NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story. For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross. Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world. Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.

A Unique Study of Pauline Eschatology that Is Both Exegetical and Theological One of the trajectories coming out of Constantine Campbell's award-winning book Paul and Union with Christ is the significance of eschatology for the apostle. Along with union with Christ, eschatology is a feature of Paul’s thinking that affects virtually everything else. While union with Christ is the "webbing" that joins Paul's thought together, eschatology provides the "shape" of his thought, and thus gives shape to his teaching about justification, resurrection, the cross, ethics, and so forth. There is considerable debate, however, about Paul's eschatology, asking whether he is a "covenant" or an "apocalyptic" theologian. In Paul and the Hope of Glory Campbell conducts a thorough exegetical study of the relevant elements of Paul's eschatological language, metaphors, and images including "parousia," "the last day," "inheritance," "hope," and others. He examines each passage in context, aiming to build inductively an overall sense of Paul's thinking. The results of this exegetical study then feed into a theological study that demonstrates the integration of Paul's eschatological thought into his overall theological framework. The study is comprised of three parts: The first part introduces the key issues--both exegetical and theological--and sets the parameters and methodology of the book. It also offers an historical survey of the scholarly work produced on Paul's eschatology through the twentieth century to the present day. The second part contains the detailed exegetical analysis, with chapters on each important Pauline phrase, metaphor, and image related to eschatology. The third part turns its attention to theological synthesis. It recapitulates relevant conclusions from the evidence adduced in part two and launches into theological discussion engaging current issues and debates. This volume combines high-level scholarship and a concern for practical application of a topic currently debated in the academy and the church. More than a monograph, this book is a helpful reference tool for students, scholars, and pastors to consult its treatment of any particular instance of any phrase or metaphor that relates to eschatology in Paul's thinking.

Imagine you received a book as a gift. You read it and found it interesting, but some points were confusing. You and your friends discussed the meaning but no one could really figure out what the author meant. Wouldn't it help if you could meet him and ask him questions? Most Christians have the same difficulty in reading the Holy Bible. They read this beautiful book, but never come into the fullness of what it promises because they haven't spent enough time with the author. My prayer for you is that as you read this book the reality of knowing Jesus on a first name basis comes into your heart. Jesus and I talk intimately every day. He has given me desire to be so intimate with him that we are becoming one. This is what He desires for you also. This is the promise given to us: Christ in You the Hope of Glory.

Nothing is more important than what a person believes about Jesus Christ. To understand Christ correctly is to understand the very heart of God, Scripture, and the gospel. To get to the core of this belief, this latest volume in the Foundations of Evangelical Theology series lays out a systematic summary of Christology from philosophical, biblical, and historical perspectives—concluding that Jesus Christ is God the Son incarnate, both fully divine and fully human. Readers will learn to better know, love, trust, and obey Christ—unashamed to proclaim him as the only Lord and Savior. Part of the Foundations of Evangelical Theology series.

The scriptures in their original languages speak of the Kabod or the "heaviness" of God's Spirit. Every person who believes in the experiential presence of God in their lives has encountered this time and again in their walk with Jesus. You can place your hand on your heart, close your eyes and "feel" God's presence. This is a very subjective matter but also a truth that runs deep in the scriptural narrative. In the Kabod Glory of God, Russ unveil the glory of God indwelling your life as not only a devotional matter but a resource of unimaginable power and strength for your life.

Our modern era is not unique in its fascination with angels and the spirit world. Paul's young converts in Colossae also had a keen interest in the subject, but some of them allowed this interest to distort their newfound Christian faith. Defining the exact nature of the Colossian heresy, however, has been a perennial challenge to interpreters. The Colossian Syncretism offers groundbreaking evidence on the true nature of the problem that the Apostle Paul opposed so vehemently. Drawing upon little-known angel inscriptions, magical texts, and archeological evidence from Asia Minor, the author argues that the Colossians tried to combine Paul's teachings about Christ with local pagan and Jewish folk beliefs. The result was a syncretism that kept them captive to the fear of evil spirits, dependent on the power of magic and amulets, and blind to the liberating power of the indwelling Christ, the supreme Creator and Lord of all spiritual principalities and powers. In addition to unearthing the historical background of Paul's letter to the Colossians, The Colossian Syncretism presents Paul's strategy for addressing the religious syncretism he faced there. It thus provides a working model for Christian missionaries and evangelists discipling converts from today's religiously pluralistic societies.