What is the Bible all about? Have you ever wanted to read a summary of the Bible? The Bible isn't just a collection of verses that you stick to your refrigerator, the Bible has a story, a plot (so to speak).
The following is taken from Bob Enyart's post #6 in Battle Royale X. I love this summary! I think it's a fantastic tool in understanding the overall story of the Bible. This summary describes the story of the Bible from a Openness Theology perspective highlighting the flaws of settled theism.
• The Trinity fellowshipped through eternity past, “before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24
• God created the universe, doing a new thing, which He could because He is living and active.
• God declares that He created matter and space, light, and life (Gen. 1:1, 3, 11, 20, 24, 26) but not time.
• God created thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, and authorities, not hoarding but delegating power.
• God “moved upon the face of the waters,” for He is not immobile, not timeless, and thus not immovable.
• God rejoiced at the work of His hands because He could increase in blessing.
• God is relational, thus interactive, for the persons of the Trinity willed to make man in “Our likeness!”
• God created sequentially, the earth before the fish, etc., and ceased from creating on the seventh day.
• God could create creatures “in His likeness,” themselves willful and creative!
• God gave mankind a vegetarian diet (which after the Flood he expanded to include every animal).
• God then for joy “brought [the animals] to Adam to see what he would call them!”
• God put the Tree in the midst of the garden, as an unlocked door, giving man the choice to stay or leave.
• God showed providence in giving the earth to Adam and warning him that if you disobey, “you will die.”
• God put the archangel Lucifer in Eden not as tempter but as “the anointed Cherub who covers.”
• Lucifer fell “in Eden” saying “I will ascend into heaven… above… the clouds” to be like God.
• Eve joined the rebellion, not following a command that originated in God’s mind, but obeying fallen Lucifer.
• God did not attribute Adam’s sin to His own inexorable decree, but you “heeded the voice of your wife.”
• God’s providential warning proved true as death came to mankind as a result of their disobedience.
• Sin broke the perfection of God’s cosmos, so the Son by a prophetic Christophany confronted the rebels.
• Goodness exhibits loyalty; thus God declared that the Fall put enmity between Lucifer and Eve. Gen. 3:15
• God’s love restrained His swift vengeance, as He promised a Redeemer in the woman’s Seed.
• God considered the possibility (contingency) that man would avoid death by eating from the Tree of Life.
• God thus exiled Adam “lest he put out his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever.”
• When Cain murdered Abel God forbade the death penalty (which prohibition He reversed after the Flood).
• Mankind multiplied and filled the earth with wickedness, perversion, and the murder of the innocent.
• Man’s sin did not please God but “grieved” Him, and He was “sorry that He had made man on the earth.”
• “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth” but He was not sorry for every man.
• “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD,” so God saved his family though they too would sin greatly.
• The Canaanites were cursed from their inception, not by arbitrary decree, but by Ham’s incest. Lev. 20:11
• God gave Abram the Covenant of Grace for “he believed,” and God “accounted it to him for righteousness.”
• God put the H sound of His own name into the names of Abram and Sarai, renaming His friend Abraham.
• And God soon took Abraham’s name to Himself, repeatedly calling Himself: “the God of Abraham!”
• God gave Abraham circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh, in the Covenant of Circumcision. Gen. 17
• “He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your silver must be circumcised” or will be “cut off!”
• God the Son fulfilled Circumcision by Incarnation and Crucifixion: born in the House of Israel; purchased with their silver; and “cut off” in the flesh.
• Abraham became “the friend of God” who believed he could possibly persuade God to spare Sodom.
• God said “you are a dead man” to Abimelech, who then justly blamed Abraham for concealing his marriage.
• God did not take Abimelech to an early day of reckoning, but only chastised him, until Abraham intervened.
Thus ends the first third of human history.
• God planned to work through Abraham’s descendants for 2,000 years till the fullness of time at the Cross.
• God therefore asked Abraham to do just what He Himself planned to do: to offer His own Son on Mount Moriah!
• God knew of His friend’s deep faith, but tested whether Abraham loved his own son Isaac more than God.
• Not until the knife was raised did God say, “now I know” that you would not withhold your own son from Me.
• Abraham then and only then also learned that in righteousness he would obey the call for ultimate sacrifice.
• So a ram with its head caught in the thorns died instead, the crowned Christ dying willingly as the antitype.
• And for the next 2,000 years, when His wrath burned hot against wicked Israel, God remembered Abraham!
• The sacred record of history unfolded not with divine perfection, but evil, upon evil, upon evil marks Israel’s history.
• Of Isaac’s twins, God called Jacob, not to salvation but as the “nation” through whom the Seed would come.
• Reuben was the first to lose Israel’s tribal contest in which they unknowingly vied for the Messianic blessing.
• God disqualified Jacob’s firstborn after Reuben violated his own father’s bed. Gen. 49:3-4; 1 Chr. 5:1
• Through Jacob God gave the birthright to the tribe of Joseph who also lost it. Gen. 48; 1 Chr. 5:1-2; Ps. 78:67-68
• Next, Pharaoh “hardened his heart,” and as God showed Himself stronger, pride further hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
• God said that He will “test them [Israel], whether they will walk in My law or not.” Ex. 16:4
• God gave Israel the Mosaic Law (based on Circumcision), symbolized not by Isaac but by Ishmael of the flesh! Gal. 4:22-24
• After first giving a vegetarian diet, then adding every animal, now God limits Israel’s diet to “clean animals.”
• God, provoked by Israel, threatened to destroy all the tribes and raise up a new nation out of Levi. Ex. 32:10
• Like Abraham, Moses believed He could change God’s mind, and indeed His prayers stayed God’s hand. Ex. 32:11-13; etc.
• “For I was afraid [that] the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me.” Deut. 9:19
• “So the LORD relented [repented] from the harm which He said He would do to His people.” Ex. 32:14
• God chose the sons of Aaron to “serve Him forever” (Deut. 18:5) and then killed two of them! Ex. 28:1; Num. 26:61
• Most of the priests whom God chose to “serve Him forever” went to hell. Neh. 9:34; Lev. 10; 1 Sam. 2; etc.
• God “will without fail” cast out the Canaanites, but then left them as a punishment. Josh. 3:10; Deut. 12:29; Jud. 2:3
• The book of Judges documents the wickedness of the Twelve Tribes, showing Judah to be the least undesirable.
• Yet God offered Benjamin the Messianic throne, the last-born tribe replacing the firstborn Reuben, by making Saul king.
• God’s chosen king, “Saul, whom the LORD chose” (2 Sam. 21:6) “established his sovereignty,” but God “repented” of offering him Israel’s perpetual dynasty.
• Samuel said to Saul, “You have not kept the commandment of the LORD” thus “the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue…” 1 Sam. 13:13-14
• Although He offered Saul Israel’s perpetual dynasty, God later repented and had His own chosen king killed.
• Finally, “Judah prevailed over his brothers,” the least undesirable tribe, therefore “from him came a ruler” 1 Chr. 5:1; Jud. 1; etc.
• David did not fulfill an eternal decree by adultery and murder, but thereby gave “great occasion to the enemies of the LORD.”
• God will not bless rebellion, thus by their sin His people “limited the Holy One of Israel.” Ps. 78:41
• Israel’s sin made God “furious” (Ps. 78:59), for He is not “impassible,” but we have emotion because He has passion!
• God sent most His Chosen People to hell. (See Gen. 12 through to Romans 11, including Isa. 1:4; Rom 9!)
• For, the elect, who are beloved for Abraham’s sake, were enemies even of the Gospel. Rom. 11:28
• God prophesied that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days, but in mercy “God repented” and “did not do it.”
• God told Nebuchadnezzar He would give him the spoils of Tyre, yet then reported that it never happened. Ezek. 26:12; 29:18
• Though rejected later by Calvin, God declares, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” -LORD GOD, Ezek. 33:11
• After pouring His love into Israel, God “expected it to bring forth” repentance but it brought “forth wild grapes [unbelief]” (Isa. 5:4)! God’s knowledge is perfect, and when producing an expectation, His love influences that knowledge, so that He can hope even against a mountain of foreboding knowledge. For love “hopes all things” (1 Cor. 13:7) WHICH EXHAUSTIVE FOREKNOWLEDGE CANNOT DO!!
• God said of southern Israel that Judah will “‘return to Me [future tense],’ but she did not,” Jer. 3:7, which contradicts the Settled View but with an Open future, hope and love can influence His expectation!
• God told Hezekiah he would die, which would have been a lie by the Settled View, and then He strengthened the king to live longer, which turned out disastrously for Jerusalem.
• God said the Israelites “provoke Me to anger,” not by His decree but “according to their own thoughts.”
• Later, Nahum got a city named after him, Capernaum, when by his prophecy God finally did destroy Nineveh. (If Israel loved mercy, they would have named the place, Kafer-Jonah.)
• God indicated that people in a deep relationship with Him sometimes influenced His mind and thus His future actions, saying, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would [still] not be favorable toward this people!” –GOD, Jer. 15:1
• God hates all paganism (not only Plato’s) thus He warned Israel not to do as the Canaanites who burn their babies to Molech (Deut. 12:29-31), “which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind.” Jer. 19:5
• Yet Israel did burn their babies to Molech, manifestly NOT by God’s eternal decree, but by following paganism. Ezek. 32:35
• God as the Potter threatened Israel, as the clay, that if they disobeyed He would not deliver their promised kingdom, but rather mold them “into another vessel” (not for honor but now for dishonor, Rom. 9:21) repenting from that which He originally “thought” and “said” He would do! Jer. 18:1-10
Thus ends the second third of human history.
• God the Son became flesh, showing infinite change through humility, and now forever remains a Man! John 1:14
• The Incarnation is the third greatest conceivable change, that God the Son would eternally take on human form! 1 Tim. 2:5
• The Twelve were not looking for Jesus, so “You did not choose Me but I chose you” to be disciples. John 6:70; 15:16
• Jesus was sent to Israel only. Mat. 15:24; 10:5-6; 19:28; Luke 7:3-5; Acts 3:25-26; 10:36; Isa. 59:20; etc.
• “The… lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized.” Luke 7:30
• “By chance [lit., coincidence] a certain priest” came down the road to Jericho and saw the man left for dead. -Jesus, Luke 10:31
• To the superstitious question, “Who did sin, this one or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered “Neither!” Put a period right there. Then realize that the Lord next began a new sentence: “But that the works of God may be manifested in him, it behooves me to do the works of Him who sent Me…” God is not like the dysfunctional nut who lets the air out of your tires, to gain your friendship later by offering to pump them up.
• Jesus predicted the betrayal of Judas and the denials of Peter, but God always prefers obedience to fulfilled prophecy (see Nineveh, and principles like the Sabbath being made for man and not vice versa, Mark 2:27, and consider what Saul ignored, that “to obey is better than sacrifice” 1 Sam. 15:22). So God would have been glorified far more if either would have trusted Him.
• Jesus repeatedly promised to return soon (giving the apostles the hope they displayed in Acts of His imminent return).
• “There are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
• “I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
• “This saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say… he would not die, but, ‘If I will that he remain till I come…’”
• “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things [Second Coming prophecies] take place.”
• “For three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree [figuratively, Israel] and find none. Cut it down… But he answered and said, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”
• God would soon fertilize Israel by pouring out the Holy Spirit (but no national fruit of the spirit would result).
• Just days before His death, Jesus prepared His disciples to suffer the great tribulation. Mat. 24; etc.; John 16:2-5
• 490 years were “determined for [Israel]… until… Messiah shall be cut off” followed by a 7-year tribulation. Dan. 9:24-27; Mat. 24:3, 15, 34
• The Father poured wrath on “His Son,” then “Christ died” (Rom. 5:8), and then He was justified (MAJOR changes)!
• Jesus suffered the cross “once” in history and will not be hanging there forever in an Augustinian/Platonic “eternal now.” Heb. 9:27-28
• The Crucifixion is the second greatest conceivable change, that God the Son would become sin and a curse for us.
• Thus “God our Savior… desires that all might be saved” in part because of the ultimate price He paid! 1 Tim. 2:3-4
• Calvinist “limited atonement,” that Jesus died only for the elect, would actually limit God, for it ignores both that The Son IS the atonement, and that Peter described the wicked as those who deny “the Lord who bought them.” 2 Pet. 2:1; Acts 20:28
• God did not create time, but as a non-spatial irreversible continuum, time is an attribute of God’s Attributes, including Him being relational, and so God can not go back in time to prevent Adam from sinning (H.G. Wells notwithstanding), and neither can He go forward into the non-existent future to “see” who will eventually get saved, so that He could then limit His death for the “elect” only.
• Whereas a stone idol which cannot become flesh, the Living God changed infinitely to save us, for “He became their Savior.” Isa. 63:8
• Because Jesus had told them to expect the Great Tribulation and His soon return, in preparation, the Twelve Apostles administered a Last-Days economy of selling all private property.
• “All who believed… sold their possessions. Acts 2
• “All who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and laid [the proceeds] at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each.” Acts 4:34-35
• Limiting God’s ability to give Israel the blessing of their Earthly Kingdom, the nation rejected the preaching of the risen Christ. Acts 2-5
• God had warned Israel saying: "the instant I speak concerning” building your kingdom, if you do evil, “then I will repent” and not give you your kingdom! Jer. 18:9-10
• Jesus had spent three years of earthly ministry looking for faithfulness in Israel, and found almost none. Luke 7:9
• Israel now has “become the betrayers… who have received the law… and have not kept it.” Acts 7:52-53
• Israel’s leaders plotted persecution, they killed their first Messianic believer, and then extended their persecution Acts 6-8
• Peter pleads with the men of Israel that, even though Jesus has ascended into heaven, if they will repent, God will send the Lord back to establish Israel’s kingdom!
• “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration…” Acts 3:19-21
• “Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.” Acts 3:24
• The Apostles were themselves expecting to see Jesus return, by the promise of angels (Acts 1:11), and by the Lord’s word.
• However, Israel ignored God’s warning, thinking it an idle threat (Jer. 18:18), but because they rejected Christ, God therefore cut off Israel, and in this the nation cannot resist His will.
• God has mercy on whom He wills, and since He wills to give mercy only to those who trust Christ, He therefore cut off Israel, molding her into a vessel for dishonor rather than the vessel for honor He had originally hoped to form. Rom. 9
• For unbelief, God “cut off” Israel’s Covenant of Circumcision, and turned “to the Gentiles” Rom. 11:20-25
• They of “the election” [Israel], beloved for Abraham, had become “enemies” of the “gospel.” Rom. 11:28
• [Israel’s] “being casting away is the reconciling of the world [i.e., the Gentiles, through the Body of Christ, which is not Israel]. Rom. 11:15
• Therefore “wrath has come upon them [Israel, v. 14] to the uttermost” having been cut off. 1 Thes. 2:16
• God tells the Twelve Apostles, and the Jews generally, that He has gone to the Gentiles. Acts 10:28; 11:18; 13-14
• God continues teaching truth by changing symbolic rules, including reversing for the Body His demand for circumcision.
• From a vegetarian diet, to every animal, to only clean animals, and now God allows the Body to eat every animal again.
• The changes in the house rules, from the House of Israel, to the Household of Faith (the Body) created friction between the Apostles.
• “To his face,” Paul called Peter a “hypocrite,” because Simon was being untruthful about “the Gospel.” Gal. 2:11-14; etc.
• The Twelve sanctioned “the Gospel of the Uncircumcised.” Gal. 2:7 (KJV!, Greek is genitive, not dative); Acts 15:23-29; etc.
• God changed the rules for the Body as in reversing the law against eating meat sacrificed to idols. 1 Cor. 8
• After working with the Body, God will return again to Israel (Rom. 11:23-31, which prevents Martin Luther-style rabid anti-semitism).
• Jesus is NOW in heaven “waiting till His enemies are made [figuratively] His footstool.” Heb. 10:13
• The Book of Revelation indicates a return to the Mosaic dietary law during Israel’s future great tribulation. Rev. 2:20; 7:4-8; Jer. 30:7
• Revelation speaks of time in heaven, with sequential seals, trumpets and bowls (not to mention the thunders).
• In heaven believers experience time: in temporary silence, anticipation, delay, waiting, fruit coming ripe, etc.
• And the Book of Revelation ends with the future Open and God inviting, “Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely!”
Thus ends the final third of human history as told in Scripture.
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