Bibles don’t come from bookstores. While that’s where we may procure a Bible, I’m not so sure where the text within came from. I have questions: Who wrote it? When? In what language? Does the text we have today come from an autograph (author’s original penned text) or a copy? Who copied it, and how do I know they copied it accurately? Who compiled the individual books and letters into what we know today as the canonical Bible? How did they decide which books to include and which to exclude? Are there conflicting accounts of the same event between texts?

This may be premature, but I want to promote a book that is going to be critically important for taking the unchanging Christ to our changing culture.

Tim Keller has written a book entitled, The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism. It comes out on February 14, 2008. It is written to non-Christians. This will be an important book for Sojourners to wade through, take notes on, and loan to a spiritual friend.

Here is an article that tells about it:

“How do you tell people something they probably want to know without playing into the great American hype machine? I’ve been getting so many questions about this I thought I would write a simple newsletter article to members and friends to let you know that, yes, I wrote a book.

Mark Dever has an excellent editorial on the Christianity Today web web site musing over what evangelism isn’t. This is apparently an extract from his book, From The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever copyright © 2007, adapted from pages 69-82. I think he’s right that we need to stop mistaking other Christian activities for the spreading of the gospel. I’ve enclosed the complete text of the article in case the link goes down.

What Evangelism Isn’t
We need to stop mistaking other Christian activities for the spreading of the gospel.
Mark Dever, excerpted and adapted from The Gospel and Personal Evangelism

I remember as a little child hugging my father’s leg at a gas station only to realize it wasn’t his leg I was hugging. I was embarrassed! It was a case of mistaken identity.

Chuck Colson & Anne Morse have an editorial up on the Christianity Today web site on the real meaning of Christmas entitled The Invasion of God.

“Jesus came to proclaim a new kingdom … People stripped of every material blessing and exploited by earthly powers long for Christ’s bold new kingdom. He turns the world upside down.