Customer Reviews

God's Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible

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This book provided a wonderful overview of the entire bible in one book. Not an indepth study, but it was fun to read about the bible, all 66 books in one volume. It also helped in understanding how they all fit together and that the central theme is God's redemptive plan for mankind.

Having read 5 various books on this subject of the Kingdom of God, Mr. Roberts book was the most organized, structured, illustrated and understandable. It became the foundation for my own series on the Kingdom. A great first book since it lays the foundation necessary for understanding the more in depth books such as: Announcing the Kingdom and According to Plan.

David and Goliath. Daniel in the lion's den. Jesus' feeding of five thousand people. Too many of us know the stories in the Bible without ever understanding the Story of the Bible. Vaughan Roberts' book God's Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible (IVP 2002) provides a remedy to this problem by giving a terrific overview to the entire Bible in less than 150 pages.

Roberts interprets the Bible with "The Kingdom of God" as the central motif. Each chapter progresses through the Bible, showing how the Scriptures are united around God and His rule. Roberts takes us through Creation, Fall, Israel, the prophets, the exile, Jesus, the Church, and the coming Kingdom, all the while showing how the Bible itself tells one story - the story of our world.

This book is similar to Graeme Goldsworthy's Gospel and Kingdom, but a little more user friendly. Roberts does a good job of summarizing biblical doctrines within the overarching metanarrative that the Bible provides. Though the book traces the Bible's story at a rapid pace, there are times when the writing seems to drag. But overall, this little book is a helpful introduction to the Bible's big picture.

Roberts is clear and concise. He works off of Goldsworthy's Gospel and Kingdom, but seeks to make it more accessible. He traces the storyline of the bible with the pattern of the kingdom, the perished k, the promised k, the partial k, the prophesied k, the present k, the proclaimed k, and the perfected k.

For anyone interested to know how the 66 books of the Bible fit together to point towards salvation in Christ, this is a great tool to use.

Sixty six books written by forty people over nearly 2,000 years, in two languages and several genres. A worldwide bestseller published in countless size and bindings, translations and languages. It has been sworn by in court, fought over by religious people, quoted in arguments. The Bible is clearly no ordinary book. How can we begin to read and understand it as a whole?

Do you feel that it is time to step back and look at the big picture of God's word?

Do you think that although looking through the miroscope is fascinating perhaps it might be time to step back and look through the wide vision binoculars?

Well here's a resource which may be of help to you.

This is an overview, showing us how the different parts of the Bible fit together under the theme of the Kingdom of God. It's an accessable book (160 pages) which does not require a brain the size of a small planet to read.

It's a book which can either be read end to end as a reading book, or can be used to compliment a small group Bible study (or 1 to 1). It is divided up into eight sections, each of which ends in a small Bible study. It has loads of diagrams to illustrate the points.

Roberts goal in writing the book is to show how the whole Bible points to the Lord Jesus and as a result the following may happen;

* That sections of the Bible, previously closed to us may be opened up,
* That we may be better equipped to point people to Christ from any part of the Bible (rather than from a few favourite passages),
* That we may grow in the knowledge and love of God through Christ Jesus.

Roberts hope in writing the book is that through it we can have a map in our head that gives us the big picture. The result should be that wherever we land in the Bible, we can find our way around and know where we are in the overall story of God's unfolding plan to save the world through Christ.

Anyone who has read Graham Goldsworthy's Gospel and Kingdom, will see it's influence on this book. Roberts acknowledges, that this is not an attempt to improve on that book, he adopts largely the same approach, but in a slightly less technical way.

I recommend this book - it's an excellent resource - not only to read - but also to refer back to.

Roberts does a wonderful job of giving us a big picture overview of the main storyline of the Bible. Too many times we are familiar with some of the major stories of the Bible or Characters of the Bible but we don't see, or care, how they fit into the overall story of God's redemptive work. Roberts take a very complex subject and breaks it down into very understandable language and diagram's that all will find helpful.

I have several students who have asked for overview books and I have been searching for ones that would bring good clarity to the Bible and how each of the separate books pull together to form one basic story. Roberts short book has given me a basic text that I can use to help students on that journey.

Whether we want to believe it or not there is a theme that runs through the Bible. Each verse, chapter and book actually form a theme that points toward's the Kingdom of God, towards Christ's redemptive work on the cross.

This book will only take you a couple of hours to read through, it is quick, easy to understand, yet profound in the organization and logic of his thesis. His chart on page 149 that shows the structure of the Bible and how it relates to The Kingdom of God is worth the price of the book alone. It follows three premises that he expounded on in the book. Those are how 1) God's People, 2) God's place and 3) God's rule and blessing, are reflected throughout the Bible in drawing our attention to the Kingdom of God.

I'm sure you will find this book useful and helpful as you teach others about the storyline of the Bible.

Enjoy!

This little book by Vaughn Roberts is a very helpful book that looks at the grand narrative of scripture using this modified theme of Goldsworthy's: "God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing." Using that as the foundation for all of scripture, Roberts presents an introduction to Biblical theology that is at the same time brief and simple, yet also deep and wide. It is both delectable and digestible. It feeds you well, but leaves you hungry for more... and I think that is a very good thing.

Roberts teases out some ideas so plainly and simply that I was left wondering how I didn't really see that before. One example I can give of this was the way Roberts discussed the unveiling of God's plan to provide a substitution and a sacrifice to atone for the sins of His people. He points to Abraham and Isaac and how God provided the ram to save a person (Isaac). And then in Egypt during the first Passover, each family was to take a lamb, slaughter it and apply the blood to the lentils and the doorposts which was for the sake of the entire family that lived in the house. Then in the Levitical laws, God instructs the Israelites in the sacrificial system that will take the idea of substitute and sacrifice for sin to the national level (all of Israel). And when Christ comes, the true Lamb of God, He comes as the ultimate substitute and the sacrifice for sin for the whole world... for all who believe.

I could scarcely read two or three pages without resting the book beside me and just thinking about God's story in all of Scripture a while--reflecting on just how amazing and beautiful His story really is. Even so, I read the book probably in about five or six sittings. It is a quick and easy read. I bought another copy and gave it away (along with Steven Levy's "Bible Overview") to a good friend of mine who is a new believer to help him see the forest and the trees as he continues to read the scriptures for the very first time. He finished this book by Roberts in about a week and is reading it through a second time as he continues to read and study the Bible.

I have not finished Levy's book, but I can tell from what I've read so far that I can heartily recommend both to my fellow journeymen as we seek to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. I am adding those two books to a list of resources I regularly and readily recommend: Sinclair Ferguson's "The Christian Life", Kris Lundgaard's "The Enemy Within", CJ Mahaney's "Living the Cross-Centered Life", and John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress". All of these are easy reads, cross-centered and Scripture-saturated. I have benefited from them all, and continue to benefit from them as I re-read them every so often. What I really like about each of these books is that they are some of least intimidating and most accessible books I've found that can help *every* Christian to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord... if read prayerfully while spending time in God's Word. They all magnify Christ and amplify the echoes of His words: Repent and believe the gospel!

This book will have more impact than the author will ever know. It's not a Bible-timeline (that's just a 'side-effect' of this book!). It's a way to see the Bible as a whole, to see God's plan carried out throughout the ages.

Many other views cut the Bible in pieces and bring a skewed focus on the 'piece' we're in today. This has worse implications that I won't describe in an amazon review. Vaughan's book gives the solution and therefore solves many problems that other "split-up-theologies" create.

I don't know if it was the author's intention to fix these problems, but his book does and that's huge. I recommend this book both for those who want to go deep as well as folks who just want a simple overview. It has both, in my opinion.

Thanks Mr Vaughan!

Vaughan Roberts has done a great service to the Body of Christ by providing a simplification of Graeme Goldsworthy's approach to biblical theology. This would be a great read for those who are reading through the Bible in 90 Days or even in a year.

Unfortunately the best dispensational books are presently being written by Reformed Amillennialists! By that I mean this great fly-over of the whole Bible suffers from "replacement theology" that equates the Church with Israel and sees no future for national Israel in God's Big Picture.

Thus, the books suffers from not accurately dealing with Revelation 20 and the literal, complete fulfillment of the covenant promises to Isreal as a nation.

That being said the book is still a great overview of God's Big Picture! I just wish current "progressive dispensationalists" would write a similar book.

Vaughan Roberts has done us a great service. Read it, but balance its amillennial, replacement theology with a future for Israel and you will have HD clarity of God's Big Picture!