Religion Bible

The heart of the biblical understanding of idolatry, argues Gregory Beale, is that we take on the characteristics of what we worship. Employing Isaiah 6 as his interpretive lens, Beale demonstrates that this understanding of idolatry permeates the whole canon, from Genesis to Revelation. Beale concludes with an application of the biblical notion of idolatry to the challenges of contemporary life.

George W. Sarris is an accomplished actor, narrator, and spokesman. He served on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild in Boston, and has been a spokesman for radio and television commercials and industrial films for companies such as AT&T, BMW, Burger King, Duracell, Honda, Pizza Hut, Sprint, and UPS. Mr. Sarris holds the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Speech from Northwestern University, and Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Jesus provided his disciples teachings for how to follow Torah, God's word; he told them parables to help them discern questions of ethics and of human nature; he offered them beatitudes for comfort and encouragement. But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found difficult. In The Difficult Words of Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded to the people who first heard them, how have they been understood over time, and how we might interpret them in the context of the Gospel of love and reconciliation.

Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have - the letters of Paul - as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.

The Book of First Peter was written by the Apostle Peter during his time as Bishop of Rome to the churches of Asia Minor to address the problems of suffering and persecution. He counsels them to be steadfast under trials and explains some of the reasons why Christians suffer persecution.

Throughout much of human history, our most important stories were passed down orally - including the stories about Jesus before they became written down in the Gospels. In this fascinating and deeply researched work, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Erhman investigates the role oral history has played in the New Testament - how the telling of these stories not only spread Jesus' message but helped shape it.

This laboratory-based, middle school science course covers a wide range of topics that are of interest to modern scientists. It starts by describing our current understanding of atoms, molecules, the chemicals that are necessary for life, DNA, and cells. These topics are all discussed in the context of history, explaining how specific scientific advances led to the scientific explanations that the students are being taught. This allows students to learn not only the current scientific understanding of these topics, but also how scientists reached that understanding.

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places reunites spirituality and theology in a cultural context where these two vital facets of Christian faith have been rent asunder. Lamenting the vacuous, often pagan nature of contemporary American spirituality, Eugene Peterson here firmly grounds spirituality once more in Trinitarian theology and offers a clear, practical statement of what it means to actually live out the Christian life.

You hear about Israel in the news regularly, but beyond the many opinions and preconceptions, do you really know what to make of the conflicts and controversies in the Middle East? What Should We Think About Israel? exposes the main current issues and provides well-researched objective facts to help you learn the truth about Israel's past, present, and future. This compilation from experts including Walter Kaiser, Jr., David Brickner, Mitch Glaser, Michael Brown, Arnold Fructenbaum, and Steven Ger will help you answer the tough questions.

How is the follower of Jesus to understand the words of the Old Testament? How are those words relevant to the New Covenant he is establishing? What might the words of the Lord’s Prayer have conveyed to his initial followers, and why is that historical information essential to the prayer two millennia later? In Sermon on the Mount, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine takes a detailed and colorful overview of Matthew 5-7, collectively known as Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

In Overcomer, beloved teacher David Jeremiah offers his insights on one of the most quoted but least understood passages of the Bible: the apostle Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians to take up the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). With his signature depth, wisdom, and compassion, Dr. Jeremiah explores the powerful relevance of spiritual armor as a critical tool each day as we confront the specific challenges in our lives and of our time.

Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, steeped in the learning of his people. But he was also a Roman citizen who widely traveled the Mediterranean basin, and was very knowledgeable of the dominant Greek and Roman culture of his day. These two mighty rivers of influence converge in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. With razor-sharp attention to the text, Kenneth Bailey examines the cultural milieu and rhetorical strategies that shaped this pivotal epistle. Familiar passages take on a new hue as they are stripped of Western interpretations and rendered back into their ancient setting.

This dramatized audio version of the Old Testament in the NIV brings the Bible to life with this true-to-text dramatization of God's Word. The fully orchestrated background enriches the text reading and enhances the total experience. Digitally engineered from start to finish, this audio Bible delivers an inspiring and uplifting encounter with the Word of God.

Many of us tend to live as though Jesus represents the "spiritual part" of our lives. We don't clearly see how he relates to the rest of our experiences, desires, and habits. How can Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity become more than a compartmentalized part of our lives? Highly regarded New Testament scholar and popular teacher Jonathan Pennington argues that we need to recover the lost biblical image of Jesus as the one true philosopher who teaches us how to experience the fullness of our humanity in the kingdom of God.

The Bible is made up of 66 books that tell the magnificent story of God's redemptive work through Christ. In this audio recording of the full Bible, that story comes alive in a fresh way through the voice of theologian, professor, and author Michael Reeves.

Do you already have a good grasp of the Old Testament? Wonderful. This book will be an enjoyable review. Do you not know the difference between the Bible and The Hobbit? Also fine. This book will be a helpful map into unknown territory. By the time we're done, you won't know all the ins and outs of the story, but you will have a strong grasp of the major movers and shakers. We will sit shotgun with patriarchs and prophets. Each one will take us a little farther down the Old Testament road until we get to the goal: to Jesus, the one in whom the whole story finds fulfillment and meaning.

Why did southern white evangelical Christians resist the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s? Simply put, they believed the Bible told them so. These white Christians entered the battle certain that God was on their side. Focusing on the case of South Carolina, The Bible Told Them So shows how, despite suffering defeat in the public sphere with the triumph of the civil rights movement, white evangelicals continued to battle for their own institutions, preaching and practicing a segregationist Christianity they continued to believe reflected God's will.

The apostle Paul penned a number of very concise, focused passages in his letters to the early church that summarize the gospel message in just a few well-chosen words. Each of these key texts has a unique emphasis highlighting some essential aspect of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The chapters in this revelatory new book closely examine those vital gospel texts, one verse at a time.

Jacob seems to be anything but a model disciple. He's a trickster, liar, and selfishly ambitious man who fathers children with four women and leads a dysfunctional family rife with jealousy and backstabbing. But Jacob is also Israel, the namesake of the Old Testament community of God, chosen and blessed. As such, this sinner-saint, who limps along with the Lord, burdened by weakness and beset by problems, is the mirror image of all of us who follow Jesus.

The book of Galatians reveals that in God's economy, Christ replaces the law, and it is religion versus tradition. The churches in Galatia had begun well, receiving the Spirit through faith, but were now striving to be perfected by the flesh through the law (3:3). The Judaizers had bewitched the Galatians so that they considered the ordinances of the law above the Son of the living God.