The Bible really is an amazing book. It tells us all that we need to know about God and it describes the history of mankind from start to finish. The fact that our history has not yet finished is no obstacle, since the Bible books were inspired by God! So if you are serious about investigating the meaning of life, why we are here and why things are how they are, then you owe it to yourself to read the Bible.

At around 1,000 pages, it is shorter than two Harry Potter novels. But the Bible doesn't read straight through like a novel since it is a collection of books, written hundreds of years apart by different human authors, all with different styles.  Some parts do require study to understand. Other parts are more straightforward. So it helps to be able to put these writings into a framework or context. To help with this, this webpage provides a very brief overview of the whole Bible! When the books are understood, you will see that they all tell the same story. That's because the writers were all inspired by the same God. He has not left us in the dark to guess why we are here. He created us and wants us to understand our purpose.

The very first words of the Bible are "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". The first chapter, Genesis 1, describes how God spoke and, just by his command, the earth, the sun, moon and stars were formed. Psalm chapter 19 begins "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day to day utters speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." In other words, the Bible says that these objects are evidences of God so that no-one on the planet can say they didn't know. Have a look at the sky, whether at daytime or at night, and ask yourself honestly if you think what you see was created by randomness or by an intelligent designer.

Genesis chapter 1 also says that God made us too. He created a man and a woman to live in perfect happiness to inhabit and populate the earth and to walk and talk with Him. We were created primarily to enjoy friendship with God! 

However, a few pages later, Genesis chapter 3 describes how our very first parents thought that they knew better than God and disobeyed a very simple command that he had given them. As a result of this sin, the human race lost touch with the living God. The world was cursed and and the world turned into the place that we see today. Suffering, disease, death, natural disasters and disorder are all part of the curse.

Today, each one of us knows that by nature we are far more interested in what's happening in our own lives, where we live, who we spend time with, what we wear, eat or drive, than spending time talking with God. This is because naturally we have become cut off from God. The Bible says that when sin came into the world we became spiritually dead. Death is something we normally think of in terms of the physical body. Are you aware that without God, your whole spiritual being is dead?  

You may have heard of the Ten Commandments.  Well the first commandment says that we should not have any gods before God.  In other words have any higher priority than God. Later it is explained that we should love God with all our hearts, souls and minds.  Without even looking at the other 9 commandments, we immediately know that we ourselves have failed this standard.

But although his creatures had been disobedient and had broken the harmony that he had created for them, God loved them. He is a God who delights in mercy and does not want anyone to be lost.  

So the remainder of the first section of the Bible, called the Old Testament, is the record of how God in history promised and prepared for the arrival of a Saviour. This is recorded for us in a number of biographies, songs, poetry, instructions, historical writings and records mainly focussing on the history of the nation of Israel.

God made a promise to Abraham that he would create a great nation from his decendants. He promised that all the nations of the world would be blessed through it. And so God singled out the nation of Israel above all other nations on earth to show favour to them, to speak through them and to raise up a Saviour through them. Prophetic writings provide specific detail of what the Saviour would be like. These propecies are recorded hundreds and sometimes even thousands of years before the Saviour was even born, so are themselves evidence of the supernatural authorship of the Bible.

Then the second section of the Bible, called the New Testament starts with four books, known today as "Gospels". The Gospels are four different historical accounts which describe the life of this Saviour. He was a man called Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Read any one of the Gospels and you will see that he was no ordinary man though. No ordinary man could have performed the miracles that he did and lived like he lived. He was the only son of God astounding witnesses by speaking and commanding both nature and humans with divine authority.

But although he was God, his main purpose in life was to die. The Gospels record how Jesus was crucified and died, suffering not only death on the cross but bearing the penalty for our disobedience. This is what the Bible means when it talks about a Saviour.  The plan to reconcile us to God again is the central theme that runs through the whole Bible holding it together. So the great news for us is that God now invites us to turn back to him. He wants us back and has paid the price of our wrong-doing.  We can know forgiveness, true peace and a restored relationship with our Maker both in this life and the life to come.  

How can we be sure this is all true? What is the overriding proof that Jesus was not just another good teacher back in history. Well, because three days after his very public execution and burial, Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus appeared alive to hundreds of people in a period of 40 days afterwards. And his small and feeble band of followers were so convinced by him that they could not but spread the good news. It was said of them that they turned the world upside-down. Thousands of them were killed for this message but they could not stop telling people. God had come to earth to be the Saviour of the world, to fix what our first parents had broken.

The remainder of the New Testament writings record the history of the spread of this good news throughout the ancient world.  It also contains letters written to those early churches giving instructions on how Jesus's disciples should live and providing further explanation of God's amazing rescue plan.

Almost the very last words of the Bible (in Revelation chapter 22) are "Surely I am coming". The story of humans on this planet has a beginning and also an end. With the same power that God spoke and by his words the worlds were formed, one day Jesus will return again and fold up the earth like a blanket. And when he does he will require that each of us gives an account of our lives. 

God, the world's creator, who knows each one of us intimately, who has always wanted the best for us and who loved us enough to sacrifice his own Son in order to bring us back to Him is no myth. He's real, powerful and can be known and experienced in our lives today. He "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2 verse 4).

The Bible says "...every knee shall bow to me [God]" (Romans chapter 14 verse 11).  So whether we turn to God as our heavenly Father now or meet him on the final day as his enemies, the Bible says that every one will have to face him.  Like it or not, as our Maker, God has the right to command us. The good news is that it is not too late. We have a choice.

This short summary cannot possibly do real justice to the wealth of information that God has provided for us in the Bible.  It also does not even begin to describe the joy of coming to know and love God personally.  So if you are keen to investigate the claims of Christianity then you have a number of options:  

1. Pray! Even if you are not sure yet what to believe, talk to God and ask Him to show himself to you. He is there, He is real and He promises "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13).

2. Having asked God to show himself to you, start your investigation by reading an account of the life of Jesus yourself in one of the gospels. If you don't have a copy of the Bible yet then you can do this online here.  Ready for more? Then the whole Bible can be read online here.  Just in case these sites are not available there is another online Bible site here.

3. We would love you to come to one of our Sunday services too. Each week we study passages from the Bible.

4. If you would just like to email or talk to someone first, then do visit our contact page to see how to get in touch.