Analysis of What the Bible is all about by Henrietta Mears - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review: What the Bible is all about by Henrietta Mears

The book can be simply summarized as the handbook summary of the Bible as produced by the author. The book was written by Henrietta Mears over half a century ago in order to simplify the Bible for all to easily read and understand the scripture without much assistance from authority figures or scholars of the Christian faith. The Bible has for centuries been viewed as a purview of the learned members of the society, that can comprehend the complex content of the Holy book. It has further been left to the church leadership to read, interpret and relay their interpretations to the multitudes. This book serves as a simple version of the Bible handbook that uses simple language to relay the message of God.

The book contains 448 pages that are well written and illustrated to ensure the language is simple and easy to understand. It enables the reader to pick up the intended messages in the text without it being lost in translation. The book illustrates all the 66 books in the Bible with the help of full color photos, charts and maps. This makes the book very user friendly and appealing to the user to pick it up and scroll through.

The book serves as a perfect introduction, given to the Bible, to new users or members who have been viewing the Bible as being too complicated for their liking. The book looks simple but can also be comprehensively used by established church leaders such as seminary students, pastors and Sunday school teachers. The book captures all the aspects of the Bible from the time of creation in the book of genesis to the coming of Jesus and the judgment day in the book of Revelations. It provides a wonderful view of the origin, content and significance of the Bible through a critical book-by-book view of biblical events. It pin points where and when the various events occurred. It is therefore deemed to be a book worth reading.

The author provides a complete guide to the scripture as it is written in the Bible. The book looks at the Bible stories from cover to cover. It first captures the creation story. It provides a chronological detailed analysis of how God came into being, how he separated the light from darkness, how he created Earth and every inhabitant of the Earth. It further describes how man was created and how he rebelled against God. The book captures the fall of man at the Garden of Eden and how God punished him, the descendants of Adam and how their lives lived out. The book covers a wide number of events, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It looks at how God came to choose Abram from the land of the heathen and raised him up to be father of all nations. From the history narratives in the Old Testament, the book talks about the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles in the New Testament. The book caps it off by providing an over view of the book of revelations.

The book details how Jesus Christ was revealed in both the Old and the New Testaments. In the Old Testament, God first mentions the coming of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis when he discovered that man had gone against his teachings. The book tells us in Genesis 3:15 that God told Satan that he shall pass judgment upon him where he promised him his ultimate destruction. This is by extension a promise of the coming of the messiah as he is the one that will bring judgment to the world with his second coming. Moses further reiterates this in Deuteronomy 18:15 when he says that God will rise up a prophet like him. In the New Testament, Jesus is presented as the theme of the whole book of Mathew in the first verse when Mathew writes “Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy and of Israel’s expectation”.

 The book further illustrates why and how the Bible is one book, one history and one story. The author postulates to the reader that even though the Bible was written over a very long period of time and by many authors who did not have exactly the same cultural upbringing and settings, the Bible is just a continuation of the same story. She writes that the Bible began with the existence of God in heaven where he lived with the angels and the Holy Spirit. God created the Earth and the Universe and fashioned man after His image and likeness so that we may be just like Him. Satan rebelled against God and as punishment he and his disciples were thrown from the heavens. Satan went to the Garden of Eden and convinced man to sin against God. God punished man with death but promised to send a messiah who would save him and bring forth judgment day. He sent Jesus Christ to redeem the human race. Jesus was crucified and died for our sins to save us from eternal damnation. He resurrected and ascended to heaven and will come back again on judgment day. This describes the Bible from Genesis through the gospels to the book of revelations.

The book introduces key people in the Bible and expressly explains their backgrounds, status and contribution to the Bible story. These vary from Adam and Eve, the first humans thus the people who sinned against God to the story of Paul who was a born again persecutor of the followers of Christ. The book tells of the story of Noah and how God chose him to save man from the floods to the stories of Job who refused to denounce his faith in God when he moved from being one of the richest people to becoming a total pauper when God allowed Satan to test him.

The author further provides historical background on each major event that occurs in the Bible. These vary from the creation of man and how he sinned to the circumstances that led to John writing the book of revelations. The author provides an exhaustive account of all these events, describing why and how they happened while indicating the consequences of such events. Some of the events include how Israel came into existence; from the time of Abram to his son Isaac to the time of Jacob down to Joseph, King Saul’s time to King David and his offspring. The events are many and are varied in nature. These are all however captured in the book.

The book also highlights the themes that are ever recurring in the Bible. One of the major themes in the Bible is the establishment of God as the one and only God and He is the only one that should be worshiped. This theme is first seen with creation in the book of Genesis and continues to the existence of idol worship during the time of Abram. It is further established with the story of Joseph in Egypt and how God saved him from certain death, first at the hands of his brothers then in the Egyptian jail where he went on to become the Pharaoh’s right hand man. This theme is further ascertained when God gave Moses the ten commandment and the theme was the first and second commandments. The theme is also seen with the story of judgment day in the book of revelations where it is said that only those who worship the one and true God will go to heaven.

Lastly, the book gives very helpful and incisive plans to help the reader to develop a good reading habit. These include reading plans, charts, maps and other study guides. These materials are very detailed and precise to prick the readers’ curiosity. After capturing the readers’ interest, the material captivates the readers further to ensure that their interest remains in the book thus establish further reading. This is through the provision of colorful pictures to elicit the interest of the reader. The material is also written in simple language and good and clean writing so that the reader does not have to struggle to read.

The book provides an instant overview of the entire book in the Bible in a step-by-step order as it is tabulated in the Bible. The book has various themes which when summarized provides a finished masterpiece that if and when properly read provides an accurate account of the Bible stories. The book’s main themes include: the provision of a complete guide to the Bible scriptures, explanation of how Jesus was revealed in the Old and New Testaments and shows why and how the Bible should be viewed as one book, one history and one story. To the author, the book is one and should not be read, viewed or treated as a collection of different books by different authors.

The book also seeks to introduce the key people in the Bible to the readers. These are the people that are adversely mentioned in the Bible such as, but not limited to, Jesus Christ, Adam, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, King David, Virgin Mary and the twelve disciples. The Bible has very many characters that serve one key role or another. This book seeks to build these characters in order to show the work of God throughout the Bible. The book goes a step further to give a historical background to all the major events witnessed in the Bible. These are varied in nature and the book builds the background story for the reader to best understand the situation. The book also highlights recurring themes in the Bible in order to emphasize to the reader their importance in the Bible and to our daily lives. The book lastly provides various helpful reading plans, charts, maps and other study material to help the reader easily read and understand the Bible.

The aim of any Christian is to ensure that the word of God is spread throughout the various corners of the world. Henrietta Mera has managed this feat by coming up with a simple but effective means of ensuring the gospel of the messiah is effectively and efficiently spread. The book provides a very simple but effective guide on how to read and understand the Bible. This has enabled millions of people to comprehend the words and messages delivered in the Bible. The book is definitely a good read that I could recommend.