Who Do People Say I Am

The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.

Do you know Jesus as He really is? We can speak in abstracts all day long. We can ponder who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him. But he wants our confession. He wants to know, “Who do you say that I AM?” How we answer defines our lives both now and forever. This 8-week study in the “I AM” statements of Jesus will help women move from knowing about Him to knowing Him personally. Guiding them through significant questions Jesus asks in the Gospels—and the answers He himself provides—it will help readers: Realize the truth of who Jesus really is Grow in their ability to trust God and rely on Him fully Find the calm and peace promised in Scripture despite life circumstances Becky Harling has years of experience as a Bible teacher and women’s ministry leader. She empathizes with women and knows how to make Scripture come alive. Who Do You Say that I AM? will draw women deep into the Word for a true encounter with Christ, helping them become more confident, calm, and courageous in the faith.

Spanning early Christian writings from the Gospel of Mark to the Acts of John, this book by Vernon Robbins explores the various ways early Christians explained their understanding of the special nature of Jesus beyond the canonical Gospels. Who Do People Say I Am? shows how second-and third-century Christian authors of additional Gospels and Gospel-like writings expanded and elaborated on Jesus divinity in the context of his earthly existence. According to Robbins, these Christian authors thought that the New Testament Gospel writers could and should have emphasized the divinity of Jesus more than they did. Throughout the book Robbins asks and answers questions such as these: If Jesus introduced new beliefs and practices, what did second- and third-century believers find unresolved in the New Testament Gospels about those beliefs and practices, and how did they try to resolve them? What gaps in the storylines of the New Testament Gospels did second- and third-century Christian writers think could be filled in, and how did they fill them in? If Jesus really were fully divine when he came to earth and lived among his disciples, what experiences did his disciples have that the New Testament Gospels do not tell us? Learning activities and a bibliography at the end of each chapter help make this book a valuable resource for students and any other interested readers.

[This] is the most important question regarding the claims of the Christian faith. Certainly no question in modern religious history demands more attention or interest, as witnessed by the vast body of literature dealing with the Resurrection. James I. Packer says it well in his response to this debate: 'When Christians are asked to make good their claim that this scheme is truth, they point to Jesus' resurrection. The Easter event, so they affirm, demonstrated Jesus' deity; validated his teaching; attested to the completion of his work of atonement for sin; confirms his present cosmic dominion and coming reappearance as Judge; assures us that his personal pardon, presence, and power in people's lives today is fact; and guarantees each believer's own reembodiment by Resurrection in the world to come.' The Apostle Paul considered the Resurrection to be the cornerstone of the Christian faith. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, the whole structure, Christianity, collapses. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:14-17, 'And if Christ has not been raised, 'our preaching is useless and so is you faith.' More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God. . . . And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile [emphasis added].' The Christian faith-and its claim to be Truth-exists only if Jesus rose from the dead. The heart of Christianity is a living Christ.

Who Do You Say I Am seeks to bridge the gap between the reader who reads for empowerment and the reader who reads for knowledge. Both groups will receive what they seek, and even spiritual insight into the earthly life of Jesus, whose short ministry spawned a worldwide, life-changing movement that grows stronger with each soul saved. Readers are invited to travel back in time with the author and take a look at this itinerant teacher and preacher that history calls Jesus and millions call Savior. This book takes the reader through Old Testament messianic promises, Jewish history, and the gospel accounts, finally arriving in the fullness of God's time at a place in history where a man who lived in a precisely defined period of time, during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius Caesar began a life-changing ministry. Read of Jesus's promised coming, and his birth. Visualize the every day trials of a Jewish lad on the road to manhood. Follow as the book looks at both earthly life and heavenly intervention, in seeking to know this man called Jesus. Dr. William Merrifield is a Southern Baptist deacon, minister, and a retired army chaplain. He holds a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Bill has been in the ministry for thirty-seven years. Bill and his wife, Jo Ann, currently reside in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Gospel can be considered a Manual of Prayer, a letter written by the Holy Spirit to you. But God's Word doesn't live in a book. It comes alive when you pray about It. It is not about getting to know what the 'Historical Jesus' did two thousand years ago, what He said "back then"; Jesus Christ is not 'back then' anymore, He is alive, and is longing to talk to you.Taking the Gospel of the day, the iPray provides a commentary that can be a trigger for an authentic and personal conversation with Jesus. That time of prayer spent with Jesus is like a 'cooking pot' in which you blend the Words and scenes of Jesus' life, found in the Gospel, together with your daily life, your worries, your family and friends, all heated up by the fire of the Holy Spirit.'iPray with the Gospel' is not a ready-made meal you can just throw in the microwave, as if they were some prayers that you read and that's it. It is more like a personal recipe that only you can cook with the help of the Holy Spirit.

An enlightening follow-up to the bestselling book The Case for Christ, In Defense of Jesus follows award-winning journalist Lee Strobel as he explores the most explosive arguments against the identity of Christ as the Messiah. Has modern scholarship debunked the traditional Christ? Has the church suppressed the truth about Jesus to advance its own agenda? What if the real Jesus is far different from the atoning Savior worshiped through the centuries? In Defense of Jesus explores such hot-button questions as: Did the church suppress ancient non-biblical documents that paint a more accurate picture of Jesus than the four Gospels? Did the church distort the truth about Jesus by tampering with early New Testament texts? Do new insights and explanations disprove the resurrection? Have fresh arguments disqualified Jesus from being the Messiah? Did Christianity steal its core ideas from earlier mythology? Evaluate the arguments and evidence being advanced by prominent atheists, liberal theologians, Muslim scholars, and others. Sift through expert testimony. Then reach your own verdict with In Defense of Jesus. This title is also available in Spanish, En defense de Jesús.

LIFE Books managing editor, Robert Sullivan, has twice been awarded the Wilbur Award for best religion feature in a national magazine and has authored LIFE's New York Times best-selling biography of Pope John Paul II. He brings to this book his expertise on the subject of Christianity a long with text informed by the world's great scholars, theologians and religious figures. Jesus emerged from nowhere to become, in his short life-perhaps as few as 32 years-a thinker, teacher and preacher whose words and deeds would change the world and become the foundation for the world's largest religion. But the biography as outlined in the New Testament and apocryphal writings only tells us so much. LIFE's editors go, in words and pictures, in search of Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son who would one day influence all. The great photographer Denis Waugh once made a thorough, colorful and moving pictorial pilgrimage to the Holy Land exclusively for LIFE, and those images will anchor our quest. We will travel, as well, to the Vatican, to the missions of Africa, to the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco-to all that has risen in Jesus, name. In the book's final section, we will look at Christianity today: Its still vastly influential place in our tumultuous world.