Biblical History

According to The World Almanac and Book of Facts (1998 ed., pp. 551), recorded history begins approximately 4,000 BC. This matches well with the beginning of recorded history in the Bible, beginning with the account of Adam and Eve. According to God's Word, the Bible, you are specially created for a special purpose!

This means that God has planned a glorious destiny for you! Continue reading to find out more about this exciting destiny!

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7

"And He[Creator God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. So that they should seek the Lord, in hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He be not far from each one of us."
Acts 17:26

"I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well." Psalms 139:14

We see here that from the very beginning, we were a special creation, unlike monkeys or apes.

Shortly after their creation, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. As a result of their sin, death and suffering were brought into the world.

"Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." Romans 5:12

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." Romans 6:23

"For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…" Jeremiah 17:9

Many generations after Adam, people became extremely corrupt and violent in thesight of the LORD God. So God decided to send a Global Flood as judgment for man's wickedness. In those days, there was one man by the name of Noah who was righteous in God's sight. God therefore spared Noah's life, and the lives of his family members. God commanded Noah to build an ark large enough to house his own family and to take aboard at least two (male and female) of each kind of land and air animal.

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." Genesis 6:5-8

And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them: and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood..." Genesis 6:13-14

The Flood that God sent was his righteous judgment on man's wickedness, and it killed all land and air creatures, including all people. Only the animals and people aboard Noah's ark were saved. These people included Noah, his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives: a total of eight people. After the flood waters had receded, Noah, his family, and all the animals exit the ark. Upon exiting the ark, Noah first builds an altar and offers burnt sacrifices to the God of Heaven for His mercy, grace, and for saving his entire family. It is noteworthy that the Chinese have a very similar custom of offering burnt sacrifices to the Supreme Being whom they call Shang-ti 上帝 . This custom extends to the very beginnings of Chinese civilization. We will take a closer look at this later.

"And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man." Genesis 7:19-21

"So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. " Genesis 7:7

"Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma.." Genesis 8:20-21

After the Flood, God commanded man to multiply, spread, and repopulate the whole earth. At this point in human history, mankind spoke only one language, had only one national government, and were united under one culture. Because of man's sinful nature, the people took advantage of this unprecedented unity to rebel against their Creator God. They did so by refusing to spread out and attempted to build a tower, located in ancient Babel, whose top would " reach the heavens." Because of their rebellion, God forced mankind to scatter across the whole earth by confusing their languages. As people began to split up and spread out according to their languages, nations and ethnic groups began to form. The origins of all ethnic groups and nationalities, including the Chinese people, begins here.

"So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. " Genesis 9:1

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech." Genesis

And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:4

"And the LORD said, Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city." Genesis 11:6-8