Download or read book Censoring God written by Jim Willis and published by Visible Ink Press. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why isn’t the Book of Enoch in the Holy Bible, even though Enoch is referenced multiple times? Why were texts considered sacred by many, excluded by others? Who made the decisions and why? There are more than 50 books—some of which exist only in fragments while others are complete and whole—that are not included in the biblical canon. Why were they discarded? Most Protestant denominations settled on 66 canonical books of the Bible, while there are 73 for Roman Catholics and 78 for Eastern Orthodox adherents. Why are there these differences of opinion? We are often taught that the Bible is, in the words of many religious catechisms, “the infallible word of faith and practice.” In reality, the Bible can also be seen as a political document as much as a spiritual one. Ordained minister and theologian Jim Willis examines the historical, political, and social climates that influenced the redactors and editors of the Bible and other sacred texts in Censoring God: The History of the Lost Books (and other Excluded Scriptures). In analyzing why texts were censored, he uncovers sometimes surprising biases. He investigates enigmatic hints of Bible codes and ancient wisdom that implies a greater spiritual force might have been at work. Willis explores the importance of the Book of Enoch, its disappearance, and how it was rediscovered in Ethiopia. He analyzes over two dozen excluded texts, such as Jubilees and the Gospel of Thomas, along with the many references to books that we know about from fragments but remain lost. Thought-provoking and provocative, Censoring God scrutinizes how sacred texts might have been used to justify the power of the powerful, including the destruction of sacred writings of conquered indigenous cultures because they did not agree with the finished version of the Bible accepted by the Church establishment. This important book looks at the human failings in interpreting God’s words, and through a compassionate examination it brings a deeper understanding of the power and importance of the lost words. With more than 120 photos and graphics, this tome is richly illustrated. Its helpful bibliography provides sources for further exploration, and an extensive index adds to its usefulness.
Download or read book Exclusion Embrace written by Miroslav Volf and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life at the end of the twentieth century presents us with a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to be heard today, Christian theology must find ways of speaking that address the hatred of the other. Reaching back to the New Testament metaphor of salvation as reconciliation, Volf proposes the idea of embrace as a theological response to the problem of exclusion. Increasingly we see that exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality and causing us to react out of fear and anger to all those who are not within our (ever-narrowing) circle. In light of this, Christians must learn that salvation comes, not only as we are reconciled to God, and not only as we "learn to live with one another", but as we take the dangerous and costly step of opening ourselves to the other, of enfolding him or her in the same embrace with which we have been enfolded by God.
Download or read book God and the Excluded written by Joerg Rieger and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rieger offers an enlightening way to understand the chief strands or options in theology today and a valuable proposal for resituating theology around the crucial issue of inclusion. He sees four competing vectors at work in Christian today's theology: Theology of Identity, Theology of Difference, Theology and the Postmodern and Theology and the Underside.
Download or read book Excluded God written by Daniel Key and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's not intentional. Most believers are not purposely looking for ways to exclude God's influence upon their lives. But somewhere we got off track. And at some point the church began learning something the Bible does not teach. Excluded God exposes this error and the effect it has had upon the worldwide church. It may be unfamiliar to you. But this is what Jesus taught. This is what Acts teaches. And this is what the apostle Paul taught. We're the ones that went off script...and doing so cost us more than we realized. But the good news may be better than you can imagine. For when we realize how we have excluded God, we instantly see that He desires for us to have so much more. More of His presence. More of His help. More of His love. More of Him...with no limits on becoming everything He created us to be.
Download or read book Friend ish written by Kelly Needham and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For so many of us, our friends are like family members--we lean on them through our highest highs and our lowest lows--but sometimes those friendships don't turn out quite as we hoped. Bible teacher Kelly Needham debunks our world's constricted, narrow view of friendship and casts a richer, more life-giving, biblical vision for friendship. In Friend-ish, Kelly Needham reminds us that we were called to more than halfhearted friendships and lukewarm connections. We need something more stable, secure, and sacred. We were designed for real friendship--but the difficult truth is that too many of us are settling for less. Kelly deconstructs what Scripture says about the gift of friendship and takes a closer look at the distorted view that most of us have instead. As she shares the lessons she's learned from experience, Kelly paints her own glorious vision of what Christian friendship could look like. With hard-fought wisdom, a clear view of Scripture, and a been-there perspective, Friend-ish teaches us how to: Recognize symptoms of idolatry and toxic dependency Boldly ask for what we need from our community of friends Understand and address the problems that arise in friendship--from neediness to discord Recognize when it's time to end an unhealthy friendship Reorient toward the purposeful, loving relationships we all crave that ultimately bring us closer to God Find the friends you need and start to become that friend for others Join Kelly as she challenges you to view your chosen family in a new light, gain a vision of friendship according to Jesus, and finally enjoy friendships as God intended.
Download or read book The Lost Books of the Bible and The Forgotten Books of Eden written by Rutherford Hayes Platt and published by Nelson Bibles. This book was released on 1927 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presented here are two volumes of apocryphal writings reflecting the life and time of the Old and New Testaments. Stories told by contemporary fiction writers of historical Bible times in fascinating and beautiful style.
Download or read book Multiply written by Francis Chan and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus gave his followers a command: “Follow me.” And a promise: “And I will equip you to find others to follow me.” We were made to make disciples. Designed for use in discipleship relationships and other focused settings, Multiply will equip you to carry out Jesus’s ministry. Each of the twenty-four sessions in the book corresponds with an online video at www.multiplymovement.com, where New York Times bestselling author David Platt joins Francis in guiding you through each part of Multiply. One plus one plus one. Every copy of Multiply is designed to do what Jesus did: make disciples who make disciples who make disciples…. Until the world knows the truth of Jesus Christ.
Download or read book Subversive Jesus written by Craig Warren Greenfield and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.
Download or read book Communion with God written by John Owen and published by Sovereign Grace Publishers,. This book was released on 2001-11 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communion with God, or in full, "Of communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost each person distinctly, in love, grace, and consolation; or, the saints' fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost unfolded," is John Owen's finest devotional treatise. This work expounds "the most glorious truth that believers may have distinct communion with the three persons Father, Son, and Spirit," and being addressed to the "Christian reader" is simpler than much of Owen's theology. (Unabridged. Includes all footnotes.)
Download or read book Too Good to Be False written by Tom Gilson and published by . This book was released on 2020-08 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories always involve a main character, and Jesus' character is unlike any other. No other hero-whether of history, myth, imagination, or legend-has loved as he loved, led the way he led, been a friend the way he was a friend, or understood himself as Jesus understood himself.
Download or read book Walking Through Fire written by Vaneetha Rendall Risner and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astonishing, Job-like story of how an existence filled with loss, suffering, questioning, and anger became a life filled with shocking and incomprehensible peace and joy. Vaneetha Risner contracted polio as an infant, was misdiagnosed, and lived with widespread paralysis. She lived in and out of the hospital for ten years and, after each stay, would return to a life filled with bullying. When she became a Christian, though, she thought things would get easier, and they did: carefree college days, a dream job in Boston, and an MBA from Stanford where she met and married a classmate. But life unraveled. Again. She had four miscarriages. Her son died because of a doctor's mistake. And Vaneetha was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, meaning she would likely become a quadriplegic. And then her husband betrayed her and moved out, leaving her to raise two adolescent daughters alone. This was not the abundant life she thought God had promised her. But, as Vaneetha discovered, everything she experienced was designed to draw her closer to Christ as she discovered "that intimacy with God in suffering can be breathtakingly beautiful."
Download or read book What is Gnosticism written by Karen L. King and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of gnosticism examines the various ways early Christians strove to define themselves in a pluralistic Roman society, while questioning the traditional ideas of heresy and orthodoxy that have previously influenced historians.
Download or read book The Faith of the Outsider written by Frank A. Spina and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2005-03-29 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a probing, insightful look at the "outsider" motif running through the Bible. The biblical story about God's covenant with "insiders" -- with Israel as the chosen people -- is scandalous in today's cultural climate of inclusivity. But, as Frank Anthony Spina shows, God's exclusive election actually has an inclusive purpose. Looking carefully at the biblical narrative, Spina highlights in bold relief seven remarkable stories that treat nonelect people positively and, even more, as strategically important participants in God's plan of salvation. The stories of Esau, Tamar, Rahab, Naaman, Jonah, Ruth, and the woman at the well come alive in new ways as Spina discusses and examines them from an outsider-insider point of view.
Download or read book The Assumption of Moses written by Robert Henry Charles and published by . This book was released on 1897 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Assumption of Moses by Robert Henry Charles, first published in 1897, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.
Download or read book Resonate written by Mark Beuving and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s no secret that Christians can be ambivalent about music, both popular music and music in the church. In Resonate, author and Eternity Bible College professor Mark Beuving shows Christians how to better appreciate all kinds of music to the glory and pleasure of God. Beuving carefully examines music in the Bible and looks at the various and powerful ways in which music influences our world and our personal lives. He devotes the first section of the book to understanding music, both sacred and secular, exploring biblically why human beings make music and how it affects us. In the second section he highlights some of the many ways we engage with music, from writing songs to discussing artists with our neighbors to worshiping God with fellow believers. Wise and winsome, Beuving writes with an ear for recapturing the wonder of a beautiful part of God’s creation. Readers will be inspired to contemplate more deeply and appreciate more fully God’s good gift of music.
Download or read book Playing God written by Andy Crouch and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-09-06 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With Playing God, Andy Crouch opens the subject of power, elucidating its subtle activity in our relationships and institutions. He gives us much more than a warning against abuse, though. Turning the notion of "playing God" on its head, Crouch celebrates power as the gift by which we join in God's creative, redeeming work in the world.
Download or read book A History of the Bible written by John Barton and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A literary history of our most influential book of all time, by an Oxford scholar and Anglican priest In our culture, the Bible is monolithic: It is a collection of books that has been unchanged and unchallenged since the earliest days of the Christian church. The idea of the Bible as "Holy Scripture," a non-negotiable authority straight from God, has prevailed in Western society for some time. And while it provides a firm foundation for centuries of Christian teaching, it denies the depth, variety, and richness of this fascinating text. In A History of the Bible, John Barton argues that the Bible is not a prescription to a complete, fixed religious system, but rather a product of a long and intriguing process, which has inspired Judaism and Christianity, but still does not describe the whole of either religion. Barton shows how the Bible is indeed an important source of religious insight for Jews and Christians alike, yet argues that it must be read in its historical context--from its beginnings in myth and folklore to its many interpretations throughout the centuries. It is a book full of narratives, laws, proverbs, prophecies, poems, and letters, each with their own character and origin stories. Barton explains how and by whom these disparate pieces were written, how they were canonized (and which ones weren't), and how they were assembled, disseminated, and interpreted around the world--and, importantly, to what effect. Ultimately, A History of the Bible argues that a thorough understanding of the history and context of its writing encourages religious communities to move away from the Bible's literal wording--which is impossible to determine--and focus instead on the broader meanings of scripture.
