Salvation History

Salvation History refers to "God's plan of salvation" as revealed in the Old and New Testaments.

It is the history of God's plan to redeem or bring about "atonement" ("at one" as in "making one") for the Original Sin of Adam and Eve and bringing mankind back to God through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

All Salvation History leads to Christ.

Christ is the fulfillment of all of God's promises.

From CCC 51:

"It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature."

Stages of Revelation

From CCC Part 1. Section 1, Ch. 2, Art II:

THE STAGES OF REVELATION (CCC 32-64)

1. In the beginning God makes himself known
2. The Covenant with Noah
3. God chooses Abraham
4. God forms his people Israel

These "stages" lead to God's fullest revelation in "Christ Jesus" (CCC 65-67)

CHRIST JESUS -- "MEDIATOR AND FULLNESS OF ALL REVELATION"²⁵

God has said everything in his Word "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. (CCC 65)

Paragraph 65 quotes St. John of the Cross (here in part),

what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son

Paragraph 66:

There will be no further Revelation "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." (CCC 66, quoting from Dei Verbum)

Scattering v. Gathering

Scattering	Gathering
Salvation History
Fall of Man (Adam & Eve evicted from Eden)	Jesus ("the new Adam")
Cain murders Abel	Seth’s born to Adam & Eve
the Flood	Noah Christ’s baptism (CCC 701)
Tower of Babel	Abrahamic Covenant Pentecost
Nations of Israel	Davidic Kingdom/ Covenant
Generally
Man breaks Covenant	God repairs Covenant
Original sin	Baptism
Sin	Repentance
Scandalizer	Teacher ("gatherer")
Gossip	Community
Pride	Humility
Hell	Heaven
Dying to sin	Living in Christ
not going to Mass	going to Mass

"Salvation History"

= the story of that revelation, starting with the Genesis and the Fall of Man and concluding with Christ's fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham (see CCC 422). A large part of that history is man's willful separation from God and God's loving, patient gathering of him back, with the ultimate "gathering" in Jesus Christ.

Proto-Evangelium

The first ("proto-") announcement of the promises of Salvation in Genesis 3:15:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head,
while you strike at their heel.

The "you" is the snake, or the devil, and "the woman" is the Second Eve and mother of the Messiah, Mary. As the USCCB online Bible explains in the footnote to Gen 3:15:

The snake was identified with the devil (Wis 2:24; Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9; 20:2), whose eventual defeat seemed implied in the verse. Because “the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8), the passage was understood as the first promise of a redeemer for fallen humankind, the protoevangelium 
....

in Jerome’s Vulgate. “She” was thought to refer to Mary, the mother of the messiah. In Christian art Mary is sometimes depicted with her foot on the head of the serpent.

Scripture on the History of Salvation

As always, we want to start with Holy Scripture, the Word of the Lord.

Genesis 1:26,

Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.

Genesis 1:28

God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth

Genesis 9:1-17:

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 12:1-3

The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.

Genesis 17:5-6

No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you.

Exodus 19:5

Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine.

Exodus 20:1-3 (Ten Commandments)

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me.

, 2 Samuel 7:8 (Davidian Covenant):

Now then, speak thus to my servant David, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to become ruler over my people Israel.

Jeremiah 31:31-41 (New Covenant prophesied)

See, days are coming—oracle of the LORD—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, though I was their master...

Luke 22:14-20 (the New Covenant)

When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it [again] until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you [that] from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.”

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.

Covenants: cycle of Blessings, Curses & Redemption

God's blessings are conveyed through creation and the "Covenants," which establish his relationship to his people and his promises for them.

The blessings are conferred by God upon those keep their Covenants (promises) with God, and thereby receive the blessings promised by the Covenants. Note that "blessings" are inter-generational, and are conferred from one generation upon another through God's chosen agent, such as when Israel blesses Jacob and thereby selects Jacob to be the beneficiary and agent of the Covenants that were passed on to Isaac by his father, Abraham, who blessed (chose) him.

God never breaks his covenants (promises); people do. When they break their promises, God "curses" them, but always within the context of "redemption," as in "to come back", as if the curse were a punishment designed to guide the people back to God's ways. Thus the curses are always "redemptive" and are designed to bring the people back to God's ways.

Note: "Covenant" is the same as "Testament," thus the "Old Testament" is at its heart God's Covenants for his people, and "New Testament" is about the "new Covenant" brought by Christ.

The below charts demonstrate the connections and cycles across Salvation History. If the charts do not show, please refresh your browser.

NOAHIC COVENANT

Noahic Covenant

Noah was a righteous man and blameless in his generation (see Gn 6:9)

Noah's Descendants

"Shem" means "name." The descendants of Ham are jealous and try to make a "shem for themselves in defiance of God's chosen line of Shem.

Abrahamic Covenant

Abraham's Journey to Canaan according to the Book of Genesis.

COVENANT: PROMISED LAND

God makes three Covenants with Abraham: # Gen 15: To make of his descendants a great nation (promised land), which is fulfilled by Moses

1. Gen 17: To make of his descendants a great kingdom (a son), which is fulfilled by David
2. Gen 22: that his descendants will be as plentiful as the sand and the stars and blessed by God, which is fulfilled in Jesus

Abraham is chosen by God to make God's "chosen people," the Israelites, through whom God wants to redeem the rest of mankind. The Israelites are not chosen because they are special, they are special because they are chosen by God.

God knows, however, that the stain of original sin is yet upon his creation in man (from the Fall of Adam and Eve), to he confers his blessings as a reward for belief (faith). As such, God tests Abraham, who obeys God and thus earns God's promises for him and his descendants.

In Romans Ch. 4, St. Paul says,

What then can we say that Abraham found, our ancestor according to the flesh? Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Rom 4:1-3)

The full Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled by Christ. As Paul explains to the Galatians,

Thus Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Realize then that it is those who have faith who are children of Abraham. Scripture, which saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, “Through you shall all the nations be blessed.” Consequently, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham who had faith. (Gal 3:6)

(quotations Paul uses are from Gn 15:6 and Gn 22:18)

COVENANT: A GREAT NATION

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Gen 15:18–21)

COVENANT: A KINGDOM (SON)

Abram fell face down and God said to him:

For my part, here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,* for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you.

I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now residing as aliens, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God. 

God said to Abraham: For your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. This is the covenant between me and you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
(Gen 17:3-11)

COVENANT: BLESSING UPON ALL NATIONS (descendants)

A second time the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven and said: “I swear by my very self—oracle of the LORD—that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your son, your only one, I will bless you and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants will take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing, because you obeyed my command.” (Gen 22:15-18)

New Covenant v. Mosaic Covenant

From Galatians 4:25:

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman. The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise.

Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. Hagar represents Sinai,* a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children.

End of Patriarchs (Judges)

Samuel, the last Judge, annoints Saul king (Messiah)

Saul

But Saul, out of hubris (selfishness and pride) disobeys God

OLD MERMAID CODE (PRE-MAR 10)

---

{{mermaid:flowchart TD;

0[CREATION]--BLESSION:GARDEN OF EDEN-->A[EDENIC COVENANT]--BLESSING: Marriage-->Aa[ADAM & EVE]; Ac[SIN]--CURSE: THE FALL-->Ad[EXPULSION];

Aa--CHILDREN-->ABEL; Aa--CHILDREN-->CAIN; Aa--CHILDREN-->SETH;

CAIN--MURDERS-->ABEL CAIN-->ENOCH-->LAMECK-->Af[SONS OF MAN]--> SETH-->ENOSH-->Ag[SONS OF GOD]

B[NOAHIC COVENANT]--BLESSING: no more floods!-->Bb[RAINBOW]
Bc[HAM]-->S[SIN]-->Z
C[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 1]--BLESSING: Promised Land-->Ca[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 2];
Cb[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 2]-->Cc[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 3];
C-->Cd[TRIBES];

}}

{{#mermaid:flowchart TD CREATION

subgraph EDENIC COVENANT

A[EDENIC COVENANT]--BLESSING: Marriage-->Aa[ADAM & EVE];
Ac[FALL]--SIN-->Z[CURSE]
Ad[CAIN]-->Z[SONS OF MAN];
Aa--BLESSING: Seth-->Ae[SONS OF GOD];

NOAH

B[NOAHIC COVENANT]--BLESSING: no more floods!-->Bb[RAINBOW]
Bc[HAM]-->S[SIN]-->Z
C[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 1]--BLESSING: Promised Land-->Ca[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 2];
Cb[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 2]-->Cc[ABRAHAMIC COVENANT 3];
C-->Cd[TRIBES];

Aa--CURSE-->Ac[THE FALL];