Muhammad listening to the Archangel Gabriel

13.  SALVATION HISTORY

(From The Creation to the Jews and King David and The Messiah)

THE CREATION  (Genesis 1)

"And God saw that everything was good."

FIRST PARENTS – ADAM & EVE  (Genesis 2)

In the Garden of Paradise – no disorder, suffering or death.

THE TEMPTATION – THE 'FALL FROM GRACE'  (Genesis 3)

Death and disorder enter the world with the Tempter-Satan, the 'Spirit of Evil'.

God warned Adam and Eve if they were disobedient and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die. (Genesis 2:16,17)
...and then came Satan's Great Deception.
Satan lied to them saying, "You will not die, but be as gods, like God Himself." (Genesis 3:4,5) Adam and Eve ignored God's warning (Genesis 3:6) and fell for the lie which brought death upon themselves, their children and upon all of their descendants for all time.
This, is known as 'The Original Sin'.

GOD PROMISES A REDEEMER

"God Himself will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:4) In Genesis 3:15 is the 1st Scriptural mention of the Messiah when God said to Satan, "Because you have done this thing,... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, ('The Immaculate Conception') between her seed (as she will be mother of the Messiah) and your seed: (evil spirits) She shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel." (Romans 16:20)

ADAM TO NOAH

(Noah: Genesis 5 – 9)

The children of Adam and Eve multiplied for many generations until the generation of Noah when the wickedness among all men was such that God regretted creating them. Noah, his wife and their three sons with their three wives were the only ones to find grace with God at that time, and God told Noah to build an ark in which he and his family, together with two of every kind of creature God had created upon the earth, were to be saved from a destroying flood He was going to visit upon the inhabited world. (Genesis 10 - 11)

After the flood came the generations upon generations issuing from the sons of Noah: Sem, Cham and Japheth. They were all one people of one tongue, and this continued until they presumed to build a huge city with a tower reaching to heaven. So, God confused them in their language, multiplying the languages among them in order to split and disperse them abroad into all the lands.

ABRAM / ABRAHAM

It was from the line of Noah's son Sem that Thare (Terah) would be born and become the father of Abram and his brothers Nachor and Aran. (Aran was the father of Abram's nephew, Lot, who was saved out of the city of Sodom.) God changed Abram's name to 'Abraham' and said He would establish a Perpetual Covenant with him. (Genesis 17:1-22)

God separated Abraham from the other people of his time and settled him in the land of Canaan, promising He would "make of him a great nation,... and that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3) Because his wife Sarah was barren, Abraham fathered a child with Sarah's servant-girl Hagar. An angel named the child 'Ishmael' (Genesis 16:11,12; 17:20,21) and Abraham asked God if He would fulfil His promise to him through his son Ishmael. (Genesis 17:18) God said, "No! I will make My Covenant with the child you have with Sarah!" (Genesis 17:19; See also Genesis 15:3,4) Sarah miraculously conceived in her old age; she was 90 and Abraham was 100 when she gave birth to the son God said they were to call Isaac. (Genesis 17:15-19,21; 21:5-7)


God tested the faith of Abraham by calling him to offer Isaac to Him as a sacrifice, (Genesis 22:1-18) (precursor of the Self-offering Sacrifice of God's own Divine Son as a Sacrifice of Redemption for sinful mankind) and after Abraham had proved himself faithful with a heart akin to God's own Heart, God made His 'Perpetual Covenant' with him, promising Abraham that He would make him "the father of many nations" with "children numbered as the stars of the heavens and the sands of the seashore...as a reward for his obedience." (Genesis 22:16-18; 13:16 & 18:18,19)

Isaac married Rebecca and they had a son whom they called Jacob. God changed Jacob's name to 'Israel' (Genesis 32:28) whose 12 sons fathered 'the twelve tribes of Israel'. (Genesis 35:22) It was David of the tribe of his fourth son 'Judah' (the Jews) who the Israelites made their 2nd King. (2 Kings 5:3,4) David is especially cited in the Scriptures as being a predecessor of the Messiah who was "to reign in the House of Jacob forever," (Luke 1:32) the One to Whom "all the tribes of the earth would come to be blessed" (Genesis 18:18; 28:14,15; Acts 4:12 & Psalm 71:17) through all of the ages, till the end of the world, "as there is no other Name given to men whereby he can be saved" and come to be numbered among the true children of Abraham. (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; & see Article 23 & Article 24)



SALVATION HISTORY: LINEAGE SUMMARY

(From 'The Creation' to the Jewish Messiah and His Church)

THE CREATION
ADAM & EVE
CAIN, ABEL & SETH (Children of Adam & Eve)
NOAH (Of the line of Seth. Sons: Sem, Cham & Japheth)
SEM (Son of Noah)
THARE (Of the tribe of Sem, the Semites - Father of Abraham)
ABRAHAM (Father of Ishmael & Isaac)
ISAAC (Miraculous child of God's Covenant with Abraham) Father of Jacob.
JACOB (Son of Isaac) God changed Jacob's name to 'Israel'. (Genesis 32:28 & 35:10)
(Read the dream of 'Jacob's Ladder', Genesis 28:12-15)

12 SONS OF JACOB ('ISRAEL') who fathered 'the 12 tribes of Israel': Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zabulon, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Nephtali, Gad and Aser. (Genesis 35:22-26)
JUDAH (4th son of Jacob) Judah's tribe - the Jews, from whom the Messiah would emerge.
KING DAVID: David of the tribe of Judah was made King of Israel. (2 Samuel 5:3,4) Predecessor of the Messiah, who was "to reign in the House of Jacob, forever." (Luke 1:32) (2nd King, after Saul. He wrote many of the Psalms.)

"A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE AND BEAR A SON, and His name shall be called Emmanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) 'Emmanuel' means 'God with us'. (Matthew 1:23)

"AND THE VIRGIN'S NAME WAS MARY, who was betrothed to a man called Joseph of the House of David." (Luke 1:27)

AND HER SON, THE MESSIAH: "...shall be given the throne of David, his father..... .......and HE SHALL BE CALLED JESUS, THE SON OF GOD." (Read Luke 1:26-35) He is: "THE SAVIOUR." (Luke 2:11) "God Himself will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:4) He is: "CHRIST THE LORD." (Luke 2:11) He is: "THE MESSIAH, which being interpreted means, THE CHRIST." (John 1:41; 4:25,26; 8:42 & 1 John 4:14) (In Greek, 'Christ' means 'the Anointed One'.)

CHRIST, THE MESSIAH established HIS CHURCH to continue His mission: To His Apostles He said, "All authority is Mine in Heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18) I give to you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 16:19) Whose sins you forgive, are forgiven. (John 20:21-23) Go, and teach all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all things I have commanded you. (Matthew 28;19,20) The gates of hell will never prevail against you because I am with you all days till the end of the world." (Matthew 16:18; 28:20)

So, the Messiah, King of the Jews, born of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), King David and of the Virgin has come, fulfilling all that was said of Him by the Prophets. In Him alone is fulfilled God's 'Perpetual Covenant' with Abraham. He alone is to bring "God's blessing to all the nations". (Psalm 71:17) And still today, He continues to act through His Catholic Church to which He gave His authority to act in His Name until the end of time. (Matthew 5:17,18; 16:16-19; 28:18-20; Luke 24:44-49; Acts 2:1-13; 4:12)

"After I am Lifted up (on the Cross) I will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:32; Article 15)
"No one can come to the Father, except by Me." (John 14:6)