Showing titles in Commentaries

Unique among books that examine the bible as literature, this brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text - a religiously informed literary analysis. The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament - the gospels, Paul's letters, and Revelation - as individual literary documents. Keefer shows how, in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan, a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple, straightforward tale.

1-2 Kings: Audio Lectures features scholar and professor David T. Lamb teaching through the books of Kings in 41 engaging and challenging lessons. Based on his 1-2 Kings commentary in The Story of God Bible Commentary series, these lectures explain and illuminate each passage of the book in light of the Bible's overarching grand story. Lamb offers an engaging and probing introduction to both books of Kings, guiding viewers in creatively and faithfully living out its messages in today's context.

Can the Bible be approached both as sacred scripture and as a historical and literary text? For many people, it must be one or the other. How can we read the Bible both ways? The Bible and the Believer brings together three distinguished biblical scholars--one Jewish, one Catholic, and one Protestant--to illustrate how to read the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament critically and religiously.

God did not curse Eve or limit women in any way. Sadly, modern translations of Genesis 3:16 make it look like God did both. God didn't curse Adam either, but God did speak to him in a way exactly parallel to the other rebel in the Garden of Eden, the serpent-tempter. And two curses were imposed by God because of them.

The sovereignty of God, the sexual nature of humanity, and the gospel of God's mercy for the undeserving-these massive realities never change. And since God is still sovereign, and we are male or female, and Jesus is alive and powerful, A Sweet & Bitter Providence bears a message for listeners from all walks of life. But be warned, Piper tells his audience: This ancient love affair between Boaz and Ruth could be dangerous, inspiring all of us to great risks in the cause of love.

According to polls, less than half of all Americans can even name more than four of them. For most of us, agnostics and faithful alike, they have been relegated to the level of a symbol, their teachings all but forgotten. In Western life today, the Ten Commandments are everywhere - except where we need them most. In The Ten Commandments, David Hazony offers a powerful new look at our most venerable moral text.

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.

More and more, the world is becoming multi-ethnic and multi-religious. Wherever you live, you are coming in contact with people of other ethnic and religious backgrounds. We need to understand how to communicate with them. John wrote his gospel when he was living in Ephesus, a city with a multi-ethic and multi-religious society. People from all over the empire came to Ephesus because it was the political, social and economic center for this region.

Some questions about the New Testament canon are far from settled, either in the academy or the church—to say nothing of misconceptions and confusion. This is a crucial topic, given the importance of the canon's formation for our understanding of early Christianity and the nature of the Christian faith itself. In Creating the Canon, Benjamin P. Laird explores misunderstood, disputed, and overlooked matters tied to the composition, collection, and authority of the New Testament canon.

Using the Book of Job as his basis, Dr. Joseph Murphy shows that within you is the power to solve all of your problems, however hopeless they may seem. The biblical tale of a righteous man beset with extraordinary suffering is here revealed as a drama of consciousness in which a change of mind unleashes even more extraordinary power, transforming every sort of calamity, and misfortune into happiness, prosperity, and peace of mind.

The Bible makes big claims for itself. But do those claims stand up? Aren't the stories just legends? Hasn't the information been corrupted over time? Isn't the Bible full of mistakes? And isn't it culturally outdated? In this absorbing little book, Barry Cooper explores these questions - and many others - with warmth, wit, and integrity.

This letter to the Colossians reminds Christians that they are "God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved" (3:12). It proclaims the deity of Jesus using some of the loftiest language in all the New Testament to help the church know God in his greatness and glory. This proper view of Christ serves as the antidote for heresy and a building block for Christian life and doctrine both then and now. Colossians: Audio Lectures features scholar David E. Garland teaching through the book of Colossians in 10 engaging and challenging lessons.

The God Diagnosis is the unique journey of a successful surgeon who finds the fulfillment of all his life dreams empty, lonely, and depressing. Embarking on a quest for truth and the answers to life's basic questions, Dr. Viehman finds himself at the epicenter of the most mind blowing diagnosis of his life. Dr. Viehman recounts his journey from death to life in a way that will resonate with anyone seeking the facts and examining the evidence for themselves.

Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings compiles popular and lesser-known arguments against the principles established by the Christian canon. Using a phenomenological approach to build his case based on in-depth study, McAfee analyzes the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament doctrine to build a logical and reasonable case against their validity. From contradictions between lived and portrayed religions to factual errors within the texts themselves, no stone is left unturned in this fully updated and expanded refutation of Christianity.

HOSEA What does the Book of Hosea teach us, and what is its main message? What is the main theme, purpose, and meaning of the book of Hosea? What are the lessons we can learn and apply to our lives today from the story of Hosea? The Book of Hosea is certainly emotional and relational. In the message of Hosea, we see the passion, jealousy, commitment, heartbreak, judgment, and love of God. People often talk about what they feel about God. Hosea tells us what God thinks about Israel, sin, and us. "Go and marry a prostitute." These are the first words God spoke to his prophet Hosea. Why would...

Each Christmas, adults and children alike delight at the story of the kings from the East who followed the star to Bethlehem to offer gifts to the newborn Christ. While this familiar tale is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, another little-known version later emerged that claimed to be the eyewitness account of the wise men. This ancient manuscript has lain hidden for centuries in the vaults of the Vatican Library, but through the determined persistence of a young scholar, Brent Landau, this astonishing discovery has been translated into English for the very first time as the Revelation of the Magi.

This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers a clear, accessible, and concise account of the apocryphal gospels - exploring their origins, their discovery, and discussing how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond.

The book of Leviticus has not been a popular subject of study in the modern church. Much like the book of proverbs, any emphasis upon the practical applications of God's law is readily shunned in pursuit of more "spiritual" studies. Books like Leviticus are considered dull, overbearing, and irrelevant. To be spiritual, in the modern sense of the term, means to live on a "higher" level where today's Christian is governed more by the impressions of the heart than a carnal commandment.

(Version 1.4 March, 2023) The KJV Only (KJO) believers accuse modern Bibles of being corrupt because they remove many words and phrases and even whole verses, removing enough text to equal 1st and 2nd Peter, and make many other changes. So the author investigated the issue. The question he set out to answer was, are the claims of the KJO believers accurate, or are the modern Bibles more accurate than the KJV? The author never expected his investigation to turn into a book, because there are already several books supporting both sides. However, his skill-set is thinking outside the box and ...

The Book of Job is about a question for all of us. Why is there suffering? Job is a personal book that speaks to each of us as we face suffering and meaninglessness. Job is a theological book that both builds on the biblical worldview and prepares its listeners for the gospel. Job is a philosophical book that critically examines solutions to this question.