Showing results by publisher "Logos Bible Study" in Bibles & Bible Study

As a church born in the flames of persecution, the church at Thessalonica has several very important questions to ask Paul - especially about the Lord’s return - and Paul addresses these questions in 1 Thessalonians. Enjoy the rich discussion Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy brings to this book as he emphasizes Paul’s words of faith, hope, and love.

As we rebuild the temple in Ezra, so we rebuild Jerusalem in Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah work together, priest and layman, to complete God’s work—and you will not find two more different characters in all of Scripture. When Ezra learns that the Israelite leaders have been unfaithful to God, he sits on the ground appalled and pulls out the hairs of his beard; when Nehemiah hears the same message, he gathers the leaders together, sits them on the ground, and he pulls out the hairs of their beards!

James, the brother of the Lord and leader of the church in Jerusalem, writes this epistle, sometime before A.D. 70. Paul had been very clear that we are saved by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. At the Council of Jerusalem in A.D. 50, Peter, Paul, James and the other Apostles concurred with Paul’s position, and it is James who, as leader of the church in Jerusalem, orders that a letter be written to all the churches explaining the Council’s decision. In his epistle, James does not contradict himself by arguing the contrary....

Joel may be the earliest of the writing prophets; if he is, then he introduces the term “the Day of the Lord” as a reference to a set of final, catastrophic events that will befall Israel—and indeed all humanity in the “end times.” Illustrating his message with reference to a dreadful locust plague that occurred in the past, we shudder as God makes clear that if Israel does not repent something much greater than a locust plague will occur.

The Book of Micah is a complex mixture of judgment and hope. God is a god of justice, as well as a god of love, and genuine peace cannot come until justice prevails on earth. Micah’s message of judgment culminates in the redemption of Israel and of all humanity, but a fearful judgment must come first. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he explains how judgment and hope are intimately intertwined in the plan of salvation.

In 2 Chronicles we continue the 1 Chronicles narrative, tracing the fall of the southern kingdom of Judah and its exile into Babylon captivity. As God observes in 1 Chronicles, “Israel went into captivity because of its unfaithfulness.” This is a harrowing story of man’s willful disobedience and God’s righteous judgment.

Jonah is one of the great stories in the Bible. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he tells this story as no one else can! When God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, and preach against it, Jonah heads in the exact opposite direction—to Tarshish, in Spain! Follow the adventure as a huge storm tosses Jonah’s ship, the sailors hurl Jonah overboard and a huge fish swallows him!

Paul had a special love for the church and people of Philippi, a Roman military garrison town in northern Greece, known as Macedonia in Paul’s day. During his second missionary journey (A.D. 50-52) this was the first church he founded on the continent of Europe, and it is the home of Lydia, Paul’s confidante and very close friend. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he explores the tone and content of this very affectionate epistle, written during Paul’s stay in Rome, A.D. 60-62.

Every good story has a conflict, and our conflict enters the story here: Sin. In our class we define sin, not as an action that we commit, but as a condition we are in: “Sin is a condition of alienation and separation from God, that manifests itself in outward, sinful action.” And that condition has several inevitable consequences. We explore the nature of sin in this lecture.

As the Psalms take us into the heart of David, so do Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs take us into the heart of Solomon. The book of Proverbs fits squarely into the genre of “advice to a son” literature. In this book Solomon offers advice to his son, advice to a young man going out into the world for the first time.

When the exiles return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity in 538 B.C., they begin to rebuild the temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. But very quickly resistance arises from the local population - not from military or mob attacks, but from an army of lawyers!

Left to our own devices, humanity is incapable of resolving the issue of sin. God must do it for us, and here he introduces his plan.

Read through a Christian interpretative lens, Daniel foreshadows the coming of the Messiah as well as the “end time” events in the book of Revelation. Daniel is a very important book for Jesus, who draws his self-referential title “Son of Man” from Daniel 7:13-14; who quotes directly from Daniel 12 in the Olivet Discourse; and who seals his “guilty” verdict before Jerusalem’s religious leaders by reference to the book of Daniel.

As we know from our own experience: bad things often happen to good people, even when they are fully aligned with God. So what gives? Job explores this paradox, calling into question the fundamental lessons we learn in the first 700 pages of Scripture. Each book after Esther in the Christian canon of the Hebrew Scriptures is a recapitulation into the main narrative. Job takes us back to the start, to the time of Abraham, and it raises serious questions.

When the Babylonian sacked Jerusalem in August of 586 B.C., the Edomites--descendants of Jacob's twin brother, Esau--looted the city. Obadiah is a 1-page book--the shortest book of prophecy in the Bible--that signals God's displeasure with Edom's actions. Join Logos Bible Study's Dr. Bill Creasy as he makes a stunning discovery about one of Esau's descendants who will appear in the New Testament!

In this book Zephaniah stands courageously and delivers a brutal message to the people: nothing will protect them from the day of God’s judgment. In this account, Dr. Bill Creasy of Logos Bible Study opens the text and explores the stark, dreadful dark side of God’s love.

With Moses dead, Israel stands on the threshold of the Promised Land, looking to Joshua for leadership. Join Logos Bible Study as Dr. Bill Creasy takes us across the Jordan River and into the land of “milk and honey” in a brutal conquest - a campaign of extermination that raises profound moral and ethical questions in its day, as well as in ours.

In Joshua we conquer the land; in Judges we settle it. This book recounts the chaotic downward spiral of a people who turn away from God. Not a nation, but a loose confederation of 12 tribes, Israel spirals downward from a people obeying God to one that turns their back on him, a nation in which everyone “does that which is right in his own eyes.” By the end of Judges, Israel is in total apostasy—and God’s plan of salvation seems to have vanished.

Both Isaiah and Hosea are writing at the same time, during the reigns of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, 740-686 B.C. In Isaiah 1-35, Isaiah hauls Israel into court, charging her with unfaithfulness, calling out witnesses and finding her guilty. The theme of these chapters is judgment. In Hosea, God says: “You know what I think; now I want you to know how I feel.”

The story of David continues in 2 Samuel. With the death of Saul and his three sons at Mt. Gilboa, the door opens for David to become king. But David has, in fact, no legitimate claim to the kingship; indeed, he has been working for a decade as a mercenary for Israel’s Philistine enemies. Listen as Dr. Bill Creasy follows David from the triumph of his kingship to his colossal fall and ultimate reconciliation with God.