Full Bible Timeline

IT’S ALL ABOUT JESUS

Along the bottom edge of the Full Bible Timeline, I have selected a small portion of the hundreds of prophecies that point directly to Jesus Christ. Each section displays:

• The Old Testament prophetic verse (black text)

• The corresponding New Testament fulfillment (teal text)
   

These visual pairings demonstrate a foundational truth affirmed by scholars for centuries: Jesus literally fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies.
 
Theologian J. Barton Payne documented 574 Old Testament messianic references, of which over 300 point directly to Jesus.

As F. F. Bruce observed:
“The old was fulfilled in the new, not by accident but by divine design.”
 
If Christ fulfilled His First Coming prophecies literally, it would be inconsistent—indeed, illogical—to assume that the prophecies regarding His Second Coming should be interpreted figuratively or allegorically.

As R. C. Sproul wrote:
“Prophecy is not given to obscure truth, but to reveal it.”
 
This is the guiding interpretive principle:
When the plain sense makes sense, any other sense is nonsense.
 
THE PRESSURE TO CONFORM
In much of the modern Western church, a quiet pressure exists:
Do not offend.
Do not challenge.
Do not appear fringe.
 
This tendency is not new. Throughout history, the people of God have faced the temptation to exchange the supernatural for the socially acceptable.

Athanasius, confronting heresy in the 4th century, famously said: 
“If the world is against truth, then I am against the world.”

Yet church history teaches us this:
Revival has never come through conformity.
 
The seasons we celebrate—Pentecost, the Great Awakening, the Welsh Revival, the Reformation—were born when men and women refused to bend their faith to the demands of culture.

As Charles Spurgeon put it:
“The church has no reason to exist if she is not distinct from the world.”

WHEN RELIGION REPLACES RELATIONSHIP
After the apostles died, a spiritual coldness settled over the empire. Ritual replaced power. Cathedrals replaced prayer closets. Form replaced fire.

Augustine warned of this drift in his day:
“There are many who go to church but have no fellowship with God.”
 
This is not unlike ancient Israel.

After the captivity, disobedience produced a generation zealous for rules. The Pharisees began with good intentions—but ended with 400 extra laws, smothering the very relationship God desired.
 
As Calvin observed:
“The human heart is a factory of idols.”
 
And in the presence of Jesus Himself—the Giver of the Law—the religious were blind, while sinners drank living water.

Religion kills.
Jesus gives life.
 
WHEN THE SUPERNATURAL IS ABSENT—A COUNTERFEIT EMERGES
Germany in the 1920s stands as a haunting warning.

Where the gospel’s supernatural power was absent, a counterfeit gospel rose in the form of political idolatry. Historians such as Eric Metaxas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Alan Jacobs have described how:

• 18,000 pastors faced cultural pressure

• only about 5,000 resisted

• the rest conformed

As Bonhoeffer wrote:
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.”

The compromising church always persecutes the confessing church.

THE EMPTY CHURCHES OF THE WEST
Today, in England and across much of Europe, churches are often converted into museums. Many are converted into restaurants, apartments, or mosques. A church that abandons truth to gain the world ultimately loses both.
 
Meanwhile, in Asia—China, Vietnam, Thailand, and beyond—believers pray daily at 5 a.m., often at great personal risk.

As G. K. Chesterton once said:
“The church is the only thing that can save a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.”

Where truth is costly, faith is vibrant.
Where truth is free, faith is often cheap.

THE BIBLE IS A BOOK ABOUT JESUS
The entire storyline of Scripture—Genesis to Revelation—reveals Christ.

As N. T. Wright wrote:
“Jesus is the climax of Israel’s story.”
 
Every prophecy concerning His birth, life, death, resurrection, and return points not to abstract religion but to a Person.
 
And that Person is the center of the Full Bible Timeline.
 
THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE OF OUR AGE
Today’s culture blurs categories once considered foundational. Morality is bent. Truth is fluid. Biology is optional. And in many pulpits, sermons are groomed to avoid confrontation rather than ignite transformation.
 
James Montgomery Boice warned of this very thing:
“A church that cannot say ‘Thus says the Lord’ has nothing to say.”
 
Without the supernatural presence of God, churches must offer the world a substitute spirituality—a pleasant moralism wrapped in religious vocabulary.
 
But where the Spirit is welcome, the counterfeit cannot survive.
 
THE NEED FOR A PROPHETIC CHURCH
Like Jeremiah, who preached truth while surrounded by flattering prophets, the modern church must recover the courage to speak what God is speaking—not what culture demands to hear.
 
The New Testament prophet Agabus warned of famine (Acts 11:27–28).

A warning is not unloving.
A warning is preparation.
 
Michael Heiser, in The Unseen Realm, reminds us:
“The supernatural world is not a metaphor.
The early church operated with this worldview, and so must we.”

We are living in a prophetic hour.
There is famine in the land—a famine not of bread, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
The world is hungry.
The church must become an oasis again.

THE CALL TO NON-CONFORMITY
Every hero of faith—Martin Luther, Evan Roberts, Maria Woodworth-Etter, John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth—stood against cultural pressure. None were conformists. They were men and women who listened to the Spirit when others didn’t.
 
Hebrews 13:7 tells us to consider the outcome of their way of life—and imitate their faith.
History repeats itself because people forget.
The remedy is remembrance.
 
BE WATCHFUL. HE IS COMING SOON.
Once again, the confessing church and the compromising church stand in tension. But God is raising up men and women who are willing to hear His voice and speak His Word—no matter the cost.
 
Stay vigilant.
Stay awake.
Stay watchful.
Jesus is coming soon.

 
Thanks,
M. Joseph Hutzler, Eschatologist
www.FullBibleTimeline.com