The Amazing Bible. Book Club

Today's lesson covers what B. W. Bacon calls "Book 5," which covers the narrative found in chapters 19-24:3, and the discourse about Jesus' 2nd coming in chapter 24:4-25. Jesus finished these sayings in chapter 26:1.  This section covers conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They tried to trip Him up with many temptations and questions, but they never coul...

B. W. Bacon calls this section Book 4 of Matthew. Jesus went to His hometown and was not honored there. John the Baptist is dead. Jesus feeds 5,000 men plus the women and children with just 5 loaves and 2 fishes. He walked on the water and Peter did too for a short time. The disciples called Jesus the Son of God. Jesus healed people in Gennesaret. He called the Pharisees hypocrites because their h...

B. W. Bacon calls Matthew chapters 11-13 as "Book 3." In the narrative in chapters 11-12, we see that the kingdom of God is coming. It starts with John the Baptist asking Jesus are You the one, or do we look for another, and then Jesus gives proof of his miracles, and He is saying, "I am the One. There is no need to look for another!" Jesus tells the people that John the Baptis...

According to B. W. Bacon, "Book 2" of Matthew is found in chapters 8 through the first verse of chapter 11. In the narrative portion, chapters 8 &  9, Jesus does 10 miracles: He healed a leper, spoke a word and healed the Roman soldier's servant, healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law of a fever, calmed the sea and the wind from a storm, made whole two demon possessed men in Ge...

In the first Gospel of Matthew, we are shown how Jesus has fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. We see how Jesus is like Moses, and we see that He is from the line of King David and Abraham. We read about the wisemen coming, and then how Joseph hid Jesus in Egypt, again which fulfilled prophecies. We saw His baptism by  John the Baptist, His temptation with the devil, and the...

This lesson covers all of the Old Testament Books with a brief overview showing how the Bible books are all connected and how it tells one story. The Old Testament ends with the Persians being the world power, but the Greeks come next with Alexander the Great in 331 BC, and they bring with them the alphabet, the Greek language which is the language of the New Testament. Also 72 men gathered togeth...

The last book of the Minor Prophets and the Old Testament focus on calling backsliders back to the Lord. The issues address in the book are: the Lord loves His people and will fight for them, the Lord expects to be honored and worshiped with the best of our offerings, the Lord expects His people to treat others respectfully, the Lord tells His people that He is a God of justice, and someday the wi...

This second half of Zechariah has two oracles or burden, each with three chapters. The first begins in chapter 9 with judgment on nations surrounding Israel because of their oppression of the Lord's people. Then it talks of how the Lord will deliver Judah and Ephraim. Chapter 10 says God will bless them, and they will walk in His name, and chapter 11 brings judgment upon the false and worthle...

Zechariah was both a priest and a prophet of the Lord. He was with Haggai as they encouraged the leaders in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, to finish building the temple around 520 BC. He saw various visions, a man riding on a red horse among the myrtle trees, four horns rising up and four craftsman coming after them, a man with a measuring line, Joshua the high prie...

Haggai is a post-exilic prophet that is proclaiming to the Jews who had started to rebuild the temple and had stopped, that the Lord declared, the reason for their famine, was because they took care of their houses and their lives, while the Lord's house was in ruin. Unlike other prophetic books, the people repented quickly and began to rebuild the temple. This temple was not as big or beauti...

In the 9th Minor Prophet, Zephaniah, we see the strongest declaration of "the Day of the Lord" coming. The Lord says He will search Jerusalem with lamps, looking for the unfaithful. Judgment is coming to those who do not believe, both in Jerusalem and to the nations, but those who have faith in the Lord, both in Jerusalem and in the nations, they will be saved, for He is mighty to save....

Habakkuk is a theodicy - a defense of God, or as the dictionary says, "The vindication of divine providence in view of the existence of evil." Habakkuk asks the Lord, "How long, O Lord, will I call for help and You will not hear? The Lord answers I hear, and I am doing something about it. I am bringing the Babylonians. Then Habakkuk asks, "Why do you look with favor on those wh...

Nahum is a prophesy against the city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. As my Old Testament professor, Dr. Betts, said, "This is the prophesy that Jonah wanted to preach!" The message is  Assyria will be destroyed, like they did to the northern tribes of Israel, and everywhere else they went, and Judah will not have to worry about them any more. In this book, we see the Lord's wrat...

Micah is the 6th book of the Minor Prophets. It provides prophecies about the fall of Samaria by Assyria, the attack on Jerusalem by Assyria, but they will not succeed. Yet, Jerusalem will fall to Babylon and be taken into exile. He prophecies about the return to Jerusalem after the exile, and the prophecy of "the One" being born in Bethlehem, which we know to be Jesus because of Matthew...

Jonah, the prophet of the Lord is running from the presence of the Lord because he does not want to go to Nineveh in Assyria, and proclaim the word of the Lord. He knows that the Lord is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity" (Exodus 34:6). The Lord hurled a great wind, appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, t...

Obadiah is a national oracle, or prophecy against Edom. Edomites are descendants of Esau. Jacob and Esau had struggles even in the womb of Rebekah. The day of Lord is coming to Edom because of their pride & their violence to their brother, Israel. They gloated on the day of misfortune, they rejoiced on the day of destruction, and they boasted on the day of distress. There is no call for repent...

Amos, the third Minor Prophet, was a sheepherder and a grower of sycamore figs in Judah, and then the Lord called him to go to the Israel and prophecy their destruction.  This era can be found in 2 Kings 14:15-29 & 2 Chronicles 26. The land was prosperous, and the people had become prideful. Their religion had become syncretistic, meaning they mixed their worship of the Lord God, with other go...

The second book of the Minor Prophets is Joel. It begins with a devastating plague of locust on Judah. The prophet, Joel, is calling the priests, elders, and all the people to a solemn assembly to seek the Lord, because the Day of the Lord is coming. If they repent and turn to the Lord, maybe He will relent from sending that day of judgment. The Apostle Peter preached from Joel chapter 2 in his se...

Hosea's life is an object lesson showing the unfaithfulness of the Northern Tribe of Israel. He was to marry a harlot, and they had three children. The first was named Jezreel as a reminder of the sin of Jehu in the town of Jezreel (2 Kings 10:11). The second was a girl, and her name was Lo-ruhamah which meant she did not receive mercy, and then another boy named, Lo-ammi which meant not my p...

Isaiah - Pre-exilic prophet to the Southern Kingdom, Judah. This book describes the Lord as "The Holy One of Israel." At this time, the Northern Tribe was wiped out by Assyria, but Jerusalem was saved at this time. This book has 4 Suffering Servant Songs which reflect Jesus. We also see that the Lord's house shall be called a "House of Prayer for all nations." Jeremiah - A...

The 2nd half of Daniel is full of visions of things that are coming. Many of them are fulfilled by the time we read it today, such as Babylon falls to the Persians and the Medes. They fall to the Greeks. They fall to the Romans, and as we know in the time of the Romans the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ arrives. Daniel's vision goes beyond Jesus' time because Jesus says in Matthew 24:...

In this encouraging book of Daniel, we find Daniel in exile in Babylon, yet the Lord is with him. We read of great stories of faith like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. We see the hand of God writing on a wall. Daniel gets thrown into the lion's den. The Lord reveals visions to Daniel of future events, and the Lord God of Daniel is praised because these men were willing...

Here Ezekiel sees a vision from the Lord about the new temple in Jerusalem. Ezekiel himself said that it was similar to his first vision of the Lord when he was called in chapters 1-3, and when the Spirit of the Lord left the temple in chapter 10 of Ezekiel. One thing that is clear is that the temple was demolished because the people and the temple had ceased to be holy, instead they had become pr...

This is a message of hope that the Lord will bring forth His people from all the lands where they were scattered, and He will restore their land to them. He reminds His people that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and He wants them to turn back to the Lord. Judgment again is placed on the "shepherds," because they care more about feeding themselves than they do their floc...

This passage describes the judgments upon the nations surrounding Judah, now that Jerusalem has fallen to Babylon. They each have a similar format, most begin with "The word of the Lord came to me saying," which leads into the son of man, Ezekiel, giving the message. Then we see phrases like, "Thus says the Lord." Most of them have the word "because" in them which sho...