Some years back, I came upon D. A. Carson’s wonderful course, The God Who Is There, and have downloaded the audio and listened a couple of times. It’s really a great overview of Christianity from the perspective of it’s source documents — the 66 books if the Bible. The course introduction gives a good look at the why the course is so useful:
It can no longer be assumed that most people-or even most Christians-have a basic understanding of the Bible. Many don’t know the difference between the Old and New Testament, and even the more well-known biblical figures are often misunderstood. It is getting harder to talk about Jesus accurately and compellingly because listeners have no proper context with which to understand God’s story of redemption. In this basic introduction to faith, D. A. Carson takes seekers, new Christians, and small groups through the big story of Scripture. He helps readers to know what they believe and why they believe it.
They’re right. As Carson mentions in the first installment, there was a time when we could talk to an atheist and at least know the God whose existence they were rejecting was the Christian God. That’s not the case anymore. Most people who don’t believe probably don’t give it much thought really, but for those who are paying attention, even then their perceptions of the God Christians worship is flavored not by an understanding and rejection of him as depicted in the Bible, but rather by what they’re getting of him in media they follow and use (which may include Biblical references, but even then, more often than not, references that are far out of context).
So, if you’re curious, whether you’re a Christian believer or not, I recommend this course. I warn you though — he’s Canadian (Quebec). Listen and you’ll probably see what I mean fairly quickly. Especially when he pronounces “genre.”
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/course/the-god-who-is-there/#course-introduction
I’ve been listening to the podcast The Bible in a year with Fr. Mike Schmitz. It’s put together in an order that tells the story and relates the Old Testament to the New Testament.