12 FOUNDATION STONES
INTRODUCTORY NOTES 3.1
THE LIFE OF JESUS AND BIBLE BASICS

Section 1: The Basics

> Who or What Is God?
	The Bible tells us: 
	1 John 4:8 – God is love. 
	The true God is a good God who is kind and loving and concerned about all of His children in every nation! The Bible tells us that He is a loving Heavenly Father Who loves you as His Own dear child, Who created this beautiful world as a home for you to live in and enjoy.
	Jesus said: 
	John 4:24a – God is Spirit. 
	He is not a mere person in the sense that you and I are, for He and His Spirit surpass the entire universe!
	God is omnipresent—everywhere; omnipotent—all-powerful; and omniscient—all-knowing!
	God is the great basic Power and Guiding Light of the Universe, the Almighty Creator, the Great Spirit of Love Who has brought all things into being. As Man's loving, fatherly Creator, He has a kind and benign purpose in store for us, a final fulfillment of all of our longings for love, life, liberty and happiness!—He loves you!

> Who Is Jesus?
	Jesus Christ is the central character of the New Testament of the Bible. His coming was foretold throughout the Old Testament.
	Jesus was born around the year 4 B.C. and was executed by crucifixion in the year 30 A.D. Three days after His death He rose again and 40 days later ascended into Heaven. Aside from a time in His childhood, He spent His life in the lands we now know as Israel and Palestine. 
	The last three and a half years of His life was the period of His public ministry where He gathered a group of disciples and traveled and preached. When Jesus began His life's work, He went about everywhere doing good—helping people, loving children, healing heartaches, strengthening tired bodies, healing sickness and disease, and bringing God's love to all whom He could. He not only preached His message, but He lived it among us as one of us. He not only ministered to Man's spiritual needs, but He spent a great deal of time ministering to people's physical and material needs, miraculously healing them when they were sick, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cleansing lepers, raising the dead. He fed the crowds when they were hungry, and did all He could to share His life and His love!
	He performed many miracles, but more important than those was His message, which was a revolutionary departure from the established teachings of the Jewish religion. He taught that love was the ultimate principle and that those who loved God and their fellow man were fulfilling God's requirements for man. 
	The most important thing about Jesus is that He was not just a great prophet and teacher but that He was God in the form of man, and belief in Him assures the believer a place in Heaven. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah, who died for our sins, allowing us to enter the Kingdom of God if we accept Him as our Savior.
	 We recommend you watch the movie Jesus. It is a good portrayal of His life and teachings.
?  (Note: Two good versions of movies about Jesus are the 1979 version with Brian Deacon, and the 2000 version with Jeremy Sisto).

Section 2: What Is the Bible?

	 The Bible is the holy book of Christians. It consists of two major parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible contains 66 books which were written by about 40 different people who were inspired by God. 
	 The books of the Bible were written during a 1,500-year period. That 1,500-year period began with Moses about 3,400 years ago and ended with the book of Revelation about 1900 years ago.
	 The Old Testament is a collection of the holy Scriptures of the Jews. It contains 39 separate books written over a time span of more than 1000 years. 
	 The Old Testament has many prophecies about a Messiah or Anointed One, who would be a "son" who would be called "Mighty God," or "Eternal Father." These prophecies were written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born.
	 The New Testament contains the sacred writings of the early Christian period. It has 27 books that were compiled into one anthology in the third century A.D. The first four books are the Gospels, and these are four separate accounts of the life of Jesus. Next is the book of the Acts of the Apostles that tells the story of the early Christians after Jesus' ascension to Heaven. Most of the remaining books are epistles, or letters, written by the early Christian leaders to individuals or groups of followers. The final book is Revelation, a prophetic vision of the future.
	 There are many versions of the Bible available, and in this course we will use the New King James version (NKJ), which is both true to the original meaning of the scriptures, as well as fairly easy for today's reader to follow and understand.

Section 3: Key Figures in the Bible

	The Bible relates the lives and teachings of many of God's men and women of faith. Some of the most important found therein are:

 	Abraham lived around 2000 B.C. and is the ancestor of both the Jews and the Arabs. At a time when polytheism—the belief in multiple gods—was the norm, Abraham became a believer in the one and unseen God. At the behest of God he left his native land in the area around ancient Ur (in what is now southern Iraq) and journeyed to the land of Canaan (modern Israel and Palestine).
	 Moses lived around 1400 B.C. and led the Israelites out of their bondage as slaves in Egypt. Through him God gave the Israelites the first five books of the Bible that contained the Law, a mixture of both civil and religious ordinances, by which they were to be governed.
	 David was the greatest king of ancient Israel and lived around 1000 B.C. Although a man of force and faults, the Bible says of him that he was a man after God's own heart. He wrote many of the songs of praise that constitute the largest book of the Bible, the book of Psalms.
	 John the Baptist was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Zacharias was a priest, and Elizabeth was the cousin of Mary, mother of Jesus. John lived the life of a hermit in the desert, existing on locusts and wild honey, until the Lord called him to start preaching. His message was one of repentance. At the height of his popularity he baptized Jesus and proclaimed Him the Messiah. About a year after he had baptized Jesus he was imprisoned by King Herod and was later executed. 
	 Peter was one of Jesus' twelve closest disciples. Originally a fisherman, he became a trusted follower and assumed a leadership role amongst the Christians after Jesus' ascension to Heaven. He was eventually martyred in Rome in 64 A.D.
	 Paul was the greatest evangelist and teacher of the early Christians. He was not a personal disciple of Jesus but was, in fact, a persecutor of the early Christians after Jesus' ascension. That changed when he was temporarily blinded by a brilliant light out of which Jesus spoke to him. His sight was restored after a Christian prayed for him and from that point on Paul became the most dynamic of the early Christians. Aside from tirelessly traveling to preach the Gospel and establishing Christian communities in many cities in the eastern areas of the Roman empire, he also wrote many letters of instruction, 14 of which remained extant and were incorporated into the New Testament over 150 years later.
	 John the Beloved was, like Peter, a fisherman before becoming Jesus' disciple. Although of a seemingly fiery nature, he also was known as the beloved disciple. His Gospel shows a deep understanding of Jesus' nature and His essential message of love. In his old age, while a prisoner in exile, he received the famous Revelation that is incorporated into the Bible as its final book.