THE WEEK OF MILLENNIUMS

By Tim Sullivan

There are over 31,000 verses in the Bible and we all have our favorites. But the Bible is much more than a collection of individual verses. It is a story with a beginning and an end, meant to be appreciated in part but also considered as a whole. The entire Word of God is greater than the sum of its magnificent parts.

One should not suppose that the 66 books of the Bible appear in chronological order; this is the exception rather than the rule. However there is a timeline to the Bible that, once understood, will inspire you to marvel even more at the wisdom and poetry of God.

From cover to cover the Bible is the story of God’s covenants with his creation. But God’s greatest promises are reserved for a portion of the general population, a chosen few he calls “the seed of the woman.” The Bible tells the story of God’s love for his people, Israel. This story unfolds over a period of 7,000 years in five major chapters. The first chapter is the prologue; it is the history of the world from Adam to Terah, the father of Abraham. The next two chapters tell of the birth and death of the nation of Israel. The last two chapters tell of her burial and resurrection from the dead.

In order to lay the groundwork for the Bible timeline, certain facts and truths must be put into place: namely, the differences in the Jewish and the Western calendars, and the pattern of the biblical “week.”

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Problems with the Calendar

From the October 2011 issue of The Vine & Branches