BigOworld

...Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
John 6:68-69

God’s Written Law

By God’s mercy, God has provided a written copy of the law of God. That written law is the Bible, the Word of God. The law is also God’s covenant with mankind, and it is referred to as the Gospel and as the Old and New Testaments. Thus, whether the Bible uses the words “law,” or “commandments,” or “testament,” or “Gospel,” or “covenant,” or “Word,” it is still speaking of the Bible alone. All of these words are synonyms.

The Bible was given to mankind in two distinct parts, but God wrote the Bible in such a way that the truths of the Bible have been revealed to mankind in three parts.

The first part of the written Word that God provided was the Old Testament. The writing of the Old Testament was begun in the year 1447 B.C. when God gave Israel the ten commandments together with many other laws. At the same time, within this covenant or law book, He wrote many truths concerning creation, the entrance of sin into the world, and the flood of Noah’s day, as well as many commands that emphasized mankind’s need for the Savior. God continued to write the Old Testament until the year 391 B.C.

However, God wrote the Old Testament in such a way that an enormous number of truths and information included in the writing of the Old Testament were only dimly revealed to mankind. Moreover, because the printing press was not invented until centuries after the Old Testament was written, actual copies of the first part of the Bible were almost nonexistent. Early on, very few copies of the first part of the Bible were available.

The second part of the covenant, which is called the New Testament, began to be written by God about A.D. 33. It was completed about A.D. 95. It provided a great amount of truth that helped to make the Old Testament somewhat more understandable. This is mainly because the New Testament gave much information about Jesus Christ the Savior, as He literally and actually experienced the wrath of God on behalf of all of those He planned to save. Nevertheless, the New Testament, like the Old Testament, was written by God in such a way that many truths set forth in it remained hidden from the true believers of the church age.*

Thus, even though the Bible has been a completed, written covenant or law book for almost 2,000 years, many very important truths sprinkled all through the Bible were never revealed to even the most dedicated, God-fearing theologian who was a child of God. These mysterious or hidden doctrines relate especially to a precise and accurate understanding of the timing and nature of God's

* We use the term “church age” to signify the time period when God used the churches to bring the Gospel.