The Heidelberg Catechism, first approved in 1563, is a confessional document of the Protestant movement considered one of the most ecumenical of the confessions. Published to coincide with the catechism's 450th anniversary, this book explores the Heidelberg Catechism in its historical setting and emphasizes the catechism's integration of Lutheran and Reformed traditions in all of its major doctrines. An appendix contains a translation of the Heidelberg Catechism recently prepared and adopted by three of the Reformed denominations that recognize the catechism as one of their confessions: the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, and the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Politicians in Washington are grappling with a soaring national debt that threatens our status in the world and, indeed our very future. The government funded by this debt is seen as too big and intrusive. Yet, eighty years of liberal progressivism have left us a nation ill prepared to face a future of less government. Even more urgent than the massive debt accumulated over the decades are the crumbling institutions left in the wake of the failed experiment of socialism. Americans sense that the old social contract of "cradle to grave" care no longer works, if it ever did. They know that anarchy is not a replacement for big government and are searching for a new world view.But the way forward will never be found until we understand how our nation fits within a higher purpose for all men and women. The Four Institutions of the Cultural Mandate provide this understanding and clarifies what the American people must do to secure our country's future. This book shines a light on these institutions and provides the new world view and the new social contract Americans are longing for.George Radanovich was elected to Congress in 1994. He served as president of the freshman class of the new republican majority and pressed the need for cultural reform to accompany the reduction in the size of government. A believer that politics and jurisprudence are downstream from culture, The New World Order is the Old World Order, is the culmination of his thirty-year effort to develop a new social contract based on cultural reform. He retired from Congress in 2011, after the tragic loss of his wife, and returned to his hometown of Mariposa, CA, to raise their 12 year-old son, rebuild the family vineyard and establish a foundation, The Four Institutions, to restore the institutions of the Cultural Mandate. For more information, go to thefourinstitutions.com.

"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume III of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find three of Tertullian s most famous writings. In Apologetic, Tertullian addresses the powers that be in Rome, demanding that Christians be accepted and tolerated by Roman law. In Anti-Marcion, Tertullian attacks and discusses heretics. And in Ethical he discusses a variety of moral questions."

"In this masterful work George Gray calls the church to live out the most natural expression of her love and obedience to the Master. Grounded in careful exegesis, comprehensive, and sensitive to the complexities of modern life, Gray examines the Gospels as a script that reveals not only how Jesus shaped the first disciples, but how we must carry on making disciples in His name."

-David B. Capes, Thomas Nelson Research Professor, Houston Baptist University

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Discipleship is not about teaching someone to pray and read his or her Bible; it is about learning how Jesus wants us to pray and read our Bibles. Discipleship is not about the doctrine of the Church, but the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the head of the Church. It is not about attending a church service, but attending to the Lord Jesus's view of what it means to be the church.

In "Discipleship from Jesus's Perspective," author George Gray presents a guide for becoming a disciple the way Jesus intended, that discipleship means adhering to His expressed will. Gray carefully examines Jesus's pivotal statements regarding discipleship and unearths the key principles that transform the art of making a disciple from a subjective guessing game to an objective and definitive master plan.

Including purposeful questions and exercises, "Discipleship from Jesus's Perspective" provides practical steps for following the master plan and applying the commands to everyday life to become a true disciple of Jesus.

Churches throughout the world's developed nations are losing members in droves. As a result, parishes are downsizing or consolidating to remain intact-- in many cases to just survive. There must be a reason, and this author opines that antiquated Church doctrines are no longer relevant to 21st century minds. If religions are to remain viable entities in our rapidly accelerating world, they must be willing to re-examine their outdated doctrinal systems to better resonate with an educated populace. Primitive man created his gods and goddesses-and fi nally "God"-- in his own image, believing that these entities manipulated the forces of nature that were beyond his own ability to control. In doing so, he imbued his divine creations with his own best-and worst-attributes because they were what he witnessed around, and about, himself. His gods, like their mythological counterparts, were often powerful, tyrannical and self-aggrandizing beings, demanding praise, worship and blood sacrifi ce; gods who would wrathfully smite those who would not bow down in worship to them. But that was then, and this is now. Instead of rigid religious rules and antiquated beliefs, our psyches crave an inner directed experience of the Divine from which we can derive a sense of value, purpose and meaning for the lives we live. This book hopes to sound a wake-up call to the world's major religions before they fi nd themselves placed on dusty library shelves, among other "quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore." i Unless this reconstruction can happen, religion, as it has existed for millennia, cannot help but wither and die.