The New Testament Made Harder

The New Testament Made Harder PDF

Author: James E. Faulconer

Publisher: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Published: 2014-11

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780842528719

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A series of questions about the New Testament to make reading harder -- and therefore fresher -- by giving readers such questions for study.

Scripture Study

Scripture Study PDF

Author: James E. Faulconer

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780934893398

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Cultivate your love for the scriptures and deepen your knowledge with the help of a scripture study process compiled by James E. Faulconer. Rich scripture study is facilitated by tools and techniques that help us focus on what the scriptures can teach us. This study aid offers pointers and suggestions that will familiarize beginning students of the scriptures with the many resources available to them, as well as help more experienced students improve the overall effectiveness of their scripture study. In this fascinating book, James Faulconer discusses a helpful method and the purpose of outlining, an in-depth method of cross-referencing, how to ask cogent and thought-provoking questions about the scriptures, the benefits of using dictionaries and concordances, the relation between words and ideas apparent through rhetorical studies, and using the valuable reference tools in the LDS edition of the scriptures.

The Gospels and Acts

The Gospels and Acts PDF

Author: Michael Wilkins

Publisher: B&H Publishing Group

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 1433681013

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The most comprehensive volume ever produced in defense of the Gospels and Acts The four Gospels and the book of Acts tell stories of Jesus’ life and the birth of Christianity. Are these stories true history or just religious fiction? Christians accept the stories as true and say that the entire Bible is a reliable communication inspired by God. Against this, non-Christians have argued that the Bible is a book of legends, myths, and historical inaccuracies—just another example of human religious endeavor. In this volume, four world-class New Testament scholars address challenges to the reliability of the Gospels and Acts. In order to identify the most important challenges, the authors drew from the literature of skeptics and New Testament critics, plus they included questions that many Christians ask as well. The result is the most comprehensive defense of the Gospels and Acts that has ever been published. The primary purpose of the Holman Apologetics Commentary on the Bible is to equip readers to defend the reliability of Scripture and the historic evangelical understanding of its teachings. It is designed for use by general readers, though scholars will find it a probing and welcome resource as well. A secondary purpose is to encourage awareness and discussion of Bible difficulties that are not commonly mentioned from the pulpit or even the seminary lectern. This is not a verse-by-verse commentary. The authors were provided an index that identified verses known to be relevant to the topics of apologetics and biblical reliability. They restricted their comments to these verses, plus any others that they recognized as germane to the aims of this project. Typically, each commentary note begins by stating the challenge or challenges regarding the text at hand. We attempt to state the case in all its potency, as a critic would state it. This approach takes seriously the critical viewpoint and helps ensure that the reader feels the full weight of the challenge. The contributors take each challenge seriously and seek to describe viable solutions that support faith and align with a high view of Scripture.

The Doctrine and Covenants Made Harder

The Doctrine and Covenants Made Harder PDF

Author: James E. Faulconer

Publisher: Salt Press LLC

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9780983963639

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This is a book of questions. Just questions, no answers, though occasionally I will throw in some answer-like material to help make the question easier to understand. It is a book of questions because in my experience-in both personal scripture study and in teaching Sunday School and other lessons-questions are of more help for reflective, deep study. We learn new things when we respond to new questions, and the person who says "I no longer get anything out of my scripture study" no longer runs up against questions to think about as he or she reads. This book is intended to make reading harder-and therefore fresher-by giving such readers questions for study.

Jesus > Religion

Jesus > Religion PDF

Author: Jefferson Bethke

Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM

Published: 2013-10-14

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1400205409

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Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back

Evolution of the Word

Evolution of the Word PDF

Author: Marcus J. Borg

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2012-08-28

Total Pages: 1037

ISBN-13: 0062082124

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By presenting the New Testament books in the order they were written, bestselling Bible scholar Marcus Borg reveals how spiritually and politically radical the early Jesus movement began and how it slowly became domesticated. Evolution of the Word is an incredible value: not only are readers getting a deeply insightful new book from the author of Speaking Christian and Jesus, but also the full-text of the New Testament—and one of the only Bibles organized in chronological order and including explanatory annotations that give readers a more informed understanding of the Scripture that is so close to their hearts and lives.

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, Volume 16 (2015)

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, Volume 16 (2015) PDF

Author: Daniel C. Peterson

Publisher: The Interpreter Foundation

Published: 2015-10-26

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1518793304

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This is volume 16 of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture published by The Interpreter Foundation. It contains articles on a variety of topics including: "Toward Ever More Intelligent Discipleship," "A Response to Denver Snuffer’s Essay on Plural Marriage, Adoption, and the Supposed Falling Away of the Church – Part 1: Ignoring Inconvenient Evidence," "A Response to Denver Snuffer’s Essay on Plural Marriage, Adoption, and the Supposed Falling Away of the Church – Part 2: Facade or Reality?", "Careless Accounts and Tawdry Novelties," "The Prodigal’s Return to the Father: House of Glory and Rediscovery," "The Deuteronomist Reforms and Lehi’s Family Dynamics: A Social Context for the Rebellions of Laman and Lemuel," "The Doctrine of Resurrection in the Book of Mormon," "Not Leaving and Going On to Perfection," "Learning Nephi’s Language: Creating a Context for 1 Nephi 1:2," "The Treason of the Geographers: Mythical “Mesoamerican” Conspiracy and the Book of Mormon," "John Bernhisel’s Gift to a Prophet: Incidents of Travel in Central America and the Book of Mormon," "A Treasure Trove of Questions," "The Theory of Evolution is Compatible with Both Belief and Unbelief in a Supreme Being."

The Book of Mormon Made Harder

The Book of Mormon Made Harder PDF

Author: James E. Faulconer

Publisher: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Published: 2014-07

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780842528627

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A series of questions about the Book of Mormon to make reading harder -- therefore fresher -- by giving readers such questions for study.

Canon Revisited

Canon Revisited PDF

Author: Michael J. Kruger

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1433530813

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Given the popular-level conversations on phenomena like the Gospel of Thomas and Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, as well as the current gap in evangelical scholarship on the origins of the New Testament, Michael Kruger’s Canon Revisited meets a significant need for an up-to-date work on canon by addressing recent developments in the field. He presents an academically rigorous yet accessible study of the New Testament canon that looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited provides an evangelical introduction to the New Testament canon that can be used in seminary and college classrooms, and read by pastors and educated lay leaders alike. In contrast to the prior volumes on canon, this volume distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. Rather than simply discussing the history of canon—rehashing the Patristic data yet again—Kruger develops a strong theological framework for affirming and authenticating the canon as authoritative. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.