Reference Books - Page 11

We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

G. K. Beale

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A Biblical Theology of Idolatry 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

In We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry (IVP Academic, 2008), author G.K. Beale teases out the implications of a truth he first discovered during an extensive study of the commissioning of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6). Beale believes that one of the central aspects of Isaiah 6 is that "what you revere you resemble, either for ruin or restoration." His book is an attempt to show how this teaching is woven into the fabric of Scripture. We Become What We Worship illuminates this teaching by presenting a biblical theology of idolatry.

We Become What We Worship relies heavily on intertextuality - a method of Bible study that combines grammatical-historical exegesis with canonical-contextual exegesis. Beale uses this methodology in order to persuasively demonstrate that the concept of idolaters becoming like their idols is one that appears throughout the Bible.

The most helpful section of this book is the chapter on Isaiah 6. Pastors and teachers will find Beale's exegetical insights to be of enormous value. Next time I preach or teach on Isaiah 6, I will definitely consult this book again! Beale masterfully showcases the biblical allusions in the text, nuances that shed light on the passage's context and meaning.

Another important insight I gleaned from Beale's work concerns the Golden Calf narrative in Exodus. Beale shows how this pivotal event in Israel's history is alluded to in many Old and New Testament passages.

Many readers may not have the stamina to persevere through the rigorous exegesis that forms the heart of this book. We Become What We Worship is definitely geared to the academy and not the layperson. But I highly recommend that pastors consult this book whenever they are preparing to preach on one of the texts that Beale exposits. We Become What We Worship is a terrific resource that shines light on many passages of Scripture.

Editorial Review:

The heart of the biblical understanding of idolatry, argues Gregory Beale, is that we take on the characteristics of what we worship.

Employing Isaiah 6 as his interpretive lens, Beale demonstrates that this understanding of idolatry permeates the whole canon, from Genesis to Revelation. Beale concludes with an application of the biblical notion of idolatry to the challenges of contemporary life.

Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them

Liz Curtis Higgs

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Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Learn some lessons in good living from the Bible's bad news belles. Women everywhere marvel at the "good girls" in Scripture such as Sarah, Mary, and Ruth. But on most days, when they look in the mirror they see the selfishness of Sapphira or the deception of Delilah. They catch a glimpse of Jezebel's take-charge pride or Salome's misguided attempt to please her mother. What's a good girl to do?

In Bad Girls of the Bible, author Liz Curtis Higgs offers a unique and clear-sighted approach to understanding those "other women" in Scripture, combining a contemporary retelling of their stories with a solid, verse-by-verse study of the lessons we can learn from them. Whether they were "bad to the bone," "bad for a season," or just "bad for a moment," these infamous sisters show readers how not to handle life's challenges. With her trademark humor and encouragement, Liz Curtis Higgs helps us avoid their tragic mistakes and joyfully embrace grace.

Here's encouragement, hope for the future, laughter, and stress release, all between the cover of one book.

Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy

Beth Moore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

More preaching than teaching 2 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Beth Moore is a very engaging preacher and I was inspired by some of her messages in this Daniel study. Unfortunately I didn't care for the study format, which is an hour of a preaching video and almost no allowance for discussion. The homework also does not lend itself to deep scriptural discussion, as it deals more with themes and folksy stories than exegesis.

Also, I think making Daniel half about prophecy is not a wise idea. There are many end times views that don't see Daniel as having a place in future prophecy. Even though Beth mentions the other views, she focuses one the one she agrees with (which is understandable) but which bothered me, as I obviously don't agree with her view. She pulled alot of her viewpoints from commentaries and people who agreed with her viewpoint, as opposed to using inductive Bible study study methods.

For someone interested in a serious study of end times, I recommend Revelation: Four Views: A Parallel Commentary by Steve Gregg (available here at Amazon). This focuses on the Book of Revelation, and going verse by verse through the book of Revelations, shows what each of the main 4 end times views has to say about it. By reading through this, a student of end times can come to his/her own conclusion based on the strongest Biblical apologetics.

The Beth Moore Bible study formula would be good for those who are more comfortable being told what to think--and I don't mean that snidely--just so you know there's not a good format for digging in on your own--or for finding out about generalized themes of the Bible.

Honestly, Beth Moore's strength is preaching, and like I said, she had some very inspirational messages that encouraged me to apply Biblical truths to my own life. Just use her studies with the caveat of knowing her format.

Who Wrote the Bible?

Richard E. Friedman

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Total reviews: 84 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Important For Those Who Like Postmortem 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Most of this book concentrates on a hypothesis for how the Torah, not the bible as a whole was written (regardless of what the book's name or some of the reviewers say)- it is the origin of Torah that is attributed to Moses, not the bible as a whole.

Torah in its own right, if this hypothesis is correct, is a) an omelet and b) has a history. I don't know why for Christians it is important that the written Torah was revealed to Moses all at once, for the Orthodox Jews, this is important because Torah is the covenant between the Suzerain - God and a King - the people Israel. This relationship between God and Israel is at the core of Judaism. Also, it is important for the Orthodox that Torah is attributed to Moses because of the position that the Orthodox hold that the ancient state of Israel had to find its justification in the Torah - not the other way around. Israel only has one ruler and law giver - God.

I will leave it to the reader of this review to look at the other reviews to see what the book is talking about. In my review, I would like to raise a few questions about the validity of some of what the author of "Understanding The Bible" wrote.

Firstly. The author Richard Friedman, wrote in Chapter 14 about how the various pieces that sometimes contradicted and were totally unrelated were put together and that they created something that the originators could never have imagined. I argue that this is not correct. There are major themes in the Torah that are constants that are seen throughout and have been preserved all throughout the "merges".

1) The theme that leads from the creation story to the Tabernacle and the first temple. The idea is that the first temple represented Eden.
2) The moral growth of humans as well as the moral changes in the conceptions by God. This leads us from Cain who killed his brother, but was tolerated by God to the dictum made by God that all those who shed the blood of man will die by man's hand. As well as that God will demand a reckoning from every beast for killing men. This was a legal principle that Israelites used from the earliest time (even if the writing down of this principle is attributed to a later age). Additionally, we go from Adam and Eve who are children, to Noah who is the most righteous of his generation, but doesn't attempt to change God's mind about killing all people and animals, to Abraham who tells God not to dare to destroy an entire city.
3) The covenental formulary is preserved throughout all the so called modifications, "arbitrary additions", political feuds, etc. To learn what covenental formulary is and why it is important, please read the book Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible by Jon Levenson.

Here is another thing that one has to watch out for. The so called contradictions. On page 229, the author lists two "contradictory" passages.

(1) "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it...because in six days 'tetragramaton' made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore 'tetragramaton' blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it."

(2) "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it...and you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and "tetragramaton" your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore "tetragramaton" your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day"

The author claims that (1) and (2) above are somehow contradictory and yet people who read them seem to be able to reconcile them. Let me suggest that (1) states why the Sabbath day is sanctified while (2) states why you should keep it sanctified. Had the author understood that the story of the bringing out of the land of Egypt is the reason for why we as Jews obey God's commandments, he would have understood the reason for (2). (1) simply states that given that you will obey God and keep Sabbath holy, here is an explanation for why it is holy. Contradictory? Perhaps in the author's imagination.

In any case, the bible is a living book. It is the way in which one communicates with a living God. Perhaps the reason that so many people object to the kind of study that leads to the documentary hypothesis is the notion that it is like cutting up a dead frog in order to do a postmortem. Instead, you can use the book to create a relationship with God that has been described by many as a relationship between lovers.

Editorial Review:

"It is a strange fact that we have never known with certainty who produced the book that has played such a central role in our civilization," writes Friedman, a foremost Bible scholar. From this point he begins an investigation and analysis that reads as compellingly as a good detective story. Focusing on the central books of the Old Testament--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--he draws upon biblical and archaeological evidence to make a convincing argument for the identities of their authors. In the process he paints a vivid picture of the world of the Bible--its politics, history, and personalities. The result is a marvel of scholarship that sheds a new and enriching light on our understanding of the Bible as literature, history, and sacred text.

Amplified Bible

ZONDERVAN

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 88 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Careful- don't read too much into it 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Although it may be helpful in seeing a range of possible meanings for words, it has often been used as a witness for formulating false or misleading doctrines. Just because a word can have a particular semantic range doesn't mean one can pick and choose the meaning they want. A term must be understood properly in its immediate and larger context to avoid mis-understanding the text. Read other translations first, and multiple commentaries before advocating a new-found meaning for a verse.

This version of Amplified Bible is missing pages 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This particular version of the Amplified Bible from Amazon is missing pages from the New Testament. Returned for another of the same, and it was missing the same pages. The printing of this version must have been defective.

Amplified Bible, Large Print Hardcover Edition 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful edition of the Amplified Bible! The print font used is so clear and bright on the page, and just the right size. These were gifts for friends who are elderly and have vision problems, and they were so thrilled they could actually read them with no difficulty at all.

Editorial Review:

The Amplified Bible captures the full meaning behind the original Greek and Hebrew.

The Jewish Study Bible: featuring The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation

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Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Now, readers of the Bible who are interested in studying Jewish traditions have a one-volume resource specifically tailored for their needs. The Jewish Study Bible presents the center of gravity of the Scriptures where Jews experience it--in Torah. It offers readers the fruits of various schools of Jewish traditions of biblical exegesis (rabbinic, medieval, mystical, etc.) and provides them with a wealth of ancillary materials that aid in bringing the ancient text to life. The nearly forty contributors to the work represent the cream of Jewish biblical scholarship from the world over. No knowledge of Hebrew is required for one to make use of this unique volume. The JSB uses The Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation, whose name is an acronym formed from the Hebrew initials of the three sections into which the Hebrew Bible is traditionally divided (Torah, Instruction; Nevi'im, Prophets; and Kethubim, Writings). A committee of esteemed biblical scholars and rabbis from the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism movements produced this modern translation, which dates from 1985. Anyone interested in acquiring a fuller understanding of the riches of the Bible will profit from reading The Jewish Study Bible.

A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

C. S. Lewis

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What an awesome book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

C.S. Lewis is always great. This book is awesome. It contains daily, short but deep readings will help you grow in your spiritual life. You'll read it over and over.

A Wonderful Devotional Resource 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Taken from a number of his most widely read works, A Year with C.S. Lewis, is a wonderful resource for Christians to consider many of the theological points of their faith in small nuggets upon which they can chew and digest without becoming overwhelmed.

I have been using this book for my lunchtime devotional reading and have found, without fail, that each day's reading is thought provoking and insightful. I have found the passages taken from "The Problem of Pain" and "A Grief Observed" to be the most compelling on a personal level.

What the reader will not find here is the sort of light, relentlessly optimistic writing often seen in devotional literature nor will he or she find a short bit of Scripture quoted and then expounded upon by some selection of Lewis' writing. Instead, what I have found are selections chosen for their ability to pierce cliches and platitudes and engage the reader's intellect both authentically and without pretense.

I strongly recommend this compilation for those who would like to go deeper into their own faith during their devotional times.

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas

Elaine Pagels

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 174 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Ramble and No Structure at ALL 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is the first time I write a review on Amazon, unfortunately not a good one. Someone recommended this book to me because it's more "unbiased and convincing". As a person who is growing in faith, I decided to check this little book out. After 50 pages, I had to put it down because there is no way I can follow the author's arguement. In fact, I only saw a compile of passages in the 4 orthodox gospels and the gospel of Thomas, under a bunch of loosely constructed themes. It's not "convincing" in anyway, because I can't see her points! Might as well read all these gospels and reach your own conclusion.

If you want to read this book, I suggest you sit down for a whole day and finish it in one shot, because that is the only way to understand what the author is trying to get at. I only have a couple of hours for reading every day at the most, so I gave up.

Editorial Review:

In Beyond Belief, renowned religion scholar Elaine Pagels continues her groundbreaking examination of the earliest Christian texts, arguing for an ongoing assessment of faith and a questioning of religious orthodoxy.

Spurred on by personal tragedy and new scholarship from an international group of researchers, Pagels returns to her investigation of the “secret” Gospel of Thomas, and breathes new life into writings once thought heretical. As she arrives at an ever-deeper conviction in her own faith, Pagels reveals how faith allows for a diversity of interpretations, and that the “rogue” voices of Christianity encourage and sustain “the recognition of the light within us all.”

Holy Bible, Giant Print Presentation Edition: King James Version

Bible

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not great for a quick read 2 out of 5 stars.
9 of 21 people found this review helpful.

The book is too long, bleak and unappealing. The constant reminder of this so called "god" character was repeated too much and got old. It wasn't a good read. I suggest The Lord of the Rings.

Don't Leave It Lying Around the House 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 21 people found this review helpful.

This book should never be left where it could fall into the hands of children. Recurrent themes of bloody violence, murder, racism, incest and rape are dealt with extremely irresponsibly. Horrific events are presented as justified by circumstances and as solutions to petty wrongs.

Worse than the depictions in the book are actual historic examples of such depictions being used to justify the worst kind of degradation and humiliation that humans have ever been forced to endure. These acts are not just inspired by this book, but characters in the book urge its readers to follow its example. Worst of all, however, is that, despite this book's obvious lack of coherent logic or sense, it inexplicably possesses a following of people that somehow find comfort in its horror.

No doubt about it, the horrific images, and lack of intelligent discussion of those images, contained in this book makes it entirely unsuitable for children, or sensible adults.

It is very doubtful that a book that meanders so terribly, and contradicts itself so often, is truly inspired by a deity. What you will read in here can be found in other mythologies. There is nothing truly unique about it.

Upon close scrutiny, we discover that the content of Bible is a compilation of historically and archaeologically unsupportable Myths such as Noah's ark, Abraham, Joseph, David, Solomon, etc.

Editorial Review:

It's great to have plenty of choices when a Bible that's easy on the eyes and the wallet is called for. All three of these editions feature 15.5-point type that is exceptionally crisp even under subdued lighting conditions. The Presentation Editions flexible, soft imitation leather binding makes it easy to hold and carry.
The Deluxe Edition is a classic "preacher's Bible." Bound in buttery-soft genuine leather, it is the prefect gift for holding in one's hand while delivering a sermon or teaching from the Scriptures. This edition fits the bill as a special gift for the preacher, evangelist or Bible college graduate.

God's Answers to Life's Difficult Questions (Living with Purpose)

Rick Warren

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

If you are struggling with stress, failure, depression, an overwhelming crisis, this is a great book. The great thing about this book is that it gives real steps that you can do right now to help your situation and the way you think. It is written from a Christian perspective and offers Bible references and stories that offer hope and strength in difficult times. I loved the story of Elijah. I had read I Kings 19 before, but never thought about it the way he explains. It is short and to the point, not a lot of fluff, just sincere help when you need it most.

God's Answer to Life's Difficult Questions (Living With Purpose) 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The author of this book gives great facts from the Holy Bible on the lives of the people in the Bible. That we may learn from their mistkes and their successes and how to avoid needless trials, temptations, and error in our lives

Editorial Review:

Rick Warren takes you to the Bible for answers to twelve of life’s toughest questions. Drawing from the examples of different biblical characters who faced the same issues, Warren offers concise, practical insights you can understand and apply in order to move past hardships and experience a life of purpose and significance.