Come and See: an exploration of the God of the Bible and his message

This final session will help those who have accepted Yahweh’s invitation to put their faith in Jesus. It will also help others who have not yet put their faith in Christ to understand what the Christian life is supposed to be like. We explore eight practical characteristics of the Christian life that are helpful to know: (i) pray with thankfulness to God; (ii) study the Bible; (iii) be part of a l...

In our journey through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we have attempted to get a good overview of the message of the Bible and to understand who the Creator-God is: what He is like, and what He is seeking from each person. We see that He is the God who made us, loves us and wants to have a personal and intimate relationship with every person. To understand what a close relationship looks li...

After the second coming, Jesus judges and removes all mortal unbelievers from the earth. Then He ushers in the Kingdom of God. He is the King and from His capital in Jerusalem, He rules the world. He transforms this planet and significantly reduces the impact of the curse that came into the world because of the Fall. What is the rule of King Jesus like? The Bible describes real world peace, a rene...

The church age does not go on indefinitely. Rather, it will end suddenly when Jesus removes all church-age believers in a single moment. Then, as prophesied in the Old Testament, Jesus will turn His attention back to unrepentant, national Israel. God had already talked about what it would take in the future to make the rebellious people of Israel repent and come to national faith in their Jewish M...

Does the church age continue without end? What does the Bible tell us? Scripture tells us that the church age will not go on forever but will end suddenly, without warning, when Jesus comes in the air to call to Him all who belong to Him, that is, those who have put their faith in Him. On that future day, believers who are alive on the earth will be taken up to meet Jesus in the air. Then along wi...

What happens when someone trusts in Jesus for salvation? We explore what the Bible says. Because of Christ’s work on the cross, God can declare a believer as righteous. And God births new spiritual life through the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit indwells permanently; and the Holy Spirit seals a believer, guaranteeing eternal life. We then examine why believers still fail, disobey and do evil. Th...

Before we examine what the present age is about, we go back to the gospel accounts to witness what Jesus offered the Jewish people when he first came. He was the Messiah, the Son of David, the King whom the people of Israel were waiting for. Jesus offered the people of Israel their Kingdom. Some of the Jews trusted Jesus but the majority rejected him. So Jesus delayed the return of the Kingdom and...

Why did Jesus die, how did He die and what happened after He died? These are all questions we will examine in this lesson. We examine the eyewitness accounts, the gospels, to see why the Jewish people and their leaders rejected the Messiah they had. been waiting for. We read through the account of Jesus being tried, found innocent, but still being sentenced to death on a cross. We examine all the...

Previously, we saw the Jesus performed miraculous signs to show He was Yahweh, the Creator-God. And He had come to earth to be mankind’s Saviour. But what exactly was mankind’s problem? In this lesson, we look at what Scripture says about mankind’s condition. We learn that the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, represented mankind and when they rebelled against Yahweh, they corrupted their nature....

In this lesson, we learn what Jesus, God’s chosen Saviour is like. Jesus did many miraculous signs because He was showing the people who He was. He did the things that only Yahweh, the Creator-God could do. He created miraculously, He healed people from a distance, He fed thousands of people with a little food, He controlled nature, He raised the dead and He controlled evil spirits. Jesus was maki...

In our journey through Scripture so far, we have seen the poor track record of mankind. The people throughout history have not been able to live by God’s righteous standards. History has proven that mankind has real problems with sin. If people had to depend on themselves to become righteous, then no would be able to reconcile with God and enjoy eternal life with Him. But Yahweh had a plan from th...

Despite Yahweh’s warnings and punishments according to the Mosaic Covenant, the people of Israel and Judah failed to be faithful and loyal to the God who saved them and loved them. In the end, God used the nation of Assyria to exile the northern kingdom of Israel. Then about 200 years later, He directed the nation of Babylon to exile Judah. While in exile, Yahweh still encouraged His people to rep...

Yahweh had chosen to work out His plan to save fallen mankind by choosing Abraham and the nation that descended from Him—Israel. He rescued Israel out of Egypt, set them up as a nation, gave them His good law, entered into a contract with them and brought them to the land He had promised to give them. He set up Israel for success. But did the people succeed? Alas, no. Israel did not obey Yahweh co...

We see more of Yahweh’s character through His interactions with the nations of the world. As the Creator-God of all people, He continues to hold all nations accountable to Him. Four hundred years earlier, when He was signing the Abrahamic Covenant, He told Abraham that He was giving the evil and aggressive Amorites 400 years of grace to repent of their wicked ways. But now, 400 years later, as Yah...

Now that Yahweh had given Israel His law, how would anyone know if Israel kept their side of the contract by being obedient to God? Or how would anyone know if God kept His side of the contract to bless them for obedience and punish them for disobedience? In this lesson, we will see that Yahweh put in place “lawyers” or “prosecuting attorneys” for His contract. These “lawyers” were the prophets. T...

Yahweh gave Israel His law at Mount Sinai. The laws were His expectations of how they would live as a righteous nation. If we study the 613 laws we will better understand His character and righteousness. In particular, we will learn how God defines justice. To God, justice is about restitution, that is, to fix a situation so that whatever is damaged or stolen is restored. Through the law, we learn...

Now that Yahweh has rescued Israel out of Egypt, He is going to build them into a proper nation. He meets with the people at Mount Sinai and gives them His law that will shape their nation into a counterculture. The law that Yahweh gives is compact and yet covers all areas of society: from the economy, public health, crime, families, agriculture, the worship of Yahweh and more. Now that God has re...

We continue with the account of Abraham and his family. God grew them into a nation, now called Israel. As God had prophesied to Abraham, Israel becomes trapped as slaves in another country—Egypt. But at the right timing, God intervenes to rescue Israel. He selects one of the Israelites, a man named Moses, to lead the people out. But the Pharaoh of Egypt refuses to comply. He doesn’t acknowledge t...

The people of the world continue to reject God and rebel against Him. But in His love, God continues to intervene in history to give people the opportunity to know Him and believe in Him. Out of all the people of the world at that time, God chooses to work with a man named Abram. God renames him, Abraham, and tells him that He will work out His plan for mankind through him and his family. God then...

We continue to observe what happened after God’s judgment of the global Flood. Yahweh makes a covenant with mankind promising He would never again destroy the earth with a global flood even though mankind’s heart is continuously evil. God allows His character and promise to be scrutinised by entering into a covenant with mankind. He really wants mankind to know Him and trust Him. The post-Fall wor...

After the Fall of mankind, life outside the garden of Eden was a unique time in history. The people were intelligent, resourceful and lived very long lives. They could have chosen to learn from Adam and Eve’s mistake. They could have chosen to believe Yahweh’s promise about the “offspring of the woman” and have a personal relationship with Him. But instead, they chose to live wicked lives and have...

We continue to examine the effects of the rebellion against the Creator by the first man and woman. The Bible calls this rebellion sin and the Bible describes the result of sin, which is death. Scripture describes death in three aspects: death of mankind’s friendship with Yahweh, death of mankind’s physical body and the eternal separation from God, which is called the “second death”. We also exami...

Today, when we look around us, most people would not call this world “very good”. There are disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes; people suffer from all kinds of health problems, diseases and even terminal illnesses; there are accidents and tragedies, and we have to live with all kinds of evil like murder, theft, abuse and exploitation. Many people live lives filled with m...

The Bible says the world was created by Yahweh, the Creator-God. He is a Person and He is separate and at a totally different level from what He created. Yahweh created the world and all that is in it by just speaking, but He personally made mankind. Mankind is especially valuable, important and special to God because only mankind is made in His image. No other creature in all of creation is made...

Come and See explores the main message of the Bible in 25 sessions. In this first episode, we begin by looking at what is the Bible. We will see that it claims to be the recorded words of the Creator-God of the universe. We will examine the Bible’s history: who wrote it, how it was put together, how copies were made and how we can be very confident that today, we have the original words of the ori...