Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane collaborate to expose the heart issues at stake and help people to make real, lasting change. These answers, the authors assert, lie in appropriating the fullness of the grace and freedom of Jesus in new ways that offer radically more hope than conventional models.

    Without these essentials—the basic truths of the faith—they will never establish strong roots or bear fruit. Adrian Rogers has written a book designed to give new believers the nurture and care their faith needs to blossom and grow. What Every Christian Ought to Know seeks to give intellectual truth, and also to provide the “spiritual nutrients” required to produce mature faith.

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    But too often he is viewed as an Americanized shepherd boy on a Sunday school felt board or a New Testament saint alongside the Virgin Mary. Not only does this neglect one of the Bible’s most complex stories of sin and redemption; it also bypasses the gritty life lessons inherent in the amazing true story of David.  Mark Rutland shreds the felt-board character, breaks down the sculpted marble statue, and unearths the real David of the Bible. Both noble and wretched, neither a saint nor a monster, at times victorious and other times a failure, David was through it all a man after God’s own heart.

    But fanaticism is no more hard-wired in Christianity than it is in Islam. In Laying Down the Sword, “one of America’s best scholars of religion” (The Economist) explores how religions grow past their bloody origins, and delivers a fearless examination of the most violent verses of the Bible and an urgent call to read them anew in pursuit of a richer, more genuine faith.Christians cannot engage with neighbors and critics of other traditions—nor enjoy the deepest, most mature embodiment of their own faith—until they confront the texts of terror in their heritage. Philip Jenkins identifies the “holy amnesia” that, while allowing scriptural religions to grow and adapt, has demanded a nearly wholesale suppression of the Bible’s most aggressive passages, leaving them dangerously dormant for extremists to revive in times of conflict. Jenkins lays bare the whole Bible, without compromise or apology, and equips us with tools for reading even the most unsettling texts, from the slaughter of the Canaanites to the alarming rhetoric of the book of Revelation.Laying Down the Sword presents a vital framework for understanding both the Bible and the Qur’an, gives Westerners a credible basis for interaction and dialogue with Islam, and delivers a powerful model for how a faith can grow from terror to mercy.

    Dr. Timothy Paul Jones gives easy-to-understand answers to popular questions on the Bible's reliability and accuracy.

    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.

    Today, professing that Jesus Christ is the only way to approach God and receive his salvation may seem to some like a form of intolerance or arrogance. A growing number of Christian intellectuals, pastors, and leaders are favoring a more inclusive view of a person's path to salvation.But what does this mean in practice? Are there biblical or theological means of defending inclusivism or pluralism, or do these views simply pay tribute to modern ethical standards?The fact is that unity among Christians on this fundamental issue has disappeared. Many people of faith choose among three fundamentally different answers to the question, "Is Jesus the only Savior?" Stated succinctly, these answers are:No! (Pluralism)Yes, but... (Inclusivism)Yes, period! (Exclusivism)In Is Jesus the Only Savior?, Ronald Nash explores the divergent views of pluralism and inclusivism in depth, laying out the reasoning, history, and major supporters behind them; and making a resounding case for exclusivism based on firm theological standards.Christians of all walks of life will find their faith in Christ affirmed and strengthened by this vital treatise, written in accessible terms and a readable style.

    Jones believes that the reason most Christians don't tell their friends about Jesus has nothing to do with not knowing how--it's because they don't think they need to. As Jones writes, the first four years he was a pastor, he didn't believe in hell himself. Today, he shares his story of discovering the truth that hell exists--and why many Christians are afraid to believe in it. "Hell Is Real "motivates Christians who have grown complacent in their view of hell. Drawing on the teachings of Jesus, Jones leads readers into a head-on collision with apocalyptic urgency--the all-consuming, inspiring conviction that will overcome readers when they realize that hell is real and they can help save people from going there.

    The second edition of this Old Testament reference source focuses on the various books of the Bible, reflecting on each in terms of its own cultural and historical relevance.

    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.

    In four short episodes we encounter refugees, undocumented immigrants, poverty, hunger, women's rights, male power and privilege, discrimination, and injustice.In Finding God in the Margins, Carolyn Custis James reveals how the book of Ruth is about God, the questions that surface when life falls apart, and how he reaches into the margins and chooses two totally marginalized women who in the eyes of the patriarchal culture are zeros.Against the backdrop of disturbing issues we are facing today, this bracing narrative puts on display a radical gospel way of living together as human beings that shouts the Kingdom of God, foreshadows Jesus' gospel, and raises the bar for women and for men then and now.

    Unlike the so-called mainstream Protestant denominations, Southern Baptists have remained stubbornly conservative, refusing to adapt their beliefs and practices to modernity's individualist and populist values. Instead, they have held fast to traditional orthodoxy in such fundamental areas as biblical inspiration, creation, conversion, and miracles. Gregory Wills argues that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has played a fundamental role in the persistence of conservatism, not entirely intentionally. Tracing the history of the seminary from the beginning to the present, Wills shows how its foundational commitment to preserving orthodoxy was implanted in denominational memory in ways that strengthened the denomination's conservatism and limited the seminary's ability to stray from it. In a set of circumstances in which the seminary played a central part, Southern Baptists' populist values bolstered traditional orthodoxy rather than diminishing it. In the end, says Wills, their populism privileged orthodoxy over individualism. The story of Southern Seminary is fundamental to understanding Southern Baptist controversy and identity. Wills's study sheds important new light on the denomination that has played - and continues to play - such a central role in our national history.

    But for those who know that Christ is coming to establish a new and perfect order, ours is not just a world to endure but a world to invade. Believers have not been stationed here on earth merely to subsist but to actively subvert the enemy’s attempts at blinding people in unbelief and burying them under heartbreaking loads of human need.The kingdom of God changes all that.Ed Stetzer’s Subversive Kingdom is a personal call for Christians to reorient their thinking and lifestyle to match what Jesus described of His people in Scripture, while teaming up with other believers through their churches to bring light into a dying and darkening culture. Stetzer uses the parables of Christ to unlock the “kingdom secrets” that bring this mysterious concept within understandable reach, while urging Christians to turn this knowledge into practical, everyday, ongoing missions designed to set people free from lives headed for hopelessness.

    Four grim horsemen, the Antichrist, the ten-horned beast, the ultimate battle at Armageddon, the "mark of the beast." It's no wonder that these images have griped the imagination of so many--and have been variously interpreted as symbolizing everything from Hitler and Gorbachev to credit cards and the Internet.Is the book of Revelation a blueprint for the future? A book of powerful symbolic imagery with warnings for the church? Is it essentially an imaginative depiction of historical events in the first century?Four Views on the Book of Revelation explores four interpretations of the book of the Apocalypse:Preterist – a historical interpretation, arguing that most of John’s prophecies occurred in the first century, soon after his writing of them.Idealist – a spiritual or symbolic interpretation, arguing that the events in Revelation are not literal, and that apocalyptic literature requires a different approach than the Gospels or Epistles.Classical dispensationalism – a literal interpretation based on a reading of Revelation that pays close attention to the rules of grammar and the separate eras of covenantal history.Progressive dispensationalism – a modification of classical that has its root in the understanding of Christ's reign beginning immediately after the resurrection.The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.