Religion Theory

Max Lucado invites you to examine the cross, contemplate its purpose, and celebrate its significance in He Chose the Nails.Go ahead and linger on the hill of Calvary. Rub a finger on the timber and press the nail into your hand. Taste the tinge of cheap wine and feel the scrape of a thorn on your brow. Touch the velvet dirt, moist with the blood of God. Allow the tools of torture to tell their story. Listen as they tell you why the hope of all humanity balances on the truth of the claims of the cross.

Dr. Abigail Favale provides an in-depth yet accessible account of the gender paradigm: a framework for understanding reality and identity that has recently risen to prominence. With substance, clarity, and compassion, Favale teases out the hidden assumptions of the gender paradigm and exposes its effects. Yet this book is not merely an exposé—it is also a powerful, moving articulation of a Christian understanding of reality: a holistic paradigm that proclaims the dignity of the body, the sacramental meaning of sexual difference, and the interconnectedness of all creation.

Swindoll disarms the counter-attack of those who do not preach grace-filled living and claim that focusing on grace would fill our churches with wild, undisciplined people with no godliness in evidence. Yes, Swindoll says, teaching and preaching grace is risky. Some may push the limits and misuse their freedom. But grace is the message of the gospel…the good news of salvation. As Christians, we sing about God's amazing grace. We understand that we are saved by grace. Let's learn to live by grace! Discover how in The Grace Awakening.

God loves all his creatures: the author, the lake, the tree, the sun, etc. On that day, as she prayed, his other "creatures" seemed almost to dance before him. Sparkling and seeming to rejoice in their own creation, they poured themselves in through her window in their fullest array of light and warmth and color to bless her too. It was then that the author had the vision, one not easily explainable. The vision was of a painting, yet not a painting, for Christ's living face glowed through it.

This newest addition to the IX Marks series presents a clear, straightforward statement of the gospel, the third mark of a healthy church. What is the gospel? It seems like a simple question, yet it has been known to incite some heated responses, even in the church. How are we to formulate a clear, biblical understanding of the gospel? Tradition, reason, and experience all leave us ultimately disappointed.

Join investigative journalist and bestselling author Lee Strobel as he embarks on his life-changing quest to solve the riddle of grace. Along the way, you'll find the undeniable evidence of grace in the true stories of racists, addicts, and even murderers who have found new hope and purpose—all through the redemptive power of God's amazing grace.

This is a very well-written explanation and defense of the biblical doctrine of predestination. The author, Loraine Boettner, received a bachelor of science degree from Tarkio College in 1925. He then attended Princeton Theological Seminary, receiving two degrees there: a bachelor of theology in 1928, and a master of theology in 1929.

The history of the United States displays an uncanny pattern: At moments of crisis, when the odds against success seem overwhelming and disaster looks imminent, fate intervenes to provide deliverance and progress. Historians may categorize these incidents as happy accidents, callous crimes, or the products of brilliant leadership, but the most notable leaders of the past 400 years have identified this good fortune as something else - a reflection of divine providence.

The Christian life is a process of growing in holiness, our natural response to the good news of our redemption in Christ. This kind of growth is gradual, and obstacles are plentiful. Thankfully, we don't have to go it alone. God has given us his Spirit so that we can overcome temptation and become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. But how does the Spirit work? What is the nature of our own personal involvement in the process? And how do we know if we are making progress?

Hahn explores the "covenant love" God reveals to us through the Scriptures and explains how God patiently reaches out to us—despite our faults and shortcomings—to restore us into relationship with his divine family. Join Hahn as he follows the high adventure of God's plan for the ages, beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing down through the generations to the coming of Christ and the birth of the Church. You'll discover how the patient love of the Father revealed in the Bible is the same persistent love he has for you.

Is faith in Jesus enough for salvation? Perhaps, says Matthew Bates, but we're missing pieces of the gospel. The biblical gospel can never change. Yet our understanding of the gospel must change. The church needs an allegiance shift. Popular pastoral resources on the gospel are causing widespread confusion. Bates shows that the biblical gospel is different, fuller, and more beautiful than we have been led to believe. He explains that saving faith doesn't come through trust in Jesus' death on the cross alone but through allegiance to Christ the king.

Richard Baxter (1615–1691) preached “as a dying man to dying men.” He was devoted to God and was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. Best known as the minister of Kidderminster in England, his love for God and others resulted in practically the entire town of Kidderminster turning to Jesus during Baxter’s ministry there.

Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment Isn't One Kind of Enlightenment — It's the Only Kind THE MARK OF A TRUE MASTER is that he can express a subject of the utmost complexity with uncanny simplicity. Jed McKenna is such a master, and spiritual enlightenment is his subject. His first book, Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing, was an instant classic and established him as a spiritual teacher of startling depth and clarity. Now, his second book, Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment, takes us on a fascinating tour of the enlightened state — what it is and what it's not, who's there ...

Internationally renowned Bible teacher Derek Prince explains that any believer who is not manifesting gifts of the Spirit is living far below the level of God’s provision for his life. One of our greatest necessities in the church today is to demonstrate through the power of the Spirit that Jesus is alive and that His gospel is true. The world needs to see the manifestation of the presence of God. Believers need the ministry of the body of Christ through spiritual gifts. The Gifts of the Spirit reveals how we can fulfill both of these needs—practically and powerfully.

In Sacrifice, Rene Girard interrogates the Brahmanas of Vedic India, exploring coincidences with mimetic theory that are too numerous and striking to be accidental. The Bible reveals collective violence, similar to that which generates sacrifice everywhere, but instead of making victims guilty, the Bible and the Gospels reveal the persecutors of a single victim. Instead of elaborating myths, they tell the truth absolutely contrary to the archaic sense.

What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an "affectional dimension of treasuring Christ." Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure. What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence

Conventional wisdom holds that America has been a Christian nation since the Founding Fathers. But in One Nation Under God, historian Kevin M. Kruse argues that the idea of "Christian America" is nothing more than a myth - and a relatively recent one at that.

New release from Jerry Bridges, author of more than a dozen books, including The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold more than one million copies. His devotional, Holiness Day By Day, garnered the 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award for the inspiration and gift category, and The Discipline of Grace received a similar award in 1995 for the Christian living category.

The highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa is at it again. A quarter century ago, in his international bestseller Red Horizons, Pacepa exposed the massive crimes and corruption of his former boss, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, giving the dictator a nervous breakdown and inspiring him to send assassination squads to the U.S. to find his former spy chief and kill him. They failed.

Modern Genre Theory describes the current state of biblical genre theory (as well as the meaning of form criticism and why it needs to die). Scholar of biblical hermeneutics Andrew Judd then presents a better alternative of interpretation based on the best developments in secular literary theory, linguistics, and rhetorical studies.