“What is the Gospel? Help me understand the Bible!”
(How BibleTimeLines.com is organized, and how to use it.)
The Gospel is the story of Jesus and His love. It’s the story of His birth, His life of 33 1/2 years, His crucifixion, death and resurrection. These are the central parts, but His entire story makes up the Gospel.
The story of Jesus doesn’t have a beginning because He was not created, rather Jesus was Himself the Creator of everything in the universe (John 1:3). The Bible also tells us that He owns everything (Psalm 50:10) and that He lived in “splendor”, which means that He had it ALL. Life was GOOD! In fact, the entire universe was perfect because of Him, and He was the King!
Jesus had created millions and millions of beings, and some were called angels (messengers). He had set one angel (Lucifer) to be head over all of the angles. There was total freedom for all, even though Heaven had its laws (1 John 3:4). Sin did not exist yet, but Lucifer became dissatisfied with all he had. He wanted to be “like God”. He wanted everyone to worship him.
That was the beginning of sin. There was no excuse for it to exist, but there it was. Greed, selfishness and lies all had its start in the heart of Lucifer (John 8:44). When he had been created Lucifer was perfect, with no tendency to sin, so he had NO excuse!
Then Lucifer started making sly remarks insinuating that God was not fair, and that God didn’t really love everyone like He said that He did.
The earth had just been created, and it too was perfect (Genesis 1:31). But it wasn’t long before Lucifer (who was now God’s enemy, the Devil) came and tricked Adam and Eve into giving up control of the earth to him. That's how sin on earth started, but because the result of sin is death we humans were doomed to die. It was like everyone born on this earth was born in a pit with no way out. There was absolutely no hope.
But Jesus had a plan that had been around since before there was any creation (1 Corinthians 2:7), and He told Adam, Eve, and His enemy the Devil about it. That was when Jesus instituted the killing of an innocent lamb that represented Himself dying for the sins of the world, the Lamb of God. (Genesis 3:21 - The skins come from dead animals, right? See also Genesis 4:4 This also shows us that Jesus, the Lamb, died for Adam and Eve so that they didn't have to die that very day.)
About 4,000 years later, when things on earth were really spiritually dark, Jesus came just as He had promised. He lived a perfect life without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and then allowed His enemy to kill Him in the most cruel way imaginable proving that the enemy of Jesus was a lier and a murderer.
When Jesus died on that cross He died to rescue you and me from this pit of sin we were born in, and His resurrection proves that He is stronger than death. Jesus proved that He really does love you, His creation! He also proved that He can be just, merciful, AND full of grace all at the same time.
Now there is HOPE, HOPE in Jesus!!! Jesus offers to EVERYONE life that never ends, all while living in a world without suffering, or pain, or death.
BibleTimeLines.com (BTL) is all about Jesus and His story. In other words, BTL is about the Gospel of Jesus, and here on this website His story has been divided into 3 parts:
- Part of the story is PAST. (BTL talks about what Jesus has already done, where each event happened, roughly when each event happened, how long it took, and why it was done.)
- The PRESENT portion of the story is what is happening right now. (BTL talks about what Jesus is doing now, where He is, and why He’s there).
- Then there is the FUTURE portion of His story. (BTL shows from the Bible what Jesus is going to do, when He is going to do it, how He is going to do it, and why He's going to do it.)
In order to understand the Gospel better you will need to understand each of theses 3 portions better. You will also need to understand how you and I fit into this story because we are very much involved. We are why Jesus did what He did. He loves us that much!
The main events in this story of Jesus can be seen graphically on 2 timelines, The Gospel Timeline (which is also a summary of the Bible), and the “THEATER” of Our Universe Timeline (which attempts to show the reasons why things happen like they do).
In other words, the Gospel Timeline only shows the main events while the Theater timeline attempts to graphically show the reasons for these events in the “big picture”. (There is also a Big Picture video available. Click here.)
These two timelines can be seen as the base, with most of the other timelines (and even the articles) helping us to understand the individual parts better, and give us a better picture of who Jesus really is. The three parts, the three portions in His story are as stated above: past, present, and future.
All PAST events end where we are on these timelines, so look about 2/3 of the way down (near the black circle) where it says, “WE ARE HERE”. Everything to the left of this point has already happened (it’s history).
There are several timelines here on BTL that make up the past (the history) portion. Each one goes into more detail as to some of what has happened and why. One of these is the Daniel 8 & 9 Timeline, but there are several others. There are 3 timelines on Jesus, plus 1 each about Creation, Noah/Flood, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Apostles timelines. (Keep in mind that many of the individual stories in the Bible are there to help us see the negative results of sin, and to help us choose RIGHT over wrong. These help us choose between our enemy or our Redeemer.)
The PRESENT is only where we are, so obviously we are where it says, “WE ARE HERE”. There are actually several “PRINCIPLES” timelines that were designed to show things like what happens to us when we die, or how things like the Sanctuary of the Old Testament and God’s Laws are related. The End Times Timeline and the Knowledge Timeline, plus the Second Coming Timeline all show the nearness of the Second Coming of Jesus, even though it's still in the future.
The FUTURE is everything that is to the right of the “WE ARE HERE” point. None of it has happened yet, but the overall plan can be seen on many of the timelines toward the right end. The Revelation Timeline and the Jesus Returns Timeline are the dedicated timelines of the future. (As you can see on the Bible-based timelines, Jesus has not come the second time yet, but we are VERY close to that happening. Keep in mind that when Jesus actually comes you, and every other person on this planet will hear and see Him coming. It will not be secret! See Revelation 1:7)
Below each timeline is a list of events that matches the events shown on that timeline. Clicking one of those events will take you directly to that information.
Watch the Tutorial below for more detailed help:
