[Basic Lesson 3] Basic Biblical Knowledge Lesson 1 l Shincheonji Church of Jesus

[0:15]Nice to meet you.

[0:19]I'm your lecturer today, Jung-soo Lee. Today, we will learn the word of God through this lesson titled, Basic Biblical Knowledge one. If you've begun the journey of faith, you've probably have a copy of the Bible. But we couldn't tell ourselves we fully understand the Bible, just by keeping a copy of it. Today, we will talk about how important the Bible is to a person of faith, the structure of the Bible and the right way to read it. I hope you will take all this with you from the lesson. First, let's read the main reference of today's lesson, Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. For starters, based on what we've just read, let's find out about who the author of the Bible is. According to the verse, the scripture, the Bible, is God-breathed. That means the Bible is not a text made of human ideas, but God-breathed. In other words, it holds the thoughts and will of God. Then how did God, who is invisible to us, write the scripture? That is explained in Second Peter chapter 1, verse 21. It reads, For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along, moved by the Holy Spirit. It shows that the Bible was recorded by people, who were inspired by God and filled in their hearts with God's will and thoughts. In other words, God, who is in spirit, moved people and had them record the scripture so that we, humans on earth, could understand the word of God. They would be people who spoke or wrote on behalf of God.

[2:15]God poured his thoughts and will onto them, and what was written was the Bible. Even though it was recorded by man, the will and thoughts within it are of God. So, the one and only God is the author of the Bible. I hope we can testify to this with certainty as people of faith. Now then, why did God, who is in spirit, give the Bible to people on Earth? First John, chapter 4, verse 1 tells us, Let's read together. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. As we see in the verse, the Bible tells us, don't believe every spirit, but test them to see if they are from God. Then, as people of faith, we are supposed to test these spirits, but how? What does it mean to test spirits? Testing spirits is telling where the spirit belongs. Because among these spirits, when there is a Holy Spirit that belongs to God, there is an evil spirit that does not belong to God. Since there are two kinds of spirits, God tells us through the Bible that we must tell them apart. Now, let's take a look at how and why spirits and their world divided into two sides. The Bible speaks of two worlds, the spiritual world and the physical world. First, the spiritual world is where God is. Then one being appeared who broke away from the realm of God. This is who we know as the devil or the evil spirit. And now, the spiritual world became divided into two. But that was not the end. Those two sides of spirits work through flesh on Earth. Since then, there has been war over power and dominion on this Earth. God works through a true pastor to progress God's work on Earth. And Satan, the devil, uses a false pastor to tempt God's people and lead them astray. That is why it is important for us as believers to know God and the true pastor sent by God. Why does it matter? Because God wants to lead us to the truth and give us life and blessing through the true pastor he sent. On the other hand, Satan, the devil, uses a false pastor to tempt people of faith and lead them astray to the path that leads to death and curse. Rather than the path of life and blessing. That is why people of faith must distinguish between these two worlds. But how do you discern spirits that we cannot see? That is where the Bible comes in, the reason for which God gave it to us. God wrote his will in the Bible and gave it to us so that we would never fall for the devil's temptation. So, I sincerely hope that all of us will clearly understand the true God and the devil through the Bible, and choose good over evil as God's dear people of faith. Now that we see how important the Bible is, let us take a look at the Bible structure one by one. First, if you take a look at the cover, it reads, The Holy Bible. It's a book that is a compilation of the word of the Holy God. It looks like one book, but it is actually a collection of books that records the word of God. Largely, the Bible has two parts. The Old Testament and the New Testament. But, as you can see, the Old Testament and the New Testament are also collections of smaller books. First, the Old Testament has 39 books, and the New Testament has 27 books. Please remember that the Holy Bible is a collection of books, which record the word of God. Now, what do the words Old Testament and New Testament mean? Let's find out. The Old Testament is also called the Old Covenant. Old means previous or old in time. A covenant is a formal promise. The New Testament is also called the New Covenant. So, in other words, it is a new promise. Then what divides the Old and New Testaments? It's the first coming of Jesus. Words recorded by the prophets before the coming of Jesus is titled The Old Testament. After Jesus came, what was written through Jesus' disciples is what we call the New Testament today. Both the Old and New Testaments are books that record God's promises. Please note, this is why the Bible is often called the book of promises or covenants. Now that we understand that the Bible is a book of covenants, let's take a closer look inside. Since it is a covenant, there must be individuals who make the promise. Then there is the promise that they are supposed to keep. And most importantly, there is the outcome when the promise is kept. Keeping this in mind, let's go back to the Old Testament and the New Testament. First, the ones making the promise of the Old Testament. In Exodus, chapter 19, verses 5 and 6, God sets a covenant with his people, the people of Israel. So, in this case, the ones who ought to keep the promise are the Jewish people. Now, what is the promise they are supposed to keep? John chapter 5, verse 39 explains very well. As written, the people of Judah read the Bible diligently, but the Bible they read was testifying about Jesus. The Old Testament promised the first coming of Jesus. That means those people were supposed to receive Jesus. So, did they? As you know, on the contrary to receiving Jesus, they persecuted him, criticized him, and even crucified him. They did not keep their promise. They broke it. So the outcome of the Old Covenant was an unfulfilled, broken promise. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 7 testifies to it. As it is written, if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. The first covenant, in the Old Testament, was tainted. And now, a new covenant was given to the people today, the New Testament. Then, let's take a look at the new Covenant and who that promise is for. Going to Luke chapter 22, verse 14 through 20, we see the night before Jesus bears the cross. As Jesus broke bread and shared wine, Jesus set a new covenant. Those at the table with Jesus were his 12 disciples, who Jesus loved. So, those who entered that covenant are those who believe in Jesus.

[10:04]That is, you and me, we are the ones included in the promise of the New Testament. Then, what is the promise we need to keep? This is answered in John chapter 14, verses 1 to 3. Before Jesus left 2,000 years ago, he clearly promised that he would return. So, for us, who are included in the promise of the New Testament, the promise we must keep is to believe and receive Jesus when he comes again. Accordingly, in Revelation chapter 22, verse 7, Jesus said that he is coming soon, and those who keep the words of prophecy in Revelation are blessed. With that, as people called to keep the new covenant, let's keep in mind that all the blessings are given to us only when we listen, understand, and keep the promise, the prophecies of the Bible. Now, let's find out how many books, chapters, and verses the Old Testament and New Testament have. The entire Bible has 66 books in total. The Old Testament has 39 books, and the New Testament has 27. That is 1,189 chapters in total. 929 chapters in the Old Testament, 260 chapters in the New Testament. The total number of verses is 31,101. The Old Testament has 23,144 verses, and the New Testament has 7,957. The number of people who recorded the Bible is around 35 to 40. They are the people God worked through to give his word to the people on Earth. Now then, let's take a look at the table of contents of the Bible and find out which books there are. First, the Old Testament. The Old Testament is largely four categories. The Pentateuch, historical books, poems, and prophecies. First, the Pentateuch is the five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Historical books are the 12 books from Joshua to Esther. Poems are the five books from Job to Song of Solomon, and the prophecies are 17 books from Isaiah to Malachi. That's 39 books in total. Now, let's move on to the New Testament. There are 27 books in the New Testament in four categories. The Gospels, historical book, the epistles, and prophecy. The four Gospels are the four books from Matthew to John, and Acts is a historical book. A large portion of the New Testament is epistles. There are 21 books in total from Romans to Jude. And finally, Revelation is the book of prophecy in the New Testament. Now, let's talk about a good way to appreciate the Bible. How to read the Bible. You're looking at a page out of the Bible. On the top of the page, there is the title of the book. We have the book of Genesis. The large number indicates the chapter. That means this is Genesis chapter 1. The smaller numbers underneath are the verses. Then, this would be Genesis chapter 1, verse 3. When we write this down, we simplify it this way. The abbreviation for Genesis, GN, and chapter 1, verse 3 is written this way. Keeping this in mind is very helpful in reading the Bible and studying it. I hope you find it useful. As you see in this page, verse 6 has a quotation mark. This means the indented part was cited from another book in the Bible. To find where the source is, we look at the footnote. This footnote says Micah chapter 5, verse 2. It tells us this verse was taken from Micah chapter 5, verse 2. These are simple but very useful tools to read the Bible. I hope you can take a moment to become familiar with these rules. Now, let's categorize the Bible by its content. Largely, the Bible has four types of content. History, teaching, prophecy, and fulfillment. These four types are the content of the Bible. Let's take a look at them one by one and find out why God has written them to us. First, history. As you know, history is the record of past events. Why did God leave a record of what happened in the past? We find the answer in First Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11. These things happened to them as examples, and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. It reads, If you read First Corinthians chapter 10 carefully, it recalls the history of the physical Israelites, who followed Moses out of Egypt. They tested God and disobeyed him, and they died in the desert. Why that is meaningful to us is, what happens in the last days will be similar to what is written. The Bible warns us, when that time comes, do not commit the same sins as they did in history. Please remember, the history is written for us that live today as well. Next, teaching. It was today's main reference. In Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, it says the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. And the reason for teaching, it says, is so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In other words, without the Bible, we could not be fully made into a person of God. God prepared the words of teaching in the Bible so that we would learn and be thoroughly equipped as people of God. Next is prophecy. A prophecy is what records an event before it happens. The reason God recorded prophecies is explained in John chapter 14, verse 29. Let's read together. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. As we just read, God tells us what will happen beforehand so that we will believe when it does happen. That means a prophecy surely does come true at a certain time. And the purpose of a prophecy is to let us believe it when the prophecy is fulfilled. We who believe in God must be able to recognize and believe God's work. But without the prophecy, we would be blind to what happens. That is the reason God gave us the words of prophecy. Now, let's take a look at fulfillment. Fulfillment is what happens as the prophecy comes true. Then, let us find out when all the prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled. When Jesus came to Earth, he said in John chapter 19, verse 30, It is finished. With that, we know that all the prophecies in the Old Testament were completed during the first coming of Jesus. But what matters more is us living in this time of the New Testament. I believe it is crucial to understand when the prophecies of the New Testament come true. In Revelation chapter 21, verse 6, Jesus says, It is done. So we can see that the New Testament will also be fulfilled only when Jesus returns. Then, as for all of us, living in the time of the New Testament, we first need to know the words of prophecy. Only then will we be able to believe and keep the word of God when the prophecies are fulfilled, and be recognized by God as a true person of faith. Let us take one step further into the prophecies. Prophecies are written in a distinct way, different from how other books are recorded. Because they describe what has not yet taken place, it's impossible to record the actual scene or event. So, prophecies often use names of people or places from the past, or historical events. Let's take a look at examples of each case. One of the examples where historical event is used for prophecy is in Luke chapter 17. It says the last days will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. But the days of Noah and the days of Lot are in the past. In this way, a historical event is used as a parable to describe the last days. That means we, knowledge of the days of Noah and Lot, in history, to prepare for the last days. Next, names of people. Revelation chapter 2 is about the last days. It prophesies the appearance of Balaam, Balak, and Jezebel, all who were people from the Old Testament. That doesn't mean the people from the time of the Old Testament will come back to life. It means people who act like those mentioned will appear. They are used as an analogy. So, if we don't know about Balaam, Balak, or Jezebel, we won't be able to recognize the people compared to them in the prophecy, even if we see them. Next, place names. In Revelation chapter 11, verse 8, there is a great city that turned against God. That place is spiritually likened to Sodom, Egypt, Golgotha. Of course, they are all different locations. Yet, those places in history are there as a parable to explain the prophesied place. Again, if we don't understand what happened in those places in the past, we won't be able to recognize the actual place when the prophecy is fulfilled. As you can see, we need to understand the general facts of historical events, people, and places in the Bible in order to understand the words of prophecy. I hope your knowledge of the Bible will increase day by day, so that we can all become the true people of faith, who keep the promise when it is fulfilled. Let's recap today's lesson, Basic Biblical Knowledge Lesson one. First of all, the author of the Bible is God, who is one and only. And the Bible was given to us to tell about the two worlds, the spiritual world and the physical world, and to let us see that there are two spiritual beings, God and the devil, so that we may leave evil and choose good. We also learned that the Bible is a book of promises, the Old Testament and the New Testament. And when we categorize the contents written in the Bible, we found that there are history, teaching, prophecy, and fulfillment. In particular, the prophecy is written in parables, using historical facts, people, and places to describe what is to expect. This is what we have clearly understood today. The Bible that we have learned about today can be summarized as a book of covenants.

[22:07]When everything promised in the Bible becomes fulfilled, we must be the ones who believe and keep it. I pray in our Lord's name that all of us will have a full understanding of the Bible before the time of fulfillment comes. And be the ones who keep the promises when they are fulfilled. That is all for this lesson. Let me give you a brief guide to the next lesson. In our second lesson of Basic Biblical Knowledge, we will look at the Bible in chronological order and find out how God worked through the eras, and how God felt. Furthermore, the next lesson will be a guide to see the time we live in today, and we will understand where we stand and who we are. I hope you're excited about the next lesson, don't miss it. Thank you very much for joining me.