Do you want to understand the Bible better?
Are you hoping to take your Bible studies to the next level without reading hundreds of pages of commentaries?
Studying the main theme of the Bible is an excellent way of achieving this.
Understanding the main theme of the Bible has many benefits, including a more holistic view of the Scriptures.
By reading this article, you will learn that the Bible’s central theme, creation-fall-re-creation, covers the whole Bible and repeats very often in the Biblical narrative, giving you almost unfair insights compared to those unaware of this.
Contents
Jesus is not the Bible’s main theme
The heading might sound surprising and even ruffle someone’s feathers, so let’s explain it briefly.
Everything in the Bible points to Jesus. God is the Creator, the author of history and Scripture. He is the orchestra leader working in history to fulfill His salvation plan through the main character, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
In other words, we are not taking anything away from Jesus but giving all glory to His holy name for rescuing humanity from the mess that man has created.
However, because the fall is essential to our history and the Biblical narrative, it must be included in the main theme. And because God doesn’t participate in the fall, man brings it; it follows that the main theme can’t be just Jesus.
So, what is the main theme of the Bible, then?
Creation-Fall-Re-creation is the Bible’s main theme
The main theme of the Bible, creation, fall, and re-creation, outlines God’s overarching narrative with humanity:
- Creation: God creates the world and everything in it, declaring it good.
- Fall: Humanity’s disobedience (Adam and Eve’s sin) introduces sin and brokenness into the world.
- Re-creation: God’s plan to restore humanity through Jesus Christ, offering salvation and reconciliation. The ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan is reached when believers dwell with God eternally in the new creation.
These stages encapsulate the biblical storyline, revealing God’s purpose and plan for humanity.
In more academic literature, this narrative is known as the creation, fall, redemption, and restoration/consummation theme.
In its simplest terms, the Bible’s central theme can be described as “down and up,” thus a U-shape image is the easiest way to remember and understand it.
The theme’s narrative begins from a good place. God has created a paradise where man can meet with God and worship Him. Soon after creation, man sins again. The initial fall leads to more severe sinning and eventually down into the pit.
God delivers the people who are faithful to Him from the pit, usually after they repent and cry out for help. The rest of the world faces God’s judgment. When the old evil world is judged, the faithful remnant is delivered (usually through waters) to a new creation.
The new creation is a spiritually more elevated place than the previous one until man begins sinning again, and so the theme repeats.
If you want to read a condensed version of the Bible’s main theme, Genesis 1-9 is the best place to start. These chapters are also excellent for a deep Bible study because they contain many of the Bible’s other essential themes.
The creation-fall-re-creation covers the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but it also repeats several times within the Bible.
The central theme often repeats
The central theme of the Bible repeats often. It repeats in the lives of God’s chosen people, Israel’s history, and the New Testament. Below, you will find examples of this.
- Genesis 1-9.
- Genesis 9-50.
- Abraham from Ur, Babylon, in Genesis 9:18-12:6.
- Abraham from Egypt in Genesis 12-13:1.
- Lot’s story.
- Jacob from his relatives.
- The life of Joseph.
- Israel’s Exodus.
- The Book of Esther.
- Judah’s return from Babylonian exile.
- The Book of Jonah as reverse exodus.
- The life of Jesus.
- The life of the believers in the New Covenant.
Benefits of understanding the main theme of the Bible
You gain multiple benefits once you know the main theme of the Bible.
You will gain a holistic understanding of the Scriptures
You will realize that the Bible is a coherent whole and that there is no break between the Old and New Testaments. The Testaments are in a continuum with each other. The New Testament reveals what the Old Testament tells in types and shadows. The Old Testament gives you immense insight into the New Testament revelation.
You understand history better
“History repeats itself.” The repetition of the central theme teaches you that God works in history in such a way that makes the events repeat. Naturally, the events are not repeated precisely the same way every time but are rather like echoes of the past.
Also, since Jesus’ Second Coming brings this time to its fulfillment, where everything is revealed, history has a purpose. The stream of events in time indeed flows towards consummation in Christ.
You understand your life story better
Your life story resembles the main story of the Bible. Humanity’s story in the Bible is your story. God creates you in your mother’s womb as pure and innocent, but the temptations of the world make you fall, leading to a point where you cry for God in repentance. He hears you and lifts you from the pit, bringing you from darkness to light, from death to life. You are a new creation born of water and Spirit with God-given law in your heart, ready to conquer and advance the Kingdom of God to secure your place in the Promised Land.
You become better at understanding and telling stories
The creation-fall-re-creation narrative is an archetypical plot line used in every successful story. The best and ultimate example of this is, of course, the story of Christ. His story is the one that all other successful stories resemble.
The creation-fall-re-creation narrative is familiar to us because it’s hardwired in us. No matter your worldview, you recognize the innocence in infants, how things are not right in the world, how we have fallen from the ideal place, and how we yearn and hope to return to that better place. Down and up narrative is everyone’s story, and that’s why it catches our attention so well.
Once you understand that the U-shaped narrative is fundamental in storytelling, you start to see how successful movies, books, and children’s stories utilize this formula in their plots. See it yourself by reading, for example, Little Red Riding Hood once you finish this article.
In addition, nothing prevents you from using the U-shaped narrative in your own storytelling. It works in any media and with any audience.
Summary
Should you remember one thing from this article, it should be the U-shaped image. This image captures the essential elements in an easy-to-remember fashion. You can even draw it and memorize the few elements in it.
Read also Genesis 1-9 and Genesis 9:18-12:6. Fit the image’s elements (notice the three falls in both of them) into these chapters and try to see how the main theme of the Bible repeats in these chapters. You can review the other Biblical narratives from the list above, too.