How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

Welcome to Through the Bible.

I'm your host Steve Schweetz, and I'm so glad that you've hopped aboard the Bible bus for our five-year journey through God's entire word.

Our study today picks up at First Thessalonians Chapter 2, verse 7.

But before we dive in, here are some introductory thoughts from our teacher, the late Dr. J. Vernon

McGee.

There is so much confusion today in the area of prophecy that I felt that it might be worthwhile for me to take a few minutes today here in the beginning to give an outline of God's prophetic program and that's important to understand

especially in this time of confusion and when so much is being said about prophecy and many things that are being said are quite

wild by the way and have no basis in the word of God.

So let's go back first to the beginning and get a perspective of God's

program and it'll help us to see where we are on God's blueprint. How do we fit into his time capsule? What's our relationship

to the world? We need some background material.

So let's look at this for just a moment.

First of all, let me say that God began with the human race as a whole at the creation to bring them back into the

foal after the fall of man in the garden of God. The willful and rebellious heart of man did not respond

and humanity's failure was evidenced by the judgment of the flood and the tower of

Babel experience. The Gentile world was a failure

but God did not despair

nor did he cast them off

Then God took a man by the name of Abraham and from that man he made a

nation by the name of Israel that was to be his witness in the world. That nation likewise

failed and then God did a new thing. He began to form out of both Jew and Gentile a people for his name and

...