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. 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? Having seen the 'people' and 'blessing' promises partially fulfilled we're now looking out for the promsie of 'land' to be fulfilled. But, because of further disobedience, we read in the book of Numbers that God's people are delayed forty years in getting into the land he has promised them. Once in the land things don't get much better: the nation descends into a cycle of sin, judgment and grace. God provides judges to rule his people. Can one enter the kingdom of God without the water and Spirit as mentioned by Jesus to Nicodemus? (John 3:5)

Repent = a desire to change life-direction after being compelled by the beauty and goodness of Jesus and his Kingdom, and realising that I have contributed to the problem of sin that He came to fix. 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. 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. 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. Too bad Roberts doubts the complete reliability of God's Word as he builds his big picture. For example, in Chapter 1, when describing creation, he states "Whether [God] completed the job in six literal twenty-four-hour days or over a longer period does not really matter..." Yes, it does. Read Exodus 20:8-11, or Romans 5:12. If creation was not completed during literal 24-hour days, then how long is the Sabbath rest? Weeks? Months? Thousands of years? If a day was a much longer period of time, what of death entering God's creation only after the fall? Next, in the second chapter when describing the fall of Adam and Eve, Roberts wonders if the snake literally spoke as the Bible records. He states, "My own view, for what it's worth, is that Genesis 3 describes an actual event but uses some symbolism as it does so."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. The end of evil and the beginning of eternity: the final book of the Bible, Revelation, is a series of visions given to the apostle John which conveys a message through symbols to strengthen believers.

I can't wait to see Jesus with my own eyes. But, until then, I'll see Him in Scripture, described with the loving clarity that only a Father could express. 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. 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. We have an extensive range of teaching and preaching organised by both series and Bible book from well-known Christian speakers including Don Carson, Alistair Begg, Vaughan Roberts, Rico Tice, John Lennox and John Wyatt. Does TULIP applies to the Old Testament believers? Are Old Testament believers saved through the "Arminian" way or the "Calvinist" way?

Summary of God's Big Picture

Of course, God's Word does contain passages that are not literal history. You will find prophesy, the parables of Jesus, the Proverbs, and songs of praise and worship, but these are clearly identified as such. What Roberts does is dismiss passages that are presented as historical (up until the wisdom of man distorted our interpretation of the Bible). In doing so, Roberts sets aside foundational truths and challenges the reader to wonder "If God's Word isn't literal here, if there is symbolism and allegory here, then perhaps even more of the Bible is symbolic and allegorical." This is a dangerous road to follow and one that leads many to select those portions of Scripture they agree with and dismiss the rest as nice stories or symbolism, certainly not worth building a life around. Worse, non-believers are left to scoff at a book that even self-described Christians admit is filled with symbolism and stories that should not be taken literally. Whilst Clayton TV recommends the ministries featured on our channel, all content needs to be watched analytically with the Bible as the final authority. Clayton TV - broadcasting excellent, free, Bible teaching, music and courses for Christians around the world. New programmes and live content weekly. A million lives lost in the desert, the farewell speech of a dying man, and then battles, chaos and coronations... (Numbers - 2 Chronicles) Instead of trying us trying to earn our way up into His Kingdom, the King brings his Kingdom down to us.

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. Meanwhile, here are some statements from the Westminster Confession of Faith to show the understanding of Covenant Theology with regards to the Reformed doctrine of sin and salvation clashes with the Vaughan Robert's understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Tracing the story-line of the Bible

I realised I had a pretty deficient/minimal understanding of what “the Kingdom of God” meant! He summarises it as - “Gods people… in Gods place… under Gods rule and blessing.” 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." 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.

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.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). God did, from all eternity, decree to justify the elect; and Christ did, in the fullness of time, die for their sins and rise again for their justification; nevertheless they are not justified until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them. 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. How far do you take this line of reasoning? How much are you willing to bend God's Word and see it as "symbolism" before you finally arrive at a version of the Bible where you have defined your own version of truth? 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