Are you facing doubting dilemmas that challenge you, doubts you find extremely annoying, the kind that are messing up your Christian life? Do you want to discover real solutions that are biblical, effective, and easy to understand? If the answer is yes, then this book offers the answers you are seeking! Readers will discover the reasons why believers in Christ, like everyone else, have doubting quandaries about such significant topics as God, the Bible, especially the story of creation. In presenting the only effective solution that comes through God's grace, this book will unveil the intimate relationship between heaven's rebellion and the creation event. It will also reveal why there is such an aggressive, present-day effort to present the creation story as a myth or parable rather than a literal, historical event.
What Does God Think about Technology? From smartphones to self-driving cars to space travel, new technologies can inspire us. But the breakneck pace of change can also frighten us. So how do Christians walk by faith through the innovations of Silicon Valley? And how does God relate to our most powerful innovators? To build a biblical theology of technology, journalist and tech optimist Tony Reinke examines nine key texts from Scripture to show how the world's discoveries are divinely orchestrated. Ultimately, what we believe about God determines how we respond to human invention. With the help of several theologians and inventors throughout history, Reinke dispels twelve common myths in the church and offers fourteen ethical convictions to help Christians live by faith in the age of big tech. Biblical, Informed Look at Technology: Written by the author of 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You and Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age Gathers Ideas from Industry Experts and Theologians: Interacts with Christian and non-Christian sources on technology and theology including John Calvin, Herman Bavinck, Wendell Berry, and Elon Musk Educational: Discusses the history and philosophy behind major technological innovations
My book's objective is to describe the beliefs, practices, and ventures of the Adventist church that have had or still have a significant impact on my life. Looking back, I now have a better understanding why ancient Israel was repeatedly told to remember what God had done for them. For this reason, there will be much reminiscing, retelling of personal experiences, and evaluating church teachings and decisions, all in the endeavor to make sense of what has happened. That can only take place if we bathe our words and expressions in grace, love and understanding. The book endeavors to answer the underlying question: what do we mean when we use the term "church"? What are the primary reasons for its existence? When you ask Adventists such a question, we hope they answer with a reply that is inspiring and practical. In presenting my view of Adventism over the past seventy-five years, it's had a positive effect on my knowing and understanding Jesus-and I hope the same goes for you!
Many years ago Bob Dylan wrote: "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind," but we've learned that really important answers don't come that easily. Asking questions is a sign of a healthy, growing faith, a faith that drives us deeper into God's Word. That's the reason God's first question in the Old Testament is "Where are you?" while the first question the wise men ask in the New Testament is "Where is He?" It's been observed that God answers just enough questions to get us through the day, while leaving us with enough unanswered questions so we can look forward to learning more tomorrow. This book is designed to deal with some of our most difficult questions or troubling issues . . . from a biblical perspective. At times it may appear that some questions have no answer, or maybe have more than one, or perhaps have answers that contradict each other. That's one reason we're not only to confront knotty questions, but willingly accept God's unraveling answers.
While this story reads like a short police report, Cain and Abel's tragic narrative plays a definitive role in the biblical saga called the great controversy. As we review their story, we might assume that if we had a chance to meet Cain and Abel, just by looking, we could easily determine who was the kind Abel and who was the mean-spirited Cain. Are you sure? Would you be surprised to learn Abel was guilty of viewing Cain from a superficial perspective that gave him a misleading impression of his brother? As we study their lives, it's easy for us to have preconceived ideas because we don't know what was going through Cain's mind until Cain's behavior plainly displays it for all of us to see. It's human to be biased. But that's not God's way of judging! This book dives deeper into the story to reveal God's perspective. I invite you to dive in with me as objectively as possible. Don't prejudge. Be persuaded by biblical evidence-wherever it leads you!
An inspirational book that offers words of healing for those wrestling with religious doubts and shows Christians how to grow closer to God through times of uncertainty.
Kelly Monroe presents forty-two compelling testimonies from faculty members, former students, and orators at Harvard University whose reflections explode the myth that Christian faith cannot survive a rigorous intellectual environment.
The most celebrated story collection from “one of the true American masters” (The New York Review of Books)—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark that includes the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award-winning film Birdman. "Raymond Carver's America is ... clouded by pain and the loss of dreams, but it is not as fragile as it looks. It is a place of survivors and a place of stories.... [Carver] has done what many of the most gifted writers fail to do: He has invented a country of his own, like no other except that very world, as Wordsworth said, which is the world to all of us." —The New York Times Book Review
One Bible, Many Answers In God's Problem, the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus challenges the contradictory biblical explanations for why an all-powerful God allows us to suffer.
Hurting people ask heart-felt questions about God and suffering. Some "answers" they receive appeal to mystery: “God’s ways are not our ways”. Some answers say God allows evil for a greater purpose. Some say evil is God's punishment. The usual answers fail. They don't support the truth that God loves everyone all the time. God Can't gives a believable answer to why a good and powerful God doesn't prevent evil. Author Thomas Jay Oord says God’s love is inherently uncontrolling. God loves everyone and everything, so God can't control anyone or anything. This means God cannot prevent evil singlehandedly. God can’t stop evildoers, whether human, animal, organism, or inanimate objects and forces. In God Can't, Oord gives a plausible reason why some are healed, but many others are not. God always works to heal everyone, but sometimes our bodies, organisms, or other creatures do not cooperate with God's healing work. Or the conditions of creation are not right for the healing God wants to do. Some people think God causes or allows suffering to teach us lessons or build our character. God Can't disagrees. Oord says God squeezes good from the evil God didn’t want in the first place. God uses pain and suffering without willing or even allowing it. Most people think God can overcome evil singlehandedly. In God Can't, Oord says God needs cooperation for love to reign now and later. This leads to a better view of the afterlife called “relentless love.” It rejects traditional ideas of heaven, hell, and annihilation. Relentless love holds to the possibility all creatures and all creation will respond to God’s love. God Can't is written in understandable language. As a world-renown theologian, Thomas Jay Oord brings credibility to the book’s radical ideas. He explains these ideas through true stories, illustrations, and scripture. God Can't is for those who want answers to tragedy, abuse, and other evils that make sense! What They're Saying... “If conventional notions of God make less and less sense to you, you’ll find Thomas Jay Oord’s new book a breath of fresh air. Simply put, “God Can’t” presents an understanding of God that thoughtful, ethical people can believe in.” -- Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration "I did not want this book to end. I wish Dr. Oord had written it 100 years ago, or 1000 years ago... To find your understanding of life and your love for God renewed, read this book." -- Dr. Karen Strand Winslow, Ph.D., Biblical and Jewish Studies Professor of Bible, Azusa Pacific University "As a clinical psychologist working with people in trauma, I owe Thomas Jay Oord an enormous debt of gratitude for recasting the so-called problem of evil in terms that are conceptually satisfying, theologically consistent, and pastorally liberating.” -- Dr Roger Bretherton- Principal Lecturer at the University of Lincoln (UK), Chair of the British Association of Christians in Psychology “Victims of trauma sometimes hear theological responses that imply their suffering is somehow “God’s will." A more careful theological reflection on the nature of the power of a God who is love can help. Oord gives us a clear and compelling alternative in this profoundly insightful and admirably concrete and accessible book.” -- Dr. Anna Case-Winters, Professor of Theology at McCormick Theological Seminary “I know of no book that speaks to suffering with the depth of theological sophistication and psychological sensitivity as God Can’t. This book is a rare combination of depth and accessibility, truly written for the wounded. I recommend it to my students, parishioners, and therapy clients.” -- Dr. Brad D. Strawn, Professor of the Integration of Psychology and Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary
