Stages 1-2: Earliest Recorded History to 2000 BC
Various events are highlighted in Chart 2 above for emphasis and further review. Those highlighted in bold red will be examined in more detail in the following pages, while those in bold blue have been noted for context and occasionally addressed in our growing collection of informative Articles posted in the About section. Click here for more information about Don Roth’s dates.
Stages 1 and 2
The pattern of the Kingdom
As covered in the Alpha section, the early chapters of Genesis describe how God, the Creator and King of the Universe, lives in harmony with his people in His paradise, the Garden of Eden. God gives Adam and Eve dominion over everything on Earth; they themselves are to be under His authority. As they trust Him and remain obedient to Him, they’ll experience unimaginable blessing. They’ll enjoy a wonderfully abundant and rewarding life – a life under their Creator’s richest blessing, truly the best that life could ever be. This, in Bible language, is ‘the kingdom of God’. In Vaughan Robert’s words, “In the Garden of Eden we see the world as God designed it to be”.
The perished Kingdom
As we have already discussed, Adam and Eve reject God’s authority and decide for themselves how to live their lives. God has to banish them from His paradise and the ongoing awareness of His immediate presence. They live frustrated and troubled lives outside God’s paradise.
From this time forward in history God acts In His love and mercy to bring humanity back under His authority and all the blessings that brings. In other words, God moves to restore His Kingdom, starting with the witness of the Patriarchs and God’s judgment under Noah, and followed by the call of Abraham. The Bible story unfolds how He continues to work toward this end.
Navigation Notes
Look below and you’ll notice the Up and Down buttons in the middle. Using these buttons you can navigate directly through our timelines. For each timeline we will take a detailed tour using the standard side buttons to investigate historical events and people noted in bold red on the current chart (the preferred route, especially for your early visits to our website). Our Chart 2 tour will allow us to take a fresh look at Noah’s ministry and what happened after that up until the time of Abraham.