The Christian Moses

How ancient Christian debates concerning Moses' ability to see God embroiled social rivalries and defined the limits of humanity.

Christians and Muslims together make up about 57% of the world's population today, and by the end of the century they will constitute about 66% of the world's population. More than any other single factor, the wellbeing of our children and grandchildren may depend on how well Christians learn to relate to Muslims - and Hindus, the next largest faith, not to mention Buddhists, Jews, people of indigenous faiths, and the nonreligious. We know how to have a strong Christian identity that is intolerant of or belligerent towards other faiths, and we know how to have a weak Christian identity that is tolerant and benevolent. But is there a third alternative? How do we discover, live, teach, and practise a Christian identity that is both strong and benevolent towards other faiths?In this provocative and inspiring book, author Brian McLaren tackles some of the hardest questions around the issue of interfaith relations, and shares a hopeful vision of the reconciliation that Jesus offers to our multi-faith world.

The first five books of the Old Testament were written centuries before the birth of Jesus. Yet they intricately involve him. Here Vern S. Poythress explores Genesis through Deuteronomy, demonstrating how the sacrifices and traditions of the Hebrews graphically foreshadow Christ’s relationship with his people. Dr. Poythress also explains how the penalties of the law prefigure the destruction of sin and guilt through Jesus. -- Publisher's statement

For many Christians today, the Old Testament is difficult to understand, seems outdated, and has questionable relevance. But, as Old Testament scholar Michael Barrett points out, all Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit and we must read it by faith, seeing that Christ is the key to unlocking the Old Testament’s message. With great knowledge of and contagious passion for the Old Testament, the author shows readers how to identify basic characteristics of Christ and where to look for Him throughout the Old Testament. The author challenges us: “God’s promise throughout the Bible is that those who seek Him will find Him. Beginning at Moses and ending with Malachi, we want to be on Christ alert.” Table of Contents: Part 1: Whom to Look For 1. Jesus the Messiah 2. The Person of Christ 3. The Work of Christ Part 2: Where to Look 4. Christ in the Covenants 5. Christ in Person 6. Christ in His Names 7. Christ in Word Prophecy 8. Christ in Picture Prophecy – Explained 9. Christ in Picture Prophecy – Illustrated 10. Christ in Song

Explores specific commonalities and differences between the Christian and Jewish faiths, recounting how the author was able to deepen his relationship with God as a Christian by attending Jewish Bible study. Original.

Two verses about Moses in the Bible have been the subject of debate since the first century. In Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses that no one can see God and live, but Numbers 12:8 says that Moses sees the form of the Lord. How does one reconcile these two opposing statements? Did Moses see God, and who gets to decide? The Christian Moses investigates how ancient Christians from the New Testament to Augustine of Hippo resolved questions of who can see God, how one can see God, and what precisely one sees. Jaeda Calaway explains that the decision about whether and how Moses saw God was not a neutral exercise for an early Christian. Rather, it established the interpreter's authority to determine what was possible in divine-human relations and set the parameters for the nature of humanity. As a result, Calaway argues, interpretations of Moses' visions became a means for Jews and Christians to jockey for power, allowing them to justify particular social arrangements, relations, and identities, to assert the limits of humans in the face of divinity, and to create an Other. Seeing early Christians with new eyes, The Christian Moses reassesses how debates on Moses' visions from the first through the fifth centuries were, in reality, debates on the boundaries of humanity.