Biblical Chronology Part I
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Genesis begins with creation then there is a Fall of mankind where sin enters the formerly pristine creation providing entropy to the creation and corresponding corruption to the spirituality of humankind. God promises a redeemer, known as the Messiah, and the narrative proceeds to reveal an increased level of earthly human corruption caused by fallen angels attempting to stop the Messiah from coming. The goal of the celestial adversary of God is to corrupt the Seed Line of Messiah, preventing the earthly first advent of Messiah to accomplish the necessary earthly and heavenly redemption. The adversary and his minions caused a corrupt line of humans known as the Nephilim. God brought a worldwide flood upon the earth to destroy all the humans except one man and his family. This man Noah was chosen for his genealogical and spiritual perfection to repopulate the earth in the postdiluvian period. In doing so God had Noah and his family of eight people save all the earth’s creatures in a large seaworthy barge for the repopulation.
After the Flood the fundamental corruption of the earth was still inherent as evidenced in both the entropy as well as the spiritual nature of the human being. Man continued to rebel against God so He confused their language spreading them around the earth from the Mesopotamian region where they preferred to congregate. Soon thereafter God called one man named Abram who responded to God in faith and several tests and is called the first Hebrew. This begins the narrative of the election of the nation Israel. The rest of the Bible will discuss the development of the unilateral covenant that God made with Abram and the redemption of human kind coming through the Jews.
The Abrahamic Covenant promised a seed, land, and blessings. The three major promises of this covenant were personal promises to Abraham, national promises to Israel and universal promises to all the people of the earth. God promised that He would bless him and make him a blessing to others, to make his name great, to give him many descendants, to make him the father of a multitude of nations, to give him the land of Canaan for always and to bless them that blessed Abraham and to curse them that cursed him. (Genesis 12; 13; 15 & 17) God also made national promises concerning Israel. They are: to make a great nation of his descendants; to give land from the eastern most branch of the Nile delta called the river of Egypt to the Euphrates to his descendants forever; and to give the Abrahamic covenant to his descendants forever (Genesis 17:19; 21; 26:2-4; Genesis 28:12-15). Finally, God made universal covenants to Abraham that would affect everybody on the earth; it would affect all families of the earth who would be blessed.
The Tenach discusses the story of the Jews also known as the nation Israel past, present and future. With so many prophecies it becomes clear that most of them regarding God’s dealing with the nation will not be fulfilled during the time of the writing of the Tenach (Cir. 1445 B.C to 400 B.C.).
The New Testament begins with the appearance of the Messiah on earth fulfilling many prophecies of His arrival as given in the Tenach. He is sacrificed in His thirty third year of life for the sins of the world and to cleanse the Heavenly Tabernacle corrupted by the celestial adversary of God. This was prophesied in the ninth chapter in the Jewish book of Daniel. He rises from the dead as prophesied and ascends back to Heaven assuring His followers that He will return and establish a Kingdom on this earth where His rule and reign from Jerusalem following a world war will bring in everlasting peace and righteousness. His followers including His inner circle are charged with spreading the Word of His life and death, which brings spiritual salvation to those expressing genuine belief in the fact of His death and resurrection from the dead. This begins the Church Age which in the beginning it is comprised entirely of Jews. Soon the nations of the earth known as the Gentiles are evangelized and the Church grows exponentially with the threefold assurance that 1) They will be with the Messiah in paradise when they die, 2) He will come back for them someday and remove them from the earth in the great catching away (Rapture) so they will not have to suffer the punishment for the unbelieving Jews known as the Tribulation. 3) Finally He assures them that He will establish the long awaited Messianic Kingdom on the earth. Since they have believed in Him He assured them that He took the punishment for their sins and they would not have to be punished for them too.
The last book in the Bible is the book of Revelation. One of its unique facets is that it codifies and organizes all the unfulfilled prophecies in the Hebrew Tenach and gives a specific length to the long awaited Messianic Age on earth. It begins with a discussion of the Risen Messiah and how He is prepared to implement this world war called the Tribulation. There is a short two-chapter discussion of the Church Age from the time of the Messiah’s first Advent to the catching away of the genuine believers. This is followed by a two-chapter discourse of the planning and implementation of the Tribulation in the Throne Room of God where Messiah because of His sacrifice has earned the authority to conduct the Tribulation. This worldwide war’s purpose is to bring the Jews into belief in Him, the Messiah, conduct the largest scale evangelization effort the world has ever experienced and to make and end of sin and sinful people. Once the Tribulation in near its end the Jews in a corporate manner express belief in their Messiah, which causes the Tribulation to conclude. Messiah conducts a judgment of the population who made it through the Tribulation alive using the test of how they treated the Jews during this Great War.
Finally, with the Great War over Messiah confines His celestial adversary for the thousand-year duration of the Messianic Kingdom on earth. The remaining prophecies of the Kingdom in the Tenach are now implemented through peace and prosperity on the earth as the entropy ceases, the angst in the animal kingdom is eliminated and earth life longevity is increased as well as the Jews becoming prominent in the world government. When the thousand years are over God brings His earthly Kingdom to a close and establishes the Eternal Order where Messiah’s work is finally finished and God has His plan finally fulfilled for the earth and its inhabitants.
Daniel E. Woodhead