Many of us who pride ourselves on our learning are illiterate in one particular way. We know very little about the Bible, perhaps the most important book of the western world. Does this sound familiar? You decide to read through the entire Bible. Genesis is a great place to start, but somewhere along about Leviticus, feeling frustrated and bored, you give up. For those who feel the entire Bible is overwhelming, what’s needed is a guide to Biblical highlights.

As a college English professor who has taught the Bible as literature, I have had to compile a list of key books and chapters for my students. What follows is such a list, a “best of the best” for you to read.

The first part of the Old Testament contains history in the form of stories. Genesis displays a fascinating collection of people (Genesis 1-4, 6-9, 13, 15-19, 21-22, 24-25, 27-30, 32-33, 37, 39-45). Exodus tells of a miraculous escape from slavery under the leadership of Moses (Exodus 1-17, 19-20).  The Jews, like so many of us, blew many opportunities (Numbers 11-14, 20). Finally, after a long delay, they entered the Promised Land under a fierce general (Joshua 2, 6-8, 24).

Even after gaining a foothold, the Jews had to fight local antagonistic tribes. They turned repeatedly to leaders for help (Judges 4-7, 13-16). In the middle of this fighting came a  love story of a foreigner in the land of the Jews (Ruth). The story of the first Jewish king, who was followed by David’s rise and rule, has fascinated people for centuries (1 Samuel 8-31 and all of 2 Samuel).

Solomon took the kingdom to new heights, but a tragic civil war split the nation. Elijah and Elisha challenged the spiritually bankrupt people who ignored the danger signs until fierce enemies overwhelmed them (1 Kings 1-3, 6, 10, 12, 17-22 and 2 Kings2, 4-6:23, 17-19, 25). However, many later returned to their land where they faced enemies and spiritual neglect (Ezra 3 and  Nehemiah 1-2, 4-6, 8-9, 13). The history books end with an amazing escape from sure annihilation (Esther).

The next section of the Old Testament is composed of various poems. We encounter the sufferings of a righteous man (Job 1-14, 38-42). The next book, the Psalms, contains prayers and praises directed to God (Psalms 1, 8, 19, 22, 23, 51, 68, 90, 103, 139). Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are examples of wisdom literature—thoughts on life by wise individuals (Proverbs 1, 4, 10, 31 and all Ecclesiastes). The Song of Solomon is a series of love poems exchanged between a man and a woman (Song of Solomon 2, 4).

The last section of the Old Testament is devoted to the writings of the prophets, who rebuked the Jews and other nations wandering far from God. The most famous and the longest is Isaiah, but others covered similar themes ( Isaiah 6, 25, 36-40, 52-53, 55, Ezekiel 1-4, 37-39, Daniel 7-12). Some of the Bible’s best-known stories are found in two of the prophets (Daniel 1-6 and Jonah).

The New Testament is split into three sections also. The first are the historical books, similar to the initial section in the Old Testament. Three different authors give  overlapping views of the life of Jesus. I suggest reading Luke because it has so much detail and shows Jesus interacting with outcasts—women, children, the poor, the oppressed (all of Matthew, Mark, or Luke). You should also read John for its meditation on the theological significance of Jesus and His divinity (all of John). To complete the history of Jesus and his church, read portions of Acts describing the missionary outreach of the early believers (Acts 1-4, 6-8:3, 9, 15-17, 26-28).

The second section of the New Testament is composed of letters sent by Christian leaders to their churches or to individuals they knew. Start with the longest one that clearly explains salvation and the Christian life (Romans).  Other letters discuss important specific issues—church worship, spiritual gifts and the coming resurrection (1 Corinthians 11-15), salvation by grace rather than works (Galatians), the church and personal relationships (Ephesians), Christ’s return (1 Thessalonians 4-5), faith (Hebrews 11-12), difficult areas in the Christian life (James), and the importance of obedience and love as characteristics of the Christian (1 John).

The last section of the New Testament is composed of only one book, but what a book it is. Revelation is a visionary roller-coaster ride that has puzzled people for centuries. The ending is comforting for its uplifting vision of God’s triumph and the creation of a new world (Revelation 1, 4-6, 11-13, 17, 19-22).

If you follow the above reading suggestions, you will have worked your way through  important Bible passages in less than 30 hours of total reading time. You may be intrigued enough to go back to see what other treasures await you within its pages.

The Christian church loses something like 75% of all young people after high school. For many of them, they have not heard good answers to their questions. But the answers are available. What can parents and Sunday school teachers do?

But how should Christian teachers and parents go about presenting the truth of Christianity? First, they should start with the basics — what do we believe as Christians? Then, they should answer a key question — why do we believe these things? Finally, they need to cover problems and questions Christians can expect to encounter  in the secular world. Let’s look at these three steps in more detail.

First, Christian kids need to know the basic tenets of the Christian faith. They probably have heard them in bits and pieces throughout their years in Sunday school, but they need to have a coherent presentation of all the major ideas of Christianity — the nature of God, the work of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the organization and historical background of the Bible, life after death, heaven and hell, and the way of salvation. Of course, there are many sources available online that can deliver such major concepts in a clear and organized fashion. You might want to visit https://beyondtm.wordpress.com for lesson plans and to learn ways to help kids understand apologetics topics more.

Secondly, Christian young people need to understand why Christians believe these things. We must demonstrate that there is great evidence for the existence of God, that Jesus really lived and did what the gospels have recorded, that we can trust the Bible’s reliability, that life after death and the existence of the soul are reasonable beliefs, and that Christianity, of all major religions, best corresponds with what we know about the world and the human race.

Third, even if we cover both the what and the why of Christianity, we must still anticipate another key area of concern. Many young people have been confronted by skeptical non-Christians who have stumped them with questions that could have been answered with the right training. Such questions deal with the problem of evil, the nature of miracles, the blight of relativism, and the claims of other religions. The good news is that Christian thinkers over the years have also wrestled with these same questions and have come up with good answers. There is available a great resource list (see the second page of the EFCC Apologetics website). In addition, many good responses are found in the websites and books that follow in the next part of this article.

Most Christians would agree that the above three steps are important, but they might feel inadequate to cover all that territory. But many good websites and books are available to help teachers and parents. Let’s start with websites. Stand to Reason (www.str.org) has terrific resources in areas of ethics, Christianity, and apologetics. Campus Crusade for Christ (www.cru.org) has some material on apologetics. Alpha and Omega Ministries (www.aomin.org) has apologetic helps, information on cults, and further details on defending the faith. Christian Research Institute, where Hank Hanegraaf is the president, has material on cults and Christianity (www.equip.org). For all areas of apologetics, people can use Leadership University (www.leaderu.com). Another good source is Apologetics Information Ministry (www.apologeticsinfo.org), which deals with doctrine, cults, apologetics, and world religions. Parents will gain much from looking at https://mamabearapologetics.com/ and https://christianmomthoughts.com/.

Here are additional useful sites and resources for parents and teachers:

http://www.casemakersacademy.com/?fbclid=IwAR0-wNKF0ePpzF4NwTPTh8woo5IpbIcYqqtm1kYoAR9PJ7Bg4sjJVceLzY4

https://crossexamined.org/apologetics-for-children/?fbclid=IwAR1jRej6C7dsF_nsFvtpK1zuQfQ5poZAXpMUepkXyBDaCCpIK9g2AlklCwk

https://connect.rzim.org/t/apologetics-for-grade-school-children/2219

https://apps.biola.edu/apologetics-store/products/special-discounted-sets-or-combos/item/dr-craig-s-what-is-god-like-children-s-book-collection?fbclid=IwAR19HgWqV-DirWYnYhV19UO5skWEjKr7_Q0NOrB9bcooRPlB1E6daxNaHU8.

There are many good books available for those interested in teaching these three vital areas of the Christian faith. One favorite is Peter Kreeft’s Handbook of Christian Apologetics because it is simple to understand and organized clearly. Others that deserve attention include any by Josh McDowell, Natasha Crain’s Talking with Your Kids About God and Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side, William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith, D. James Kennedy’s Why I Believe, Paul Copan’s True For You, But Not For Me, Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith, and Greg Koukl’s three books: Relativism, Tactics and The Story of Reality. Teachers and parents shouldn’t worry about being experts. Instead, they need to realize there are many valuable resources they can use to help provide clear evidence for our faith.

The goal of all this is to create clear-thinking Christian young people who are not afraid to share their faith. They will see that Christianity can hold its own in the marketplace of ideas. We have a faith that is not based on wishful thinking or a leap in the dark. The evidence is there for any who take the time to examine it. Let’s put 1 Peter 3:15 into practice: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

Get to know some of the best minds in the field of apologetics, making a case for the truth of Christianity. Most are current while some have passed away. They range from world-class philosophers and thinkers to Internet and radio apologists. But all have made an impact with their works and ministries. They are in alphabetical order. (This is not a comprehensive list; many theologians and church fathers have been left off.)

Click on any link below (name or organization) to find out more.

• Kerby Anderson – Head of Probe ministries
• John Ankerberg – Founder of Ankerberg Theological Research Institute
• Ken Boa – relational evangelism, discipleship, apologetics
• Krista Bontrager – theologian, scholar communications director for Reasons Institute
• Robert Bowman – noted apologetics and theology teacher (Biola)
• Justin Brierley – host of Unbelievable? on Premier Christian Radio, UK
• Charlie Campbell – head of AlwaysBeReady.com
• Alisa (Girard) Childers – blogger, speaker
• Paul Copan – Philosophy and ethics; apologist and author
• William Lane Craig – philosopher, theologian, apologist; debater par excellence
• Natasha Crain – national speaker, author of three books, blogger
• William Dembski – philosopher of science and mathematician; ID theorist
• Lenny Esposito – founder of ComeReason apologetics ministry
• Phil Fernandes – Christian philosopher, apologist, debater with audio resources
• Hillary Morgan Ferrer – founder of Mama Bear Apologetics, author of an upcoming book
• Norman Geisler – prolific author of over 70 books; Classical apologist
• R. Douglas Geivett – Professor of Philosophy Talbot Department of Philosophy / Biola
• Douglas Groothuis – Christian philosopher, author, teacher (blog archives)
• Gary Habermas – the world’s foremost expert on the resurrection of Jesus
• Ken Ham – young Earth creationist involved with Creation Museum.
• Hank Hanegraaff – today’s Bible Answer Man
• Craig Hazen – director of Biola’s Christian Apologetics program
• Timothy Keller – urban pastor, author and apologist
• Greg Koukl – apologist and president of Stand to Reason
• Peter Kreeft – professor of philosophy at Boston College, noted apologist
• John Lennox – philosopher of science, mathematician, Oxford debater of Dawkins
• C.S. Lewis – famous author, lecturer, apologist; Narnia books, Mere Christianity
• Mike Licona – historian and apologist; authority on the resurrection of Jesus
• Paul Little – late apologist and author noted for his simple style and easy communication
• Josh McDowell – famous for Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• Sean McDowell – worldview youth minister / itinerant apologist
• Alex McFarland – itinerant apologist targeting young people, teens
• Alister McGrath – Oxford professor of theology, author and opponent of new atheism
• J.P. Moreland – Christian philosopher, noted author, apologist
• David Noebel – founder of Summit Ministries and worldview apologist
• Holly Ordway – author, professor of English and member of faculty for online M.A. in Apologetics at Houston Baptist University
• Amy Orr-Ewing – senior vice president with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, joint director of Oxford Centre for Christian apologetics, speaker
• Nancy Pearcey – called “America’s preeminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual,” author, professor at Houston Baptist University
• Alvin Plantinga – world-class philosopher; reformed epistemology, philosophy of religion
• Doug Powell – excellent multimedia apologist at SelflessDefense
• Ron Rhodes – author and apologist founder of Reasoning from the Scriptures
• Mark D. Roberts – pastor, author, speaker, blogger. Emphasis in NT / Gospels
• Mary Jo Sharp – speaker, author, professor at Houston Baptist University
• Hugh Ross – astrophysicist apologist and old Earth creationist; founder Reasons to Believe
• Matt Slick – founder of CARM.org with extensive apologetics encyclopedia
• R.C. Sproul – notable theologian, author, and classical apologist
• Laurie Stewart – attorney, event speaker, founder of Intelligent Faith
• Lee Strobel – journalist famous for his Case for Christ series of books; popular apologist
• Melissa Cain Travis – author, professor of Christian apologetics at Houston Baptist University
• Frank Turek – itinerant apologist and founder of CrossExamined; debated Hitchens
• J. Warner Wallace – cold case detective, pastor, and apologist with extensive web site
• James White – theologian, author, prolific debater, and reformed apologist
• Dallas Willard – Christian philosopher; notable works in philosophy, discipleship
• N.T. Wright – retired Bishop of Durham; notable work on the resurrection

Let’s consider another key part of Revelation—determining when this all has/will be happening.  It focuses on one word—millennium. How long is a thousand years?

When it comes to the end times, it all depends on who you ask.

Near the end of his visions on the island of Patmos, John glimpses a glorious angelic being. The angel bursts forth from the heavens with a chain and a key in hand. Suddenly, a dragon appears as well—the same dragon who had slithered into Eden as a serpent and who whispered temptations in the Messiah’s ear in the deserts of Judea.

The divinely-empowered angel seizes the dragon, chains him, and hurls him into a bottomless pit where he will remain for “a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1-3). Throughout this span of a thousand years, the souls of martyrs and faithful witnesses live and reign with Christ (Revelation 20:4–5). In Christian theology, this thousand-year reign has become known as the “millennium,” from the Latin terms for “thousand” (mille) and “year” (annum).

Here are several ways to think about the apocalyptic texts (especially Revelation) that are found between the bonded-leather bindings of your Bible:

1. Road maps for the future? If you see Daniel, Revelation, and other apocalyptic texts mostly as road maps for the future, you are probably taking what’s known as a futurist view.
2. History textbooks about the past, present, and future? If you think apocalyptic texts prophetically provide information about a long period of history— perhaps the history of Christianity or some other significant epoch—that’s a historicist approach.
3. Allegories for all times and places? If all the visions seem to you to be allegories of struggles of God’s people in every age, that’s closer to an idealist view.
4. Long-lost newspapers from the past? If you see the biblical apocalypses as books that mostly tell about current events from the times when the texts were written—something like a lavishly-written newspaper report—that’s called a preterist perspective.

Keep in mind that none of these four approaches completely excludes the others. Partly because the biblical writers mixed literary genres, nearly every interpreter of the end times draws from more than one of these approaches when reading biblical apocalypses and end-times prophecies.

Revelation is an example of apocalyptic literature, so popular in Jewish writing. How you read this type of literature depends on what you think it is trying to do. If you take these texts primarily as predictions of events yet to come, you will scour them for clues about what could happen in the future. But if you see Revelation (as well as the Old Testament book Daniel) mostly as elaborate illustrations of temptations that people of faith face in every age, you’ll probably look for connections between your present struggles and the temptations of past believers. If you read them as writings that provide a God-centered perspective on what was happening in the times when the texts were written, you will spend your time seeking hints of first-century events.

How are we to understand the letters to real-life local churches at the beginning of the book of Revelation? Are these epistles to be read simply as introductory letters for the seven original  recipients of this apocalypse? Or do they represent examples of churches that exist in every age?  How do the letters connect to the visions in the rest of the book? Are they historical retellings of the entire story of Christianity, encoded in the form of letters?

Let’s do another blog that explores the various ways people have struggled to understand this enigmatic book.

Exiled on the island of Patmos, the apostle John wrote Revelation around 95 A.D. to offer hope to persecuted Christians. This book has puzzled generations of readers because of its highly symbolic language. However, it’s not that weird or unique; much of its symbolism is universal (red stands for war, for example), and much of its ideas come from familiar Old Testament books like Daniel and Isaiah.

Think of it as a combination of several forms—an apocalypse (meaning something is unveiled for the reader), a prophecy, and a letter to several churches. Some people have viewed the book as pertaining only to the times of John, others see it as gradually happening over the past two thousand years, still others see the events described as still ahead during the end times, while a fourth group believes the entire book should be taken as symbolic only, a representation of good struggling with evil.

No matter how it is interpreted, Revelation’s use of story and poetry will continue to dazzle its readers. It is the most literary book of the Bible and has been extremely influential as a  literary model for Milton, Blake, and others. With its awesome scenes of heaven and earth and mind-boggling confrontations, Revelation makes an appropriate place to conclude the Bible. Let’s dig into this book in future blogs. For now, sit back, get comfortable, pick this book up, and get ready for a roller-coaster of a ride.

This small but interesting letter was written by Jesus’ brother Jude some time in the 60’s A.D. to warn of false teachers who were spreading the same errors as 2 Peter indicated—they had said Jesus wasn’t God and that it was all right to live what Christians had considered to be sinful lives. Jude is the last of the general letters that started with James; here he defends orthodoxy in the church.

Think about these items as you read the book. Some see this letter as very poetic. Could you defend this? In verses 3 and 4 explain what the position of the false teachers was. Verses 5-19 allude to famous examples in the Old Testament regarding doom of the ungodly. What are these examples? What is the point of 20-23? See 8-10, 12-13, 16, 19. These sections represent a good organizational strategy. What’s repeated here? How does this repetition act as a transition for what came before it (5-7, 11, 14-15, 17-18)? What do each of these sections contain?

Jude refers to books not in the Bible (9, 15). This makes some people uncomfortable to have such references. But see what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 10:7, 2 Timothy 3:8, and Titus 1:12. The way Jude proceeded in his argument might be called invective. Look up the term. Can it ever be an effective tool for argumentation? Critics consider the doxology at the end as very lyrical. Explain.

John, the apostle of Jesus who also wrote the fourth gospel, wrote these three letters as late as 90 A.D. The first letter warns about false teachers who were saying Jesus wasn’t God. It also encouraged Christians to have faith and love. The second letter followed with similar themes and urged discernment when traveling evangelists showed up with messages for the church. This last epistle needs some background explanation. It was written to a church leader, Gaius, telling him about the lack of hospitality for itinerant teachers shown by Diotrephes and urging Gaius to welcome another traveling teacher.

Here are some things to consider as you read this final letter of John’s. Read between the lines. What do you learn about Gaius? Look for similarities with 1 John to determine if this is the same author. Compare verse 11 with 1 John 3:6 and 4:20. How does this letter reflect the ideas in 1 and 2 John? See verse 8. How is this a theme for the letter? Both 2 and 3 John are extremely short. What value do they have for Christians?

John, the apostle of Jesus who also wrote the fourth gospel, wrote these letters as late as 90 A.D. As I mentioned in the previous blog, the first letter warns about false teachers who were saying Jesus wasn’t God. It also encourages Christians to have faith and love. The second letter follows with similar themes and urges discernment when traveling evangelists show up with messages for the church. We can see from this warning that Christianity was spreading beyond what the first disciples had covered. The religion was being carried throughout the Roman Empire.

Here are a few things to consider as you read this short epistle. Look for similarities with 1 John to see if both appear to be by the same author. Compare verse 6 here with 1 John 5:3 and verse 9 here with 1 John 2:23. Which parts reflect the ideas of 1 John? See 1-2 for the theme. There is a heresy mentioned in verse 7. How is this Gnostic (look up the definition of this early Christian heresy)?