Big Concepts – Easy Formula

Big concepts are sometimes hard to explain. For instance my husband has tried (unsuccessfully) to explain Pi-squared to me but he might as well be talking Greek. The size of the universe, eternity and infinity are also some of those pretty difficult things for the average mind to comprehend. And then of course there are those touchy conversations that we have with children when they have heard things that are too adult for their understanding and so we muddle around trying to put hard concepts into child-like terms.  

But to most of us, the Bible also can be complex and confusing. So often we have spent years studying adverbs and verbs and intricacies but never fully grasp the big picture.

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After we had completed filming all sixty-six books we decided it would be very helpful if we developed a seminar that would introduce the whole Bible to churches that were going to be doing the study. We wanted cover the Bible in a simple understandable way in a three hour seminar And so Linda, Eleanor and I went back to the “drawing board” and began meeting regularly to see if it was even possible.

We had all of the charts and notes laid out before us. We talked about the different books and how we might present them in a clear and simple way, a way that anyone could understand even if they had never even touched a Bible before. We went in one direction and then another and then something happened. It was as if God Himself revealed a very simple formula, one that we had never seen before.

There were the Old Testament History Books, seventeen in all.
Then there were the five Old Testament Poetical Books, really books of writings, definitely not history, but books that added insight and direction for Christian living.
And then there were seventeen Old Testament Prophetical Books. So the Old Testament could be simplified into HISTORY – WRITINGS – PROPHECY.

Well that seemed simple enough and all of a sudden we had described the entire Old Testament.

But then came the surprise! As we looked at the New Testament we saw the exact same pattern. HISTORY (the Gospels and Acts) WRITINGS (Paul’s letters and other letters) and PROPHECY (Revelation)

So three words could sum up the whole Bible. History Writings Prophecy and then again History, Writings, Prophecy!

It was a complete revelation to us all. We had never seen it before but there it was: the structure of both Testaments!

Hard concepts made easy.

And so we each took one of the OT sections and one from the NT section and developed six 40 minute teaching sessions. Then we added music with two of our favorite vocalist, Verna Law and Jen Carozza. Dennis Law joined the team to run the sound and video clips we had added to the program. A workbook that included notes and outlines were written and printed along with six color-coded memory cards with the names of the books and symbols for each section.

We taught the seminars for the next two years and then decided to put all of the information into a six-week Bible Study, Invincible Love / Invisible War. But to this day those three words are clued to my brain….History, Writings Prophecy….hard concepts made easy.

Psalm 19:7

The testimony of the Lord is sure

Making wise the simple.