Are churches looking for the wrong kind of leaders? The last decade has witnessed a rising number of churches wrecked by spiritual abuse--harsh, heavy-handed, domineering behavior from those in a position of spiritual authority. And high-profile cases are only a small portion of this widespread problem. Behind the scenes are many more cases of spiritual abuse that we will never hear about. Victims suffer in silence, not knowing where to turn. Of course, most pastors and leaders are godly, wonderful people who don't abuse their sheep. They shepherd their flocks gently and patiently. But we can't ignore the growing number who do not. We have tolerated and even celebrated the kind of leaders Jesus warned us against. We need gentle shepherds now more than ever, and in Bully Pulpit, seminary president and biblical scholar Michael J. Kruger offers a unique perspective for both church leaders and church members on the problem of spiritual abuse, how to spot it, and how to handle it in the church. "Every Christian from pulpit to pew needs to read this wise and timely work." - Karen Swallow Prior "Both urgent and timely." - Sam Storms "Thoughtful, wise, and biblical." - Mark Vroegop

This expanded edition of the ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible features study notes from the ESV Student Study Bible, over 400 in-text summaries, 25 articles, book introductions, sidebars, and more.

This expanded edition of the ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible features study notes from the ESV Student Study Bible, over 400 in-text summaries, 25 articles, book introductions, sidebars, and more.

The second century is a crucial period, in which Christianity emerges with a developing canon of scripture, ecclesiastical structure, patterns of worship, and firmer distinctions between 'orthodoxy' and 'heresy'

This introduction to the New Testament orients readers to each book's theology, key themes, and overall message from a Reformed, covenantal, and redemptive-historical perspective-equipping readers to study and teach the New Testament with clarity.

Writing in the form of a letter to his college-age daughter, Michael Kruger's Surviving Religion 101 takes a topical approach to examining some of the toughest questions Christian students encounter at secular universities.

This book explores the biblical covenants and how they form the structure of the Bible and inform the Christian life. Featuring contributions from 26 scholars, this monumental work in reformed scholarship is biblically grounded, systematically conveyed, and historically connected.

Evaluating historical evidence, this book defends earlyChristian orthodoxy from the legacy of New Testament criticism: themodern "orthodoxy of diversity."Beginning with Walter Bauer in 1934, thedenial of clear orthodoxy in early Christianity has shaped andlargely defined modern New Testament criticism, recently given newlife through the work of spokesmen like Bart Ehrman. Spreading fromacademia into mainstream media, the suggestion that diversity ofdoctrine in the early church led to many competing orthodoxies isindicative of today's postmodern relativism. AuthorsKostenberger and Kruger engage Ehrman and others in thispolemic against a dogged adherence to popular ideals ofdiversity.Kostenberger and Kruger's accessible andcareful scholarship not only counters the "Bauer Thesis" using itsown terms, but also engages overlooked evidence from the NewTestament. Their conclusions are drawn from analysis of theevidence of unity in the New Testament, the formation and closingof the canon, and the methodology and integrity of the recordingand distribution of religious texts within the early church.

This study of the New Testament canon and its authority looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the biblical text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.

For many years now, the topic of the New Testament canon has been the main focus of my research and writing. It is an exciting field of study that probes into questions that have long fascinated both scholars and laymen alike, namely when and how these 27 books came to be regarded as a new scriptural deposit. But, the story of the New Testament canon is bigger than just the aEURO~whenaEURO (TM) and the aEURO~howaEURO (TM). It is also, and perhaps most fundamentally, about the aEURO~whyaEURO (TM). Why did Christians have a canon at all? Does the canon exist because of some later decision or action of the second- or third-century church? Or did it arise more naturally from within the early Christian faith itself? Was the canon an extrinsic phenomenon, or an intrinsic one? These are the questions this book is designed to address. And these are not micro questions, but macro ones. They address foundational and paradigmatic issues about the way we view the canon. They force us to consider the larger framework through which we conduct our research - whether we realized we had such a framework or not. Of course, we are not the first to ask such questions about why we have a canon. Indeed, for many scholars this question has already been settled. The dominant view today, as we shall see below, is that the New Testament is an extrinsic phenomenon; a later ecclesiastical development imposed on books originally written for another purpose. This is the framework through which much of modern scholarship operates. And it is the goal of this volume to ask whether it is a compelling one. To be sure, it is no easy task challenging the status quo in any academic field. But, we should not be afraid to ask tough questions. Likewise, the consensus position should not be afraid for them to be asked.

Edited by John MacArthur, this collection of essays by a host of evangelical pastors, theologians, historians, and biblical scholars presents compelling arguments from a variety of disciplines in defense of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy.

The Early Text of the New Testament aims to examine and assess from our earliest extant sources the most primitive state of the New Testament text now known. What sort of changes did scribes make to the text? What is the quality of the text now at our disposal? What can we learn about the nature of textual transmission in the earliest centuries? In addition to exploring the textual and scribal culture of early Christianity, this volume explores the textual evidence for all the sections of the New Testament. It also examines the evidence from the earliest translations of New Testament writings and the citations or allusions to New Testament texts in other early Christian writers.