Bible Theology

Is God a sadistic torturer? Coldhearted judge? Genocidal maniac? Unfortunately, our popular caricatures often make him out to be. God has some skeletons in the closet. At least, that's what many of us fear. "How can a loving God send people to hell?" "Isn't it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God?" "What is up with holy war in the Old Testament?" These are difficult questions that our family, our friends, our culture - even we ourselves - are asking.

"Our Father, who art in heaven...." The opening words of the Lord's Prayer have become so familiar that we often speak them without a thought, sometimes without any awareness that we are speaking at all. But to the disciples who first heard these words from Jesus, the prayer was a thunderbolt, a radical new way to pray that changed them and the course of history. Far from a safe series of comforting words, the Lord's Prayer makes extraordinary claims, topples every earthly power, and announces God's reign over all things in heaven and on earth.

Deny that the Bible is, without any qualifications, the very Word of God, and you are left without any ultimate standard of measurement and without any supreme authority. In his book Divine Inspiration of the Bible, Arthur Pink aspires to defend the groundwork of Christianity - the Bible. Pink defines the Word of God, as the foundation of the Christian religion. The Bible claims to be a divine revelation, and as such, it transcends human productivity. Pink's book examines divine inspiration and presents several arguments which aim to prove that God Almighty is the author of the Bible.

In Azusa Street Mission and Revival, Cecil M. Robeck Jr. brings to bear expertise from decades of focused study in church history to reveal the captivating story of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Los Angeles, which became known as the Azusa Street Mission. From humble beginnings with few resources, this small, uniquely diverse, and inclusive congregation led by William J. Seymour ignited a fire that quickly grew into a blaze and spread across the world, giving rise to the global Pentecostal movement.

Two thousand years after his birth and death, Jesus of Nazareth continues to be of vital interest. Yet much of the scholarship around Jesus focuses on his religious significance. Jesus for Everyone examines his most famous teachings from a fresh perspective, exploring how they have continued to shape ethics and civilization in the West for two millennia. Even for those who reject faith, Jesus’s life and his philosophy are important to study, writes renowned biblical scholar and author Amy-Jill Levine, because of the insights they hold for us today.

In this accessible introduction to Jesus Christ, Robert Stein draws together the results of a career of research and writing on Jesus and the Gospels. This classic text treats every episode in the life of Jesus with historical care and attention to its significance for understanding the life and ministry of Jesus. Clearly written, ably argued, and geared to the needs of students, Jesus the Messiah will give probing minds a sure grounding in the life and ministry of Jesus.

In 2007, two Israeli news publications, Israel Today and News First Class, reported that the most famous rabbi in Israel's modern history, 108-year-old Yitzhak Kaduri, had left a cryptic death note revealing the name of the long-awaited Messiah. Within a year after the rabbi's death, the note was reported to have been verified as authentic by some of Kaduri's closest followers and then placed on Kaduri's own website (Kaduri.net).

Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem.

Long before the New Testament was a document, it was a sacrament. Jesus called the Eucharist by the name Christians subsequently gave to the latter books of the Holy Bible. It was the "New Covenant," the "New Testament," in his blood. Christians later extended the phrase to cover the books produced by the apostles and their companions; but they did so because these were the books that could be read at Mass.

Justin Holcomb, pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle and executive director of the Resurgence, highlights Scripture's recurring emphasis on humanity’s desperate need and God’s extravagant grace. Holcomb convincingly demonstrates that grace - most powerfully manifested in the person and work of Jesus Christ - is the foundational theme and primary message of the whole Bible.

It's difficult to hear the growing daily reports of evil in our society without a degree of fear. Seen from a human perspective, things appear hopeless. But as we consider the spiritual perspective of those same events, we can - and will - see what purpose those struggles serve in God's plan. In this book, pastor and author Phil Hotsenpiller will help you begin to connect the dots between biblical prophecies about lawlessness with current events.

The morning newspapers are jammed with alarming headlines and stories asking questions no one can answer. In Storm Warning (2011), Billy Graham examines the problems facing America today compared with what is to come as revealed in the Bible. He answers the tough questions as only he can with astute biblical insight, and points to the hope and renewal found in Christ - for our families, our nation, and our world.

Dinosaurs, Dragons, and the Bible is a one-of-a kind Christian apologetic resource sure to captivate families, scientists, historians, and theologians! Using the Bible as the absolute authority, Bodie Hodge of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the Ark Encounter, provides answers to the most asked questions about these amazing creatures.

This audiobook explores the biblical conception of mystery as an initial, partially hidden revelation that is subsequently more fully revealed, shedding light not only on the richness of the concept itself, but also on the broader relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Exploring all the occurrences of the term mystery in the New Testament and the topics found in conjunction with them, this work unpacks how the New Testament writers understood the issue of continuity and discontinuity.

Is the current economic and political crisis actually prophesied in the Bible? If so, what are we to do about it? It is hard to piece together all this information in a way that gives a comprehensive picture of what the end times will look like. That's why so many theories abound. And that's why Dr. David Jeremiah has written What in the World Is Going On?, a unique audiobook that cuts through the hundreds of books and numerous theories to identify the essential 10 most important bible prophecies.

In 1952, C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity eloquently defined the essential tenets of the Christian faith. With the rise of fractured individualism that continues to split the church, this approach is more important now than ever before for biblical hermeneutics. Influential theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer puts forth a "mere" Christian hermeneutic—essential principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, and by all Christians.

In 15 New Testament Words of Life, New Testament expert Nijay Gupta explores the most important words found in the New Testament. He makes their meaning clear so that these words can become—once again—life giving words for modern Christians as they were for early Jesus-followers. For those first readers of the New Testament who chose to follow Jesus, these words were words of life and they can be again for Jesus-followers in the modern world.

In Holy Disunity: How What Separates Us Can Save Us, Layton E. Williams proposes that our primary calling as humans is not to create unity but rather to seek authentic relationship with God, ourselves, one another, and the world around us. And that means actively engaging those with whom we disagree. Our religious, political, social, and cultural differences can create doubt and tension, but disunity also provides surprising gifts of perspective and grace.

The Hiddenness of God addresses the problem of divine hiddenness which concerns the ambiguity of evidence for God's existence, the elusiveness of God's comforting presence, the palpable and devastating experience of divine absence and abandonment, and more; phenomena which are hard to reconcile with the idea, central to the Jewish and Christian scriptures, that there exists a God who is deeply and lovingly concerned with the lives of humans. Michael C. Rea argues that divine hiddenness is not a problem to be explained away but rather a consequence of the nature of God himself.

Even a cursory glance at the news is enough to convince us that the world is falling into chaos. But we haven't seen anything that compares to what will happen in the final events leading to the second coming of Jesus Christ.