The Old Testament
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
The
Old Testament is, for the most part, a recounting of historical events.
Of course, it also includes the poetic Psalms of David, as well as
other whimsical portions that are not strictly historical accounts of
previously oral stories handed down through the generations.
Genesis 1-3: “HE that cometh unto God must believe that He
is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
Hence Holy Scripture, which contains the revealed record of God’s
dealings and purposes with man, commences with an account of the
creation. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead.”
Four great truths come to us from the earliest Scripture narrative,
like the four rivers which sprung in the garden of Eden. (1) The
creation of all things by the word of God’s power; (2) the descent of
all men from our common parents, Adam and Eve; (3) the connection with
Adam as the head of the human race by which all mankind are caught in
his fall; (4) that One descended from Adam, yet without his sin is able
by His suffering to free us from the consequences of the fall. To these
four truths is added a fifth which is the institution of one day in
seven being a day of holy rest given up to God.