years old at the time of Abel’s murder.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000BC 500BC 1 AD

^
ADAM DIES

Adam lived another 800 years and his children became increasingly sinful. A few were good.
Enoch, for instance (not Cain’s son but one of Seth’s descendants). He was born about 600 years
after Creation and never died. He was just taken up to heaven by God. The only other man God
ever did that for was Elijah – over 2000 years later.)

Noah - the ten times great grandson of Seth - was born about a thousand years after creation. By
the time Noah was 500 years old, he was pretty much the only man on earth God liked. After
being patient with Mankind for over 1500 years, God decided to destroy all life on land except
Noah’s family and two of every kind of animal and bird God chose to save. God gave Noah
instructions for building an “ark”, the largest wooden boat ever built. At 450 feet in length, it was
so huge that no larger man-made vessel would be built until the Great Eastern in 1858 – almost
3500 years later. The ark took Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth 100 years to build.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^THE FLOOD
Then, 1656 years after creation, God called all the animals into the ark and closed the door. He
opened cracks in the earth’s crust and the water from huge subterranean reservoirs - under
enormous pressure from the weight of the land - gushed forth and for the first time, rain began to
fall from the sky. It fell for forty days and nights covering even the highest hills and drowning all
life on earth.
It’s been conjectured that until this time the land masses of earth had been unified. That the
oceanic ridges formed by the cracks caused the land masses to slide away from each other
quickly and that underground obstructions and the masses colliding with each other may have
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formed the world’s non-volcanic mountain ranges. Whatever the case, after about a year, the
waters subsided and the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat in what is now Turkey.
Noah’s family and all the animals left the ark. Just as the animals came when God called them,
they left and went where God told them. Noah built an altar to thank God and he was given a
sign - a rainbow in the sky – to remind us of His promise that there would never be another Great
Flood. Since there hadn’t been rain to cause rainbows before, this was something new. Another
new development was that after Noah’s sons died, people stopped living as long. We now live
about a tenth as long as our antediluvian ancestors.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD

^TOWER OF BABEL
Noah lived another 350 years after the flood so he must have been dismayed to see that in less
than a century, his own descendants had become almost as proud and sinful as the pre-flood
generations. Just 100 years after the Flood, the people of Babylon out of pride, began building a
tower to heaven – (The Tower of Babel). So again, conferring with His Son and the Holy Spirit,
God confused their languages and the project stopped. Then He scattered them over all the Earth.

As tradition has it, Shem was the father of all Semitic peoples in the Middle East and Asia
Minor. Ham’s populated Africa and Japheth’s family spread across Europe, Central Asia and
India. Nearly all continued to disobey God and worship idols. So God decided to take a special
people for Himself and let the rest go their wicked ways.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD

^ABRAM BORN
Noah was still alive when Shem’s seven-times-great-grandson Abram was born . When Abram
was in his 70’s God chose Abram to leave his father’s land. He wanted a special nation – apart
from all others – for Himself. And Abram was to be the father of that nation. Abram obeyed.

God led Abram and his wife Sarai along with his nephew Lot to Canaan and prospered them
with flocks so large they had to split up. Abram stayed in the hill country while his nephew Lot
chose to live in Sodom, a pagan city that was part of the trade route in the fertile Jordan Valley.

Years went by and Sarai began to doubt if God’s promise included her. When Abram was 84 she
gave her maidservant, Hagar to bear him a son. The following year, Abram’s first son, Ishmael
was born. But Ishmael was not the son that God promised. Sarai’s impatience not only led to
trouble within Abram’s family but problems that plague his descendants today. For Ishmael
became the father of the Arabs.

Shortly thereafter, four kings battled against Sodom and Gomorrah and carried off all the spoils
and people – including Lot. Abram gathered his men and gave chase. He caught and conquered
them and returned the people and their belongings to their cities.

The mysterious King/Priest of Salem, Melchizedek appeared at this time and blessed Abram in
the name of God Most High. He was mysterious in that he seemed to come out of nowhere and
that, except for Jesus, God did not allow a king to also be a priest. Abram immediately gave
Melchizedek a “tithe,” that is, a tenth of the spoils – an amount generally associated with a gift of
worship.

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4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
When Abram was 99, God changed his name from Abram “Nobel Father” to Abraham “Father
of Many” and Sarai’s name which means “Princess” to Sarah “Mother of Nations”. He then
promised that in the next year, Abraham and Sarah would have a son and the number of their
descendants would be like the stars in the sky and that they would possess the land of Canaan.
This was called the Abrahamic Covenant.

Meanwhile, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had become so evil that God decided the time
had come to destroyed them with fire from heaven. God saved Abraham’s nephew Lot although
his wife perished. She disobeyed an angel who told them not to look back and was turned into a
pillar of salt. Furthermore, Lot’s daughters connived to have children by sleeping with their
father. So, through incest, Lot became father of the idolatrous Moabites.

The next year, God gave Abraham and Sarah the son He promised, Isaac. When Ishmael mocked
his new half-brother, God told Abraham to allow Sarah to drive Hagar and Ishmael away. So
Abraham lost his first-born son. But God protected Ishmael and he prospered becoming the
father of the Arabs. Then God gave Abraham his greatest test of faith - he asked him to sacrifice
his only remaining son, Isaac. Heartbroken, Abraham obeyed but the Lord stopped him at the last
minute. Again, God was very pleased with Abraham’s faith and again He counted it as
righteousness.

Another man who found favor with God about this time was a man named JOB. God praised
him in front of Satan who was certain that Job was only “upright” to get God’s blessings. If He
took away Job’s family, wealth and health, he would curse God. God allowed Satan to do just
that and Job was afflicted horribly losing his children, his possessions and his health. But Job
remained faithful to God.

At the age of 127, Abraham’s wife Sara died. Isaac, then around 40, married his cousin Rebecca.
After 20 years of marriage, Isaac and Rebecca had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob was obedient
to his parents and faithful to God. Esau went on to become the father of the wicked Edomites.
As the eldest son, Esau was in line to inherit a double portion of his father Isaac’s fortune but he
foolishly sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew. Furthermore, Jacob tricked
his father into giving him Esau’s blessing. Infuriated, Esau wanted to kill his younger brother so
Rebecca sent Jacob to live with her brother Laban. Along the way Jacob had a dream of heavenly
angels going up and down on a ladder and he built and altar there.

Jacob loved Laban’s daughter younger daughter Rachel but Laban tricked him into marrying his
eldest daughter Leah first. Because she was unwanted, God had mercy on Leah and made her the
direct ancestor of Jesus. Between Leah and the two sisters’ two handmaids, Israel had ten sons;
Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Judah, Issachar, Zebullen, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali.

God told Jacob to return to Canaan. Again, along the way he had a spiritual encounter and spent
one entire night wrestling with God. He wouldn’t give up till God agreed to bless him. God then
gave him a new name - Israel “Triumphant with God”.

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Abraham lived to see all of his grandsons. He even took another wife, Katurah and had six more
sons before dying at the age of 175.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD

^SHEM DIES
35 years later, about 1850BC Shem, the last of the antediluvian patriarchs, died at the age of 600.
About a decade later, Abraham’s first son Ishmael died.

Around 1750BC, when Israel was 90, God finally blessed Rachel with a son. Joseph was born
and became Israel’s (and God’s) favorite. Rachel died giving birth to Israel’s last son, Benjamin.

The descendants of these sons form the twelve tribes of Israel.

All the brothers were jealous of Joseph and when he was 17, they found a chance to murder him
but decided instead to sell him to a caravan of Midianites who were on their way to Egypt.
He was bought by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s captains. Joseph proved to be such a talented
adminstrator, he was son put in charge of his master’s entire household. But Potiphar’s wife
falsely accused Joseph of attempting to seduce her and Joseph was thrown into prison.
While in prison, his grandfather Isaac died.
But God blessed Joseph and he was soon put in charge of the other prisoners. He also became
known as an interpreter of dreams. After 13 years in Egypt, first as a slave then a prisoner,
Joseph was called to interpret a dream for Pharaoh which none of his court seers were able to
interpret. Joseph said the dream predicted two seven-year periods - one of plenty followed by a
world-wide famine. Joseph gave Pharaoh some wise advice to offset the famine and Pharaoh was
so impressed he promoted Joseph from prisoner to the second in command over all of Egypt.

After seven years of prosperity the seven-year famine began. Within two years, Joseph's brothers
came to Egypt to buy food. Joseph forgave them for selling him as a slave. He realized now that
it was all part of God’s master plan and invited them to come and live in Egypt.

In 1711BC, at the age of 130, Joseph’s father brought his household of 70 to Egypt. Seventeen
later, Israel - the last of the Patriarchs – died. About 50 years later at the age 110, Joseph died.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD

^MOSES BORN
EXODUS
In 1576, almost 2400 years after creation, Moses was born.

By that time, the Israelite population in Egypt had grown into the millions. The Egyptians,
fearing them as a political or military threat, turned them into slaves and tried to reduce the
Hebrew birthrate by murdering newborn boys. To save Moses, his mother made a small boat, put
the baby in it and set it adrift on the Nile. He was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and she
impulsively adopted him and raised him as her own son, a prince of Egypt.

Moses was about 40-years-old when he decided to take action for his people. He murdered an
Egyptian who he’d seen mistreating a Hebrew slave. The murder was discovered and Moses had

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to run for his life into the desert. There, he protected the flock of a man named Jethro who gave
him his daughter, Zipporah, who gave him a son, Gershom.

When Moses was about 44, God spoke to him from a miraculous burning bush and instructed
him to go back to Egypt and lead His people out of bondage. God called Moses’ brother Aaron
and gave Moses a staff with which he could perform certain miracles to convince the Jews that
God had sent him.
Moses and his brother Aaron gained an audience with Pharaoh and asked him to let God’s people
go. Pharaoh refused and God responded through Moses by sending ten supernatural plagues
upon the land: 1) Turning the Nile to blood. 2) Filling the land with frogs. 3) Filling the air with
gnats. 4) Filling the air and land with flies. 5) Killing all the Egyptians cattle. 6) Sending an
epidemic of boils. 7) Destroying the harvest with hail. 8) Finishing the destruction with clouds of
locusts. 9) Creating days of total darkness.

Pharaoh’s initial stubbornness led God to harden his heart after the 5th plague. And although the
plagues were killing Egyptians and destroying their economy, Pharaoh refused to let the Hebrew
people go. Then God unleashed His 10th and final plague. He sent an angel to kill every firstborn
child and animal in all of Egypt. Jewish families, however, were told to sacrifice a lamb and
mark their doorways with its blood. At the sight of the blood, the angel would “pass over.” The
Jews celebrated Passover every year thereafter and continue to do so to this day. Crushed by the
loss of his own firstborn son, Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^THE EXODUS

Moses - now around 80 - led over two million Israelites out of Egypt. They followed Moses but
God himself went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to the edge
of the Red Sea. When they got there and looked back, they saw an army charging after them.
Pharaoh had insanely changed his mind once more. The Israelites cried out to Moses who cried
out to God who then parted the Red Sea. The Israelites crossed on dry ground but God closed the
waters over Pharaoh’s pursuing army.

After a few weeks, the Israelites reached the foot of Mt. Sinai where God established a covenant
with them (the Mosaic Covenant). And 430 years from the time He asked Abraham to leave his
father’s house, God gave his chosen people the Law for His house - The Ten Commandments:
1- Have no other gods but God.
2- Do not make idols.
3- Don’t use His holy name the wrong way.
4- Rest and worship on the Sabbath.
5- Honor your Father and Mother.
6- Do not murder.
7- Do not commit adultery.
8- Do not steal.
9- Do not lie.
10- Do not desire after anything that belongs to someone else.

But during the 40-day period Moses was on the mountain getting the Commandments from God,
the people got impatient and bullied Aaron into making them a god they could see - a calf of

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gold. God was furious. He wanted to destroy His people and start over but Moses begged for
mercy and God relented.
When Moses came down the mountain, it was his turn to be furious. He smashed the tablets God
had given him, ground the golden calf into dust, mixed it in water and made the people drink it.
They repented and Moses went back up on the mountain where God gave him the tablets again.
God also gave them detailed plans for a golden chest - the Ark of the Covenant - and a large tent
Tabernacle. Moses placed the Ten Commandments in the Ark and put the Ark in the holiest spot
in the middle of the Tabernacle.

LEVITICUS
God gave the Israelites specific instructions on worship and on offerings and sacrifices for sins.
He also expanded upon many of the Ten Commandments including "Love your neighbor as
yourself." which Jesus declared was the greatest after, “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, mind and strength.”

NUMBERS
God had Moses conduct a census and there were 603,550 men 20 years and older (fighting age).
They’d spent a year at Mt. Sinai and they were now ready to march to Canaan, the Promised
Land. Placing His cloud before them, God led them and every day fed them angel food (manna
– literally “What is it?”). But after a time, they got tired of eating angel food and grumbled. In
fact, they grumbled off and on all the way to the Canaan.

About a year after leaving Egypt, God’s people arrived at the Promised Land. He instructed
Moses to send out a party of 12 – one from each tribe - to scout the land. They returned and
reported that Canaan was a just as God had promised - a land flowing with milk and honey. But
in all of the scouts’ opinions except Joshua, from the tribe of Ephraim and Caleb from the tribe
of Judah, the people there were too large and the cities too well-fortified for Israel to conquer.
The Israelites accused God and Moses of bringing them up from Egypt just to be killed. Joshua
and Caleb tried to tell them that God would do their fighting - all they had to do was trust Him.
God got angry and declared that they would now wander in the desert for forty years until that
entire unbelieving generation – except Joshua and Caleb - had died.

Realizing at last that the hopes and dreams they’d undoubtedly been cherishing all along the
journey were about to be dashed due to their disbelief, the people repented and decided to attack
the Canaanites. Moses warned them that it was too late, that God would not be with them but
they attacked anyway and many were killed. Filled with regret, the rest packed up and turned
back to the desert. Their only purpose now was to teach their children not to be the fools that
they had been. After 40 years that entire generation was dead – all but Joshua and Caleb.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^MOSES DIES
DEUTERONOMY
When the Israelites reached the Jordan River, Moses – now 120 - spoke to them one last time. He
reminded them of all the things the Lord had done for them and urged them to obey what Jesus
was to call, the greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart all your
soul and all your strength.” Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo and God let him see the Promised
Land. There Moses died and God Himself buried him. No one knows where.

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JOSHUA
After forty years in the desert, Joshua led the Israelites into the land promised by God 500 years
earlier. God commanded them to completely destroy all of the people who lived there and
cleanse the land of sin and idolatry. After all the battles, Joshua gave Caleb land in Hebron.
According to Jewish tradition, Caleb was Moses’ step-father. Caleb, also called Mered married
Bithiah, a daughter of Pharoah and brought her out of Egypt. So Bithiah could have been Moses’
adoptive mother.

JUDGES
Under Joshua’s righteous leadership, God’s people defeated 31 kings in Canaan and divided up
the land between the tribes as God instructed. By the time of Joshua’s death at the age of 110,
God’s promise to Abraham had been almost completely fulfilled.
But after Joshua died, the people began to falter and failed to complete their conquest of all the
territory (about 50,000 square miles). Their success and prosperity had led to complacency
which led to seduction by Canaanite women and ultimately, the worship of idols which led to
God’s punishment – which generally took the form of attack by neighboring nations. That led to
repentance and a cry to God for help. Each time, God would raise up a judge to lead them to
victory against their oppressors and a return to prosperity.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^ JUDGES ^
The cycle would repeat itself at least a dozen times over the next three centuries. From 1426 to
1100BC the Israelites were led by 14 consecutive judges; Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah,
Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, the mighty Samson and finally Eli.
During one of the times of forgiveness, God showed special grace to a Moabitess named RUTH.
She was the widow of an Israelite who had died after taking his family to live in Moab to escape
a famine in Israel. She returned to Israel with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Because of Ruth’s
godliness, she became the great-grandmother of one of God’s greatest servants, King David.

1 & 2 SAMUEL
Samuel was dedicated to the Lord as a child by his mother Hannah. He became a great prophet
of Israel. About 2,850 years after Creation, the Israelites told Samuel that instead of Almighty
God, they wanted to have a human king like other nations. God patiently relented and instructed
Samuel to choose Saul as the Israel’s first king. Saul began well but became disobedient and
prideful. So God chose a young shepherd from Bethlehem named David to replace him. David
was wholly devoted to God and trusted Him all his life.

In his best-known act of faith, David fought and killed the nine-foot Philistine warrior, Goliath,
with nothing but a sling and a stone. Saul made David his commander and David fought many
battles for Saul. In fact, he killed so many Philistines and became so beloved by the people that
Saul grew murderously jealous. So David became a fugitive and for years, he and his ragtag band
of soldiers were hunted by the Saul’s army. Finally, God allowed the Philistines to defeat the
Israelites in a battle in which Saul and his son, Jonathan - David’s best friend - were killed.

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4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^KING SAUL DIES
The kingdom of Israel was split. David became king of Judah and Saul’s son Ishbosheth became
King of the rest of Israel. Seven years later, David later brought the two together. The following
few years marked the height of the Kingdom of Israel spiritually. But David sinned with
Bathsheba bringing great trouble on his family and the spiritual decline of his kingdom. Even so,
Israel continued to become a powerful military nation.

4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD

^KING DAVID DIES
1 & 2 KINGS, 1 & 2 CHRONICLES
David and Bathsheba’s first son died as a punishment for David’s committing adultery and
murdering Bathsheba’s husband. In the year 3044 their second son, Solomon, succeeded David
to the throne. In honor of David’s faithfulness to Him, God offered to grant any blessing
Solomon might ask. Solomon asked for wisdom to lead God’s people. Because of the humility of
his request, God not only made Solomon the wisest person who ever lived, He made him the
richest. Through Solomon, God brought Israel to the height of its power and glory. Until that
time, God had been worshipped in the humble tent tabernacle as He had described to Moses. So
once Solomon had stabilized his kingdom, he began building a beautiful temple in Jerusalem to
worship God.

David and his son Solomon wrote many beautiful and inspiring PSALMS praising God for His
enduring mercy toward all His people.

SONG OF SOLOMON was probably written when Solomon was a young ruler as a tribute to a
cherished new wife - perhaps the one and only wife God had actually planned for him.

PROVERBS are practical rules for living a Godly life. They are the most enduring of Solomon’s
many accomplishments.

ECCLESIASTES was written after Solomon had experienced a great deal of life and was
mostly disappointed by it all. In Solomon’s judgment, the greatest of God’s blessings are to be
able to enjoy your work, your wife and children and good food and drink. But all worldly
pleasure is meaningless compared with the true pleasure of knowing and obeying God.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000BC 500BC 1 AD
^KING SOLOMON DIES
For years, Solomon was faithful to the Lord. But he married 700 wives – many foreign - and they
convinced him to build temples to their gods. By the end of his reign, Solomon was even
worshipping them. Therefore, after his death in 980BC, God split the kingdom again - this time
permanently. He took the ten northern tribes of Israel away from Solomon's son and made them a
separate kingdom.

The northern tribes of Israel had one bad king after the next and time and again, the people were
led to worship idols.

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4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^JONAH WARNS NINEVAH
About 740BC, God told JONAH to go to Ninevah to warn the Assyrians that He would destroy
their city unless they repented their wickedness. Jonah wanted God to destroy the Ninevites.
He tried to escape in a boat but wound up being thrown into the sea, swallowed whole by a great
fish and spent three days in its stomach repenting. God had the fish throw him up on the beach in
Nineveh. Jonah completed his mission, the Ninevites repented and God forgave them – to
Jonah’s great disgust.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^FALL OF ISRAEL
After Jonah, God sent no more prophets to Israel and ultimately gave up on the northern tribes
and in 650BC, He allowed the Assyrians to conquer them. The religious and political leadership
was so thoroughly dispersed that they become known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Curiously,
the Assyrians that came to establish order in Israel’s capital, Samaria, added the Israel’s God to
their own set of deities - as was their custom. Over the years, they dropped all other gods except
Israel’s. These former Assyrians became the despised (but God-fearing) Samaritans.

Around 640BC, the prophet NAHUM predicted the fall of Nineveh as, by that time, the city had
reverted back to wickedness. So, in spite of God’s mercy through the prophet Jonah, the
Babylonians destroyed Nineveh in 612BC and soon after conquered rest of Assyria.
While the southern kingdom of Judah didn’t have as many bad kings as the northern kingdom,
they too, continued to fall into idolatry.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^FALL OF JUDAH
JEREMIAH was called to give Judah one last warning. Like all the others, it was largely
ignored . Finally, God stopped forgiving their idolatry and let the Kingdom of Judah fall to the
Babylonians in 586BC. They destroyed the Temple and 4600 elite inhabitants of Jerusalem were
brought to Babylon. The long-prophesied Captivity had begun.
At last, Jeremiah was allowed to prophesy good news. God promised them that their captivity
would last only 70 years. Unlike the Assyrians, the Babylonians didn’t scatter them. So the
Jewish tribes of Judah and Levi survived.

In 539BC, the Persians conquered the Babylonians and in 536BC, King Darius allowed the Jews
to slowly trickle back to Jerusalem to re-build the Temple. In 518BC, 70 years after the first
Temple was destroyed, the second Temple was finished and the Captivity was over. While many
Jews went back to Jerusalem, many others had put down roots in Babylon. In 478BC, God raised
ESTHER up to become a Queen of Persia and save her people from destruction by a high-
ranking official named Haman, a descendant of the Amalekites who had hated God’s people
from at least the time of Moses.
Within a century from the end of the Captivity, the return of the Jews was all but complete.
Never again would they return to worshipping idols.
4000BC 3000BC 2000BC 1000 BC 500BC 1 AD
^ ^
SILENCE

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Between the Old and New Testaments
During the next four hundred years, there was no prophet or angelic message recorded in Jewish
scripture. About 130 years into the silence, the Greeks took Jerusalem from the Persians. And
about 250 after that, the Romans took it from the Greeks. With most of the world able to speak
Latin or Greek, God has set the stage for the rapid spread of a very important message.

MATTHEW (written in 43 AD), LUKE (59 AD), MARK (64AD) and JOHN (85 AD)

4000 years after God created the world, he fulfilled a great promise: Jesus Christ was born.
The angel Gabriel appeared to an elderly priest named Zacharias telling him that his barren,
middle-aged wife, Elizabeth would give birth to the one who would “prepare the way of the
Lord.” Zacharias was to name him John. Six months later, the same angel appeared to
Elizabeth's niece, a young girl in Nazareth named Mary and told her that she had been chosen by
God to give birth – through His Holy Spirit – to the "Son the Highest." Her betrothed, Joseph
was very distressed to learn that his wife-to-be was carrying a child. But an angel appeared to
him in a dream and reassured him that this child was indeed by the Holy Spirit and he was to
name the baby Jesus which means “God Saves.”

Soon after John’s birth, the Romans ordered a census of the Jews and Mary and Joseph had to
travel 60 miles south to Joseph’s hometown of Bethlehem to be counted. Both were descendants
of David. There in a humble stable, a son was born to Mary and adopted by her husband.

On the night of His birth, a choir of angels appeared before shepherds in the hills around
Bethlehem and told them where to find their newborn king, Christ the Lord. A great star heralded
His arrival and, following it, wise men from the East came to worship Him and bring Him gifts.

Shortly after the wise men’s visit, an angel told Joseph that they were in danger and to take his
family to Egypt. They left immediately, walking over 350 miles south. Meanwhile, King Herod
sent soldiers to kill every child in Bethlehem under the age of two years in a futile attempt to kill
the prophesied “King of the Jews.” A few years later, the angel told Joseph that Herod had died
and it was safe to return home. They left Egypt and walked over 400 miles north to settle back in
Nazareth.

When Jesus was 12, his family joined a crowd of worshippers heading to Jerusalem to celebrate
Passover. On their way back, Joseph and Mary discovered Jesus wasn’t in the caravan.
They returned to Jerusalem and after three days of anxious searching, found Him in the temple
where He had been all along. He was discussing scripture with some scholars. Jesus hadn’t
meant to cause his parents such distress. So he chose to wait in the most likely place they would
look – His Father’s house. Jesus returned with Joseph and Mary to Nazareth and continued to be
obedient to them. The Bible doesn’t say much about Joseph after this point but it’s assumed he
died sometime before Jesus was 30.

Around 25 AD, Jesus’ cousin John (Zacharias and Elizabeth’s son) emerged from the Judean
Wilderness exhorting Israel to repent "…for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." People listened.
It had been over 400 years since a prophet had arisen in Israel. He became known as John the
Baptist. But the Jewish priesthood didn’t acknowledge him. Their ostensible reason was that
false prophets had arisen before. The real reason was that pride had darkened their hearts to the
Holy Spirit. When John grew more popular, they asked John if he was Elijah - whom scripture

12
taught would be returning to “turn the hearts of fathers to their children.” John told them he was
not – but Jesus declare that John was indeed the one who was to come back in the spirit and
power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord.

One day, around 27AD, when His cousin John was preaching12 miles east of Nazareth, Jesus left
home to be baptized. As He came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended, alighting upon
Jesus “like a dove” and the voice of God declared, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased.” and Christ’s ministry officially began.

From there, Jesus walked south as far as 60 miles into the Judean Desert (The Wilderness) to fast
for 40 days. In His weakened state, Satan appeared to tempt Him as he had tempted Adam and
Eve - but this time, the results were very different.

After that ordeal - and triumph – Jesus returned to the Jordan River in Galilee where John was
still baptizing. John pointed Him out to two of his own followers, Philip and Andrew from
Galilee, “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” and told them that from
then on, they should follow Jesus. They did and were soon joined by Nathaniel.

Together, they walked about 75 miles back north to Cana in Galilee. There, they attended a
wedding with Jesus’ mother. When the host ran out of wine, Mary asked Jesus to help.
Obediently, Jesus turned hundreds of gallons of water into fine wine for the wedding guests - his
first recorded miracle (but pretty clearly - judging by Mary’s expectations - not his first).
Following that, Jesus, his disciples, his mother and his brothers walked about 20 miles northeast
to Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and stayed there “a short time.”

Then, He and his disciples made the long trek back to Jerusalem for Passover where Jesus found
money-changers in the Temple and drove them out. He met a Pharisee named Nicodemus and
told him that none could enter Heaven unless they were “born again.” Nicodemus believed and
became His friend. After this, Jesus went into the countryside a few miles north of the city where
His disciples began baptizing believers along with John. When the Pharisees heard of it, they
tried to cause division between the cousins saying that Jesus was baptizing more people than
John. So, Jesus decided it was time to head back up to Galilee.

He and His disciples had gone about 25 miles when, near a village called Sychar in Samaria,
Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well. He revealed to her that He was the Messiah. She ran
to get the villagers who were astonished and asked Him to stay and many Samaritans believed in
Him.

After two days, He and His disciples continued their journey north. Word of His works preceded
Him and they were warmly welcomed by the people of Galilee. When they reached Cana, a royal
official begged Jesus to come and heal his dying son in Capernaum. Jesus not only rewarded the
man’s trust by healing his son, He astounded him by healing the boy instantly - from 20 miles
away. Shortly afterward, Jesus went to live in Capernaum.
About that time, John the Baptist publicly rebuked Herod for marrying his own brother’s wife
and Herod put John in prison.

God told Jesus that it was time to reveal Himself to the world. Jesus decided to make the
proclamation in his home-town of Nazareth. He read from the scriptures referring to the coming

13
of the Messiah in Isaiah 61, closed the book and said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears.” Then He began to rebuke Israel for not listening to her prophets. Men in the synagogue
were outraged and accused Him of blasphemy. They wanted to throw Him off a cliff. But Jesus
simply left and went back up to Capernaum.

He began the second year of His ministry traveling around Galilee teaching about the Kingdom
of God and astounding people with His miracles. On the Sea of Galilee, Jesus showed Peter His
power over all living creatures by blessing him with a great catch of fish. Then, He called Peter,
James and John to leave their nets for good and come with Him to “fish” for men.

In Capernaum, He exorcised a demon-possessed man, cleansed a leper and even healed Peter’s
mother-in law. Large crowds began to following Him for teaching and healing. But when He
healed a paralyzed man by forgiving his sins - which only God Himself could do - Jesus drew
criticism from the scribes and Pharisees for blasphemy.

Jesus asked a tax collector named Levi (who Jesus renamed Matthew) to follow Him. Matthew
was so overjoyed that he threw a banquet for Jesus inviting all kinds of sinners to attend. When
He accepted, the Pharisees were furious. He further incurred their wrath by continuing to heal on
the Sabbath. They began trying to trap Him into saying something that could get him arrested.

That spring, Jesus made the week-long journey from Galilee down to Jerusalem (probably for
another Passover) and at the Pool of Bethesda he healed a crippled man. On their way back to
Galilee, Jesus stopped to teach in a synagogue and a man with a withered hand came up to Him
for help. Again, Jesus defied the hard-hearted Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath.

Once back in Galilee, Jesus selected, from among all his disciples, the 12 apostles: Simon known
as Peter, Andrew, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholemew (also known as
Nathan) Matthew (also known as Levi) doubting Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus
(also known as Jude) Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot (His betrayer).

From that time on, huge crowds would form wherever He went. He healed all who came to Him
and taught people in easily remembered parables to “love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek”
and forgive people no matter how many times they wronged you. Most importantly, he taught
them to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength” and “Love your
neighbor as yourself.”

Throughout the second year of His ministry, His popularity grew. The more people trusted in
Jesus’ the more astonishing His miracles became. Jesus healed the slave of a Centurion who
believed Jesus would not have to visit his home but simply say the word. A woman was healed
merely by believing she would be - if only she could touch his cloak. Blind men who called to
Him were given sight. In Nain, about 10 miles south of Nazareth, He raised a widow’s son from
the dead. Crossing the Sea of Galilee by boat, He calmed a storm. On the other side in Gerasene,
He freed a man possessed by a legion of demons. He even brought the little daughter of a
synagogue ruler back to life.

Yet after all these miraculous works, when he came back to His hometown of Nazareth to give
them another chance to believe, they were again offended by His claiming to be the Son of God
– the Messiah. This time He left and never returned.

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Traveling back north through Galilee, Jesus sent His 12 apostles out in pairs to preach and heal
but told them to go into Jewish towns only, not to the Samaritan or gentiles – yet. Word came to
them that during their mission, Jesus’ cousin John had been beheaded by Herod.

By the end of His second year of ministry, Jesus’ popularity had reached its height. Multitudes
now flocked to Him to hear the Word and be healed. One afternoon, a large crowd followed
Him along the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee to hear Him teach but they hadn’t brought
enough food. Using just two little fish and five loaves of bread, Jesus prayed and divided it into
enough food to feed 5000 men with twelve full baskets left over.

The crowd became so excited by this miracle that they wanted to make Him King instantly.
Knowing this, Jesus sent His disciples across to Bethsaida by boat and sent the multitudes home.
To catch up with His disciples, Jesus walked straight to Bethsaida as the crow flies – across the
water. They saw Him and were terrified. He assured them that He wasn’t a ghost and even let
Peter walk out to Him on the water.

People all around Galilee by now were in a frenzy over Jesus and mobbed Him by the thousands.
He thinned the crowd with “hard teaching” – letting them know that His body and His blood are
the real food and drink His followers need for eternal life. Fearing that He was preaching some
form of cannibalism, many left Him.

Always fervent in preaching, Jesus now became even more blunt and outspoken about the Jewish
leaders’ failure to teach the people properly and for over-burdening them with man-made laws.
Knowing that the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill Him if He returned to Judea, Jesus focused
His ministry in the north around Galilee where he was still welcome.

Now in His final year of ministry, Jesus journeyed as far as Sidon, 40 miles to the north of
Capernaum. There, he healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman whose faith led her to persist
in asking for help even after Jesus told her he wasn’t there to help gentiles.

He then walked south 50 miles to Decapolis on the east side of the Sea of Galilee where he cured
a deaf mute. When a crowd of 4000 men plus women and children followed Him into a remote
area without thinking about food, Jesus took a few fish and seven loaves of bread and, again,
miraculous fed them all. Again with plenty to spare.

From Decapolis, He sailed back west across the Sea of Galilee about seven miles to Magadan.
Then He and His followers walked about ten miles to Bethsaida where He a healed a blind man.

From there, Jesus led His disciples 30 miles north to the town of Caesaria-Phillipi to give them
special insight about His upcoming death and resurrection. They listened but were confused. He
took them about ten miles further north to Mt. Hermon where he allowed Peter, James and John
to see Him gloriously transfigured and in discussion with Moses and Elijah. They were
astounded but did not know how to react.

They asked about the prophesy that Elijah would return as a messianic sign. Jesus let His
disciples know that, as the angel had told Zacharias, His cousin John was the one who had come
in the spirit and power of Elijah.

15
When they came down from Mt. Hermon, the other apostles were waiting with a crowd of
people. A man had brought his epileptic son for healing. His disciples had tried to cast the demon
out but failed. Jesus healed the boy. They asked Jesus why they couldn’t heal him. Jesus said
that some demons can only be cast out by prayer and fasting which, evidently, He’d been doing.
He and His disciples then returned to Galilee where among other things, Jesus had Peter pay
their Temple tax with money from a fish’s mouth.

That fall, His brothers taunted Him telling Him go to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles and
prove to the Pharisees that He could work miracles. Jesus refused to go for that reason but after
they left, He went to Jerusalem quietly for reasons of His own.

He was soon seen teaching in the Temple, once more amazing the scribes and Pharisees with His
knowledge. He startled them by revealing that He knew they wanted to kill Him. Although they
denied the accusation, they sent Temple guards to capture Him. When the guards heard His
teaching and saw the crowds, they were afraid to arrest Him. Nicodemus reminded the leaders
that arresting Him without grounds would be breaking the law. They accused Nicodemus of
being a follower.

At every turn, the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus into hypocrisy or legalistic cruelty that would turn
the crowds against Him. But He turned each attempt into an opportunity to demonstrate God’s
righteousness and mercy. They bought Him a woman caught in the act of adultery and demanded
that He judge whether or not they should stone her as the law required. Jesus said, “Let him who
is without sin cast the first stone.” The mob withdrew in shame. And though Jesus had shown
mercy, He made it clear that he was not condoning her adultery and gently commanded the
woman to stop sinning. Again on the Sabbath, He healed a man born blind. When the man
refused to declare Jesus a sinner, the Pharisees had him expelled from the synagogue.

Jesus then made the long trek north to Capernaum for the last time. Two months later in
December, as Hanukkah approached, and knowing His time to die was near, He left Galilee for
good and headed back to Jerusalem. Traveling through Samaria where He had been honored
before, He sent messengers ahead to a village for supplies and learned that He was no longer
welcome. His disciples wanted Jesus to call fire down on the village. Jesus simply passed onto
the next town. Along the border of Samaria and Galilee, He met ten lepers who begged for help.
He healed all ten but only one showed any gratitude.

Then, in one last appeal to the Jews of the north, He sent out 72 disciples, giving them the power
to heal and cast out demons in His name. The disciples returned overjoyed at all the healing they
had done. Their joy made Jesus very happy and He gave great thanks to God for it. He continued
to Jerusalem, stopping for awhile in Bethany at the home of Martha and Mary, staying long
enough to become good friends with them and their brother Lazarus.

When He reached Jerusalem, He entered the Temple and while teaching there, made such a clear
pronouncement of His deity that angry worshippers picked up stones to kill Him. He asked why
which caused some confusion and in the commotion He left.

Jesus then headed east 20 miles across the Jordan to an area called Perea. He was invited for a
Sabbath meal in the home of a Pharisee. There, He healed a man with a withered hand and with
parables, tried again to teach the Pharisees about compassion. They were offended and scoffed.

16
During His stay in Perea, He received word from Mary and Martha that Lazarus had become
deathly ill. They begged Him to come and heal their brother but by the time He got the message,
Lazarus had already died. He waited two days more before returning.
When He arrived, many people were mourning. After comforting Mary and Martha, Jesus
shocked everyone by having the stone rolled away from the tomb and boldly calling Lazarus to
“Come forth!” Lazarus, obeying his master’s voice, appeared in the doorway still wrapped in
grave clothes. Many who saw this ceased doubting and believed. The Pharisees panicked and
gave orders to arrest Jesus the next time He appeared in public. They also plotted to kill Lazarus.

Now entering His last three months of ministry, Jesus and His disciples retreated to Ephraim
about 15 miles north of Bethany. There He continued to preach, bless and heal. Sometimes by a
miracle, as when a blind beggar called out to Him and Jesus gave him his sight - sometimes by
tact and compassion, as when He singled out a despised tax collector named Zaccheus and
instead of pointing an accusing finger at him, announced that He would like to have a meal at his
house. Zaccheus was so grateful that he changed his dishonest ways immediately.

Passover approached and Jesus – well aware of His coming fate – led His disciples back to
Jerusalem. Near Bethany, a man named Simon the Leper held a dinner in Jesus’ honor. Mary,
Martha and their resurrected brother Lazarus were there. Sometime during dinner, Mary honored
her Lord by anointing His feet with a bottle of extremely expensive perfume costing perhaps a
year’s wages and purchased - it’s been suggested - with the dowry she’d been saving all her life
to give to her husband. She finished her tribute by wiping his feet clean with her hair. Judas
Iscariot was extremely annoyed by this and complained about the extravagant waste, but Jesus
approved of Mary’s gratitude.

During the week of Passover Jesus and His disciples would spend each night in Bethany and
each day in Jerusalem - a walk of only a mile or two. Fulfilling another scriptural prophesy, He
rode in on a young colt with a large crowd of followers strewing palm branches in his path and
shouting “Hosanna to the King of Israel!” Once inside the city, He chased moneylenders from
the Temple a second time.

The Jewish leaders now realized that they couldn’t just high-handedly arrest Jesus as they’d
planned - they’d need a real reason and kept trying to trap Him into saying something He could
be arrested for. For instance, they asked if Jesus thought it right for Jews, whose only real
authority is God, to pay tribute to Caesar. Knowing that a simple “yes’ of “no” would give them
either a Jewish or Roman pretext for arrest, He had them show him a coin and asked them whose
face was on the coin. “Caesar.” they answered. And Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar that which
is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.”

Even at this late date, His disciples were confused by the way that He kept predicting his own
death and resurrection. He even spoke in detail of the Final Judgment. Then, just days before
Passover, Judas Iscariot offered to lead Temple soldiers to the place Jesus and His followers
were spending their nights. For this service, Judas was given 30 pieces of silver.

Wednesday evening, He and His disciples ate their last supper together then retired to the Garden
of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sweated blood in prayer to His Father preparing
Himself for the final ordeal. In the middle of the night, it came. Judas and the Temple guards

17
appeared to make the arrest. Jesus confirmed that He was the man they had come for by saying
“I am He.” and at His words, they all fell backwards to the ground.

Peter tried to make a fight of it by drawing a sword and cutting off the ear of the high priest’s
servant, Malchus. Performing one final miracle before his death, Jesus healed his enemy’s ear.
He told Peter to put away his sword. His disciples fled in confusion while the soldiers led Jesus
away. But John and Peter circled back to follow.

John, as a trader, may have had enough respect in Jerusalem that he was unmolested but Peter
was called out by people as a follower of Jesus - and in fear, denied knowing him - just as Jesus
had predicted he would. The guards brought Jesus before the Sanhedrin that night but the only
charge against him was that He claimed to be the Son of God. Regardless, they brought Him to
the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate Thursday morning.

When Judas realized that Jesus was not going to save Himself, he went to the priests and
confessed that he had “…betrayed innocent blood.” The priests simply shrugged. Judas threw
back the silver, ran away and hung himself in remorse.

The priests presented Jesus to Pontius Pilate and demanded a sentence of death on the pretext
that Jesus claimed to be a king and was therefore a legitimate threat to Caesar. But after
questioning Him, Pilate declared Him innocent and passed the problem along to King Herod.

Herod, though eager to meet Jesus, was disappointed at His refusal to talk or perform miracles.
Herod mocked Him and sent Him back to Pilate. By then the Sanhedrin had assembled an anti-
Jesus protest in front of Pilate’s palace. Hoping to appease the crowd, Pilate had Jesus publicly
whipped. Then using the Roman tradition of releasing one Jewish prisoner in honor of Passover,
he tried to get the people to choose their “King.” But the crowd clamored for His death while
calling for a real criminal, Barabbas, to be released.

Pilate washed his hands of the matter (literally) and Jesus was led away to be crucified. They
nailed His hands and feet to the cross and raised Him up for all to see.

He suffered on the cross for hours but managed to tell John to take care of His mother and to
assure one of the thieves crucified with him who simply asked to be remembered when Jesus
came into His kingdom, “Verily I say unto you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
In His final moments he was heard to repeat a simple bedtime prayer Jewish mothers taught their
children: “Into Your hands I commend my spirit.” Then He said, “It is finished.” and died.

At that moment, the Temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. The sky turned black, there
was lightning and thunder. A mighty earthquake opened graves and many of the dead came
forth. Seeing these things, the centurion at the foot of the cross declared, “Surely this was the
Son of God!”

It was Thursday and nightfall was approaching. All Jews had to be indoors for the Passover.
Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea asked Pilate for Jesus bodied and hastily buried Him in a
tomb Joseph had prepared for himself. The Jewish leaders had it sealed and guarded by Roman
soldiers to prevent His disciples from stealing His body and claiming He was “resurrected”.

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At His death, Jesus spirit descended to the deepest depths of God’s creation where He claimed
the keys to Hell. Three days later, on Sunday morning, an angel of the Lord rolled back the stone
and God rejuvenated every mortified cell in Jesus’ body and He physically rose from the dead –
just as He had promised his disciples. The Roman guards who witnessed the literal birth of
Christianity told the Jewish leaders what they had seen. They were offered a large sum of money
to say that they’d fallen asleep and that the disciples took Jesus body from the tomb. The Jewish
leaders also said they would protect the guards from the death penalty - the punishment for
falling asleep on duty. This (among other theories) is what Jews believe to this day.
On that Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene, Martha’s sister Mary and a follower named Salome
went to the tomb to properly anoint Jesus’ hastily buried body. To their surprise, they found the
stone removed and two angels in the tomb – one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus
had lain. The angels told them the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead and gave the
women a message for the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.
They ran to tell the disciples (who had been in hiding from the Sanhedrin the past three days).
Peter and John ran to the tomb. They found it empty. They ran back to tell the others.

Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene who didn’t recognize Him immediately. When He
lovingly spoke her name, she realized who He was. Overjoyed, she clung to Him so tightly He
had to ask her to let Him go – He still had work to do. He next appeared to two disciples walking
to Emmaus – seven miles from Jerusalem. They also didn’t recognize Him until He vanished
before their eyes. He then appeared to the disciples twice – and ate to show He was not a ghost.
He met the disciples as the angel said He would, 70 miles north in Galilee. For forty days, Jesus
appeared to His disciples and followers at different times and places.

His final appearance was before many hundreds of witnesses at Mt. Olivet near Jerusalem. He
told them to go into all the world and spread the good news of salvation. That His sacrifice had
paid the price of sin for all mankind and that anyone who trusted in Him could be made righteous
before God.
Having fulfilled the promise God made to Eve in the Garden of Eden four thousand years earlier,
Jesus ascended into Heaven. He is now at the right hand of the Father where He continues to
intercede for repentant sinners and where, all this time, He has been preparing a place for those
who love Him.

Ten days after Jesus ascended into Heaven, the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles in Jerusalem
in “tongues of fire” and a great roaring of wind. Jews from different lands were gathered at that
time to celebrate a Jewish harvest festival. When a crowd gathered at the unusual sound, Peter
took the opportunity to preach to them. The crowd was astonished as the Lord opened their ears
to understand Peter’s words in all their different languages - the reverse of the Tower of Babel.
Three thousand people believed, repented and were saved.

These first believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship and to prayer,
sharing all they had with those in need. The leaders of this church had real power to heal and
judge its members.

The Sanhedrin vigorously opposed the new Christians - as far as they dared under Roman rule –
through expulsion and imprisonment. Then about 35AD, they began instituting capital
punishment. One of the first deacons of the church, Stephen, was arrested, tried and stoned to

19
death. Stephen was the first recorded Christian martyr. As the persecution became more severe,
many disciples fled Jerusalem and fled but continued to spread the Gospel of Christ.

A zealous young Pharisee named Saul went about tracking down Christians, arresting them and
even having them killed. Then about 36AD, Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus as a
light and a voice and personally converted him. Saul lost his sight for three days until a Christian
named Ananias was told in a vision to go find Saul and restore his vision. In trepidation but
trusting God, Ananias obeyed and “the scales fell” from Saul’s eyes.

He headed straight to the synagogue and began preaching salvation to the Jews. When the
leadership realized, to their horror, that one of their most respected Christian hunters had become
a Christian convert, they began seeking his arrest.

At first, the believers were all Jews. Then in 40BC, God sent Peter a vision to preach to Gentiles
at the house of Cornelius, a Roman soldier. The church in Jerusalem rejoiced to see that God's
grace had been extended to the Gentiles, too, and by 43 AD in Antioch the first missionary
church was founded.

In 46 AD, Barnabas found Saul and brought him to the new church in Antioch. From there,
Saul, who from that time would be known by his Gentile name, Paul, began the first of his three
missionary journeys. His first journey took two years and covered about a thousand miles from
Antioch in the east through the island of Cyprus, up into Galatia around a city also named
Antioch in the west and back. While he was frequently persecuted by both Jews and many
gentiles along the way, the Gospel of Jesus attracted many followers and small churches were
established. At first the new Christians were expected to behave like Jews and follow Jewish
laws but Paul disagreed so strongly that he returned to Jerusalem to argue for a strictly faith-
based conversion. Peter agreed and by 50AD, all that was required was faith in Jesus and to
avoid eating food that had been sacrificed to idols.

After the Jerusalem conference, Paul wrote his first letter. It was to the GALATIANS because
Jewish Christians were insisting that Gentile converts must obey the Laws of Moses. Paul
reminded them that his training in Judaism was greater than those Jewish Christians and so was
his authority as an apostle - after all, it was given to him directly from Christ. He then warned
them against any perversion of the gospel and assured them that their faith in the Son of God had
made them children of Abraham and heirs to the promise. The death of Jesus had not only saved
them, it had freed them from the law.

Paul's second missionary journey began in 49AD and took another two years. He traveled from
Jerusalem north to the first church in Antioch then on to his home of Tarsus. From there, he
headed northeast to visit believers in churches he had established on his first trip. After that, he
trekked 1200 miles across Galatia to the Aegean Sea. Then, he sailed across to Thessalonica in
Greece and down the coast to Athens and Corinth, across to Ephesus, and again by sea back to
Israel and Jerusalem. It was during this time that he wrote 1 & 2 THESSALONIANS
encouraging the believers in Thessalonica to remain steadfast in the Lord in spite of persecution
and false teaching. As many had been idol-worshipping pagans, he exhorted them to love and
purity. He also gave them great encouragement about Christ’s return.

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Paul’s third missionary journey began in 53BC and took four years. For the most part, it was a
repeat of his second journey. As he traveled, Paul wrote letters encouraging the struggling church
in Corinth. Having seaports on both sides of an isthmus, Corinth was one of the major trading
ports and immorality was a part of the culture. Standing apart as a Christian was a risky both
personally and professionally. Understanding this, in 57 & 58 AD, Paul wrote three letters to the
Corinthians – only 1 & 2 CORINTHIANS have survived. In these epistles, he taught about
love, the resurrection, to beware of those who claim to have had visions of Heaven (“...which it
is unlawful for man to utter.”) and answered practical questions concerning: litigation, tithing,
marriage, being single, spiritual gifts and avoiding food sacrificed to idols. In 58AD, Paul wrote
to the ROMANS. In this letter, he put the whole of the gospel together offering Christians the
most complete explanation of God's plan of salvation by grace.

Paul's traveling companions included Barnabas, Mark, Silas, Luke, Timothy and Titus. When
Paul returned to Jerusalem from his third journey in 58AD, he was falsely accused by the Jews.
Knowing the Roman governor would hand him over to the Sanhedrin and certain death, Paul
exercised his right as a Roman citizen to be sent to Caesar for trial. On the voyage to Rome in
60AD, he was shipwrecked on the island of Crete and had to spend the winter there where, aided
by miracles, he gained many converts among the crew and the inhabitants. Paul finally arrived in
Rome where he spent two years under house arrest. During that period, he wrote many letters to
the various churches he'd founded.

In his letter to the EPHESIANS, Paul encouraged them to follow the example of Jesus Christ,
especially the metaphor of Christians being one body and, as a result, one church and one faith.
He exhorted the PHILIPPIANS to walk as mature Christians. To the COLOSSIANS, he
attacked the false teaching that had already sprung up in the church. He especially warned
against adding unnecessary rules to their religion. Paul also wrote a very personal letter to
PHILEMON asking him to forgive and welcome back Onesimus, a runaway slave who had
become a Christian brother. About that time, other disciples began distributing letters to the
church. In 62 AD, Jesus’ half-brother, JAMES wrote a very practical book on the importance of
works in Christian conduct arguing that real faith, by its nature, would produce real works – and
that faith that didn’t, wasn’t.

It appears that about the same time, Paul was released from house arrest. He had talked about
making a missionary journey to Spain but there’s no evidence that he ever got the chance.
Instead, he re-visited some of the churches he’d written letters to while under house arrest.

In 63 AD, the ACTS of the Apostles was written by a physician named Luke as a follow up to
his own gospel written just a few years earlier. In Acts, Luke described all the events from the
ascension of Jesus to Paul's first imprisonment in Rome.

As Jesus predicted, many false prophets would come and try to confuse the Church. This
inspired the apostle Peter to write two letters, Peter 1 (63AD) and Peter 2 (65AD) encouraging
Christian to remain faithful to Jesus in spite of suffering and false teaching.

While visiting churches, Paul wrote and sent letters along the way: Sometime before 70 AD, he
wrote the book of HEBREWS. Written to Jews, Paul taught that Jesus is superior to angels and
to Moses, how the new covenant of grace is superior to the old covenant of law and how Jesus'
death for sin is superior to animal sacrifices.

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In TIMOTHY 1, Paul gave instructions on leading the churches. He exhorted churches to pay
their pastors, taught them how to select deacons and urged them to remain faithful to God's
calling. He wrote words of encouragement to TITUS who was having difficulties with his
church on Crete. He urged him to bear with the island’s inhabitants - who were, after all, cretins -
and to keep the church pure.

In the meantime, relations between Rome and Jerusalem were becoming increasingly tense. The
Romans understood Christians to be a Jewish sect unpopular with mainstream Jews. In order to
curry favor with religious leaders in Jerusalem perhaps, Paul was imprisoned yet again.
Paul must have sensed the end was near and wrote TIMOTHY 2, an encouraging farewell letter
to his spiritual son. To further appease Jerusalem, the Romans arrested Peter, too. In 66 AD, the
Roman Emperor Nero ordered the deaths of both Paul and Peter.

In spite of Rome’s appeasements, violence erupted. Florus, the corrupt Roman procurator in
Jerusalem stole huge amounts of silver from the Temple. The Jews rioted and wiped out a small
Roman garrison. Jewish Zealots took over the revolt and when a large Roman force was sent in,
the Jews defeated them, too. Convinced God was fighting for them, the Zealots amassed an army
in Galilee to defeat Rome. This time Rome wasn’t taking chances. They sent 60,000 trained
soldiers into Galilee and destroyed the uprising, killing 100,000 Jews. The refugee Zealots,
furious that the Jewish leadership hadn’t supported them, swarmed into Jerusalem and killed all
but the most zealous Jewish leaders.

The Roman army besieged the city. During the summer of 70 AD, they breached the walls,
destroyed Jerusalem and, for the final time, the Temple was demolished. An estimated one
million Jews died in the four-year revolt and Christian church in Jerusalem was scattered.
Although Roman persecution would continue for next two centuries, the Sanhedrin, at least, had
ceased to be a threat to Christians. With most of the doctrine settled due to the inspired writings
of Paul and the other Christian leaders, the early church continued to grow. In the closing
decades of the first century, the final letters were written that complete the Christian canon.

Around 74 AD, Jesus’ brother, JUDE wrote a stern warning to false teachers.
In 85 AD, John finally decided to record his memories of Christ's ministry in the GOSPEL OF
JOHN complementing the first three gospel accounts. Although there is no mention of it in any
historical document, it may have been around this time that Jesus’ mother Mary died, thus
releasing John from his vow to Jesus to care for Mary as he would his own mother. This would
have freed him to become more engaged in Christian leadership. Perhaps his quiet devotion to
Mary explains why this “Son of Thunder” was allowed to live so long before any record of his
being persecuted. Five years later, John wrote the letters JOHN 1, JOHN 2 AND JOHN 3,
encouraging Christians to maintain their fellowship with God, to love one another and to avoid
false teachers.
Having drawn attention to himself by his sudden gospel and letter-writing activities, John was
exiled to the island of Patmos. There, in 96AD, he had a vision of the final days of history. In
the vision, Jesus himself told John to write down certain of these events in a book commonly
known as REVELATIONS. In it, John describes a terrible 7-year period that will precede the
Second Coming of Christ:

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First, two men will appear in Jerusalem and begin prophesying. About what, the Bible does not
say, but most people won’t like it. However, anyone who tries to stop them or hurt them will be
consumed by fire. They will have the power to cause plagues, drought and turn water into blood.

About the same time, a string of natural and/or man-made disasters will create such a global
mess that the major nations will finally agree to a unified world government. Right after that,
“peace will leave the Earth.” Some Christians believe this means there will be an event called
“The Rapture” where everyone who has accepted Christ as their king will be taken away to
“meet Him in the air”. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever the case, after the removal of peace
from the Earth, things will quickly get worse and unprecedented warfare, epidemics and famines
will occur.
At some point, “stars will fall” and the sky will “roll up like a scroll”. Perhaps a storm of great
meteors will hit the Earth and disturb the upper atmosphere. This will cause fires, terrifying
displays of lightning and thunder around the planet and an unprecedented series of earthquakes
world-wide. Some of these disasters will be one-day events while others (for instance
uncontrollable fires that will destroy a third of the world’s trees) may take many months.

Then, a “fiery mountain” will fall into the sea - an asteroid perhaps. This event will destroy a
third of the world’s ships and a third of the world’s sea-life. Another flaming object will fall
from the sky and a third of the world’s fresh water will become poisoned. A third of the Earth’s
sunlight, moonlight and starlight will be blocked as well and some kind of new stinging
scorpion-like locust will appear causing global panic for five months.

Then, with peace having left the Earth, an immense vandal horde of 200 million “mounted”
troops will attack and destroy a third of the world’s population (which, if it were to happen now,
would be over 2 billion people – 40 times the number killed in WWII).

Evidently, some of the blame for these disasters will be attributed to the two men still
prophesying in Jerusalem. Because when the ruler of the one world government finally figures
out a way to kill them, the whole world will celebrate. The prophets’ bodies will lie in the street
for three-and-a-half days. Then, in the middle of the celebration with the whole world watching,
they’ll come back to life and be “called to Heaven.” Immediately thereafter, an earthquake will
destroy a tenth of Jerusalem.

This marks the half-way point of the Tribulation. There are three-and-a-half years to go.

Now the infamous antichrist will appear - the “Beast” - along with a lesser beast, the False
Prophet. The Beast will perform signs and wonders, perhaps some kind of global economic
recovery, which will cause most of the human race to want to follow him. But the False Prophet
will demand that everyone worship the Beast and wear the number 666 on their forehead.
Anyone who refuses to wear the mark will not be allowed to buy or sell anything.

At this point, God’s angels will somehow proclaim to the entire world that the seat of Satan’s
power, Babylon, is about to fall. They will also warn doom to anyone who wears the mark of the
Beast and a massive Christian holocaust will begin. Assuming that there was a rapture and most
Christians disappeared when peace left the Earth, the Beast will be killing new Christians – those
people who understand enough of the Bible to realize exactly what is going on and are holding
fast to the Word of God.

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While all this Christian-killing is taking place, God will order an enormous slaughter of Beast
worshippers followed by plagues and pestilences that will wreck most of what’s left of the Earth.
The pagan governments of Egypt and Syria will fall and true worship of God will begin to
appear. Many Christian Jews will take refuge in Egypt from persecution by the antichrist.
Babylon will be destroyed and all the nations will mourn the end of the global economy. (This,
by the way, may not be the Babylon in Iraq but some current symbolic King of the Wicked
Cities: New York, Beijing, etc...) After that, the Beast will retaliate by gathering the armies of
the world for an attack on Jerusalem.

When the armies of the Beast arrive on the field of Mediggo in Israel, unmistakably, “like
lightning flashing across the sky” Jesus will return. The Battle of Armageddon will be a
spectacularly one-sided event. The Beast and the False Prophet will be thrown into the Lake of
Fire and Satan will be bound for a thousand years.

That event will mark the beginning of The Millennium and “The First Resurrection” and the
meek will inherit the earth. All those Christians killed during the Tribulation will be raised from
the dead and put in authority over all the nations to rule with justice and power.

For a thousand years, there will be world peace. Everyone will bow to Jesus, but a lot of people
will hate it. Like Satan, these are the terminally proud. People who don’t care who made them or
what they were made for, they just refuse to have anyone but themselves rule their lives.

After the Millennium, Satan will be released and using people’s own pride to deceive them, he’ll
gather Gog and Magog – those incapable of worshipping their creator - for the final
confrontation with God. Evidently, Satan himself will lead them this time but God won’t bother
to dignify the rebellion with a battle. He’ll destroy them all outright and consign them to the
Lake of Fire forever. Then all of history’s dead will be resurrected to stand before the White
Throne of Judgment. Those whose names aren’t in the Book of Life will be sent to join Satan
permanently.

Once evil has been removed from the universe, God will make all things new both in Heaven and
on Earth. The headquarters will be an unimaginably handsome city called the New Jerusalem,
also called The Bride of Christ – which will descend from The New Heaven to The New Earth.

The New Jerusalem is described in the Bible as a palace 1400 miles long, 1400 miles wide and
1400 miles high - remembering, of course, that this starter Earth and sky will have been replaced
by the real one. (My son, Dan calculated that if the New Jerusalem were spread evenly across the
world like a shell, it would be a building over 14 miles deep. Forty times taller than the highest
skyscraper.)

Then, everyone will discover who they really are at last. They will be good, the way they were
meant to be from the beginning. They’ll understand everything clearly and will have a new body
able to do the kind of things they were created to do - and like to do - best.

Everyone whose name is written in the Book of Life will enter into the New Jerusalem, the Holy
City, where God dwells. There will be no need for sun or moon because they’ll see by God’s
light. There will be no sorrow. No tears. No death. What will be there, majestically spanning the
crystal clear River of Life springing eternally fresh and pure from the glorious Throne of God is

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His great Tree of Life – unseen by human eyes since the Fall. The nations will be healed by its
leaves and this time God will welcome us to eat of its fruit.

Together with all our believing friends and relatives from ages past, we will be welcomed by
Christ personally and invited to “enter into the rest of the Lord.” With joy literally
unimaginable, we will fulfill our long-awaited destiny - to reign beside Jesus, the Alpha and
Omega, the Son of God Himself, forever.

Tradition has it that in 100AD, three years after writing and disseminating Revelations to the
church, John died.

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