Showing results by narrator "Joffre Swait" in All Categories

So begins a dark, but sturdy epic full of warriors, dragons, monsters of the deep, mead halls, and mounds of treasure. Beowulf is the great Norse epic poem, and one of the great inspirations for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In this bold and truly innovative translation, Douglas Wilson reproduces the alliteration and stresses of the original, though being more dynamic with particular wording.

Down swept the Vikings from the frigid North. Across the English coastlands and countryside they raided, torched, murdered, and destroyed all in their path. Farmers, monks, and soldiers all fell bloody under the Viking sword, hammer, and axe. Then, when the hour was most desperate, came an unlikely hero. King Alfred rallied the battered and bedraggled kingdoms of Britain and after decades of plotting, praying, and persisting, finally triumphed over the invaders.

Today, affection for the Jewish people based on Romans 11 is thought to be an error rooted in the Post-war Consensus or Dispensationalism. But in this book Doug Wilson has assembled quotes from countless Reformed teachers, many untethered from the 20th century and its Left Behind series, each writing about what they believe the Bible really teaches about Romans 11. We must reject the mistakes made in 20th century theology. But we must not throw out our heritage as we do so.

You have been lied to about Christopher Columbus. You know the year he sailed the ocean blue. And maybe you heard that he committed crimes against humanity. But The Last Crusader sets the record straight. More than anything, Christopher Columbus sought the means to subsidize a new Crusade to free the Holy Land from the Moslem hordes. Yes Columbus hoped to open trade routes to the Indies, and he certainly aspired to the privileges and titles that come with discovering new lands. But Christian zeal for the Great Commission was the animating principle for a life of danger and risk and discovery.

Deftly guiding listeners through “the four,” Peter Leithart delves into both the unique perspective of each gospel and their unifying witness to Jesus. The gospels are riddled with themes and types; Leithart reveals them and explains the Old Testament prophecies that intertwine with these apostolic books, as well as their underlying literary structures. He discusses the dating of the books, showing how the timeline of the four gospels lace together, and lays out Israel's history leading up to John the Baptist's birth.

In the Garden of Eden, there was only one "No." Everything else was "Yes." In this short book on childrearing, Douglas Wilson points out that we have a Father who delights in us and makes it easy for us to love and obey him. If that is the kind of Father we have, shouldn't we earthly parents do the same? Wilson explains how parents should not just try to get their kids to obey a set of rules or to make their house so fun that following the rules is always easy. Instead, he calls for parents to instill in their kids a love for God and His standards that will serve them well all their days.

The church at Corinth was infested with so-called super-apostles. They were stylish and well-spoken, and they were out to turn the church against the apostle Paul. They cast him as a frail, indecisive fumbler who got beat up everywhere he went. So Paul responded with a full-length account of the glory of Christian weakness.

To be fully educated, it is necessary to listen to the great pagan classics of Homer and Virgil and the ancient Greek playwrights. However, many Christians are often disgusted by the barbarity and violence, put off by the emphasis on honor and man-centered glory, and simply baffled by the long and tedious descriptions of battle scenes and elaborate ceremonies.

The book of Ecclesiastes is confusing to many believers, who see it as a debate between an untrustworthy nihilist and a genuinely wise man who trust in God instead of giving way to despair. However, Douglas Wilson takes issue with this interpretation, arguing that the author of Ecclesiastes is looking at the world with biblically informed vision. Because God is sovereign and will one day judge all men and restore the world, believers can work, rejoice, marry, eat, and worship God in hope.

This anthology of over a hundred poems written by Calvinists is a surprising introduction to the aesthetics of the Reformed tradition. Who knew there was such a host of Calvinist poets? Containing notes and short biographies to aid your enjoyment, this collection is the perfect starting point for appreciating these men and women—and the faith that inspired their words.

As one of the supreme Christian epic poems, Dante's Divine Comedy provides not only far more personality and emotional depth than the pagan epics, it also opens up all the issues on which Western history turns truth, beauty, goodness, sin, sanctification, and triumph. For all that, C.S. Lewis loved the Comedy for its seemingly effortless poetry.

In what shape do we find the doctrine of Sola Scriptura today? Many modern Evangelicals see it as a license to ignore history and the creeds in favor of a more splintered approach to Christian living. In the past two decades, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox apologists have strongly tried to undermine Sola Scriptura as unbiblical, unhistorical, and impractical. But these groups rest their cases on a recent, false take on Sola Scriptura. The ancient, medieval, and classical Protestant view of Sola Scriptura actually has quite a different shape than most opponents and defenders maintain

Samuel. Saul. David. Goliath. Jonathan. When we think of 1 & 2 Samuel, these names and the stories that make them memorable generally come to mind. But these narratives are more than mere history. Peter Leithart offers here a typological reading of 1 & 2 Samuel as a unified book. By giving careful attention to the book's literary structures and its patterns of types and antitypes, Leithart unveils the symbolic world of Samuel's cumulative and cohesive story.

How should you confess your faith? This short book is intended for children in the covenant who have not made a public profession of faith. It explains how and why to confess your faith, as well as what the most important articles of the faith concerning Scripture, God, salvation, and the church are. This book is perfect for children who are preparing to be confirmed to take the Lord’s Supper or for parents and teachers seeking to teach children about the faith they have received and must pass on themselves.

How could a conservative Christian an ordained minister with a beard, no less be against not only Christianity, but theology, sacraments, and ethics as well? Yet that is the stance Peter Leithart takes in this provocative "theological bricolage."Seeking to rethink evangelical notions of culture, church, and state, Leithart offers a series of short essays, aphorisms, and parables that challenge the current dichotomies that govern both Christian and non-Christian thinking about church and state, the secular and the religious. But his argument isn't limited to being merely "against.

The harvest is ready, but the laborers are few. We need evangelists now more than ever, coming from decades of faithful witnessing as a pastor, a U.S. Navy officer, and a door-to-door evangelist, Taking Men Alive: Evangelism on the Front Lines shares Jim Wilson's extensive wisdom on evangelism. Jim's insights have been gleaned from a huge variety of personal interactions and straightforward (yet surprising) exegesis of biblical accounts of evangelism.

This cheerful collection of rumbling poetry is the perfect introduction to the good life—the life each Christian should be living. There is wine, there are riddles, there is war with sin, there are jokes...all uttered in appreciation of this world that God made out of his own words. We all can imitate him: Poetry is a way of life.

As parents, it is easy for us to look back and see the shortcomings of our own education. Since many of us were taught in public schools, we often have a pretty good idea of what we don't want our children to learn. But what exactly should we give them instead?

Being Christian: New Devotional Readings has St. Paul's ambitious goal: to present every person perfect in Christ. With that in mind, this wide-ranging devotional is full of strong texts and short teaching, all organized into bite-size readings. You will find applicable wisdom throughout the book, as Being Christian is the product of Jim Wilson's practical advice and scriptural meditation over many decades.

Suzanne Rhodes, a longtime poet and teacher, offers The Roar on the Other Side as an introductory guide to poetry for students (junior high and up). Focusing on the importance of sight and the necessity of practice, Rhodes easily communicates the joy of words to her listeners and helps them see how good poetry binds all seemingly-contradictory things together.