THE CONCISE BIBLE AUDIO EDITION

Chapter 16　Songs and Prayers The Psalms in the Bible were originally written to be sung. Here God is teaching us that we should sing to him at all times, when we are sad, when we are happy, when we are sick, when we have failed and sinned, when we are in the midst of trials, when we are persecuted, when we are thankful and full of joy for his blessings, when we are rich, and when we are poor and in need. Christians are unique among all people for their singing to God. The Psalms also teach us how to pray and what to pray. They are the prayers that Christians have prayed to their “Father in Heaven” throughout the ages. Many of them were written about 3,000 years ago.

Chapter 15　A Fountain of Wisdom We are told in the Bible that God gave King Solomon (reigned over Israel c. 970–931 B.C.) wisdom and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom was greater, the Bible says, “than the wisdom of all the men of the East; he was wiser than any other man. Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.” In this short chapter we give a few of Solomon’s proverbs taken from the Bible. These proverbs, written 3,000 years ago, are still quoted often in the world of today.

Chapter 14　Love The true mark of a Christian is not knowledge, not eloquence, not power or prosperity, not a high position or honor among other Christians. The true mark of a Christian is that he loves his brothers and sisters fervently and from the heart. In 1 John 3:23, we find these words: “Now this is God’s command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.” In this short chapter we find a true definition of love—something we cannot find anywhere else in all the literature of the world. Whoever has this sort of love is a true Christian.

Chapter 13　To Those Who Believe In The Lord Jesus In the Bible we find that to be a Christian does not mean to belong to some religious organization or to follow some leader or eloquent teacher. In fact we were strongly warned by Jesus to avoid such things. When we read the letters to Christians which were written by the Apostles, we find that they urge us to live holy lives in obedience to God’s word, to abstain from the lusts and temptations of this world, to endure hardship and even persecution, to live with the joyful hope of eternal life in God’s soon coming Kingdom, and above all, to love and help our brothers and sisters who also believe in Jesus.

Chapter 12　Salvation through Christ The Christian’s faith differs from all the religions in the world in this way: Religions, and religious teachers, teach men the precepts they must follow in order to be happy in this world and/or the world to come; and they urge men to discipline themselves to follow those teachings. Christians, however, believe that all men already know the teachings they should follow; so they not only do not need more teaching, but are so hopelessly bad that they neither can, nor want to, follow God’s laws. Because of mankind’s utter depravity and hopeless sinfulness, God himself sent Jesus to take away sin for men, and as their representative, in their stead. Jesus did this on the cross. There, while being rejected and mocked by men, he became also, as the embodiment and personification of man’s sin, the object of God’s wrath and judgment against mankind. So now the problem of sin—all the sin of humanity—has been paid for by Jesus. But, each person must recognize their condition as a sinner, their incapacity to save themselves and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. God declares wicked men righteous, when by faith, they receive Jesus Christ as their only Savior. God wants each person to make this decision personally. More than that, God has promised that whoever believes in Jesus and trusts God’s word concerning the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus’ death—to this man he will give his Spirit. That is, his Spirit will come into those who believe, and they will become new men—born anew into his kingdom—with different hearts, with both the strength and desire to be righteous. This is the gospel—the good news—that is the subject of this chapter, excerpts from the writings of Jesus’ disciple, Paul.

Chapter 11　The World's End; A New Hope During the last part of the first century A.D., Jesus’ disciples and many who believed in him carried his message (which they called “the gospel,” or “the good news”) to the whole known world. Jesus’ disciples wrote many letters to the new believers in Jesus living in different parts of the world, in order to encourage them and strengthen their faith. God’s word, given to men through these letters from Jesus’ disciples, has been passed down to us in 21 different letters. In this book, from chapters 11 through 14, we will give excerpts from these letters.

Chapter 10　The Time Is Near After Jesus was taken up into heaven, a violent persecution broke out against those who believed in him. Jesus’ disciple, John, because he taught that Jesus is the Christ and preached God’s message, was exiled to the Isle of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea. There God revealed to him in a vision the things that would happen in the earth in later days. These words, down through the ages since then, have been a source of joy and encouragement to those who suffer and are persecuted because of their faith in Jesus. Here we are promised that God will reward those who obey him, and that there will certainly be a new earth where there is no more suffering and sorrow. These words from God are called “The Revelation of John”.

Chapter 9　Back from Death The power, the glory, the hope of the Christian message is the Resurrection of Jesus. And though many men ignore it, no one, unless he is hopelessly ignorant, can deny this astounding truth. It is the center of world history; it has turned the world upside down. In fact, this is the very message that Christians are telling, and should tell, to the world. Jesus rose from the dead! And because he, our representative, rose, we also will rise and enter the eternal, glorious Kingdom of Heaven! This is the powerful, and the only, answer to the awful curse of Death that hangs over all mankind. There is no other hope, no other victory over death in all the world.

Chapter 8　For the Sins of Mankind Groaning, twisting with pain, naked, bones out of joint and nails through his hands and feet, with spit and blood running down his face, a crown of thorns pressed down on his head, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords took upon himself the responsibility for the sins of the men he had created. Because he died, we live; because he suffered, we are forgiven; by his stripes we are healed. No other solution to the terrible problem of sin can be found in this world. This is the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven—a narrow gate, the Bible tells us, and there are very few who find it! No wonder that Christians love their King!

Chapter 7　Rejected Jesus said, “The world hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. They will treat you this way because of me, for they do not know the One who sent me.” So it is certainly true that all through the centuries since Jesus left, Christians have been persecuted in many places. This is the mark of true Christianity. The Bible tells Christians to endure patiently, and wait for the Kingdom of Heaven. Again, Jesus is our example.

Chapter 6　Wonderful Words; Mighty Deeds To this very day, the words of Jesus pierce the hearts of mankind because of their righteousness, humility and purity. But Jesus did not just speak beautiful words. He did not say to his disciples, “Follow my teachings;” He said, “Follow me!” In the same way, believers in Christ should show in their lives an example of righteousness, love, and purity, not covetousness for money and material possessions, not love of praise and honor from men, not a desire to control other peoples’ lives with power and authority. Jesus is our example.

Chapter 5　The Savior, Jesus The astounding message of the Bible is that the Creator of the universe became a man, a man like us, because he loved us and wanted to save us from the awful results of our sin. He himself, the glorious king, the mighty Creator, the holy God, came to this miserable wicked world and became the representative man, the substitute for our sins. He came to take away the sin of the world by dying for mankind. With nails through his hands that were pounded by men, with the spit and blood on his face, he took upon himself the just punishment for the sins of mankind.

Chapter 4　The Messiah Is Coming! God, through the mouths of the prophets, has promised us that a day is coming when he will establish a Kingdom of Righteousness, over which he will rule himself. He also promised that someday he will cleanse men from evil and bring them salvation from sin. The prophets promised more than this. They revealed that God would send a man to this world who would, first, be a Savior from sin, and then, later, would come again as a king and a judge. The name which they gave to this coming Savior, King, Judge was “Messiah”, and the prophesies concerning him were given long before the birth of Jesus, the “Christ”.

Chapter 3　A New Promise After the flood, Noah lived for many years. Gradually the earth again became populated with men, but as they increased they once more became sinful and rebellious toward God. They began to make idols to worship instead of God, and after a few hundred years the world had again fallen into darkness and was full of sin. Then once more God began to send warnings through prophets that he would punish sinful men again. These prophets who brought God’s message to repent were hated and persecuted, and not a few were murdered. But God, who loves men, continued to send these prophets to the world, generation after generation.

Chapter 2　“I Will Destroy the Earth” When the violence and sin of man became so unbearable that God could no longer look upon it, he decided to destroy everything that breathed. Even today we can see buried in the rocks all over the world—on the highest mountains and in the deepest ravines, the fossils and remains of the animals that were destroyed in that terrible judgment that God sent on the earth. God has promised that the next judgment will be a destruction by fire. In the New Testament in 2 Peter 3:10, we find these words: “God’s day of judgment will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a great roar, the elements will melt in the heat and the fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.”

Chapter 1　In the Beginning The Bible tells us how this world, astounding in its complexity and life, began, how man was created and why, how mankind has rebelled against their Creator and ignores him, and of God’s awful curse of Death because of men’s sin against him. It is because of our sin against God, the Bible tells us, that we live, from the day we are born, with the doom of death hanging over us. We have no hope, no real and lasting joy and peace—only death awaits us. Whether we are rich or poor, strong or weak, slave or free, sick or healthy, soon we must die, and then, the Bible tells us, we must stand before our Creator and tell him why we ignored him and his righteous laws. God, not man, will judge us, according to his laws, not ours. No religion, no philosophy, no man in the history of the world has shown us how to be saved from this horrible curse—except the Bible.

About the Bible The Bible is made up of two books called The Old Testament and The New Testament. This word, testament means a declaration or contract, or in some cases, a will. As used here, it means the contract or promise to which God has bound himself in his dealings with mankind. The contract of salvation that God has given us is based upon the death of Jesus Christ on the cross; it is a promise that God has saved us through Jesus and made us heirs of his Kingdom of Heaven. Believers in Christ are confident that the sins of mankind have been taken away forever through the death of Jesus on the cross—that Jesus, the Son of God, who was born on this earth about 2,000 years ago, took upon himself, in man’s place and as his substitute, the punishment deserved by sinful men. This means that our sins can be forgiven, and that we can believe in the promise of God, the wonderful news that we can receive eternal life that God offers to us. It is the good news of this promise that is the heart of the Bible message. The contract written before Christ is called The Old Testament and the contract written after Christ is called The New Testament. The Old Testament, centered around the Jewish nation, was authored by many writers between 1500 B.C. and 400 B.C., and consists of 39 books containing their history, laws, prophesies, poetry and songs. The message of God’s new kingdom and of the coming Christ are repeated in many prophesies. The New Testament explains the facts, how these prophesies of Christ were fulfilled in Jesus, and teaches about his salvation. It was written by Jesus’ disciples between 30 A.D. and 90 A.D., and begins with the four gospels—short histories of the life of Jesus—including also 21 letters to Christians, etc., for a total of 27 books. The Jewish people accept only the Old Testament as the Bible, the Word of God, which they call the Law and the Prophets. Christians, however, believe that both the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God. First of all, you should know this: no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, moved by the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God. 2 Peter 1:20-21

Preface The entire contents of this book, The Concise Bible, are excerpts from the Bible; that is, the text of this book is the Bible itself in an abbreviated edition. It has been compiled with the needs of those who are unfamiliar with the Bible in view, and to introduce in an easy-to-read format an outline of the Bible message to those who desire to better understand the main points of the Christian beliefs. The central theme of the Bible is Jesus, whom Christians accept as the promised Messiah, or Christ; and the mystery of the coming kingdom of God. In order to truly understand this message, one must, as Jesus said, read with a child-like and humble heart. If one will read God’s word as though searching for a hidden treasure, then, for certain one will find true in one’s own life those words from the Bible: “You have no need that anyone teach you.” After you have finished reading this book, we would like to urge you to find a copy of the Bible itself, and read it. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16