Recommendations
66 pieces filed under this heading on the old site. For a surer way to what you are after, browse by book of the Bible.
Recommended Reading: Graciousness, John Crotts
Reading should be shared as all joys ought to be shared. Those joys also include self-discovery and self-improvement. But, let’s not get carried away with the focus on self since it is God who changes us internally.
Creation Science: My Vision of Its Future
The organizers of the International Conference on Creationism 2023 assigned me this topic as the keynote address on opening night at Cedarville University. My paper included more examples than I used during the address since my allotted time would not allow the fuller presentation.
A Pilgrim’s Look Ahead
Leaping from 2022 into the unknown territory of 2023 could be likened to an airline pilot’s anxiety when faced with the necessity of landing a 747 safely in the Alaskan bush. Or, it can be likened to the proverbial “leap in the dark.” Taking leaps of faith challenges all of us as Christians. We know
Dr. Greg Harris
My dear friend and former colleague at The Master’s Seminary recently received attention as an alumnus of Dallas Theological Seminary. I recommend the brief, but deserving, tribute to his ongoing writing ministry. Follow the link below to the DTS alumni page. The page also includes a listing of Dr.
The Psalms: A Primer for Prayer
For six and a half years we worked our way through the Psalter psalm by psalm (Psalm 1 through Psalm 150). After reading each psalm at the start of our Sunday morning class, we then prayed sentence prayers based upon that psalm.
Reading Theology in the New Year
One of the newest books to come into my possession in 2020 (thanks to my good colleagues at Zondervan) is Karin Spiecker Stetina’s How to Read Theology for All Its Worth (Zondervan Academic, 2020).
Truth and Christmas
Many of us receive gift cards and money as Christmas gifts and wonder what we should purchase with those gifts. Ah, but some of you might still be trying to get in a last-minute Christmas gift and might want to give a book (hard copy or digital) to someone. The two books I will highlight
Expository Resources
Where can I find a resource helping me to access the core truths of God’s Word with theological consistency throughout both Old and New Testaments?
Lessons on Hope for Suffering Saints
In a fallen world filled with conflict, uncertainty, sorrow, death, and disease God’s people often face suffering. God’s Word in both Old and New Testaments offers hope.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“As someone involved in an international ministry involving interaction in several different languages, I understand the need for careful approaches to understanding communication across language barriers in both oral and printed forms.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“Someone once said, ‘Translation is that which transforms everything so that nothing changes.’ This has been Dr.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“Understanding Bible Translation by Dr. William (Bill) Barrick reads like an autobiographical journey through 50 years of faithfulness to the centrality of Scriptures for evangelization and local church ministry.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“This book is full of surprises! Bill Barrick draws upon a lifetime of scholarship to challenge what I thought I knew about Scripture, humble me with gratitude for those who translated my Bible, and inspire me to support the teams who continue this sometimes thrilling, sometimes tedious work.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“Barrick’s primary motivation for producing this most excellent work is succinctly summarized on page 31 of Understanding Bible Translation: The challenge of Bible translation, therefore, is to make the Word of God understandable.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“This book is intriguing, challenging, and comforting. These are not necessarily words one might expect to be used about a book on Bible translation. But these words describe William Barrick’s extremely helpful and carefully developed book.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“Even liberal scholars who do not agree with his conclusions nonetheless acknowledge the high-quality linguistic skills of Dr. William Barrick, previous chair of the Old Testament department at The Master’s Seminary, and who for many years has been a Bible translator himself.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“Understanding Bible Translation takes a highly technical endeavor and makes it obtainable for all. Backed by a life devoted to the Word of God, and written by one who is familiar with the rigors of translation personally, his heart for God is evidenced on every page.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“Bible translation is the spark that kindled the Reformation. Men like William Tyndale gave their lives to ensure that people had access to Scripture in their own languages.
Understanding Bible Translation: Excerpt & Endorsement
“In reading Understanding Bible Translation, I felt like an apprentice sitting at the elbow of a master artisan watching him perform his craft with excellence.
Understanding Bible Translation
My latest book, Understanding Bible Translation: Bringing God’s Word into New Contexts (Kregel Academic, 2019) enters distribution May 28. This project began approximately 25 years ago while serving as a Bible translator in Bangladesh.
My Recommendation: Qumran Interpretation of the Genesis Flood
Jeremy D. Lyon, Qumran Interpretation of the Genesis Flood (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015) focuses on four key Qumran fragmentary manuscripts with significant contributions to the study of the Genesis Flood: the Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen), a commentary on Genesis (4Q252), an admonition…
The Book of Genesis and Resurrection Sunday
HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Sometimes we allow ourselves to so compartmentalize the Bible’s teachings that we fail to grasp the overarching unity of Scripture. On this Resurrection Sunday, I found a tremendous blog at the website for Is Genesis History? Yes, the superb film produced by Dr.
Bible Expositor’s Handbook–New Testament
Dr. Greg Harris, Professor of Bible Exposition at The Master’s Seminary, has written and published a two-volume series on the exposition of the Bible. WordSearch Bible makes both volumes available at a special reduced rate for a short time.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, December 31
What do you read as you enter into a New Year? What about reading a book about radical change? Michael J. Oard and John K. Reed give us How Noah’s Flood Shaped Our Earth, a new publication of Creation Book Publishers in 2017.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, December 24
Josh McDowell has joined with his son Sean to revise, update, and republish this classic. No better volume fits the Christmas season better when it comes to being a gift to someone still unfamiliar with who the Jesus of Christmas really is or to someone who already loves the Savior deeply.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, December 17
No wonder that Zondervan chose to reprint Gleason L. Archer’s Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties yet again–under the title, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, December 10
No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God admirably fulfills its role as one of the volumes in the Foundations of Evangelical Theology series. John S. Feinberg fills the book with theological details about the theology of God the Father.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, November 12
Phil Parshall’s The Cross and the Crescent: Understanding the Muslim Heart and Mind was published fifteen years ago, but I find it still speaks with contemporary clarity.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, November 5
OK, I admit it — I have favorite authors and theologians. When it comes to the New Testament and the doctrines of grace, Schreiner never disappoints. Thomas Schreiner’s Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification lives up to my lofty expectations.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, October 29
History informs the wise. Those who do not consider history’s lessons are doomed to repeat those same mistakes and failures. In the Christian church we often feel like we are the first to face certain theological issues having a significant bearing upon how we live for Christ in today’s world.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, October 15
9Marks produces a lot of good books for pastors and church leaders. Jeramie Rinne’s Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus stands out as one of the best. Our board of church elders chose this book to read individually and discuss as a group chapter by chapter.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, October 8
If you plan to make a visit to the British Museum in London, having a guide like Through the British Museum with the Bible by Brian Edwards and Clive Anderson helps to direct your experience.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, October 1
Dr. Eugene Merrill’s A Commentary on 1 & 2 Chronicles is one volume in the Kregel Exegetical Library series. As he explains in his “Preface,” the Chronicler sets forth the history of his people as the last, if not one of the last, writers of the Old Testament.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, September 24
Photo Companion to the Bible: The Gospels Photo Companion to the Bible: The Gospels (DVD from BiblePlaces.com) offers its users more than 10,000 PowerPoint slides illustrating the four Gospels verse by verse. The photographs represent some of the collections of Dr. Todd Bolen, Dr.
My Recommendations: Books of the Week, September 17 — Drs. Thomas & Toussaint
On September 5 Dr. Stanley D. Toussaint entered glory and the following day Dr. Robert L. Thomas went to heaven as well. Interestingly, both men were born in 1928 (Dr. Toussaint in Minnesota and Dr. Thomas in Georgia).
My Recommendations: Books of the Week, September 10
I’ve taken the unusual step of recommending two books on the same topic this week. Too often, commentaries on Genesis 1-3 and Psalm 104 (just to cite two examples) conclude that “cosmic-conflict mythological language” permeates the biblical account (Longman, Psalms, TOTC, 360, about Psalm 104:5-9).
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, September 3
How can someone break away from tradition and family pressures to seek the truth about life and God? Nabeel Qureshi lets us look into his life, his home, his Islamic religion, and his heart as he struggles his search for truth.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, July 23
In yet another superb ebook, Michael Vlach tackles the issues involved in determining how the New Testament writers use the Old Testament. How Does the New Testament Use the Old Testament?: A Survey of the Major Views examines seven major viewpoints.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, July 16
William Watson finds philo-Semitism, premillennialism, and even pretribulationism to be more prevalent before the nineteenth century than most theologians and church historians try to make us believe.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, July 9
No greater subject for our contemplation exists aside from Jesus Christ Himself. We all need to spend significant time meditating on our Savior’s work and His role in our world, our life, and our future.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, July 2
Academics have dominated the realm of Christian theology (both systematic and biblical) for several centuries. This source for the Church’s theology has led to a degree of stagnation as well as a lack of true spiritual passion in the queen of sciences–resulting in theologically anemic churches.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, June 26
Pastoral leadership in corporate worship requires both passion and wisdom. John Newton was just such a pastor. He not only pastored his church through his sermons and letters, he also wrote worship-filled hymns.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, June 12
Reading the Old Testament sometimes can seem like ploughing through long pages filled with words without fully understanding their importance. Don’t miss the overall meaning, beauty, and power of over two-thirds of your Bible.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, June 5
Wyclif’s legendary status as “the Morning Star of the Reformation” fails to survive Gillian Evans’ vigorous professorial investigation. Her portrait of Wyclif in John Wyclif: Myth and Reality reveals a complex and conflicted man — an irascible academic as well as a contrite cleric.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, May 29
Dr. Eugene Merrill’s Everlasting Dominion: A Theology of the Old Testament presents the most dependable and readable theology of the Old Testament available today. The stance that Dr. Merrill takes consistently espouses a conservative, evangelical viewpoint.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, May 22
What do Charles Spurgeon, George Müller, and Hudson Taylor have in common? Let’s count the ways: (1) All were fervent evangelical Christians? (2) All served Christ with all that they had. (3) All left behind a tremendous legacy of faithfulness and godliness. (4) All were based in England.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, May 15
Christ Alone: The Uniqueness of the Gospel and Its Impact on the World (Xulon Press, 2017) collects seventeen essays together in one volume.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, May 8
Instead of a book this week, I am recommending a DVD of one of the best documentaries I have ever seen on the historicity of the early chapters of the Book of Genesis: “Is Genesis History?” Del Tackett (who directs The Truth Project ministry) was on one of our first rafting trips into the Grand…
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, May 1
For the past ten years I have had the great privilege and joy to take rafting trips through the Grand Canyon teaching from Genesis 1-11 about Creation and the Flood. Tom Vail, the founder of Canyon Ministries and a co-author of this book, has been one of my mentors in the canyon and has become a
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, April 24
What Happened in the Garden: The Reality and the Ramifications of the Creation and Fall of Man, edited by Abner Chou (Kregel Academic, 2016) offers a collection of essays by Dr. John MacArthur and the faculty of The Master’s University.
Hebrew Whiteboard
Structural or logical line diagramming serves as one of the chief means by which the exegete can identify verse structure in the Hebrew Bible.
Christ’s Resurrection and Missions
Resurrection Sunday has just passed and we have, hopefully, spent a significant amount of time contemplating the importance of our Savior’s resurrection from the dead.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, April 17
The ministry of Bible translation has occupied a good portion of my own life and ministry. My shelf is filled with books about Bible translation and Bible versions, as well as Bibles in many languages.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, April 10
Have you been looking for a replacement for the magisterial Greatness of the Kingdom published years ago by Alva J. McClain? Look no farther. Dr.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, April 3
Elliott Johnson and I first crossed paths in 1998 on a tour of Israel with Master’s Seminary and Dallas Seminary students. We had a great time together and found that we were kindred spirits theologically, hermeneutically, and academically.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, March 27
When Greg Harris first shared his project with me, I was immediately captivated by his passion for formalizing and publishing what he has taught consistently from his church pulpit and his seminary classroom lectern. The Bible Expositor’s Handbook: Old Testament commences his two-part publication.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, March 20
One Perfect Life: The Complete Story of the Lord Jesus by John MacArthur offers a very readable harmony of the Gospels printed as one, united, running account.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, March 13
The wisdom literature of the Old Testament includes Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and some of the Psalter’s psalms. Dr. Daniel Estes’ Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms stands at the head of the list of books written as introductions or handbooks for the Wisdom Books.
A Dispensational Discourse: Interview
Coming March 11. Over the past year I have written a number of blog posts for Dispensational Publishing House. Recently, Paul Scharf interviewed me by phone for this biographical post.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, March 6
Satellite Bible Atlas: Historical Geography of the Bible provides a very handy guide for any Bible land tour of Israel. Bill Schlegel lives in Israel and has led tours for several decades. The atlas combines modern satellite imagery with a conservative handling of the biblical text.
Just Published: Right Thinking in a Church Gone Astray
Right Thinking in a Church Gone Astray: Finding Our Way Back to Biblical Truth, ed. Nathan Busenitz (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2017) was unveiled at this year’s Shepherds’ Conference hosted by Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, February 27
Dr. Eugene Merrill’s Everlasting Dominion: A Theology of the Old Testament presents the most dependable and readable theology of the Old Testament available today. The stance that Dr. Merrill takes consistently espouses a conservative, evangelical viewpoint.
New Book Endorsement
“For nearly a century, only a handful of scholars have published manuals for the exegesis of the Hebrew Bible.
My Recommendations: Book of the Week, February 20
Are you looking for the best reference work for obtaining book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter Bible background information for history, geography, archaeology, and culture? I highly recommend Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (5-volume set) for the Old Testament edited by John H.
Books I’ve Endorsed
This post presents all of the books for which I have written endorsements published inside the book or on its cover. The authors of these volumes asked for my endorsement and I gave it only after carefully reading their work to be certain that I would not be sorry that I did so. That does
Hebrew Whiteboard
Structural or logical line diagramming serves as one of the chief means by which the exegete can identify verse structure in the Hebrew Bible.