Claim Now Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About The Bible Scripted By Michael F. Bird In Document
has produced here a very helpful and accessible little book on important aspects of how the Bible came to be, how it works, and how to be a responsible reader of it.
I will definitely recommend and use it in my own ministry, What exactly is the Bible and how are we to read it when it was written in a culture and time radically different to our own Michael Bird answers this question with great clarity, accuracy, wisdom and humour.
Many readers are caught in a false choice of "literalist" or "liberal" approaches to reading the Bible, Bird disarms this fallacious dichotomy by arguing that "the big issue is not whether one takes the Bible “literally” or “symbolically,” but whether one chooses to take the Bible seriously at all.
" He goes further to show the reader how to read the Bible in a way that is sensible and faithful, The book does not hide from the obvious challenges of Scripture but addresses them headon and provides a context that makes sense of the difficulties but still retains a high view of Scripture.
I love the way the author emphasises obedience and transformation throughout the book, The Bible is not a book to be dissected, labelled, catalogued and dispassionately walked away from it is communication from God that challenges, grows and transforms us.
I have seen people walk away from faith in Christ because they approached, or were taught, Scripture in a wacky way that violated its purpose and intent.
I hope that anyone struggling with how to read and understand the Bible will read this book before they walk away,
I am really enthusiastic about "Seven things" and will be wholeheartedly recommending it, It would be fantastic for a small group sevenweek discussion series for both believers and seekers,
Get it, read it, and buy copies for your friends!
SevenThingsIWishChristiansKnewabouttheBible NetGalley Those seven things:
, How the Bible was put together
, What "inspiration" means
. How the Bible is true
, Why the Bible needs to be rooted in history
, Why literal interpretation is not always the best interpretation
, How the Bible gives us knowledge, faith, love, and hope
, How Jesus Christ is the center of the Bible
It's excellent, and sadly needed it's crazy how many "Biblebelieving" Christians don't really understand the Bible, or have incoherent views on it.
The book is pretty savage and rightly so on Christians who claim to take the entire Bible "literally",
I liked that Bird is Australian I'm so dominated by American Evangelicalism that it's nice to get a voice of reason from outside.
And it's funny in addition to being thoughtful, It's also nice that it's so brief, although I do think that's a weakness in parts certain sections seem to end without enough explanation, especially the chapter on inspiration, whose ending feels really abrupt.
But great read, everyone should, A good book for people asking questions about how the Bible was put together, and asking questions about how to go about reading the Bible.
Possibly a little technical for your average Uni student in my neck of the woods, . . but still a great book, I really enjoyed it and benefited from it, I came to it hoping it would be a good book to pass on to others asking questions about the Bible, I walked away encouraged and heartened at how great it is to have the Scriptures, As expected from a popularlevel book by Mike Bird, this was much fun to read/listen to, Its entertaining as well as informative, An excellent starting point for the uninitiated and very timely for certain sectors of evangelicalism, I think of how Bird addresses the dangers and ironies of a hyperliteral reading of Scripture, for example, But even as someone who is largely familiar with the topics Bird talks about, I learned a great deal about how to frame and relate them to larger discussions about the Bible.
The book is helpful in giving a quick overview of what someone like Mike Bird thinks about big topics like the theological interpretation of Scripture, inspiration and inherency, how the Bible can be authoritative and normative, where meaning is located, the place for feminist and postcolonial readings.
Every Christian should read this book,
Mike Bird has quickly become my favorite contemporary theologian, He is balanced. He is biblical. He is Trinitarian. And he keeps squarely within the bounds of orthodox Christianity,
It is clear from this book that Bird loves the Word of God, He wants to share his love with other Christians and encourage them to take the Bible seriously and love it more deeply because when we love the written Word better, we love the living Word so much deeper.
Each of the "Seven Things" is a basic topic that every Christian really does need to know, from canonicity to proper hermeneutics, However, this book is written on a popular level and doesn't get into the weeds of the technical theological language I just used in my last sentence so it isn't a barrier to comprehension for those who are new to such terms.
It is meaty, yet incredibly accessible in both language and structure, It would be a great selection for a group of Christians to read that are in various stages of their spiritual growth because it has something for everyone.
I have personally written seminary term papers on several of these topics, yet I still learned even more from this book,
After you finish this book by Bird, I highly recommend his Systematic Theology work titled "Evangelical Theology, " That one quickly became my favorite ST work for its ease of readability and sensible theological
conclusions, I was keen to read this recent book from Michael Bird, not only because he is a fellow Aussie but I have enjoyed the previous books he has written.
I was not disappointed. Whilst, for me, there was nothing new in this book, I did appreciate the way the Author presented the material and I will be “borrowing” some of his illustrations and arguments :
This is an excellent book for someone who is serious about their Bible Reading, and give a good introduction to Interpretation Hermeneutics thus I would think it is good read for all Christians, especially those who do not know what Hermeneutics is
Now as a Lutheran Pastor, there are several aspects within this book that I disagree with the Author is Anglican but I still appreciate the Authors view and it is always good to have your own views challenged.
Looking forward to whatever he writes next! This is a really good introduction to the Bible from a Christian point of view written by Australian New Testament scholar, Michael Bird.
It covers what the Bible actually is, why Christians accept it as the inspired Word of God, why Christians believe it is authoritative, how to approach it when you read it, and what its purpose is.
Many Christians approach the Bible with a "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!" attitude, But this author argues that this is too simplistic to deal with many of the problem passages and goes on to show why a more nuanced approach is required.
The Bible is a library of books that "was written for us but not to us, " Because of this, when we read the Bible, we need to "distinguish between what is prescriptive and what is descriptive",
While the Bible is indeed authoritative, not everything in the Bible is authoritative for us,
For example, "some parts of the Bible were dealing with a specific problem and therefore not directly applicable to our situation, " He provides extensive examples from the Bible where things happened in less than ideal circumstances e, g. the harsh realities of the ancient Near East and were not meant to be something we should repeat,
I found the chapter on inspiration to be helpful, since this is often where you end up with circular arguments when trying to argue for or defend the divine inspiration of the Bible.
He details the different understandings of divine inspiration throughout history and argues for his view that "inspiration is principally God's guiding and leading human minds at the conceptual level".
Which means that "God's word is translatable, " Which is good news for all the people that don't know Biblical Greek and Hebrew,
This book also hits the doctrine of inerrancy head on and doesn't shy away from asking hard questions,
A healthy doctrine of Scripture, with a cogent and careful definition of inerrancy, should not deny apparent ambiguities nor mute anyone's gnawing questions.
Inerrancy can be retained as long as it has certain qualifications, nuances, and thick explanations, In those explanations we affirm the phenomenon of Scripture, the divine and human elements of Scripture, the progressive nature of revelation where the new supersedes the old, and God's accommodation to the ancient worldview in Scripture.
When it comes to interpreting the Bible, the author argues that "no one can offer a consistently literal interpretation of the Bible.
" He writes: "The real issue is not whether we take the Bible literally, but whether we take the Bible seriously, " He goes on to describe different ways of interpreting the Bible and provides some tips to be mindful of as you read the Bible,
The final chapters talk about the purpose of the Bible "that God's people would attain the knowledge of God, deepen their faith, abound in love for God and love for others, and enjoy the assurance of hope" and the centrality of Jesus Christ in the Christian Bible which "either points ahead to Jesus as its fulfillment or looks back to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith".
All in all, this is a wellwritten introduction to the Christian Bible, I think it is also pretty accessible to the average reader i, e. not written with scholarly language, One of the things I liked most about it is that the author did not shy away from difficult questions that often lead to doubts.
While his answers may not be satisfying to everyone, he provides a wellreasoned argument for why we should take the Bible seriously as the inspired word of God.
I also liked the way the author ended this book discussing why any of this matters and why we should care,
I highly recommend this book to any Christian who is struggling with doubts about the Bible or who wants to know more about what the Bible is and where it came from.
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