4. Similar ideas and principles running throughout the Bible
 

Although the Bible was written by such a variety of people over a long period of time, similar themes keep reappearing. Each time they occur, we learn a little more of the Bible message. Some people call these recurring themes “Bible echoes”.

 

There is no other collection of writings written over a period of 1,500 years by such a variety of writers that has these “echoes”.

 

We can find some of these themes by using books like The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. This contains 500,000 of these links in ideas that have been found in the Bible. Some computer packages contain The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

 

Cross-references are used to identify these links in ideas. We will show you how these “echoes” help us to find the Bible message.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge contains 500,000 Biblical links in ideas
 

The Old Testament character Abraham had the following statement made to him in the book of Genesis:

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Genesis 12 v 3

We may wonder what this comment is all about. It sounds as though this is something which could benefit everyone.

If we look at the cross references in Treasury of Scripture Knowledge from Genesis 12 v 3, the following verses are the most interesting:

Genesis 18 v 18; 22 v 18; 26 v 4; 28 v 14.
Acts 3 v 25 and 26.
Psalm 72 v 17.
Galatians 3 v 8, 16 and 28.

We shall look at some of these references in “The Bible message for us” section later in this section.

The Genesis references show that the same promise is also made to Abraham’s son and grandson. The reference from the Psalms comes at the end of a Psalm talking of a time when our world will be transformed from its present evil state. The Acts reference shows how the Apostle Peter picks up this phrase and tells us that it will be fulfilled through Jesus Christ. The Galatians reference tells us how we can be involved in all of this.
 

Let us consider the writers of this unfolding message:

The promise about all nations having a blessing was given to wandering nomads and written down about 1450 BC by Moses, a man born into a nation of slaves who became leader of the Jews.

The comments about a transformed earth in which all nations can be involved were written about 400 years later by David, a shepherd in his youth, who became king.

The apostle Peter was a fisherman who made his comments about 1,000 years after David.His words were written down by a doctor.

The Bible – unique in its variety of
writers and consistency in message
 

The additional information on how we can be involved was written down a few years after Peter made his comments. The writer, Paul, had been destined to reach the top in Jewish religious circles.

There is no other literature on earth that has this variety of writers and yet consistency of message.

Jesus himself supported this idea of looking for “echoes” in other parts of the Bible to learn more:

 

Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and
the Psalms concerning Me.’

Luke 24 v 44

Jesus is here confirming that we can find more information about him and his work in the Old Testament:

Law of Moses:
     Genesis to Deuteronomy
Psalms
Prophets:
     Isaiah to Malachi

Bibliography:
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Hendrickson, 1982.