Teaching the Christian Hope: Unlocking Biblical Eschatology for the Bible Teacher (Teaching the Bible)
Overview
This is a book for Bible teachers, about dealing with what are often regarded as difficult and controversial areas of Scripture and therefore have tended to be avoided or ignored. It is not a comprehensive survey of all the issues bound up in the study of biblical eschatology, nor does it seek to answer the many tantalizing questions the subject matter raises for our curiosity. This is a practical book, to stimulate Bible teachers to want to teach the Christian hope, and to give a few preliminary suggestions and ideas about how one might go about it. As such, it may prove helpful not only to pulpit preachers, but also to Bible-study group leaders, youth workers and even Sunday-school teachers, for teaching about eschatology is certainly under-represented in many of our programs, across the strata of contemporary evangelical church life.
There are six major themes connected with the Christian hope in the future. Each chapter uses one or two key passages that explain one of the major themes of eschatology and then covers the main elements that need to be answered within that theme.
Top Highlights
“‘Hope is listening to the music of the future, and faith is dancing to that music in the present’.” (Page 28)
“There could hardly be a more radical or controversial way of looking at human life in the world from the secular viewpoint.” (Page 38)
“What passes for expository preaching can then turn into lectures in systematic theology, which while truthful and no doubt edifying in their way, are nevertheless hard to digest, often mainly cerebral in content and can ultimately develop a culture of knowledge rather than understanding and obedience, in those who hear.” (Page 9)
“The psalmist’s perspective—looking at the end point while involved in the process—is what helps us to understand the world from God’s point of view. Then we can make right judgments about the use of our time, resources and energy, and about the focus of our whole lives.” (Page 18)
“It can never be a bad thing for a Christian to say, ‘The Bible doesn’t tell me that’. A much greater danger is to become dogmatic in areas where we are actually most speculative, since this is always likely to cause unhelpful and unnecessary divisions.” (Page 78)
- Title: Teaching the Christian Hope: Unlocking Biblical Eschatology for the Bible Teacher
- Author: David Jackman
- Publisher: Christian Focus
- Publication Date: 2008
- Pages: 144