Kirjahaku

What does the Bible say about money, material possessions, and stewardship? In Christians in an Age of Wealth, Craig Blomberg addresses tough questions about the place and purpose of wealth and material possessions in a Christian's life. He points to the goodness of wealth, as God originally designed it, but also surveys the Bible's many warnings against making an idol out of money.Taking a close exegetical look at this topic as it’s discussed in Scripture, Blomberg answers the toughest questions about Christianity and wealth:Is there any one key to keeping possessions in their proper, God-intended perspective?Are there limits on how rich we should become or on how poor we should allow others to get?What does a truly Christian economic system look like?How does the Bible's teaching on wealth fit into the gospel? Blomberg expounds upon how the sharing of goods and possessions is the key safeguard against both greed and covetousness. He expands on the concept of giving generously, even sacrificially, to those who are needier, demonstrating how Christians can participate in God's original good design for abundance and demonstrate the world-altering gospel of Christ.____________Part of the Biblical Theology for Life series, this practical and challenging book will help you and your church ground your worldly possessions on the solid foundation of biblical understanding and reflection.

The NIV Application Commentary helps you communicate and apply biblical text effectively in today's context.To bring the ancient messages of the Bible into today's world, each passage is treated in three sections:Original Meaning. Concise exegesis to help readers understand the original meaning of the biblical text in its historical, literary, and cultural context.Bridging Contexts. A bridge between the world of the Bible and the world of today, built by discerning what is timeless in the timely pages of the Bible.Contemporary Significance. This section identifies comparable situations to those faced in the Bible and explores relevant application of the biblical messages. The author alerts the readers of problems they may encounter when seeking to apply the passage and helps them think through the issues involved.This unique, award-winning commentary is the ideal resource for today's preachers, teachers, and serious students of the Bible, giving them the tools, ideas, and insights they need to communicate God's Word with the same powerful impact it had when it was first written.The book you receive may have a different cover design than shown on the website.

The New Testament is the foundation of the Christian church, but some question its historical accuracy. Others have claimed that Paul's teaching differs from that of the Gospels. How can we reconcile the seemingly different messages of Jesus and Paul? What is the relevance of the New Testament in our world today, in cultures far removed by time and space from the first-century Mediterranean world? What principles can we use to make appropriate applications? In Making Sense of the New Testament, Craig Blomberg offers a reasonable, well-informed response to these crucial questions encountered by Bible readers. Grounded in sound scholarship but written in an accessible style, this book offers reliable guidance to pastors, students, and anyone interested in a better understanding of the New Testament.

Written with the rigor and precision of a New Testament specialist, Preaching the Parables provides a responsible introduction to understanding and proclaiming the parables that pastors, church leaders, and seminary students will appreciate. Craig Blomberg demonstrates how the structure of a parable is key to its interpretation and thus to its exposition. He shows how a parable, when properly contemporized, can be a powerful rhetorical device, and that recognizing the elements of the parable that were atypical to everyday life leads to important surprises that will be of significance to contemporary parishioners. Each of the fifteen exemplary sermons is accompanied by an analysis that points out key interpretive decisions.

Questions about the reliability of the New Testament are commonly raised today both by biblical scholars and popular media. Drawing on decades of research, Craig Blomberg addresses all of the major objections to the historicity of the New Testament in one comprehensive volume. Topics addressed include the formation of the Gospels, the transmission of the text, the formation of the canon, alleged contradictions, the relationship between Jesus and Paul, supposed Pauline forgeries, other gospels, miracles, and many more. Historical corroborations of details from all parts of the New Testament are also presented throughout. The Historical Reliability of the New Testament marshals the latest scholarship in responding to New Testament objections, while remaining accessible to non-specialists.

Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. (Proverbs 30:8)One of the most difficult questions facing Christians today is that of the proper attitude toward possessions. In wealthy nations such as Britain and the USA, individuals accumulate much and yet are daily exposed to the plight of the poor, whether the homeless on their own city streets or starving children on their TV screens. What action should we take on behalf of the poor? What should we do with our own possessions?In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Craig Blomberg asks what the Bible has to say about these issues. Avoiding easy answers, he instead seeks a comprehensive biblical theology of possessions. And so he begins with the groundwork laid by the Old Testament and the ideas developed in the intertestamental period, then draws out what the whole New Testament has to say on the subject, and finally offers conclusions and applications relevant to our contemporary world.Neither Poverty Nor Riches is one book that all should read who are concerned with issues of poverty and wealth.Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Preaching magazine Year's Best Book for PreachersOne of humanity's most basic and common practices--eating meals--was transformed by Jesus into an occasion of divine encounter. In sharing food and drink with his companions, he invited them to share in the grace of God. He revealed his redemptive mission while eating with sinners, repentant and unrepentant alike.Jesus' "table fellowship" with sinners in the Gospels has been widely agreed to be historically reliable. However, this consensus has recently been challenged, for example, by the claim that the meals in which Jesus participated took the form of Greco-Roman symposia--or that the "sinners" involved were the most flagrantly wicked within Israel's society, not merely the ritually impure or those who did not satisfy strict Pharisaic standards of holiness.In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Craig L. Blomberg engages with the debate and opens up the significance of the topic. He surveys meals in the Old Testament and the intertestamental period, examines all the Gospel texts relevant to Jesus' eating with sinners, and concludes with contemporary applications.Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

For over twenty years, Craig Blomberg's "The Historical Reliability of the Gospels" has provided a useful antidote to many of the toxic effects of sceptical criticism of the Gospels. He offers an overview of the history of Gospel criticism. This is a thoroughly updated edition with added footnotes and two new appendixes.

Throughout much of the twentieth century the Fourth Gospel took a back seat to the Synoptics when it came to historical reliability. Consequently, the contemporary quest of the historical Jesus discounted or excluded evidence from the Fourth Gospel.The question of the historical reliability of John's Gospel is well overdue for a thorough reinvestigation and reassessment. In this foundational study, Craig L. Blomberg sheds new light on persistent questions. He presents his conclusions largely in commentary form, following the principal scenes of the Gospel. His introduction frames the pathway into the discussion, taking up critical issues such asauthorship, date and provenance of the Fourth Gospelsources and omissions of the Fourth Gospelpoints where John's Gospel interlocks with the Synopticsgeneral indications of historicityliterary genre and unique audience of this Gospelburden of proof and criteria of authenticityIn his commentary examining the text of the Fourth Gospel, Blomberg asks two essential questions. First, using the recently nuanced criteria of authenticity, "What positive evidence do we have that the actions or words of the characters in John's narratives are indeed historical?" Second, "Is there anything in the text . . . that is implausible within the historical context to which it is attributed, particularly if we assume the general historical trustworthiness of the Synoptics?"The result is a seminal work for the present day--one that affirms the historical reliability of John's Gospel with intelligence and sure-footed care.

In the last century, more studies of the parables were produced than for any other section of comparable length in the Bible. The problem is that most Bible readers are unlikely ever to know of most of them.In this substantially new and expanded edition, Craig Blomberg surveys and evaluates contemporary critical approaches to the parables, challenging the prevailing consensus and making his own important new contribution to parable studies. Within proper definitions and boundaries, the author defends a limited allegorical approach. In support of this view ofparable interpretation, Blomberg not only sets forth theoretical considerations but devotes attention to all the major parables, providing brief interpretations that highlight the insights to be gained from his distinctive method.Interpreting the Parables can be read with profit by scholars, students, pastors and educated laypeople.

All of Scripture testifies to the person of Jesus, yet the Gospels offer a face-to-face encounter. This newly revised third edition of Jesus and the Gospels prepares readers for an in-depth exploration of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Esteemed New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg considers the Gospels' historical context while examining fresh scholarship, critical methods, and contemporary applications for today. Along with updated introductions, maps, and diagrams, Blomberg's linguistic, historical, and theological approach delivers a deep investigation into the Gospels for professors, students, and pastors alike.

Craig Blomberg has now crowned his distinguished career to date as a careful reader and interpreter of the New Testament by tackling the largest and most difficult of challenges - that of writing a New Testament theology. Blomberg's text draws upon his proven ability to read ancient texts in historical context, his deep knowledge of the various textual traditions that comprise the New Testament, and a sympathetic competency to see the New Testament as a lived text. A New Testament Theology is a major achievement by a seasoned scholar and one that will serve teachers and students alike.Blomberg presents the task as twofold: chronological and synthetic. Blomberg thus plots actors, authors, and books of the New Testament in a reconstructed chronological order, highlighting both the dominant and distinctive themes for each. Examinations of Jesus and the early church come first, followed by those of the early Jewish Christian writings of James and Jude, and then the missionary letters of Paul (treated together). Blomberg then unpacks the contributions of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, followed by the Pastorals (treated as an extension of Lukan thought even though originating in Paul), Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, and the Johannine corpus of gospel, epistles, and Revelation.As Jesus' ministry begins with the proclamation that ""the time has come,"" the recurring, unifying, and synthetic theme of the entire New Testament is, according to Blomberg, the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, both directly and typologically, explicitly and implicitly. Blomberg's careful inductive reading demonstrates the Bible's remarkable cohesion and foundational importance for the contemporary church. While the grand finale of God's cosmic redemption is still in the future, the determinative events for human well-being have already taken place in Christ. This is the conviction that drives Christian life from generation to generation: the ages have turned, God's victory is assured, even though there is still much work to be done.

Craig Blomberg has now crowned his distinguished career to date as a careful reader and interpreter of the New Testament by tackling the largest and most difficult of challenges - that of writing a New Testament theology. Blomberg's text draws upon his proven ability to read ancient texts in historical context, his deep knowledge of the various textual traditions that comprise the New Testament, and a sympathetic competency to see the New Testament as a lived text. A New Testament Theology is a major achievement by a seasoned scholar and one that will serve teachers and students alike.Blomberg presents the task as twofold: chronological and synthetic. Blomberg thus plots actors, authors, and books of the New Testament in a reconstructed chronological order, highlighting both the dominant and distinctive themes for each. Examinations of Jesus and the early church come first, followed by those of the early Jewish Christian writings of James and Jude, and then the missionary letters of Paul (treated together). Blomberg then unpacks the contributions of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, followed by the Pastorals (treated as an extension of Lukan thought even though originating in Paul), Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, and the Johannine corpus of gospel, epistles, and Revelation.As Jesus' ministry begins with the proclamation that ""the time has come,"" the recurring, unifying, and synthetic theme of the entire New Testament is, according to Blomberg, the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, both directly and typologically, explicitly and implicitly. Blomberg's careful inductive reading demonstrates the Bible's remarkable cohesion and foundational importance for the contemporary church. While the grand finale of God's cosmic redemption is still in the future, the determinative events for human well-being have already taken place in Christ. This is the conviction that drives Christian life from generation to generation: the ages have turned, God's victory is assured, even though there is still much work to be done.

Christianity Today 2024 Book Award (Biblical Studies)The third quest for the historical Jesus has reached an impasse. But a fourth quest is underway--one that draws from a heretofore largely neglected source: John's Gospel.In this book, now in paperback, renowned New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg advances the idea that John is a viable and valuable source for studying the historical Jesus. The data from John should be integrated with that of the Synoptics, which will yield additional insights into Jesus's emphases and ministry.Blomberg begins by reviewing the first three quests, reassessing both their contributions and their shortcomings. He then discusses the emerging consensus regarding demonstrably historical portions of John, which are more numerous than usually assumed. Peeling back the layers, we discover in Jesus's ministry an emphasis on purity and purification. The Synoptics corroborate this discovery, specifically in Jesus's meals with sinners. Blomberg then explores the practical and contemporary applications of Jesus the purifier, including the "contagious holiness" that Jesus's followers can spread to others.

Christianity Today 2024 Book Award (Biblical Studies)The third quest for the historical Jesus has reached an impasse. But a fourth quest is underway--one that draws from a heretofore largely neglected source: John's Gospel.In this book, now in paperback, renowned New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg advances the idea that John is a viable and valuable source for studying the historical Jesus. The data from John should be integrated with that of the Synoptics, which will yield additional insights into Jesus's emphases and ministry.Blomberg begins by reviewing the first three quests, reassessing both their contributions and their shortcomings. He then discusses the emerging consensus regarding demonstrably historical portions of John, which are more numerous than usually assumed. Peeling back the layers, we discover in Jesus's ministry an emphasis on purity and purification. The Synoptics corroborate this discovery, specifically in Jesus's meals with sinners. Blomberg then explores the practical and contemporary applications of Jesus the purifier, including the "contagious holiness" that Jesus's followers can spread to others.

Christianity Today Book Award WinnerChallenges to the reliability of Scripture are perennial and have frequently been addressed. However, some of these challenges are noticeably more common today, and the topic is currently of particular interest among evangelicals.In this volume, highly regarded biblical scholar Craig Blomberg offers an accessible and nuanced argument for the Bible's reliability in response to the extreme views about Scripture and its authority articulated by both sides of the debate. He believes that a careful analysis of the relevant evidence shows we have reason to be more confident in the Bible than ever before. As he traces his own academic and spiritual journey, Blomberg sketches out the case for confidence in the Bible in spite of various challenges to the trustworthiness of Scripture, offering a positive, informed, and defensible approach.

People regularly give certain reasons for not believing in God, but they are much less aware of what the New Testament actually teaches. Although challenges to Christianity are perennial and have frequently been addressed, they are noticeably more common today and are currently of particular interest among evangelicals.Skeptics of Christianity often ask highly regarded biblical scholar and popular speaker Craig Blomberg how he can believe in a faith that seems so problematic. How can God allow evil and suffering? Isn't the Bible anti-women, anti-gay, and proslavery? Isn't the New Testament riddled with contradictions? What about the nature of hell, violence in Scripture, and prayer and predestination? Following the author's successful Can We Still Believe the Bible?, this succinct and readable book focuses on what the New Testament teaches about ten key reasons people give for not believing in God.

What you can know about Jesus. Jesus is the most influential person in history. But not everyone agrees on who he was. Was he a fraud, a failed savior, or the Messiah? What can you know for sure about him? In Who is Jesus of Nazareth?, Craig L. Blomberg shows what you can know about Jesus and how you can know it. There is a wealth of information about Jesus from ancient sources, whether Christian or non--Christian, oral traditions or written manuscripts. Blomberg guides you through these sources, so you can investigate them for yourself. Explore the evidence about Jesus and why he matters today. The Questions for Restless Minds series applies God's word to today's issues. Each short book faces tough questions honestly and clearly, so you can think wisely, act with conviction, and become more like Christ.

THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY is for the minister or Bible student who wants to understand and expound the Scriptures. Notable features include: * commentary based on THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION;* the NIV text printed in the body of the commentary;* sound scholarly methodology that reflects capable research in the original languages;* interpretation that emphasizes the theological unity of each book and of Scripture as a whole;* readable and applicable exposition.