Anyone who's sent a lot of time reading the Bible can recognize two monumental pillars of truth standing at the beginning and the end of our understanding of God's will for us. The first is the Creation Mandate given to Adam reaffirmed to Noah, Abraham, and Jacob, and found throughout scripture: "Be fruitful and multiply." The second is the "Chief End of Man," most famously captured in the Westminster Confession: "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." At The Better Ministry , we recognize that these are not two separate instructions. They are a single, rhythmic pulse of life—a unified "heartbeat" and its resulting "effect." We call this mnemonic FM-GEG : to be Fruitful and Multiply for the Glory and Enjoyment of God . This isn't just a religious slogan; it is the universal will of God for mankind, expressed from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. It is the core programming of what it means to be made in the image of God. The ...
Many of us were introduced to the Bible as "God’s love letter to mankind." It’s a beautiful sentiment, and in an ultimate sense, it is true. But if you have ever sat down to read the Bible from cover to cover, you’ve likely hit a wall. As you navigate the dense legalities of Leviticus, the terrifying scale of the Flood, or the scorched-earth warnings of the Prophets, you have to wonder: If this is a love letter, why does it feel like a legal briefing or a series of rebukes? It is this exact tension that causes many modern Christians to retreat almost entirely into the New Testament. We crave the "love"—the compassion, the grace, and the "red letters" of Jesus—because the "truths" of the Old Testament feels too heavy, too harsh, and too foreign to our modern sensibilities. However, there is a more profound reality at work from Genesis to Revelation that every believer must recognize. To understand the Bible—and the God who authored it—we have to l...