John Wesley – “The Complete Sermons”
If you are looking to read and research John Wesley’s Sermons, I highly recommend this book entitled “The Complete Sermons.” The font is very small as it is double columned. However, it is worth having them all together (141 sermons). The book is over 650 pages long.
Purchase on Amazon by clicking below:
A Burning And Shining Light: The Testimony And Witness of George Whitfield
This is a biography of the great George Whitefield. I am enjoying reading this one; however, I do wish it was a bit more detailed oriented. It’s not on the level of detail as something like “Wesley and The People Called Methodists.” At the same time, it’s a good overview of Whitefield’s adventures in Colonial America and England.
Jesus: An Historian’s Review Of The Gospel
I will preface this book by stating it is written by a non-believer. He essentially dismisses much of the supernatural of the Bible (Not a viewpoint I agree with!). After all, it is from the point of view of a pure historian. However, I found the book actually strengthened my faith. Grant dismisses some of the Gospel narrative, but the conclusion is that there really was a Jesus and he did in fact do much of what is found in the New Testament. This was not a book I found easily, I had to put it on a watchlist. If you are firm in your faith, you might take a look at this one. An old one but a good one for an alternative perspective. Purchase on Amazon:
How on Earth Did Jesus Become God
This is written by the late Larry Hurtado. If there is any doubt in your mind whether the Early Christians actually worshipped Jesus and saw him in terms of a deity, this is a great book. He also 100% shows that this belief in Jesus EXPLODED onto the scene and was not developed over a long period of time. People were worshipping Jesus right after the cross. CONS: I did find this book hard to slug through after awhile. It’s a compilation of articles and there is a lot of repititious material. It’s also dry and academic in nature. Purchase on Amazon
Reading Backwards: Richard Hays
This book tries to explain how the New Testament writers read the Old Testament with NEW EYES after experiencing Jesus. They used Jesus as their exegesis. The technique is called Figural reading. I’m only a few chapters in but I can already tell this book is going to be AWESOME. Lots of scholars recommend it.
BIBLES
The Orthodox Study Bible
I’m not Orthodox, but I wanted a Bible that met two requirements: 1) The OT translation was based off the Septuagint 2) It contained the Apocrypha. I’m not a big fan of the study notes in this Bible. Frankly, I find many of them to be a reach. Some of them are also only applicable if you are Eastern Orthodox. My other complaint is the paper quality is not great. It’s not something I’d probably highlight or underline for fear of bleed. However, withstanding that, it’s a great resource to have for the Old Testament translation alone. To purchase on Christian Books
The CSB Large Note Taking Bible
With this Bible, I wanted a Bible where I had plenty of space to take notes. This fulfills that requirement. I also think the CSB Bible is a pretty easy read. It does contain some theological bias, but that’s why you want to compare multiple translations in your studies.
