VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. Today on Anchored by Truth we want to continue looking at some of the key scriptures that are present in different books of the Bible that help illustrate that the Bible really is one single story of our magnificent God unfolding His plan of redemption. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author and founder of Crystal Sea Books and part time personal chef. He often heats the leftovers in the microwave. But today there’s nothing leftover about what we’re going to discuss because today we’re going to talk about two more of the scriptures that RD has chosen to help us see the remarkable unity of the story told by the entire Bible. RD, would you care to remind us of what we discussed in our last episode of Anchored by Truth?

RD: I’d be happy to. This series is all about showing that the Bible tells one continuous story from Genesis to Revelation. The story focuses on a person, Jesus, a people, those believers who have accepted Christ as their savior, and a process, how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit went about redeeming that people so they could spend eternity with God in heaven. Last time we checked our two scriptures from the early part of Genesis. The first scripture described the creation of the heavens and earth and, sadly, the second scripture described man’s fall in the Garden of Eden. I think it’s a good idea to recall two important points that we made. First, is that the very first verse of scripture mentions the “heavens” (plural) and “the earth” (singular). So, on day one there are multiple heavens but only one earth so we get a clue right away that the story is going to be about something that happens on earth but involves the heavens and indeed that’s how the rest of the Bible unfolds. The second point is that the fall of man emphasizes this theme. Man fell after he was tempted by Satan in the garden. So, temptation came to earth from one of the heavens but, until Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, that temptation hadn’t turned into sin.

VK: Hmmm. That’s such an important observation. The drama that unfolds in scripture has earth as the main stage, but there’s plenty that happens on the main stage that involves activity that isn’t confined to earth. Satan brought temptation to earth, but man’s actual rebellion was man’s choice on earth. But also as you pointed out last time, a believer’s ultimate destiny is to be with God in heaven. So, not only does Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1 give us hints about the story, it also gives us hints about the ending. But let’s not get too far ahead of where we’re going. The next steps in God’s unfolding plan of redemption – after the creation and fall – are covered in our opening scriptures for today. So, obviously today we’re going to talk about the first mention of God’s plan of redemption and another big event: the flood and the inauguration of the Noahic covenant.

RD: Yes. Just a reminder God’s plan of redemption unfolds in an entire series of covenants that God inaugurates. There’s not universal agreement among scholars about the exact number but there is widespread agreement on most. The first two covenants were the covenant of works, which Adam failed to keep, and the covenant of grace which God initiated on earth after Adam’s failure. But the next covenant from a sequence standpoint was, as you mentioned, the Noahic covenant. But before we get to it let’s take a look at today’s first scripture which is sometimes termed the “protoevangelium.”

VK: Protoevangelium is a compound word made up of two Greek words. The first word is “protos” meaning "first" and “evangelion” meaning "gospel" or "good news." Genesis 3:15 is commonly thought of as being the first mention of the good news of salvation in the Bible. Many Bible commentators have pointed to God’s pronouncement that God said He would put enmity between Satan and “the woman” as the first indication of the virgin birth of the promised Savior. God specifically said that the enmity would involve the woman’s “seed” but there was no mention of Adam in the pronouncement.

This is episode 280.

+++++++