God's Big Picture: A Bible Overview

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His structure is loosely based upon Graeme Goldsworthy's work "Gospel and Kingdom", which he freely credits multiple times. Roberts' goal is to leave the reader with a mental road-map to assist with understanding the big-picture, so to speak, of the message of the Bible beginning with God's original creation in the Garden of Eden to the restored heaven and earth described in Revelation. As for his structure, it is one that is likely to help many people as they read individual passages, books, or Testaments. Having such a framework can prevent misinterpretation, or worse. Roberts defines the kingdom of God as "God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing" (21). Roberts's definition of the kingdom of God is significantly important for the entire book. Throughout the book, he chronologically traces the kingdom of God following this definition. Each chapter provides the reader with a chart helping them understand where God's people, place and rule were within particular areas of history. In addition to this chart, there was another chart, which showed the progression from creation, fall, history of Israel, Christ and the new creation (157). The final chart presented the line of Israel beginning with Abraham progressing to the Northern and Southern split, the Southern exile and release, Jesus and the last days (158). Perhaps God's people would do better if they had a king to rule over them? In 1 Samuel - 2 Chronicles God's promise of a king is seemingly fulfilled by Saul, David and then Solomon. The last two kings bring great periods of peace and prosperity to Israel, but ultimately each one fails to bring the everlasting peace and kingdom that God has promised. We conclude that these partially fulfilled promises must be pointing to something greater. Whilst Clayton TV recommends the ministries featured on our channel, all content needs to be watched analytically with the Bible as the final authority. When did the invisible church, the body of Christ begins? At the New Testament Pentecost or during Adam's time after the fall? If it was the latter, how can the OT believers be incorporated to the body of Christ without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?

This perseverance of the saints depends, not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; the abiding of the Spirit and of the seed of God within them; and the nature of the covenant of grace; from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof. Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace: wherein He freely offered unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.

Summary of God's Big Picture

The premise of this book is that the Bible is one unified story, and the main character is Jesus Christ. Even though we aren't formally introduced to Him until the Gospel of Matthew, everything up to that point foreshadows Him and points to Him. Roberts gives helpful charts throughout the book, including showing how each phase of the kingdom portrays God's people, God's place, and God's rule and blessing. Each chapter concludes with a Bible study of one portion of the Scriptures relevant to that particular manifestation of the kingdom of God. This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all fore-signifying Christ to come, which were for that time sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation, and is called the Old Testament. Clayton TV - broadcasting excellent, free, Bible teaching, music and courses for Christians around the world. New programmes and live content weekly.

Christian Guides to the Classics: The Devotional Poetry Of Donne, Herbert, And Milton with Leland Ryken Starting with creation and the garden of Eden, Roberts shows us the pattern of the kingdom. The fall brings in the perished kingdom. He moves on to the promises to Abraham and the promised kingdom, then to the partial kingdom partially fulfilled in Israel, then to the latter half of the Old Testament and the prophesied kingdom. Moving on to the New Testament, he shows us the present kingdom in the earthly ministry of Jesus, then on to the proclaimed kingdom throughout most of the rest of the New Testament, and finally shows us the perfected kingdom portrayed in Revelation. As Roberts writes in his preface, his aim is "to provide all Christians, from the new convert to the mature believer, with an overview of the whole Bible that will help them see how the different parts fit together." He does that by using the framework of the kingdom of God, using a definition of the kingdom as "God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing". And, as Edmund Clowney and Graeme Goldsworthy (and others) have opined, Roberts states, "The Bible must be understood and read as one book with one ultimate author, God, and one ultimate subject, God's plan of salvation through his Son Jesus."

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If union of Christ through the Spirit is necessary to receive all the spiritual blessings such as justification by faith, regeneration to overcome total depravity, and perseverance of the saints, then are these necessary for the Old Testament believers too? Can one under the OT have faith and repentance without the indwelling of the HS? Are the Ordo Salutis of the OT believers different from NT believers? A disastrous line of idolatrous kings, the catastrophic destruction of God's kingdom, and amidst the rubble, new shoots of hope... In addition, it also appears to be incompatible with the Anglicanism 39 Articles, particularly article 17 because it stated that all whom God hath chosen in Christ (which I believe this implies OT believers too) received the same benefit of everlasting salvation (perseverance), effectual calling, justification, adoption and transformation into the image of Christ through the Spirit of Christ.

As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore they who are elected being fallen in Adam are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season; are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power through faith unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only. Israel’s history takes a downward turn as the people continue to disobey. They are exiled from the promised land, they become a scattered fragmented people and are left facing God’s judgment rather than blessing. But in his grace God sends prophets to speak his word to his people and enforce his covenant. The course is taught by Vaughan Roberts, author of the best selling bookof the same name and is a must for anyone wanting to dig deeper into the Bible and comes in an accessible format with Vaughan as a helpful guide. So having to read this book all in one shot for a class was... different from my usual experience with Scripture, to say the least. Good introductory level book which is based on kingdom theology framework for beginners to understand how the bible unfolds as one unified story. This is a book that I will recommend to anybody, especially in an environment where I'm required to be much more "neutral" in my theological stance. This is a book where most denominations will be able to find common ground to stand on.

Tracing the story-line of the Bible

This means God sees the mess, injustice and suffering in the world and in our own lives, and He on a mission to set things right by re-establishing his kingdom here on earth. To be honest, it helped grow my view of the gospel - when Jesus dealt with our problem of sin, in our place, on the cross, it was set within His bigger grace-filled plan to renew all things by restoring his Kingdom. Having now read it, I’d expand this summary to - God longs to enjoy intimate relationship with humanity… in His presence… willingly and gladly living under His good, loving rule, which is where we enjoy life as He designed it. A million lives lost in the desert, the farewell speech of a dying man, and then battles, chaos and coronations... (Numbers - 2 Chronicles) Believe the good news = recognising that he has paid in full for anyone to enter and remain in his Kingdom As someone who holds to Covenant Theology framework, unfortunately I couldn't give 5 stars because there are some disagreements in this book with Covenant Theology, especially with regards to the Holy Spirit. The author of this book probably has not considered the following questions which were considered by the Reformers a long time ago

The God's Big Picture Bible overview course traces the story of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation to see how it all fits together, telling of God's wonderful plan to save the world through Jesus Christ.This book was an excellent, clearly-written summary of a topic that ought to be too big to be contained in such a small tome. But Roberts did an excellent job of making his point without belaboring it. After reading it, I wanted to know more about how all of creation, from the time of its genesis, was waiting for Jesus to come and redeem it. And, now that we have seen Him revealed, those of us who believe are waiting for Him to return in glory. But, as we wait, we have the Word of God to remind us to wait with joy for what is surely coming.