Showing titles in Commentaries

In today’s skeptical age, many people insist that Jesus was, at best, a great teacher. Mark demonstrates that He was—and is—so much more. In this volume, Dr. R.C. Sproul dives into Mark’s action-packed and fast-paced gospel. As we are told in vivid detail, Jesus immediately vanquishes demons, banishes diseases, subdues the forces of nature, satisfies hunger, and silences critics. From one mighty miracle to the next, this gospel builds an unshakable case for Jesus’ true identity and leads us to confess along with the Apostle Peter that You are the Christ (Mark 8:29).

Much needed today, the singularly potent Christology of Colossians and the application of key doctrines in Philemon put the sufficiency of Christ for salvation and transformed living on full display.

It matters—but discussions on whether the New Testament is historically accurate can be tedious and overwhelming. We want to be confident that the reports in the New Testament are true and dependable, but scholarly discussions around the authenticity of the events recounted in Scripture can be challenging to navigate. Dr. Ben Shaw provides the clear introduction we've needed for understanding the New Testament's historical reliability.

Wills turns his remarkable gift for biblical analysis to the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Wills examines the goals, methods, and styles of the evangelists and how these shaped the gospels' messages.

Throughout history, Christians have debated Paul's influence in the church. Though revered, Paul has also been controversial. In this masterly analysis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills chronicles Paul's tremendous influence on the first explosion of Christian belief, the controversy surrounding Paul through the centuries, and the meaning of his words.

Grace or truth…or both? Truth without grace breeds self-righteousness and crushing legalism. Grace without truth breeds deception and moral compromise. Is it possible to embrace both in balance? Jesus did. Randy Alcorn offers a simple yet profound two-point checklist of Christlikeness. “In the end,” says Alcorn, “we don’t need grace or truth. We need grace and truth. And for people to see Jesus in us, they must see both.”

What do we do with a God who sanctions violence? Old Testament violence proves one of the most troubling topics in the Bible. Too often, the explanations for the brutality in Scripture fail to adequately illustrate why God would sanction such horrors on humanity. These unanswered questions leave readers frustrated and confused, leading some to even walk away from their faith.

With so many people around the globe migrating, how should Christians and the church respond? Leading Latino-American biblical scholar M. Daniel Carroll R. helps listeners understand what the Bible says about immigration, offering accessible, nuanced, and sympathetic guidance for the church. After two successful editions of Christians at the Border, and having talked and written about immigration over the past decade, Carroll has sharpened his focus and refined his argument to make sure we hear clearly what the Bible says about one of the most pressing issues of our day.

The Gospel according to John has always been recognized as different from the "synoptic" accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But what explains the difference? In this new translation and verse-by-verse commentary, Michael Pakaluk suggests an answer and unlocks a 2,000-year-old mystery. Mary's Voice in the Gospel According to John reveals the subtle but powerful influence of the mother of Jesus on the fourth Gospel.

The Law of the Seed is immutable—unchangeable! It doesn’t matter what our opinion might be; it doesn’t matter what seems reasonable to us. It works the way Jesus said. It is the non-legalistic way to plant and nurture the Word of God in hearts that produce the fruit of a Kingdom life! The Immutable Law of the Seed applies to every area of our lives. It happens whether we have faith or not, whether we want the outcome, or whether we pray and believe for something else to happen. The Immutable Law of the Seed is programmed into the Physics of Creation! Without it the universe could not ...

The Epistle to the Galations is regarded as one of Paul's greatest and most important letters. It has been characterized as a "short Romans" and embraces in its six short chapters such a variety of vehement and intense emotion as could not be paralleled in any work. As the second of the trilogy on Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians embodies the germinal teaching on Christian freedom, which separated Christianity from Judaism and which launched it upon its destiny on missionary conquest. Galatians is the guidebook for the release from the bondage of religious legalism.

Though Christians affirm that the Old Testament bears witness to Christ, how the Old Testament writers did this is a matter of extensive debate. Furthermore, Christian biblical scholars also debate the degree to which contemporary interpreters of the Bible can follow the hermeneutics of the New Testament authors in using the Old Testament to point to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Five Views on Christ in the Old Testament is the first book to bring together in conversation the major views on how the Old Testament points to Christ.

Revelation is one of the most challenging books in the Bible. It is very different from any kind of writing that is familiar to most people today. Come with us as we explain the mysteries of the Book of Revelation.

This book offers a brief introduction to the Acts of the Apostles. Acts is a substantial book, sitting right in the middle of the New Testament, looking back to the four Gospels and ahead to the mission of the early church. It provides a framework for our understanding of the letters; but it does more than that. It offers a sophisticated and nuanced view of what it means to think of the gospel of Jesus, Israel's Messiah, going out into the world over which Israel's Messiah claims the status of Lord.

The Old Testament is one of the most carefully studied books in the world’s history. It is also one of the most misunderstood. This founding text of the world’s three largest religions is also, Erich Fromm argues, an impressive radical humanist text. He sees the stories of mankind’s transition from divided clans to united brotherhood as a tribute to the human power to overcome. Filled with hopeful symbolism, You Shall Be as Gods shows how the Old Testament and its tradition is an inspiring ode to human potential.

In 1952, C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity eloquently defined the essential tenets of the Christian faith. With the rise of fractured individualism that continues to split the church, this approach is more important now than ever before for biblical hermeneutics. Influential theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer puts forth a "mere" Christian hermeneutic—essential principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, and by all Christians.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos.

A brilliant author, scientist, and adventurer who has been called "the real Indiana Jones", Dr. Charles Pellegrino takes us on a remarkable journey from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates rivers - crossing time, legend, and ancient lands to explore the unsolved mysteries of the Old Testament. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah is an epic saga of discovery that interweaves science, history, and suspense - the first book ever to bring archaeologists, scientists, and theologians together to examine the same evidence.

“Torah”, the Hebrew word for instruction or law, is the collective name for the first five Books of the Tanakh, or Jewish Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They first appeared widely in written form among English-speaking Christians with the Geneva Bibles of the 16th century. This 21st century modernization of that text is called the Revised Geneva Translation. It is intended to make the Received Text as actionable as possible to a modern audience.

In Commentary on Galatians, Martin Luther expounds Paul's epistle with an insight, power, and depth of emotion which is sorely lacking in modern commentaries. From the very first minute of this book, Luther cuts to the heart of the epistle - the doctrine of justification - in the way that only he can. His bold words and plain-sense interpretations result in a work filled with much of the same force and passion that characterized the epistle itself.