Recommendations based on "2030 Second Coming: 2023 Tribulation, 2016 7 years of plenty"

The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.Regarded as the father of Existentialism, Kierkegaard transformed philosophy with his conviction that we must all create our own nature; in this great work of religious anxiety, he argues that a true understanding of God can only be attained by making a personal "leap of faith."

"C.S. Lewis is the ideal persuader for the half-convinced, for the good man who would like to be a Christian but finds his intellect getting in the way." — Anthony Burgess, New York Times Book ReviewOur moral consciousness and moral judgements are proof to the human race that a moral being exists—God.Mere Christianity explores the core beliefs of Christianity by providing an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear a powerful, rational case for the Christian faith. A brilliant collection, Mere Christianity remains strikingly fresh for the modern reader and at the same time confirms C. S. Lewis’s reputation as one of the leading writer and thinkers of our age.The book brings together Lewis’ legendary broadcast talks during World War II. Lewis discusses that everyone is curious about: right and wrong, human nature, morality, marriage, sins, forgiveness, faith, hope, generosity, and kindness.

Do we live in a world that makes sense, not just now, but totally and forever? If, as scientists now predict, the universe is going to end in collapse or decay, can it really be a divine creation? Is there a credible hope of a destiny beyond death? In this engaging and intellectually scrupulous book, a leading scientist-theologian draws on ideas from science, scripture, and theology to address these important questions. John Polkinghorne carefully builds a structure of the hope of the life to come that involves both continuity and discontinuity with life in this world?enough continuity so that it is we ourselves who shall live again in that future world and enough discontinuity to ensure that the second story is not just a repetition of the first.Polkinghorne develops his argument in three sections. In the first, he considers the role of contemporary scientific insights and cultural expectations. In the second, he gives a careful account of the various testimonies of hope to be found in the Bible and assesses the credibility of belief in Jesus’ resurrection. In the final section he critically analyzes and defends the Christian hope of the life of the new creation.

"In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star professor at the Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster discovery at a scholarly conference just steps from the Vatican: She had found an ancient fragment of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene "my wife." The discovery made front-page news around the world - if early Christians believed that Jesus was married, it would threaten not just the celibate, all-male priesthood, but the entire the 2,000-year history of the faith. Biblical scholars were in an uproar, but King had impeccable credentials as a world-renowned authority on female figures in the Gnostic gospels. The "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," as she titled her discovery, was both a crowning career achievement and powerful proof for her arguments that there were alternative, and much more inclusive, versions of Christianity from its beginnings. Assigned to write a story about King's find, award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar began to unearth disquieting questions about the papyrus. His globe-spanning investigation would lead to a rural hamlet in inland Florida, where he discovered a college dropout with a prophetess wife, a curious past in Germany, and a tortured relationship with the Catholic Church. The deeper Sabar dug into the mysteries of the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," the more surreal the story became. VERITAS is at once a surprising detective story, a fascinating journey through the rarefied worlds of Biblical Studies and Egyptology, a piercing psychological portrait of a many-faced con artist, and a tragedy about a brilliant scholar handed a piece of ancient paper that appealed to her greatest hopes for Christianity--but forced a reckoning with fundamental questions about the line between reason and faith"--

The infamous and controversial work that made a lasting impression on both modern Protestant theology and existentialist philosophers such as Sartre and CamusWriting under the pseudonym of "Johannes de silentio," Kierkegaard expounds his personal view of religion through a discussion of the scene in Genesis in which Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son Isaac at God's command. Believing Abraham's unreserved obedience to be the essential leap of faith needed to make a full commitment to his religion, Kierkegaard himself made great sacrifices in order to dedicate his life entirely to his philosophy and to God. The conviction shown in this religious polemic—that a man can have an exceptional mission in life—informed all Kierkegaard's later writings. His "teleological suspension of the ethical" challenged the contemporary views of Hegel's universal moral system, and was also hugely influential for both protestant theology and the existentialist movement.Alastair Hannay's introduction evaluates Kierkegaard's philosophy and the ways in which it conflicted with more accepted contemporary views. This edition also includes detailed notes to complement this groundbreaking analysis of religion, and a new chronology.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

How to engage in productive conversations with those who challenge your Christian convictions.Gregory Koukl's best-selling book of practical apologetics, Tactics, wrote the game plan for discussing your Christian convictions with skeptics. In this follow-up, Koukl—a leader of clear-thinking Christianity—reveals the fundamental flaws in common, current challenges to Christian beliefs and values and provides step-by-step strategies to question and reveal those shortcomings.Street Smarts offers model questions and sample dialogues to help guide believers in persuasive conversations about hot-button issues like: Relativism The trustworthiness of Scripture The claims of the Gospel Abortion Marriage, sex, and genderThis book will teach you how to tackle those discussions that believers often avoid because they feel out of their element, vulnerable, or exposed. Lucid, well-organized, and easy-to-follow, Street Smarts provides a specific set of questions—the same questions Koukl uses in his own encounters—that are embedded in sample mini-dialogues that you can use to have fruitful debates with non-believers.

Was God telling the truth when he said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”? In his #1 bestseller The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel examined the claims of Christ, reaching the hard-won verdict that Jesus is God’s unique son. In The Case for Faith, Strobel turns his skills to the most persistent emotional objections to belief―the eight “heart barriers” to faith. This Gold Medallion-winning book is for those who may be feeling attracted to Jesus but who are faced with difficult questions standing squarely in their path. For Christians, it will deepen their convictions and give them fresh confidence in discussing Christianity with even their most skeptical friends. “Everyone―seekers, doubters, fervent believers―benefits when Lee Strobel hits the road in search of answers, as he does again in The Case for Faith. In the course of his probing interviews, some of the toughest intellectual obstacles to faith fall away.” ―Luis Palau “Lee Strobel has given believers and skeptics alike a gift in this book. He does not avoid seeking the most difficult questions imaginable, and refuses to provide simplistic answers that do more harm than good.” ―Jerry Sittser, professor of religion, Whitworth College, and author of A Grace Disguised and The Will of God as a Way of Life

How are we to live out the Bible today?In this updated edition of The Blue Parakeet, you'll see how Scripture transcends culture and time, and you'll learn how to read God's Word in a fresh way.The gospel is designed to be relevant in every culture, in every age, in every language. It's fully capable of this, and we are called to discern how God is speaking to us today.But applying its words and directions on how to live our lives is not always easy.Professor and author of The King Jesus Bible Scot McKnight challenges us to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic belief or historical tradition but to see it as an ongoing Story that we're summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day.Throughout the Bible, God speaks in each generation, in that generation's ways and beckons us to be a part of his amazing story. The Blue Parakeet is a profound meditation on how God is speaking to our generation through His Word.

What to say and how to say it. What not to say. When it's best to remain silent. What to do when you've said something you wish you could take back. . . In this study, you'll take a personal tour through the hows (and how-not-tos) of dealing with the tongue.The Bible has a lot to say about the tongue and what kind of power it has. James tells us that it can corrupt the whole body and that it can't be tamed. The book of Proverbs claims that "death and life are in the power of the tongue."This 6-session video Bible study (DVD/streaming video sold separately) is designed to offer hope for all of us who struggle with the way we've used our words and practical wisdom for getting our tongues under control. Biblical, encouraging, and kind, New York Times bestselling author Karen Ehman will help you: Learn the essential practice of using our words (and our mannerisms!) more constructively. Understand what God has to say about our tongues by studying verses and figures from Scripture. Discern what far-reaching effects our speech has—whether it's in private, in public, online, or in prayer. Gain practical insights into breaking habits of gossip, flattery, verbal retaliation, and people-pleasing.Most of us have been affected by the heartache and injury that words can cause, not only in family relationships, but also in friendships, work, and church settings. This is your guidebook to fully realizing the power of the tongue and how to use your words in the service of truth and love.Sessions include: Sparks, Squabbles, Spats, and Such: Our Words Matter On Filling Gaps and Zipping Lips: Listen to Others, Talk to God Opinion-Slinging and Salty Speech: Assessing Our Digital Tongues Gossip, Flattery, and People-Pleasing: How to Speak the Truth in Love Pause Before You Pounce: On Cultivating Soft Speech As Sweet as Honey: Wonderful Ways to Use Your WordsDesigned for use with the Keep It Shut Video Study 9780310819417 (sold separately).

In 1987, an IRA bomb buried Gordon Wilson and his twenty-year-old daughter beneath five feet of rubble. Gordon alone survived. And forgave. He said of the bombers, " I have lost my daughter, but I bear no grudge . . . I shall pray, tonight and every night, that God will forgive them." His words caught the media's ears -- and out of one man's grief, the world got a glimpse of grace. Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else -- for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. In What's So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey sets grace in the midst of life's stark images, tests its mettle against horrific "ungrace." Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men? Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today's AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus' day. In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear? And he challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, What's So Amazing About Grace?