Kirjahaku

The body of law for any modern country, and in particular the United States-the most litigious society in history-is phenomenally large. So, how is it that we live in an age of increasing lawlessness?People don't like to talk about God's law. For the most part contemporary Christians believe that they have arrived at a time in history that is beyond the application of any Old Testament laws, and in many cases, a time that is beyond all biblical law. People have converted the gospel of grace to mean a gospel without law-without obligation or responsibility.The good news that is preached in too many pulpits today is lawlessness, couched in terms of a gospel of positive thinking, of upbeat moralisms intended to make life better. In order to justify the human distaste for biblical law, Christians no longer speak of God's law or the human obligation to it.However, the Bible is not a divided witness. It is a whole, a unity. God's Word. God's testimony is completely true.

The purpose of this book is neither dogmatic nor academic, but is systemic in that it endeavors to provide a reading of Ephesians and a biblical perspective that issue out of the wholeness of the Bible. It labors to hold various themes, lessons, and aspects together in order to display the Bible's sustainable depth and breadth in the light of Christ in the twenty-first century. "Ephesians-Recovering the Vision of a Sustainable Church In Christ is a much-needed diagnosis of what is ailing the Church (universal), an illness brought about by not being self-consciously Christ-centric in our theology or our social engagement. Ross doesn't deliver a commentary (nor does he intent the book to be one); he supplies a corrective in the form of a narrative about the Christian life and our intersection with a world that refuses to understand."-Barry Sheets, Executive Director, Institute for Principled Policy "...the best work is your coverage of Ephesians 4:11-14. Getting back to what is the real definition and calling of a Pastor is a problem in the American church. I have encountered this over and over as I have traveled from church to church. I find you spot on in your treatment of the text. I also think you capture a great picture in your explanation of the place of each member of the church as an attendant of Jesus." -Rev. Tim Lyzenga

This is a theological/philosophical discussion that provided an opportunity to defend the faith (1 Peter 3:15). The initial concern was about homosexuality, but it quickly moved to the underlying godless worldview that motivates various kinds of unbelief. The opponent is an educated atheist.This discussion provides a study of competing world-views that allowed the author to speak about Christianity in a way that he hasn't done before. And it provides an in-depth exposure of the ideas inherent in the growing movement of contemporary Atheism. In this regard, it exposes some of the misunderstandings of Christianity that are fueling this movement, and might provide some guidance to Christians about how to address some of these issues in a more productive way.The conversation has been edited slightly in order to make it flow better by removing extraneous elements and correcting spelling and punctuation, which are often casualties of modern communication technologies. For the most part, it has been reproduced just as it happened over a couple of months.

This book is from the "street," down in the valley where people actually live. It is not sad or morose, but it is serious--and it's about sin, yours and mine. It is an invitation to think more deeply about things, the things we believe and this troubled world.Time is a funny thing. We all live in it. Most of us are slaves to it, driven by appointments and schedules that must be kept. Asking people to think about time is like asking a fish to think about water-with one important difference. As far as we know, fish can't think at all. Ross asks us to think about time, about how much time we have, how much we need, and about what we do with it.This book is about schedules and appointments-not ours, but God's, divine schedules and divine appointments. God is also on a schedule and has appointments to make, and a timetable to keep. He has appointments with you and with me. He'll eventually meet with everyone because He has some things to go over, some accounts to settle.

Paul had a problem with the Christians at Corinth. They were a large, successful church. They were growing leaps and bounds. They thought they were doing great. But not Paul. Paul found that they had substituted the wisdom of the world (the philosophy and culture of the Greeks) for the wisdom of Christ (the philosophy and culture of the Bible). This volume contrasts the folly of Greek (and ultimately modern American) worldly wisdom with the gospel of Christ. Stones are turned over and small-minded creatures that thrive in the dark scatter in the light of Christ.Ross brings Paul's struggle to light with clarity and passion that leaves the worldly no where to hide in this panoptic treatment to First Corinthians.

Ross raises the standard of the uniqueness of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah in this work. He points out that this uniqueness; the "singularity of Christ", is enwrapped in the mind-boggling concept of the Trinity. Ross helps us struggle with this one-in-three and three-in-one contra human logic concept. Ross tells us, "The word singularity is defined as a trait marking a thing or person as distinct from others; a peculiarity."(pg. 12) Christ is unique in all the world, in all the cosmos. -- Ted Bradshaw

An overview of the biblical story from Creation to Redemption from a twenty-first century perspective. The perspective you will find in these pages is thoroughly contemporary in that it issues out of the compendium and mindset or worldview ofcontemporary data. Just as, for instance, medical science has discovered that the truth of the human body is far more complex than our ancestors believed, so the truth of the Bible is also far more complex than our ancestors believed. This is not to say that everything previous generations have believed about the Bible is wrong-it's not. We cannot escape our own worldview, nor can anyone adequately understand the worldview of a different era. We always see things from our own perspective, our own time, our own place in the world and in society.

The poetry of Phillip A. Ross was written pretty early in his life, though he also wrote many books as an adult and is mostly brief snippets of his conversation with God. It's not profound, though it likes to pretend differently. And you need to know in advance that Ross has a wry sense of humor. So does God, and maybe that's why they get along. If humor is funny because it contrasts odd things in unexpected ways, then the best humor isn't all that funny. The best humor is ridiculously weird. Ross often says that he is half joking. Some call it joking on the square.Mostly, his poetry is just raw emotion looking for a connection, an idea looking for a place to be. Like most poetry it sings lonely songs decorated with hopeful expectations. Too much of it is existential angst tinged with silliness.

We are today in the midst of various crises, to be sure. But the problem is more than that We are also in the midst of failed social and educational policies and curriculum - public and religious. And a crisis of moral failure. But more important than these, is our crisis of faith - not faith in some generalized sense of personal confidence, but faith in Jesus Christ as the actual Lord of history.