Showing titles in Commentaries

In this life-study, Witness Lee presents the Epistle to the Hebrews as God's speaking in Christ the son, who is now in the heavens as our minister and our high priest, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on Earth. He is the Christ now, the Christ today, and the Christ on the throne in the heavens, who is our daily salvation and moment-by-moment supply.

The Old Testament is one of the most carefully studied books in the world’s history. It is also one of the most misunderstood. This founding text of the world’s three largest religions is also, Erich Fromm argues, an impressive radical humanist text. He sees the stories of mankind’s transition from divided clans to united brotherhood as a tribute to the human power to overcome. Filled with hopeful symbolism, You Shall Be as Gods shows how the Old Testament and its tradition is an inspiring ode to human potential.

The Psalms are like a marked trail through life, showing that others have walked ahead and faced many of the challenges, temptations, heartaches, and perplexities that men will encounter on their journeys. Farrar shows that when a man begins to understand that the strong and caring hand of God is sovereign over everything in his life - including his trials and heartaches - his confidence, hope, and joy will increase dramatically in the God who created him and desires to use him.

The Book of Revelation is a work of profound theology. But its literary form makes it impenetrable to many modern listeners and open to all kinds of misinterpretations. Richard Bauckham explains how the book's imagery conveyed meaning in its original context and how the book's theology is inseparable from its literary structure and composition.

The book of Acts bursts with the passion of early Christians embracing God's work and spreading Jesus's message worldwide. It also lays bare the challenges churches face, demonstrating that 'normal church life' has never been plain sailing. Acts is a dynamic narrative of journeys, trials, and triumphs, inspiring us in our own spiritual journeys. Acts, Part 1 spans from Luke's introduction to Herod's death in chapter 12.

This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.

Even people who are not professing Christians think they are familiar with the story of the Nativity. Every Christmas, displays of Jesus resting in a manger populate lawns and churchyards, and songs about shepherds and angels fill the air. Yet despite the abundance of these Christian references in popular culture, how many of us have examined the hard edges of this biblical story? Timothy Keller takes listeners on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the Nativity.

G. K. Chesterton was a journalist, playwright, poet, biographer, novelist, essayist, literary commentator, editor, orator, artist, and theologian. Orthodoxy is his great apologia for the Christian faith, which was prompted by a serious attack in 1903 against Christianity by well-known newspaper editor Robert Blatchford.

The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challenges the status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices. Soong-Chan Rah's prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church's relationship with a suffering world. It critiques our success-centered triumphalism and calls us to repent of our hubris. And it opens up new ways to encounter the other.

There is no other book like the Bible. God used at least forty human writers over more than 1,600 years to compost the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. They included kings and shepherds, a physician and a tax collector. They lived on three continents—Europe, Asia, and Africa. Yet the Bible is a single Book with a single Author, focused on a single theme: Jesus the Messiah, our Redeemer. From beginning to end, the Bible tells the story of the Kingdom of God and its King. The Old Testament tells us He is coming. The New Testament announces that He has arrived.

How can an evangelical view of Scripture be reconciled with modern biblical scholarship? In this book Peter Enns, an expert in biblical interpretation, addresses Old Testament phenomena that challenge traditional evangelical perspectives on Scripture. He then suggests a way forward, proposing an incarnational model of biblical inspiration that takes seriously both the divine and the human aspects of Scripture.

Many portions of the New Testament introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiah - and how can both be in the same Bible? How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian explores this question and offers guidance for the faithful conflicted over which version of the Lord to worship.

People regularly give certain reasons for not believing in God, but they are much less aware of what the New Testament actually teaches. Although challenges to Christianity are perennial and have frequently been addressed, they are noticeably more common today and are currently of particular interest among evangelicals.

In today’s skeptical age, many people insist that Jesus was, at best, a great teacher. Mark demonstrates that He was—and is—so much more. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul dives into Mark’s action-packed and fast-paced gospel. As we are told in vivid detail, Jesus immediately vanquishes demons, banishes diseases, subdues the forces of nature, satisfies hunger, and silences critics. From one mighty miracle to the next, this gospel builds an unshakable case for Jesus’ true identity and leads us to confess along with the Apostle Peter that You are the Christ (Mark 8:29).

Volume two, The Reign of Grace, focuses on the sovereignty, grace, and holiness of God and on the need for holiness in believers. James Montgomery Boice discusses the full meaning of salvation, the problem with suffering, the struggles of sin, and the sustaining love God pours on his people.

Grace or truth…or both? Truth without grace breeds self-righteousness and crushing legalism. Grace without truth breeds deception and moral compromise. Is it possible to embrace both in balance? Jesus did. Randy Alcorn offers a simple yet profound two-point checklist of Christlikeness. “In the end,” says Alcorn, “we don’t need grace or truth. We need grace and truth. And for people to see Jesus in us, they must see both.”

"The Lord is my shepherd." Thus begins the most beloved of all Psalms - and thus begins a thousand-year journey through the Bible. Prophets, apostles, and Jesus himself took up this image from David, reshaping it, developing it, and applying it to their own situations and needs.

Piper has gathered many of Jesus' demands from the four Gospels and puts the demands in a redemptive, historical context, then concisely examines each. The result is an accessible introduction for thoughtful inquirers and new believers, as well as meditative meat for veteran believers who want to know Jesus better.

Quoted in the book of Jude, and used to form our view of angels and demons, this book connects the dots of doctrine and prophecy in the scriptures. Details are revealed about the "Sons of God, (angels), that left their positions in heaven to marry human women", having children that became giants and monsters called Nephilim who introduced violence, sorcery, and evil spirits into the world. This book, along with the Book of Jubilees, is considered sacred to the Christian church in Ethiopia, and is placed in their Bible alongside the Old Testament books.

Through Old Testament Eyes is a new kind of commentary series that illuminates the Old Testament backgrounds, allusions, patterns, and references saturating the New Testament. Bible teachers, preachers, and students committed to understanding Scripture will gain insight through these rich Old Testament connections, which clarify puzzling passages and explain others in fresh ways. Avoiding overly technical discussions and interpretive debates, Tremper Longman combines rigorous, focused New Testament scholarship with deep respect for the entire biblical text.