What the Bible Really Tells Us


Book Description

Provides the general public and undergraduates with an introductory level text in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.




What the Bible Really Says


Book Description

What is the significance of the numbers 7 and 12 in the Bible? Was Jesus a member of a radical sect? Are King Solomon's mines real? The origin of the stories of the Bible is examined through textual analyses and historical perspectives, guiding the reader to a deeper understanding of the Old and New Testaments. Includes black-and-white engravings, maps of important biblical sites, a listing of Jesus's miracles and parables, a chronology of the relationship between political events and accounts in the Bible, a bibliography, and index. Over 40,000 copies sold in previous Wings editions.




What the Bible Really Tells Us


Book Description

So many of us grow up being constantly reminded about an all-forgiving, merciful, and beneficent deity. All throughout life, it can even be drummed into us that we cannot live happy, purposeful lives without a heavenly father who protects us and grants our wishes through prayer. And if things dont go according to plan, then we are simply told that God works in mysterious ways! But what if we have more questions? What if these things we are being told, taught, and even sold just dont live up to expectation? What the Bible Really Tells Us looks to the very source of many of these doctrines and teachings about divinity and human naturethe Judeo-Christian Biblein order to unveil some of the reasons why the same questions about God, his nature, and biblical history often reveal different (and sometimes inconsistent or even contradictory) answers. Exploring issues related to Gods nature such as his character, qualities, and attributes, as well as investigating biblical events and figures like Adam and Eve and creation, Noah and the flood, and Abraham and his chosen lineage. It asks us not only to think critically about the factual discrepancies and oddities but also to question why this biblical Godor gods, as it may beis in fact so similar to ourselves. The Bible was written thousands and thousands of years ago, but everybody has been conditioned and told to believe it regardless of the factsand sometimes even regardless of the often contradictory and inconsistent passages in the Bible itself! Faced with an idiosyncratic God and an incongruous book, we can study What the Bible Really Tells Us and confront a challenging thought: Did God create us, or did we create him?




What the Bible Really Teaches


Book Description

This prominent theologian adds his contribution to the authority of Scripture debate An impassioned contribution to the debate about the authority of scripture - how we read the Bible, and how, the author believes, a fundamentalist reading is unsustainable. This book will infuriate many and delight others, and will make a valuable contribution to the debate, which we plan to join with voices from many corners. The book works through a series of Bible passages often cited as 'proof texts', and explores how they can be read, and how they are used.




How the Bible Actually Works


Book Description

Controversial evangelical Bible scholar, popular blogger and podcast host of The Bible for Normal People, and author of The Bible Tells Me So and The Sin of Certainty explains that the Bible is not an instruction manual or rule book but a powerful learning tool that nurtures our spiritual growth by refusing to provide us with easy answers but instead forces us to acquire wisdom. For many Christians, the Bible is a how-to manual filled with literal truths about belief that must be strictly followed. But the Bible is not static, Peter Enns argues. It does not hold easy answers to the perplexing questions and issues that confront us in our daily lives. Rather, the Bible is a dynamic instrument for study that not only offers an abundance of insights but provokes us to find our own answers to spiritual questions, cultivating God’s wisdom within us. “The Bible becomes a confusing mess when we expect it to function as a rulebook for faith. But when we allow the Bible to determine our expectations, we see that Wisdom, not answers, is the Bible’s true subject matter,” writes Enns. This distinction, he points out, is important because when we come to the Bible expecting it to be a textbook intended by God to give us unwavering certainty about our faith, we are actually creating problems for ourselves. The Bible, in other words, really isn’t the problem; having the wrong expectation is what interferes with our reading. Rather than considering the Bible as an ancient book weighed down with problems, flaws, and contradictions that must be defended by modern readers, Enns offers a vision of the holy scriptures as an inspired and empowering resource to help us better understand how to live as a person of faith today. How the Bible Actually Works makes clear that there is no one right way to read the Bible. Moving us beyond the damaging idea that “being right” is the most important measure of faith, Enns’s freeing approach to Bible study helps us to instead focus on pursuing enlightenment and building our relationship with God—which is exactly what the Bible was designed to do.




The Bible Tells Me So


Book Description

The controversial Bible scholar and author of The Evolution of Adam recounts his transformative spiritual journey in which he discovered a new, more honest way to love and appreciate God’s Word. Trained as an evangelical Bible scholar, Peter Enns loved the Scriptures and shared his devotion, teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction or accepted among the conservative evangelical community. Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to “protect” the Bible, Enns was conflicted. Is this what God really requires? How could God’s plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job—but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow. The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns’s spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God’s Word as it is actually written. As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider—the essence of our spiritual study.







Demons


Book Description

The truth about demons is far stranger—and even more fascinating—than what's commonly believed. Are demons real? Are they red creatures with goatees holding pitchforks and sitting on people's shoulders while whispering bad things? Did a third of the angels really rebel with Satan? Are demons and "principalities and powers" just terms for the same entities, or are they different members of the kingdom of darkness? Is the world a chaotic mess because of what happened in Eden, or is there more to the story of evil? What people believed about evil spiritual forces in ancient biblical times is often very different than what people have been led to believe about them today. And this ancient worldview is missing from most attempts to treat the topic. In Demons, Michael Heiser debunks popular presuppositions about the very real powers of darkness. Rather than traditions, stories, speculations, or myths, Demons is grounded in what ancient people of both the Old and New Testament eras believed about evil spiritual forces and in what the Bible actually says. You'll come away with a sound, biblical understanding of demons, supernatural rebellion, evil spirits, and spiritual warfare.




Realizing Jesus


Book Description

As Jesus faced his final days before his crucifixion, he offered a prayer (in John 17:23) that all believers in the future could be perfectly one "as God and Christ are one." Yet two thousand years later we see Christians divided by doctrine, denominational structures, political interests and contentions over moral and social values. Our present division seems to indicate that we are in dire need for reflection and deep soul-searching. "Realizing Jesus" strives to be the hoped-for wake-up call and attempts to shed light upon the numerous mysteries and unanswered questions that traditional doctrines have ignored or glossed over. Questions such as: Why was Jesus praying "to let this cup pass" on the night before his crucifixion? Why would Jesus pray to avoid the cross if his only purpose was to die? Why was Jesus only a carpenter in Joseph's shop, when both Joseph and Mary, as well as their relatives, including the parents of John the Baptist, KNEW that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and King to sit on the throne of David? Why did Jesus' family turn on him and even question his sanity? Why was Jesus still unmarried at the age of 30? Why is John the Baptist thought to be a saint when he never followed Jesus and eventually went his separate way?*If Jesus was only to die on the cross, why did he ask God to forgive his executioners, saying: "they know not what they do?" What did they do? Weren't they supposed to crucify Jesus?"Realizing Jesus" answers these questions and so much more. It will take you beyond the constraints of the doctrinal Jesus and bring you to the realization of so much more about him. It is the Jesus the Bible truly reveals.




God and Sex


Book Description

An examination of sex and the Bible by one of the leading biblical scholars in the United States. For several decades, Michael Coogan's introductory course on the Old Testament has been a perennial favorite among students at Harvard University. In God and Sex, Coogan examines one of the most controversial aspects of the Hebrew Scripture: What the Old Testament really says about sex, and how contemporary understanding of those writings is frequently misunderstood or misrepresented. In the engaging and witty voice generations of students have appreciated, Coogan explores the language and social world of the Bible, showing how much innuendo and euphemism is at play, and illuminating the sexuality of biblical figures as well as God. By doing so, Coogan reveals the immense gap between popular use of Scripture and its original context. God and Sex is certain to provoke, entertain, and enlighten readers.