Can we trust the Bible completely? Is it sufficient for our complicated lives? Can we really know what it teaches? And isn't it more important to focus on Jesus instead of the Bible?With his characteristic wit and clarity, Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by Christians and non-Christians alike. This book will help readers understand what the Bible says about itself and the key characteristics that contribute to its lasting significance. Avoiding technical jargon, this winsome volume will encourage men and women to read and believe the Bible--confident that it truly is God's word.Free Study Guide by Pat Quinn.

    But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction or accepted among the conservative evangelical community.Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to “protect” the Bible, Enns was conflicted. Is this what God really requires? How could God’s plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job—but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow.The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns’s spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God’s Word as it is actually written. As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider—the essence of our spiritual study.

    Hell, judgment, and holy war are hot topics for the Christian faith that have a way of igniting fierce debate far and wide. These hard questions leave many wondering whether God is really good and can truly be trusted."The Skeletons in God's Closet" confronts our popular caricatures of these difficult topics with the beauty and power of the real thing. Josh Butler reveals that these subjects are consistent with, rather than contradictory to, the goodness of God. He explores Scripture to reveal the plotlines that make sense of these tough topics in light of God's goodness. From fresh angles, Josh deals powerfully with such difficult passages as:* The Lake of Fire* Lazarus and the Rich Man* The Slaughter of Canaanites in the Old TestamentUltimately, "The Skeletons in God's Closet" uses our toughest questions to provoke paradigm shifts in how we understand our faith as a whole. It pulls the "skeletons out of God's closet" to reveal they were never really skeletons at all.

    Those who perserved the ancient tradition rejected the second temple, and longed for the restoration of the original, true temple and the faith of Abraham and Melchizedek, the first priest-king. In this fascinating discussion, the author refutes the scholarly assumption that crucial Christian concepts, such as the Trinty, the earth as a reflection of heaven, and the cosmic nature of the atonement, are informed by Greek culture. Rather, she argues, they are drawn from the eclipsed faith of the first temple. '[Margaret Barker's] interpretation of temple theology should not be ignored by anyone in Judaism and the origins of Christian faith.' John McDade, Principal of Heythrop College, University of London.

    Saul. David. Goliath. Jonathan. When we think of 1 & 2 Samuel, these names and the stories that make them memorable generally come to mind. But these narratives are more than mere history.Peter Leithart offers here a typological reading of 1 & 2 Samuel as a unified book. By giving careful attention to the book's literary structures and its patterns of types and antitypes, Leithart unveils the symbolic world of Samuel's cumulative and cohesive story. His reading enhances our understanding of New Testament Christology while at the same time giving us a framework for applying the Old Testament to our own lives.

    Because of the cultural distance between the biblical world and our contemporary setting, we often bring modern Western biases to the text. For example:When Western readers hear Paul exhorting women to "dress modestly," we automatically think in terms of sexual modesty. But most women in that culture would never wear racy clothing. The context suggests that Paul is likely more concerned about economic modesty--that Christian women not flaunt their wealth through expensive clothes, braided hair and gold jewelry.Some readers might assume that Moses married "below himself" because his wife was a dark-skinned Cushite. Actually, Hebrews were the slave race, not the Cushites, who were highly respected. Aaron and Miriam probably thought Moses was being presumptuous by marrying "above himselfWestern individualism leads us to assume that Mary and Joseph traveled alone to Bethlehem. What went without saying was that they were likely accompanied by a large entourage of extended family.Biblical scholars Brandon O'Brien and Randy Richards shed light on the ways that Western readers often misunderstand the cultural dynamics of the Bible. They identify nine key areas where modern Westerners have significantly different assumptions about what might be going on in a text. Drawing on their own crosscultural experience in global mission, O'Brien and Richards show how better self-awareness and understanding of cultural differences in language, time and social mores allow us to see the Bible in fresh and unexpected ways. Getting beyond our own cultural assumptions is increasingly important for being Christians in our interconnected and globalized world. Learn to read Scripture as a member of the global body of Christ.

    With this innovative guide, readers can enrich their study with fascinating insights into the Bible and the world in which it was written.The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook offers the most up-to-date evangelical biblical scholarship in a format that is readable and easy to understand. This book-by-book guide brings the Bible to life with more than 1,100 full-color pages packed with illustrations, maps, and photos, and 112 in-depth articles on a wide range of topics important to students of the Bible. Readers will discover how each part of the Bible fits into and informs every other part, giving them a cohesive understanding of God's Word.No reference collection will be complete without this incredible new handbook to the Bible.

    King's Cross is Timothy Keller's revelatory look at the life of Christ as told in the Gospel of Mark. There have been many biographies of Jesus, but few will be as anticipated as one by Keller, the man Newsweek calls "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century." In it, Keller shows how the story of Jesus is at once cosmic, historical, and personal, calling each of us to look anew at our relationship with God. Like Keller's other books it has tremendous crossover appeal, but it is also ideal for the faithful, those who are looking for a closer connection to Jesus and Christianity.

    The Bible is accessible. It’s meant to be read and comprehended by everyone from armchair readers to seminary students. A few essential insights into the Bible can clear up a lot of misconceptions and help you grasp the meaning of Scripture and its application to your 21st-century life.More than half a million people have turned to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth to inform their reading of the Bible. This third edition features substantial revisions that keep pace with current scholarship, resources, and culture. Changes include:•Updated language•A new authors’ preface•Several chapters rewritten for better readability•Updated list of recommended commentaries and resourcesCovering everything from translational concerns to different genres of biblical writing, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is used all around the world. In clear, simple language, it helps you accurately understand the different parts of the Bible—their meaning for ancient audiences and their implications for you today—so you can uncover the inexhaustible worth that is in God’s Word.

    To read Romans front to back was what Paul certainly intended. But to read Romans forward may have kept the full message of Romans from being perceived. Reading forward has led readers to classify Romans as abstract and systematic theology, as a letter unstained by real pastoral concerns.But what if a different strategy were adopted? Could it be that the secret to understanding the relationship between theology and life, the key to unlocking Romans, is to begin at the letter's end? Scot McKnight does exactly this in Reading Romans Backwards.McKnight begins with Romans 12-16, foregrounding the problems that beleaguered the house churches in Rome. Beginning with the end places readers right in the middle of a community deeply divided between the strong and the weak, each side dug in on their position. The strong assert social power and privilege, while the weak claim an elected advantage in Israel's history. Continuing to work in reverse, McKnight unpacks the big themes of Romans 9-11--God's unfailing, but always surprising, purposes and the future of Israel--to reveal Paul's specific and pastoral message for both the weak and the strong in Rome. Finally, McKnight shows how the widely regarded universal sinfulness of Romans 1-4, which is so often read as simply an abstract soteriological scheme, applies to a particular rhetorical character's sinfulness and has a polemical challenge. Romans 5-8 equally levels the ground with the assertion that both groups, once trapped in a world controlled by sin, flesh, and systemic evil, can now live a life in the Spirit. In Paul's letter, no one gets off the hook but everyone is offered God's grace.Reading Romans Backwards places lived theology in the front room of every Roman house church. It focuses all of Romans--Paul's apostleship, God's faithfulness, and Christ's transformation of humanity--on achieving grace and peace among all people, both strong and weak. McKnight shows that Paul's letter to the Romans offers a sustained lesson on peace, teaching applicable to all divided churches, ancient or modern.

    Life in first-century Palestine was very different from our world today, and many traditional interpretations of Jesus’ stories ignore this disparity and have often allowed anti-Semitism and misogyny to color their perspectives.In this wise, entertaining, and educational book, Amy-Jill Levine offers a fresh, timely reinterpretation of Jesus’ narratives. In Short Stories by Jesus, she analyzes these “problems with parables,” taking readers back in time to understand how their original Jewish audience understood them. Levine reveals the parables’ connections to first-century economic and agricultural life, social customs and morality, Jewish scriptures and Roman culture. With this revitalized understanding, she interprets these moving stories for the contemporary reader, showing how the parables are not just about Jesus, but are also about us—and when read rightly, still challenge and provoke us two thousand years later.

    The fountainhead of that stream was William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526; marking its course King James Version of 1611 (KJV), the English Revised Version of 1885 (RV), the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV), and the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971 (RSV). In that stream, faithfulness to the text and vigorous pursuit of accuracy were combined with simplicity, beauty, and dignity of expression. Our goal has been to carry forward this legacy for a new century.During the Reformation, a renewed interest in Scripture brought great light to the church and the world. In The Reformation Study Bible, general editor R. C. Sproul aims to present the light of the Reformation anew by combining an accessible translation with study notes that stand firmly in the theological tradition of the Reformation.No other study Bible gives the reader more assistance in understanding the great doctrines and themes of the Christian faith as found in the Scriptures. Extensive notes have been researched and written by a team of more than fifty scholars, including J. I. Packer, James Boice, and Wayne Grudem.All Christians that want to dig deeper in their study of Scripture will appreciate the Bible’s many features, including section introductions, book introductions and outlines, comments on the biblical text, theological notes, charts, in-text maps, and cross-references.The first study bible based on the English Standard Version, The Reformation Study Bible is the perfect choice for men and women that want to study God’s word in a language they can understand.

    Beyond successful goal-setting and intelligent advice, acquiring and applying godly wisdom can guide the believer to a life of unbelievable fulfillment, as is shown in this powerful commentary on the book of Proverbs.

    It undergirds the entire framework of Scripture, serving as the backdrop against which all other themes play out. Surveying the entirety of both the Old and New Testaments, scholar and professor Patrick Schreiner presents a definition and framework for a biblical theology of the kingdom. Defining the kingdom of God as the interplay of three concepts--the king's power over the king's people in the king's place--this new volume in the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series shows how a proper understanding of the kingdom of God has tremendous implications for life here and now.

    Now in its tenth year of publication, the book remains the clearest, most inviting and readable guide to the Hebrew Bible around—and a profound meditation on the effect that modern biblical scholarship has had on traditional belief.Moving chapter by chapter, Harvard professor James Kugel covers the Bible’s most significant stories—the Creation of the world, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his wives, Moses and the exodus, David’s mighty kingdom, plus the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, and on to the Babylonian conquest and the eventual return to Zion.Throughout, Kugel contrasts the way modern scholars understand these events with the way Christians and Jews have traditionally understood them. The latter is not, Kugel shows, a naïve reading; rather, it is the product of a school of sophisticated interpreters who flourished toward the end of the biblical period. These highly ideological readers sought to put their own spin on texts that had been around for centuries, utterly transforming them in the process. Their interpretations became what the Bible meant for centuries and centuries—until modern scholarship came along. The question that this book ultimately asks is: What now? As one reviewer wrote, Kugel’s answer provides “a contemporary model of how to read Sacred Scripture amidst the oppositional pulls of modern scholarship and tradition.”