Showing titles in Biblical History & Culture

What if everything you've been told about your spiritual identity has been only half the story? For centuries, countless believers have lived with a diminished understanding of who they truly are—seeing themselves as merely forgiven sinners struggling toward heaven, rather than restored image-bearers designed to radiate divine light here and now. In The Broken Mirror, Jonathan Leger unveils a transformative truth that has been hiding in plain sight throughout Scripture: You were created as a mirror, designed to reflect God's very nature. Though sin shattered that reflection, Christ came ...

Who wrote Great Expectations? That’s easy: Charles Dickens. Who’s the author of Beloved? Toni Morrison, of course. Now how about the Old Testament? You’d think for a book as widely known, studied, and distributed as the Bible, the question of authorship would have been sorted out by now. But the question is more complex (and fascinating) than it seems. Why? Because asking it is to challenge everything we might assume about the Bible’s identity as a book, about what “writing” and “authorship” really mean, and about how a written text could become sacred.

Early in her career, Elaine Pagels changed our understanding of the origins of Christianity with her work in The Gnostic Gospels. Now, in the culmination of a decades-long career, she explores the biggest subject of all, Jesus. In Miracles and Wonder she sets out to discover how a poor young Jewish man inspired a religion that shaped the world.

The great expositor of Scripture, John Calvin, once exclaimed in exasperation about the numerous speculations on controversial passages in the Book of Daniel, such as the identity of the “Little Horn” of chapter 7. Calvin preached, “They are all wrong.” This book provides a preterist view of Daniel that is in harmony with other parallel passages in Scripture, such as Zechariah 14, Matthew 24 and Revelation. Areas of agreement among conservatives are summarized. Special attention is then paid to so-called “hard parts” in which the majority of commentators, in the words of Calvin,...

Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, Simon, Judas, and Matthias - what happened to the men who answered Jesus' call to follow him? What impact did they have on the world? Where did they go and what did they do after Jesus' resurrection and ascension? In these fascinating profiles, Dr. McBirnie offers listeners a snapshot of the lives of each apostle.

Eusebius' The History of the Church (Historia Ecclesiastica) offers an unparalleled window into the earliest centuries of Christianity, chronicling the church's growth from its apostolic foundations to the pivotal reign of Constantine. Written by the "Father of Church History," this masterwork weaves together scripture, eyewitness accounts, and lost documents to preserve the struggles and triumphs of the early Christian community. Eusebius traces the lives of martyrs, the rise of heresies, and the formation of key doctrines, painting a vivid portrait of faith under persecution and divine ...

In Reading the Bible, Dr. Bill Creasy takes you on an extraordinary adventure through the entire Bible, introducing you to unforgettable characters, gripping drama, uproarious comedy, and profound tragedy, all the while examining the literary genres and rhetorical strategies that make the Bible the greatest story ever told.

We are at war. The primary battlefield is our mind. The Seed War of Genesis 3 is the longest standing, consecutive war in history. The impact cannot be underestimated but tragically, most people are oblivious because they have fallen prey to the mind control tactics of the Nephilim. Who are the Nephilim? What is their agenda? And how has the Nephilim Agenda impacted our daily lives? If Jesus won the Seed War, why are we still amid a supernatural battle of epic proportions?

A vast readership wants better access to the ancient words and ideas of the Bible. In The Bible Doesn't Say That, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman walks the listener through dozens of instances of mistranslations, misconceptions, and other misunderstandings about the Bible. In 40 short chapters, Hoffman covers fundamental theology, morality, lifestyle, and biblical imagery.

The Israel Decree meticulously traces the historical, political, legal, and scriptural foundations of Israel's God-promised right to the land. Writing with clarity and commitment to biblical truth, bestselling author and native Israeli Amir Tsarfati helps you: understand how today’s Israel is a continuation of the ancient biblical nation, fulfilling a divine promise made millennia ago; live with greater expectancy and hope in light of what Bible prophecy says about the rapture and tribulation; and be encouraged by God’s wonderful character as you see it on display.

This book chronicles the fervent religious revival movement known as the Great Awakening as it swept across the American frontier between 1800 and 1879. It focuses particularly on the rise of frontier camp meetings and the vital role played by itinerant Methodist preachers, known as circuit riders. Drawing heavily on the experiences and writings of figures like Peter Cartwright, the book vividly portrays the raw, emotional, and often dramatic nature of these revivals, including mass conversions, intense preaching, and physical manifestations of religious fervor at gatherings like the famous...

The official editions of the King James contained the books of the Apocrypha until 1796. Most printers did not clear inventories and change to the 66-book version we know today until the mid 1800's. Ethymologically, the word "apocrypha" means "things that are hidden", but why they were hidden is not clear. Listen to find out more!

As we all know, and as many of our well-established textbooks have argued for decades, the Inquisition was one of the most frightening and bloody chapters in Western history, Pope Pius XII was anti-Semitic and rightfully called "Hitler's Pope", the Dark Ages were a stunting of the progress of knowledge to be redeemed only by the secular spirit of the Enlightenment, and the religious Crusades were an early example of the rapacious Western thirst for riches and power. But what if these long-held beliefs were all wrong?

Warm, insightful, even at times amusing, Teems's depiction of King James has all the elements of a grand tale - conspiracy, kidnapping, witchcraft, murder, love, despair, loss. Majestie offers an engaging new look at the world's most cherished, revered, and influential translation of Sacred Writ and the king behind it.

The God of the Old Testament commanded and endorsed many practices that we find morally reprehensible today. High on the list was the institution of slavery, which features prominently in several sections of the Hebrew Bible. Fathers could sell their daughters into slavery, masters could beat their slaves, creditors could carry off children for failure to repay a debt, and foreigners could be kept for life, passed down as inherited property. How are we to make sense of all of this from our modern point of view?

You’ll learn about all these and more hidden facts about ancient China and its connection to the Bible in this audiobook that provides the research to the biblical background of the novel Qin: Dragon Emperor of China. But don’t worry, you don’t have to have read or listened to Qin novel to get the tremendous spiritual value out of this book.

What was God doing between the Old and New Testaments? There was a four-hundred-year gap between the last Old Testament prophet and the New Testament arrival of Jesus Christ. It’s called the Intertestamental period. In that time period, there were some very significant things happening and they were related to the Bible and its prophecies as described by the prophet Daniel. This book explores some of the biblical and historical meaning of it all.

In Flawed Follower Pastor Rene Schlaepfer travels in the footsteps of Simon Peter from Israel to Rome to learn how Jesus takes flawed misfits and transforms them into world changers. You will discover hope for imperfect, in-progress, well-intentioned but often bumbling people with a checkered past. Like Peter. And like you.

Who was Jesus? Historical sources portray a person who was complex, multi-layered, and often contradictory to the tidy portrait that much of modern Christianity paints him as. Even the gospel accounts render him as both judge and healer, teacher and temple, servant and savior. A Doubter's Guide to Jesus is a persuasive and often challenging investigation into the historical figure found in the earliest sources. These sources, which include references both direct and indirect - from Roman, Jewish, and Christian accounts - offer us more than simple evidence that Jesus existed.

The Book of Job tells us of two wild and untamable creatures, Leviathan and Behemoth. Some believe they are literal animals, alive or extinct, some even believe they were dinosaurs. Others say they are only mythological or symbolic monsters. The truth will surprise everyone. Author Brian Godawa, respected Christian and best-selling author of When Giants Were Upon the Earth, expounds in biblical and historical detail the true theological meaning of these chaos monsters in the Bible.