Is god a sadistic torturer? coldhearted judge? Genocidal maniac? Unfortunately, our popular caricatures often make him out to be. There are some questions no Christian wants to be asked. We'll discover these topics were never really skeletons at all. But proclamations of a god who is good "in his very bones, " not just in what he does, but in who he is.

And we aren't comfortable with the answers we've been given. How can a loving god send people to hell?""isn't it arrogant to believe Jesus is the only way to God?""Why is there so much violence in the Old Testament?"In this book, we'll pull these bones out into the open to exchange popular caricatures for the beauty and power of the real thing.

We'll fling the wide the closet door and sing loudly, boldly and clearly: God is good and coming to redeem his world. . Many today believe hell, " tough topics that, if looked at closely, judgment and holy war are "skeletons in God's closet, would reveal a cruel, vindictive tyrant rather than a good and loving God.

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The Pursuing God: A Reckless, Irrational, Obsessed Love That's Dying to Bring Us Home

Harpercollins Christian Pub. Is god lost? Many of us feel that way. And the question we're left withis not whether we've been good enough, jumped high enough, orsought hard enough. The question is: "do we want to be found?" -- along the way, the book tackles tough topics like:Exclusivity: "Is Jesus the only way to God?" Jesus is not the one and only way we go out into the universe to find God; Jesus is the unique and decisive way God has come to us.

The fall: "does god run away when we mess up?" it's not that God can't stand the presence of sin, so much as sin that can't stand the presence of God--God comes for us in our distance. Atonement: "is the cross divine child abuse?" A mature account of Jesus' bearing our punishment within the broader framework of God's reconciling love.

Sacrifice: "is god a bloodthirsty carnivore?" israel's sacrificial system was not how we clean ourselves up so God can stand to be in our presence, but how God cleanses us so that we can stand to be in God's presence--and it points to Jesus. Wrath: "why does god get angry?" God's wrath arises from his love for the world, not in contradiction to it.

The church: "what is the church?" the church is not a group of individuals pursuing God together, so much as the body of people through whom God pursues the world. Tough passages: abraham's call to sacrifice Isaac, Noah's flood, Jesus' cry of forsakenness on the cross. Reclaim a greater confidence in the unrelenting goodness of God.

It's as if god's gone missing, out in theuniverse somewhere--and we must pick up the hunt, following anytrail of breadcrumbs to go find him.

Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God

Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are christians to respond to such accusations? and how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of god portrayed in the two testaments?In this timely and readable book, including:God is arrogant and jealousGod punishes people too harshlyGod is guilty of ethnic cleansingGod oppresses womenGod endorses slaveryChristianity causes violenceand moreCopan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, righteous, seeing an unchanging, and loving God in both.

Condition: New. Harpercollins Christian Pub. A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. Isbn13: 9780801072758. Tracking provided on most orders.

People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue

Christians who are confused by the homosexuality debate raging in the US are looking for resources that are based solidly on a deep study of what Scripture says about the issue. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Isbn13: 9780801072758. Condition: New. Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Zondervan. Harpercollins Christian Pub. This book meets that need. In people to be loved, preston sprinkle challenges those on all sides of the debate to consider what the Bible says and how we should approach the topic of homosexuality in light of it. In a manner that appeals to a scholarly and lay-audience alike, preston takes on difficult questions such as how should the church treat people struggling with same-sex attraction? Is same-sex attraction a product of biological or societal factors or both? How should the church think about larger cultural issues, and whether intolerance over LGBT amounts to racism? How or if Christians should do business with LGBT persons and supportive companies?Simply saying that the Bible condemns homosexuality is not accurate, such as gay marriage, gay pride, nor is it enough to end the debate.

Those holding a traditional view still struggle to reconcile the Bible’s prohibition of same-sex attraction with the message of radical, unconditional grace. Tracking provided on most orders.

Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News

Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Pastor brian zahnd began "to question the theology of a wrathful God who delights in punishing sinners, and has started to explore the real nature of Jesus and His Father. Harpercollins Christian Pub. Three centuries later, Brian Zahnd was both mesmerized and terrified by Edwards’s wrathful God.

Haunted by fear that crippled his relationship with God, Zahnd spent years praying for a divine experience of hell. What zahnd experienced instead was the Father’s love—revealed perfectly through Jesus Christ—for all prodigal sons and daughters. In sinners in the hands of a loving god, and the final judgment in revelation, zahnd asks important questions like: is seeing God primarily as wrathful towards sinners true or biblical? Is fearing God a normal expected behavior? And where might the natural implications of this theological framework lead us? Thoughtfully wrestling with subjects like Old Testament genocide, Zanhd maintains that the summit of divine revelation for sinners is not God is wrath, the crucifixion of Jesus, eternal punishment in hell, but God is love.

Zondervan. Tracking provided on most orders. Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee. Condition: New. Isbn13: 9780801072758. The book isn’t only an interesting look at the context of some modern theological ideas; it’s also offers some profound insight into God’s love and eternal plan.

Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God

Tracking provided on most orders. Isbn13: 9780801072758. A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. Instead, we quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee.

And yet, the question doesn't go away. Harpercollins Christian Pub. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Condition: New. Together they help the christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages. Even christians have a hard time stomaching such a thought, and many avoid reading those difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish.

Zondervan. Pastors, youth pastors, apologetics readers, campus ministers, and laypeople will find that this book both enlightens and equips them for serious discussion of troubling spiritual questions. Did god really command genocide? is the command to "utterly destroy" morally unjustifiable? Is it literal? Are the issues more complex and nuanced than we realize?In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture.

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God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist?

Tracking provided on most orders. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, Lamb assembles an overall portrait that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both the Old and New Testaments. Many think of god as wrathful and angry, smiting people right and left for no apparent reason.

He provides historical and cultural background to shed light on problematic passages and to bring underlying themes to the fore. Alongside troubling passages of God's punishment and judgment are pictures of God's love, forgiveness, goodness and slowness to anger. Isbn13: 9780801072758. The old testament in particular seems at times to portray God as capricious and malevolent, wiping out armies and nations, punishing enemies with extreme prejudice.

Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Zondervan. How do we make sense of the seeming contradiction? Can God be trusted or not? David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament to explore the character of God. The story is more complicated than that.

Condition: New.

A War of Loves: The Unexpected Story of a Gay Activist Discovering Jesus

David describes the joy and intimacy he found in following Jesus Christ and how love has taken on a radically new and far richer meaning for him. Isbn13: 9780801072758. Tracking provided on most orders. Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee. Harpercollins Christian Pub. Condition: New. But when jesus came into his life in a highly unexpected way, he was led down a path he never would have predicted or imagined.

In a war of loves, david recounts his dramatic story, from his early years exploring new age religions and French existentialism to his university experiences as an activist. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Following supernatural encounters with God, he embarked on a journey not only of seeking to reconcile his faith and sexuality but also of discovering the higher call of Jesus Christ.

A war of loves investigates what the Bible teaches about sexuality and demonstrates the profligate, unqualified grace of God for all people. At 14, david bennett came out to his parents. At 19, he encountered Jesus Christ. At that moment, his life changed forever. As a young gay man, david bennett saw christianity as an enemy to freedom for LGBTQI people, and his early experiences with prejudice and homophobia led him to become a gay activist.

Zondervan.

The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate

Ideal for students, professors, pastors and lay readers with an interest in the intelligent design controversy and creation-evolution debates, Walton's thoughtful analysis unpacks seldom appreciated aspects of the biblical text and sets Bible-believing scientists free to investigate the question of origins.

Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Tracking provided on most orders. Zondervan. Condition: New. Walton presents and defends twenty propositions supporting a literary and theological understanding of Genesis 1 within the context of the ancient Near Eastern world and unpacks its implications for our modern scientific understanding of origins.

Isbn13: 9780801072758. Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee. In this astute mix of cultural critique and biblical studies, John H. Harpercollins Christian Pub.

Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human.

Isbn13: 9780801072758. Practical and theologically rich, garden city is a purposeful guide for the next generation - the book that will help twenty- and thirty-somethings to understand and embrace their calling and purpose as they figure out next steps and direction in their lives. You’ve heard people say, "Who you are matters more than what you do.

But does the bible really teach that? in garden City, popular pastor and speaker John Mark Comer gives a surprisingly counter-cultural take on the typical "spiritual" answer of the church. Comer explores scripture to discover God’s original intent for how we are meant to spend our time, reshaping how you view and do your work, rest, and life.

Here, you'll find answers to questions like:does god care where i work?does he have a clear direction for me?What about what I do with my free time or how much rest I get?In these pages, you'll learn that it's ultimately about the reality that what we do matters, just as much as who we are. Zondervan. Harpercollins Christian Pub.

Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! Condition: New. Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Hearers and Doers: A Pastor's Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine

And it's often overlooked by modern pastors. In hearers and doers, as pastor-theologians, Kevin Vanhoozer makes the case that pastors, ought to interpret Scripture theologically to articulate doctrine and help cultivate disciples. Scriptural doctrine is vital to the life of the church, and local pastor-theologians should be the ones delivering it to their communities.

With arresting prose and striking metaphors, Vanhoozer addresses the most pressing problems in the modern church with one answer: teach sound, scriptural doctrine to make disciples. The foundation of discipleship is sound, scriptural doctrine. The value of sound doctrine is often misunderstood by the modern church.

Tracking provided on most orders. Isbn13: 9780801072758. Harpercollins Christian Pub. Condition: New. Zondervan. Buy with confidence! Millions of books sold! . Notes: brand new from publisher! 100% satisfaction guarantee. This kind of doctrine, steeped in Scripture, is critical for disciple-making.