Resources

Below are some things that people have asked for, or that I have thought might be useful to people. There are some essays and below them, some Bible Studies. Feel free to download them, and if they do turn out to be useful, please let me know. Also, if you do use them, please respect copyright and acknowledge me, and if they’re published, the sources.

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ESSAYS

1. Can we trust what the Gospels say about Jesus?

This is an essay on the historical reliability of the Gospels now published by Matthias Media. You can buy it fairly cheaply here. Please do! I hope you find it useful for yourself and for others.

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On The First Day of the Week

This is a short piece on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. Again, I have tried to make it readable and accessible. I think it’s really interesting.

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The New Testament and the Word of God

Is the Bible the Word of God? What does this mean? This is a brief but fairly dense essay addressing these questions, which are of fundamental importance to Christian faith. This is why I regard the Bible as authoritative.

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Representation and Good Government

This is a short article written for CASE magazine (No.13, 2007). Starting with an observation about our frustration with election campaigns, it explores the idea of representation, considering Christ’s representation of us, and then of political representation. It concludes with some reflections on apologetics and Christian political action.

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“Abraham Lincoln, Depression, and the Value of Sadness.”

This article was published in Zadok Perspectives magazine (No.98, Autumn 2008, pp.10-11). It is in part a review of a book by Joshua Wolf Shenk called Lincoln’s Melancholy (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), in part reflections on Hermann Melville’s great novel Moby Dick, and in part a discussion of how Christians should think about depression.

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Jesus and Government

This is a combined version of a series of posts on this blog. It is meant to be a basic introduction to the questions of the place of government and Christian political action. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Speaking about Christ in the Public Square 

This article appeared in CASE magazine number 30 in 2012. It’s the published version (much better) of the material in Jesus and Government. Please respect copyright.

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Why I believe in infant baptism — ten thoughts

A brief theology of baptism and an argument for the legitimacy and significance of infant baptism. Hopefully easy to read, but dense enough to give you something to think about.

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BIBLE STUDIES

Below are some series of Bible Studies that I’ve written and am keen for others to use, if they will work for them. I hope they’re helpful. We’ve used and tested all of these, so they should be ok; but of course, every group is different. If you do use them, please come back and leave a comment and let me know any feedback. That way the studies can improve.

Life with the Grain of the Universe — Studies on Proverbs

This is a series of ten studies on the Book of Proverbs. It includes introductory notes and hints for each study, nine worksheets, and a useful appendix grouping the Book of Proverbs by theme. Proverbs can be a hard book to tackle, especially for a Bible study group. These studies work by looking at Proverbs thematically, rather than consecutively.

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Understanding God’s World

This is a series of seven studies on the doctrine of creation. Each study focuses on one, or perhaps two, texts, to make them easy to use. There are notes on each text, ideas about how to lead the study, and a worksheet that can be used if desired. This is a really important area of Christian discipleship, and has a big impact on how we think about the environment, work, and our future hope.