Of the first 10 sessions of Christianity Clarified, we’ve presented explanations of how and why Christianity Clarified began. The remaining 8 sessions contained a very brief but critically important explanation of the major events of all human history. We began with the Genesis creation account, followed by the failure and moral fall of our first parents that plunged all of humanity into the death cycle. This followed closely by God’s gracious promise of a coming redeemer, who would be the offspring of the woman and would deal a final defeat to the adversary that tempted her. Earth’s early population was destroyed, excepting Noah, his family and the occupants of the ark.
The anticipation of the promised Redeemer would be a direct descendant of Noah’s son, Shem, and later arrivals into Semitic genealogy of Noah, namely Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with his 12 sons who comprise the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. The promised redeemer was still anticipating with every succeeding generation. And later, in the same direct descendancy, David, the shepherd king, would arrive to be followed in that same direct line, 1000 years later, by none other than Jesus the Christ, the Redeemer, who arrived in the obscure hamlet of Bethlehem, just as Micah foretold 500 years earlier. Humanity had waited 4000 years for God to make good on his promise of providing a redeemer. How then would He be received? He wasn’t. This long-awaited one was rejected by the nation of Israel, leading to His crucifixion, but reappearing triumphantly in His resurrection. Before ascending to heaven, He promised his apostles He would return. And our wait for Him has consumed 2,000 years. But only half as long as was the wait for His first coming to Bethlehem.
Where have we gotten all this information? We have gotten it from the Bible. The Bible exclusively. It is not merely our main source book, but our only source book. The only valid question then is, “Is it true?” Is this book a reliable historical record of past events? It has had, and does have its critics. But yet it stands. Because authority is such a key issue, we are devoting the next several sessions of Christianity Clarified to the one and only source for our information about these events. Every item we can muster to justify our reliance and confidence in the Bible as our authoritative and worthy source will be thrown into the fray. At the conclusion, several sessions ahead, there will be no question about the necessity of our usage and continual appeal to the Scriptures.
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