Personal stories aren't enough to offer individuals peace when they question their own existence. But the Bible's story comes not from humanity, but from God. Author, T. Desmond Alexander, suggests that God has given us the reasons for creation and our existence in the Bible. "by resolving an intricate plot that sheds light on the entire story," Alexander writes. Using this theory to start from the denouement, or resolution, in Revelation's last verses and work backward, Alexander pieces together the Bible's overarching plot. The resulting picture reveals the reasons for creation and life that have eluded those who seek to answer life's biggest questions without first placing themselves in God's story.

T. Desmond Alexander is senior lecturer in Biblical Studies and director of Postgraduate Studies at Union Theological College, Belfast. For ten years, he had been director of Christian Training for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Previous to that position, he lectured for 18 years in Semitic Studies at the Queen's University of Belfast. He is the author of From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Main Themes of the Pentateuch and coeditor of Heaven on Earth. He is also the coeditor of New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch.