Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.
– C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 196 (emphasis added)
Author: Jonathan Dodson
3 Books on Christ in the Old Testament
Someone walked up to on Sunday and asked if I could recommend any resources in understanding how Christ/the New Testament relates to the Old Testament. I loved this question because most of our Bible is the Old Testament, which has a radical orientation to Christ and New Testament teachings. In the words of St. Augustine, “The New is in the Old contained, and the Old in the New explained.” Here are some great books to read that will unlock the Old Testament for you:
The Messiah in the Old Testament – This is a classic work on the topic. Kaiser does a great job of taking you through text after text to show where there is Christological fulfillment and where there isn’t.
The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament – This is a very accessible entry into this whole field of study. Clowney traces the redemptive story, paying attention to key narratives, showing how they point to Christ and push the whole biblical narrative along.
The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses – This book totally changed how I viewed the Old Testament Law. While, I don’t agree with everything in it, and Poythress probably over interprets some texts, its a marvelous paradigm shift for understanding the role of the law both now and then.
The Drama of Scripture – for a single volume summary of how the whole biblical story hangs together, I can’t think of a better one this book by Mike Goheen and Bartholomew.
*There many other more advanced books I love in this area, including the NSBT series, anything by N.T. Wright, and Beale’s corpus.
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I haven’t read it but I hear Jesus on Every Page is a really good entry level book on this topic.
5 “Best” Books on Evangelism
It’s hard to list five favorite books on evangelism, not because I command a vast knowledge of evangelistic literature, but because there are so many different types of “texts†or fields of knowledge that motivate and inform evangelism. Evangelism is a way of thinking first and a way of speaking second.
For example, a great missionary biography, like Amy Carmichael or Adoniram Judson, can awaken evangelistic zeal and commitment to perseverance through the difficulty of mission. Apologetic books stimulate evangelistic wisdom. Penetrating cultural texts, like Peter Berger’s A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural or David Brooks recent New York Times column on the vacuous, contemporary pursuit of “meaningfulness,†motivate us to communicate the deeper, broader, grander alternative to modernity and relativistic consumer culture—the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Practical books can fill in knowledge gaps, strengthen skill, and inspire with stories. Aesthetic texts, like poetry, fiction, or art can remind you how beautiful the gospel is, and its centerpiece, Jesus our Lord. They remind us to show how attractive Christ is, not just how reasonable his offer. Then there’s the human texts. A good evangelist will not merely address but also readpeople. There’s nothing like spending time with a skeptic, seeker, or sufferer to motivate prayerfulness and excitement about the relevance of Jesus Christ as the truth for doubters, the way for seekers, and the life for sufferers. If we read them well, we will see something of the gospel in their doubt, curiosity, and difficulty.
By now you are probably thinking this was all just a ploy to list more than five books! So, without dragging on, here are five books from different fields that are my “favorites†in evangelism.
Christian Mission in a Post-Christian World [video]
Friends at DG put this interview together when I was out in Minneapolis to speak on Unbelievable Evangelism. Here is the original post.