In The Fullness Of Time
Our Lord came into the world at the perfect moment in human history, or, as Paul would say, He came “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4). Bible students can see God’s providential hand moving behind the scenes of human history to direct world events to prepare for the coming of His Son. Throughout the centuries, God’s divine oversight of the world’s affairs had prepared men and nations for the Messiah and the proclamation of the gospel.
In the first century AD, the Greco-Roman world was tired of the moral corruption in paganism and had a spiritual hunger that only the gospel of Christ could fill. The kingdom of heaven came into being at the exact time of God’s choosing—when the perfect moment in human history had arrived (Mark 1:14–15).
When our Lord came into the world, the entire Mediterranean region was under the scepter of Rome. Through Divine Providence, the Roman Empire provided the perfect environment for the establishment of the church and the spread of the gospel of Christ. The rise and fall of the mighty Roman Empire was not an accident. Centuries before Rome became a world power, the God of heaven had already determined her destiny and place in His eternal purpose. The first hint of an earthly kingdom as “strong as iron” (Dan 2:40) was in a dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the great Babylonian king.
In The Fullness Of Time is a new book by David Padfield explaining why the first century AD was the perfect time for God to send His Son into the world. This book contains a series of nine very-detailed sermon outlines and is very well documented.
The first two lessons deal with the general expectation among both Greeks and Jews that a deliverer would arise out of Israel. Then the book explains the conditions of the first century that greatly benefited the spread of the gospel: 1) A Universal Empire, 2) Universal Peace, 3) Universal Language, 4) Universal Roadways, and 5) The Synagogue Of The Jews. The final two lessons discuss multiculturalism in the New Testament age and explain why Paul was the perfect ambassador of Christ to the Greco-Roman world.
This is a free book you can download and print out (84 pages; PDF file size: 15MB). The book includes 20 color photographs.
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