World Missions Advance

"After God created the world and human rebellion marred it, God set out to restore what he had made: 'God did not turn his back on a world bent on destruction; he turned his face toward it in love. He set out on the long road of redemption to restore the lost people and the world as his kingdom.' The Bible narrates the story of God's journey on that long road to accomplish his creational purpose. It is a unified and progressively unfolding drama of God's action in history for the salvation of the whole world that culminates in the work of Jesus Christ. The Bible is not a mere jumble of history, poetry, lessons in morality and theology, comforting promises, guiding principles, and commands; instead, it is fundamentally coherent. Every part of the Bible—each event, book, character, command, prophecy, and poem—must be understood in the context of the one storyline.

Yet many of us have read the Bible as if it were merely a mosaic of little bits—devotional bits, theological bits, moral bits, historical-critical bits, sermon bits, narrative bits. But when we break the Bible into fragmented bits, we reduce its power to shape our lives. All human communities live out of some story that gives unity, meaning, and direction to their lives. If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping our culture, and it will thus cease to shape our lives as it should."

Craig G. Bartholomew & Michael W. Goheen, "The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story"