Ancient Apostles & Disciples

One of the evidences that the Bible was authored by God, and not by a committee of 40 to 60 cleaver people spanning over a millennium or two, is that it (the Bible) has a single primary literary theme.  Despite having many narratives with many, many sub-themes and plots there is an over-riding, transcendent story which binds the texts together and makes the book a whole.

That story starts with the divine creation of the cosmos, and then it jumps to the creation of the first man and the first women.  We are told that they were made in the image of the divine.

Because that description, mankind being made in the image of God, seems vague and unclear to many of us, tend to not pay much attention to it.

Yet, that fact turns out to be the basis for the grand thematic tension which most of the human authors writing the texts of the Bible are working explain.

The often overlooked and occasionally even disputed characteristic of mankind that causes the problem which has to be fixed is that God makes men free agents.  Acting as free agents, the first man and women, together, make a bad choice.  They chose to disobey their maker.

This single event starts the thematic ball rolling.  Ideas have consequences, and the consequence of Adam and Eve’s bad decision is that they loose the mystical union of their fellowship which they have with their maker.

The rest of scripture is on one level or another the story of mankind’s need for redemption, and his/her journey and search for the restoration of that fellowship they shared with God.  The irony is that while mankind (we) can choose to act badly, we can’t be good enough to obtain the redemption and restoration we seek on our own.  That process requires a holy redeemer who is one person with two natures (one human, one divine) who can accomplish God’s requirement for our atonement and redemption in our place.

However that is not the whole story, there is more.  God also created his ethereal assistants (the angels).  They also have free agency.  One of them led a cadre of them into a cosmic rebellion against God. This get Satan and his minions expelled from heaven.

God’s decision to create us and the angels as free agents has been both a blessing and a curse to us, and too those angles who chose badly as well. Of course, God did not want puppet servants or to be worshiped by puppets. He desired intelligent, and informed, and enthusiastically willing creatures to worship Him.

So, while mankind is stumbling on his sojourn to regain his mystical fellowship with God, Satan and his nefarious army were and are working even more actively to undermine the grand divine plan.

These two factors conclude in a cosmic confrontation between God and the satanic forces trying influence mankind to act selfishly.  God, being all powerful, has no real problem vanquishing evil, so history ends in the restoration of those men and women who chose to obey God living in a restored creation for eternity.

That single theme transcends all the books compiled into the Bible, and it is the essential core story of mankind.

The Ancient Apostles and disciples listed below are specific individuals, who had a particular part in that process.