Category: Biblical theology

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The Book of Revelation: a reader’s guide

In the book of Revelation, God draws aside the curtains on the stage of history. Through the captivating power of drama and imagery, Jesus shows us what’s really going on here on Earth, and where human history is heading. Revelation gathers up the key themes that run through the Bible and weaves them into the glorious climax of God’s redemptive plan for us and for this world.

The keynote of the book is the victory of Jesus Christ over Satan and every evil power. In Revelation, Jesus reveals this spiritual battle, a battle that involves us. He assures us of victory. And He thrills our hearts and minds with the final glory that will follow.

A series of seven studies takes you through this wonderful final book of the Bible. These studies explore its key themes, its storyline, its symbolism and imagery. And we’ll see what God is saying to us through this book as we follow Jesus day by day.

These studies are entitled The Lamb is the Lord. In the Book of Revelation, we see Jesus Christ portrayed as the Lamb. This is the name used most often for Jesus in Revelation. And in Revelation we see that Jesus, the Lamb, is Lord―”Lord of lords and King of kings” (Revelation 17:14).

For each study, there is a 4-page introduction that includes Bible passages and questions, and a 16-page reader’s guide. All the downloadable documents are in PDF format.

In addition, there are also a series of briefer studies on the Book of Revelation available. Six are currently available; another nine are due to be uploaded this summer. These studies are based on talks given at a local church.

Click HERE to access all these studies.

CREDITS ► Text copyright © 2023 Robert Gordon Betts ► Scripture citations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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‘Remaking a Broken World: the Heart of the Bible Story’ by Christopher Ash

Remaking a Broken World overviews the Bible story. The book gives us, in the author’s words, “a fresh camera angle on the Bible story” that focuses on scattering and gathering―scattering as an aspect of God’s judgment, and gathering as an aspect of God’s redemption. The back cover of the book reads, “Our world is fractured on every level. From the family to international relations, it is hard to make and maintain harmony. How can we bring peace? This book offers a surprising, compelling answer: that the ordinary local church contains the seeds of a remade world. The most significant thing we can do is to commit ourselves to our church. Christopher Ash sweeps through the whole Bible, showing how the gathering of God’s people has always been central to God’s plan for the world. Read this to see the Bible anew, refresh your passion for your church, and find hope for a broken world—which, it turns out, is already being remade.” The writing is engaging, clear, and engages constantly with the Scriptures. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, there are nine chapters; arranged into four sections:

● Section A – A Broken World: Scattered Without God

● Section B – The Assembly of Israel: Gathering Foreshadowed

● Section C – The Assembly of Jesus: Gathering Realised

● Section D – The New Creation: Gathering Consummated

Mark Meynell, authors of a number of books, and Europe and Caribbean Director for Langham Preaching (part of Langham Partnership), provides an extensive and helpful review HERE. (He reviews the previous edition of Remaking a Broken World, hence the different cover displayed on review―the book has been revised and updated since.) Meynell writes, “The genius of Ash’s approach is to see God’s purposes expressed in the dual theme of his people being scattered and gathered. He bases this around a Bible tour of 9 places: Eden, Babel, Sinai, Jerusalem, Babylon, Golgotha, Pentecost, Church, and New Creation . . . . And once it’s pointed out, you see it everywhere – there’s a thrilling section, for example, in which Ash picks up the post-exilic context of prophetic hope (pp96-102). . . . . this is a genuinely biblical melodic line. This alone makes this book an important contribution to growing library of popular level biblical theology. But it is no academic curiosity – it has huge pastoral significance, . . . . it provocatively places the very idea of the community of God, and in particular the local church, centre stage.” Meynell concludes, “All in all, this is a wonderful read – stimulating, engaging, passionate, credible. I’m going to be recommending it left right and centre.”

Remaking a Broken World is published by The Good Book Company and is very reasonably priced (at the time of writing, it was £6.79 for the paperback and £4.79 for the ebook). If you buy the ebook, you get the book in three formats―PDF, epub and mobi. Another feature is that the PDF is printable―this format doesn’t have printing disabled. So if obtaining the paperback is difficult, or if you want both an ebook and a printed copy, you can buy the ebook and then print the PDF. The publisher’s page for the book is HERE―the page includes a free excerpt that you can download.

Christopher Ash is writer in residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and a full-time preacher, speaker, and writer. He previously served as the director of the Proclamation Trust’s Cornhill Training Course and as a minister and church planter. He and his wife, Carolyn, are members of St. Andrew the Great Church in Cambridge, and have four children and seven grandchildren. He has written numerous books.

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Friday Briefing 21 (4 June 2021)

How Does the Cross of Christ Make Sense of the Kingdom of God? Jeremy Treat writes, “Countless books on the kingdom hardly mention Christ’s cross. Volumes on the cross ignore Jesus’ message of the kingdom. The polarization of these two biblical themes leads to divergent approaches: cross-centered theology that focuses on the salvation of sinners or kingdom-minded activism that seeks to change the world. . . . . It’s as if we are left with a choice between either a kingdom without a cross or a cross without a kingdom; this false dichotomy truncates the gospel and cripples the church.” But these two themes are wonderfully integrated in Scripture. Treat explains how.

Mourning the death of a dwelling place Hayden Hefner writes, “Several years ago, my wife and I purchased our first home. Several weeks from now, we will lock the front door for the last time. . . . . . . . locking the front door for the last time will feel like a sort of death. It is the fading away of a physical reminder. It is the death of a dwelling place. But, he writes, ”The death of an earthly dwelling place reminds us we have a new and better homecoming . . . .

A tale of two liturgies Matt Merker writes, “We should see the church’s worship service—the whole thing, not just the sermon—as a mass discipling activity. . . . . Since the gathering is such a powerful corporate discipling tool, we should treat liturgy with care. ”

One Thing I Did Right in Ministry: “I Started a Book Table” Tom Ascol writes, “One of the first things that I did when I became pastor of the church I now serve was to start a book table where good books at discounted prices were made available to our congregation.” Ascol explains how books have strengthened discipleship in his congregation.

How Does the Cross of Christ Make Sense of the Kingdom of God?

Jeremy Treat writes, “Unfortunately today, many Christians either cling to the cross or champion the kingdom, usually one to the exclusion of the other. Countless books on the kingdom hardly mention Christ’s cross. Volumes on the cross ignore Jesus’ message of the kingdom. The polarization of these two biblical themes leads to divergent approaches: cross-centered theology that focuses on the salvation of sinners or kingdom-minded activism that seeks to change the world. Whole churches or movements are built on one idea or the other. It’s as if we are left with a choice between either a kingdom without a cross or a cross without a kingdom; this false dichotomy truncates the gospel and cripples the church.“ Treat asks how these two central themes of Scripture came to be pitted against each other and comments, “We need a better way forward than “kingdom versus cross.” And it’s not enough to merely seek “kingdom and cross,” as if these were two competing values that need to be held in tension. The key is not balance, but integration. And that’s exactly what we find in Scripture, an unfolding narrative that weaves together atonement and kingdom like a crown of thorns, fit for a crucified king.” After briefly tracing this narrative, he concludes, “The kingdom comes in power, but the power of the gospel is Christ crucified.”

Read the whole article HERE. This article was published in the August 2019 issue of the 9Marks Journal, an issue entitled The Heart of the Gospel: Penal Substitutionary Atonement. This issue contains 23 articles, including J.I. Packer’s classic lecture entitled What did the Cross Achieve: the Logic of Penal Substitution. You can download the entire issue free of charge, either using the link on the left-hand side of the page containing Treat’s article, or from the page HERE. Dr Jeremy Treat is the author of The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology (the publishers page is HERE) and Seek First: How the Kingdom of God Changes Everything (the publishers page is HERE).

Click here to go back to table of contents

Mourning the death of a dwelling place.

“Several years ago, my wife and I purchased our first home. Several weeks from now, we will lock the front door for the last time. If I’m being honest, the thought of selling our little home makes me sad. This house has been the backdrop and base camp for some of the most memorable and formative moments of our life together. . . . . . . . locking the front door for the last time will feel like a sort of death. It is the fading away of a physical reminder. It is the death of a dwelling place. He comments, “having a home is a good thing. Home is God’s idea. . . . . We were not made for walking away from home.” In his conclusion, he writes, ”The death of an earthly dwelling place reminds us we have a new and better homecoming—one not subject to peeling paint, weather damage, or financial foreclosure, but designed and built by the Lord (Hebrews 11:10).”

Read the whole article HERE.

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A tale of two liturgies.

Justin Taylor shares an excerpt from Matt Merker’s book Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People (published by Crossway; the publisher’s page is HERE).

Matt Merker explains, “Many theologians have called the order of service a “liturgy.” The Greek term leitourgia referred to work done for the good of the public. When used in the context of a church gathering, “liturgy” refers to the “work” or ministry of exaltation and edification for which God gathers his people—or better, that God himself performs in and through his people.” He writes, “For me, liturgy refers to the order of the worship service, particularly how it reveals and reinforces the nature of the service itself. ” Merker points out: “We should see the church’s worship service—the whole thing, not just the sermon—as a mass discipling activity. . . . . Since the gathering is such a powerful corporate discipling tool, we should treat liturgy with care.” Merker shows how this works in practice by taking two contrasting orders of service, from the gatherings of two different churches. These churches have congregations of the same size, use the same musical instruments and have the same theological beliefs. But their liturgies are different, in ways that are significant. His first example is an order of service typical of many evangelical churches. The second is an example of a gathering at a Presbyterian church in Brazil. Merker then notes four weaknesses of his first example. One of these relates to prayer and the public reading of Scripture. Merker comments, “this order of service leaves two of the most essential elements of corporate worship out to dry: prayer and Scripture reading. There is no other Scripture reading in the service, aside from what the pastor might read in his sermon. And the prayers serve as transitions, not as substantive elements of worship in their own right.”

The message to take away is this: if key elements of the order of service are missing, or if the order of service is disjointed or theologically weak, the worship service is less glorifying to God, less effective in building up believers, and less able to communicate the Gospel message to unbelievers in the congregation. Through the prayers, the Scriptures being read, the preaching, the hymns and songs, through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, we should, as Merker writes, “strive to fill our services with the life-giving water of the Word of God.”

Read the whole article HERE.

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One Thing I Did Right in Ministry: “I Started a Book Table”.

Tom Ascol writes, “One of the first things that I did when I became pastor of the church I now serve was to start a book table where good books at discounted prices were made available to our congregation. . . . . . . . within a matter of months we had a table full of good titles for sale as a fixture in our foyer. Within a year or two, the “Book Table” became a line item in our budget and the church adopted a policy that if anyone who wanted one of the books but could not afford to pay, he or she could have it in exchange for a promise to read it. I often recommend books both publicly and in private conversations. When someone takes my recommendation I try to follow up in a few weeks to ask what they think of the book, what they are learning or if the book has raised any questions for them. That has led to some very fruitful conversations and opportunities for ministry.”

Ascol concludes, “Through the years I have seen good books supplement the ongoing preaching and teaching ministry of the church, encourage personal and spiritual growth, help with counseling, equip for ministry and help people develop a growing love for truth. . . . . So I would encourage every pastor to start a book table if one doesn’t already exist in the church he is serving. That is one thing that, by God’s grace, I did right early in my ministry.”

Read the whole article HERE.

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‘Exodus Old and New: a Biblical Theology of Redemption’ by L. Michael Morales

Exodus Old and New is a remarkable, compelling and deeply insightful exploration of the Exodus theme in Scripture. Dr Morales demonstrates that the exodus is a central theme in the Bible; it is foundational to redemptive history: the storyline of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is a story of exile and exodus. He shows that the exodus of God’s people from Egypt is the pattern for the second exodus―that is, the salvation accomplished by Jesus the Messiah. That salvation is for all God’s people, both Israel and those from among the nations; it culminates in God’s people living in God’s presence in a new creation.

This book bridges the gap between books written at an introductory and popular level and those aimed at advanced students and at scholars. The book is relatively brief (around 200 pages) and accessible. The text is accompanied by footnotes, and there’s a small list of books for further reading at the end. Dr Morales’ book brought home to me, in a new way, how fundamental and pervasive the theme of exodus is in Scripture. His book is a rich feast of Biblical truth that both edifies the mind and stirs the heart, and I unhesitatingly commend it. In his preface, the author writes, “My hope and prayer is that this book may in some small way lead readers through their own “sort of exodus,” closer to God.”

Read this review supplemented by a summary of the book (including a summary of each chapter) HERE.

Read the publishers’ description HERE.

This book is the second volume in the Essential Studies in Biblical Theology (ESBT) series, edited by Benjamin L. Gladd. This series explores the central themes of the Bible’s storyline from Genesis through the whole of redemption history. The series aims to provide accessible introductions to the themes, and to apply these themes to Christian life, ministry, and worldview.

L. Michael Morales is professor of biblical studies at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylors, South Carolina. He is the author of Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus (in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series, edited by D.A. Carson) and The Tabernacle Pre-Figured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus.

I thank IVP Academic for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work.

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‘Genesis 24 and God’s plan for the world’ by David Schrock

camel train, Middle East, Palestine, Egypt, Abraham, Genesis 24, Isaac

Image from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs online catalog.

“And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” . . . . ”Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor.” (Genesis 24.2-4,10). An old photograph (taken between 1934 and 1939) showing a camel caravan in the Middle East.

Genesis 24 tells how Abraham found a wife for his son Isaac. It’s the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis. David Schrock explains this story and explores its importance in the Bible storyline. He writes, “. . . the longest narrative event in Genesis is a love story, one that seems Dickens-like in its profusion of extraneous information. Certainly, as the promises of God are given to Abraham and his offspring, the marriage of his son is no small matter. Yet, it seems as though the account of the servant traveling back to Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac is prolix detour from the rest of Genesis. . . . . So why the long drama of finding Isaac a wife? My answer is that this story reflects God’s story for the world, and the long-time-in-coming union between God’s beloved son with his bride. Let’s consider.”

After showing us how Genesis should be read in the context of the whole Bible story, he comments, ”. . . we have reason to read Genesis 24 as a narrative meant to point to Christ, just as the firstborn son of Abraham points to Christ (cf. Romans 8.31–32). We should likewise see the account of Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage as patterned after the original marriage and foreshadowing a greater marriage—after all, this is the mystery marriage, that every husband and wife are types of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5.22–33). Last, we should consider how Moses intended to tell the history of Isaac and Rebekah and perhaps something else—namely another rehearsal of the exodus event he had experienced with Israel. . . . . With these ‘reading requirements’ in place, what do we find in Genesis 24?”

Dr Schrock details how the story in Genesis 24 foreshadows how God will bring a bride to His Son. He concludes, “Incredibly, Genesis 24 is not the longest chapter in Genesis by accident. It is a pure and holy story of covenant marriage, set against all the other debauched stories of sexual immorality in Genesis. And . . . it teaches us how to look at the entire world with hope in Christ and the marriage he offers to those who forsake their fathers and join themselves to God’s Son. . . . . It surely should encourage us as we the bride serve our Master and call others to come to him!”

Read the whole article HERE.

CREDITS ► Scripture citations (other than those in quotations from other authors) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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‘On the third day’ by James M. Hamilton

Image © Lumo Project through Free Bible Images All rights reserved

“But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” (Matthew 26.5-6)

In this fascinating little exploration of Old Testament typology, James M. Hamilton writes, “There is no prediction in the Old Testament that the Messiah would be raised from the dead on the third day, but when Paul says that Jesus “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”, he’s not referring to a prediction. Paul is referring to the fulfillment of these patterns . . . .” Dr. Hamilton briefly explains seven Old Testament passages which he sees as foreshadowing Jesus’s resurrection on the third day. They include events in the lives of Abraham, David, Hezekiah, Esther and Jonah; a passage in Hosea’s prophecy, and something that Moses tells us in His narrative of the covenant that God made with His people at Mount Sinai. Dr Hamilton tells us “All the promises are yes and amen in him, all the patterns find fulfillment in him, and all the shadowy types have their substance in him.”

Read the whole article HERE.

CREDITS ► Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture citations (other than those quoted by other authors) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved..

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‘Sabbath: a token of eternity’ by Bernard Bell

The Garden of Eden from Wikimedia

The Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole (1801-1848).

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2.1-3).

Bernard Bell explores the theology of the Sabbath from Genesis to Revelation – in the creation account; in the Old Testament era; for Jesus, during His earthly ministry; for us as God’s New Testament people; and in the new creation. He writes: “On this seventh day [of creation], four verbs are predicated of God: he completed, he rested, he blessed, and he sanctified.”

Bell comments, “The climax of creation is the consecration of time.” God called His people Israel to observe the sabbath. Bell writes, “The Sabbath was given to Israel as a picture of the seventh day. On the Sabbath, Israel was to fall into the pattern established by God when he completed his work and rested. This established a rhythm to the week: for six days the Israelites labored, then for one day they rested. Each week, the Israelites took a journey through time. The Sabbath was the goal of the week, the day that gave meaning to other six days. But after each Sabbath they had to start the journey over again. This rhythm that Israel observed each week was itself contained within two larger rhythms. Every seventh year, Israel was to give her land a sabbatical year, a year of rest from being cultivated (Leviticus 25.1-7). After every seventh sabbatical year, i.e., every fiftieth year, Israel was to celebrate a Jubilee Year in which slaves were set free and land restored to its rightful owner (Leviticus 25.8-55). These cycles of a week, of seven years, and of fifty years, were powerful reminders that there lay something beyond the mundane life of the daily routine. Beyond the common lay the sacred, the holy. Beyond the six days lay the seventh. Beyond the six years lay the seventh. Beyond the forty-nine years lay the fiftieth.”

He asks, “Why did Jesus choose the Sabbath for so many of his healing miracles, such as the one in Mark 2.23-3.6? . . . . The seventh day was the goal toward which God moved his Creation, the day in which God brought creation into completion. The Sabbath was his gift to Israel, the goal towards which both creation and redemption moved. Surely then, Sabbath is the most appropriate day for Jesus to heal people, . . . . Sabbath was the day for being made whole, made complete so that one could enter into rest.”

But what does the Sabbath mean for us now? Should we observe it – and, if so, how? Bell writes, “The first Christians recognized that with the death and resurrection of Jesus, something dramatic had happened to Sabbath. These Jewish Christians quickly moved their assemblies to the first day of the week. Paul, formerly the most fanatical of Pharisees, and therefore punctilious about Sabbath observance, came to realize that Sabbath was just a shadow of a reality that had now arrived.” He concludes, “Today [Sunday] is not Sabbath; it is what Sabbath pointed to. In turn, both Sabbath and Today point towards the Seventh Day that will fill all of time. Both are tokens of eternity. Sabbath was one day in seven. Today is seven days in seven. Go out today and live it as a token of eternity, but then carry on living that way on Monday and on through the week. Improvise however you see fit, but do so within the framework established by the rest of the plot. Then it will be a day of completion, of rest, of blessing, and of holiness. Sabbath is not the place we’re not allowed to play football, but the place where we enter God’s teleological rest through Christ, and live a foretaste of eternity. ”

The sermon is available as an audio file and a PDF HERE.

CREDITS ► Scripture citations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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‘Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?’ by L. Michael Morales

“Once a soul has come to understand something of the unutterable majesty of the holiness of God,” writes L. Michael Morales, “the question asked in Psalm 15 and 24 suddenly weighs upon the heart: “Who shall ascend the mountain of the LORD?” That is, who can draw near to this living God in worship? . . . . Who, what’s more, could ever abide with God in his house?”

He continues, “Ezekiel 28:13-14 describes the Garden of Eden as being upon “the holy mountain of God”, . . . . Our first parents, then, had tasted the bliss of living in the Presence of God upon the holy mount. . . . . But from this breath-taking height, radiant with the countenance of God, Adam’s sin plunged all humanity into the dark abyss of exile from the divine Presence – a ‘Fall’, to be sure. Humanity, once enjoying the paradise of God himself, was made to descend the mountain of the LORD. Who, now, shall ascend? . . . . The tragedy of the Fall is the catastrophe about which the drama of the Bible turns, a drama that finds its denouement (or resolution) through the promised Messiah who, in bearing our sins upon the Cross so to bear the holy wrath, will one day bear us into the glory of our Father’s Presence. . . . . Between the original creation (and subsequent Fall) described at the beginning of Genesis and the glory of humanity dwelling with God in the new creation at the end of Revelation, there is a sweeping drama. . . . all the biblical narratives following the Fall of Genesis 3 are in some fashion or another, and by varying degrees, moving this drama forward, developing the plot that eventually resolves in, to borrow Dante’s insight, a “comedy”. That plot can be followed by keeping one’s eye (and, surely, one’s heart) fixed upon the central question given us in Israel’s book of worship: “Who shall ascend the mountain of the LORD?” This theme at the heart of Scripture would, I think, be profitable for us to explore together….”

Dr. Morales briefly and deftly explores this theme through Genesis and Exodus, until the LORD’s glory-cloud descended upon the Tabernacle. He concludes, “. . . the Tabernacle had become Israel’s portable Mount of the LORD, that is, Israel’s regulated means of approaching God. The Tabernacle cultus, then, was a theological drama. This drama called upon memory, looking back to Adam’s lost communion with the Creator atop Eden’s mount. More profoundly, this drama called upon faith, prophetically looking forward to the last Adam and ultimate High Priest’s ascent into the reality of the heavenly Zion’s summit.”

The article is in three parts: read part 1 HERE, part 2 HERE, and part 3 HERE.

L. Michael Morales is the author of Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus. In this brilliant study of the Book of Leviticus, we learn about the book’s narrative context, literary structure and dramatic movement, and theology. And the author tracks the development from the Tabernacle to Zion’s temple and through to the heavenly Mount Zion in the New Testament. Dr. Morales shows how life with God in the house of God was God’s original goal for His creation – and thus is the goal of God’s plan of redemption, a plan that culminates in the new creation. See the publisher’s description HERE (please note: the first of the reviews on that page is about a another book, and is placed here in error).

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‘Open eyes on an unveiled Word’ by Alastair Roberts

Image from Lightstock

As we enter 2019, perhaps we are considering our Bible reading plans for the year ahead. But how should we read our Bibles? This article by Alastair Roberts offers some basic guidelines. He writes that the Bible “is a book that we can never truly have read: we remain students of it for the entirety of our lives. We may have been reading for decades, yet, when it comes to reading our Bibles, we are all very much beginners.” He then offers seven fundamental principles for our reading of Scripture.

His first principle is to practice attention. He explains: ”As we seek to be faithful to Scripture, we must learn truly to hear its voice, rather than just hearing what we expect, want, or are primed to hear. [Roberts’ emphasis.] This requires us to develop the discipline of attention to the text. We may need to suspend our questions (and our answers) and learn how to listen. . . . . Attentiveness is a skill, the sharpening of our senses as readers or hearers of Scripture, which will become more developed in us the more deliberately and consistently we practice it.”

Another principle is to recognise that Scripture is our story. He writes, ”One of the most startling passages in the writings of the Apostle Paul is found in 1 Corinthians 10, when he retells the story of the Exodus and relates it to the life of the Corinthian church. . . . . The striking thing about these statements is the way that Paul stresses the fact that, when we are reading the story of the Exodus—and other stories in the Scripture—we are reading our story, a story that is both for and about us. Whether we are Jewish or Gentile Christians today, we need to see the children of Israel who escaped from Egypt as ‘our fathers’! Likewise, in the story of the Exodus we see the same patterns playing out in Christ’s forming of the Church today. The music continues, and we are being caught up into it! When we read our Bibles, we can easily become accustomed to reading it as a series of accounts of things that happened to them back then. But God has given us the Scripture so that we might hear its music continuing in what is happening to us right now.”

Read the whole article HERE.

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‘The God Who Is There: a Basic Introduction to the Christian Faith and the Big Story of Scripture’ by D.A. Carson.

This course by D.A. Carson takes people through the big story of Scripture. It is thoughtful, engaging and theologically rich. The course comprises 14 videos (which are free!), each of which is accompanied by the audio-only version plus a transcript. There’s also an accompanying book and a leader’s guide which are available for purchase. It’s primarily written for seekers and new Christians. But it would be a great refresher course for those who have been Christians for a longer time – they would undoubtedly discover new insights here, too. This would make a great resource for small groups, as well as for individual study.

In the preface to his book, Dr. Carson writes, “If you know nothing at all about what the Bible says, the book you are now holding in your hands is for you. If you have recently become interested in God or the Bible or Jesus but quite frankly you find the mass of material rather daunting and do not know where to begin, this book is for you. If you have been attending a Christian church for many years in an indifferent fashion—it’s a nice extracurricular activity now and then—but have recently come to the conclusion you really ought to understand more than you do, this book is for you. If you have quite a few of the pieces of the Bible stored in your mind but have no idea how the exodus relates to the exile or why the New Testament is called the New Testament, this book is for you. If in your experience the Bible has lots of data but you do not see how it conveys God to you or introduces Jesus in a fashion that is utterly humbling and transforming, this book is for you.”

Dr. Carson continues, “This book is not for everyone. The person who does not want more than a bumper sticker introduction to Christianity may find this book a bit much. What I have tried to do here is run through the Bible in fourteen chapters. Each chapter focuses on one or more passages from the Bible, unpacks it a little, and tries to build connections with the context, drawing the lines together to show how they converge in Jesus. By and large I have assumed very little prior acquaintance with the Bible. What I do assume, however, is that a reader will get hold of a Bible and have it near at hand.”

The course is available HERE. Here you’ll find the 14 videos (with audio-only versions) together with the transcripts – all of these are free! The course introduction page also provides links to the book and the leaders’ guide, which are available for purchase through Amazon (they can be purchased through other retailers as well). The video and audio series fairly closely parallel the chapters of the book. The leaders guide, in addition to helping people to lead classes or small groups, provides suggestions for further reading.

A sample chapter of the book is available HERE.

The videos have also been published on YouTube. The playlist is available HERE.

David J. Jackman, former president of the Proclamation Trust, London, England, writes, “This may well prove to be one of the finest and most influential books D. A. Carson has written. A comprehensive apologia for the Christian faith, it is rooted in engaging exposition of major biblical texts, tracing the chronological story of God’s gospel grace with rich theological insight. Skilfully related to the objections and issues raised by twenty-first-century culture, it will inspire and equip any Christian who desires to communicate Christ more effectively and can confidently be given to any inquirer seeking to discover the heart of biblical faith. It is the best book of its kind I have read in many years.”