FREE/BARGAIN - Christian Interest - 2015

[Froide]

Here's Christian Audio's free audiobook of the month:

Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel is the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and New York Times best-selling author of over 20 books including this month’s free audiobook. In The Case For The Real Jesus Strobel investigates current attacks on the identity of Christ and explores many hot-button questions.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Froide

Here's Christian Audio's free audiobook of the month:

Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel is the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and New York Times best-selling author of over 20 books including this month’s free audiobook. In The Case For The Real Jesus Strobel investigates current attacks on the identity of Christ and explores many hot-button questions.

Quote from skinmaan, from the Audiobooks thread:
'Ya beat me to it. This is the first one of ChristianAudio's free offerings I have been excited about. I've read most of Lee Strobel's stuff, and I think his work is outstanding. Highly recommended.

[While I was writing the comments below, the MobileRead program deleted the message (I had done a backup). I suppose that there is a size limitation; I wasn't aware of it until then. Anyway, I'm breaking up the message into two posts in order to give the entirety of the comments.]

Thanks, Froide, for your posts ("posts," counting the one on the Audiobooks thread) and to skinmaan for his post on the Audiobooks thread.

I was going to reply on the Audiobooks thread, and just leave it at that, because I didn't think that it was the place to have a big, long discussion about it. If anyone wants to reply here, I might respond.

I feel that some evangelicals among you may want to "crucify" me after I make some of the comments, however, because I may make some comments that will be very unpopular with you. It seems that Strobel is held in very high regard, to say the least, by many of evangelicals.

I have read only one of Strobel's books completely. I have read (and listened to) parts of several others. Please keep that in mind.

Strobel's "testimony," which he seems to give in all of his books, of how he came out of atheism and became a believer in Christ might be fairly compelling. I'm not sure that it really establishes or proves anything, however. The problem is that believers become atheists (or agnostics) also, and I'm not sure which one of those two groups would be greater in number. But, it makes for interesting reading.

Strobel is extremely prolific. It seems like he cranks out a new book on apologetics every few months! He has the time, intellect, and organizational and time management skills to do that even while taking the time to make what seem to be a huge number of personal appearances at various places, on top of everything else that he does. That's amazing to me, and I admire that about him.

Strobel has some really great quotes, in his books, from men (and maybe women) who are at the top of their respective fields. Their statements are well-stated and bolster Strobel's and their (the experts') case very well.

Criticism . . . . I feel that Strobel is overly melodramatic. The reason that I'm critical of the melodrama is that I think that that detracts and distracts from his message(s).

The primary example of what I see as melodrama is the fact that Strobel tells about his flying (traveling (or "travelling," British spelling) by airplane) to all of these farflung places to interview experts (and maybe other people).

Really, to begin with, was the flying necessary? Just to get a few pieces of information from each expert? He could have gotten those facts from some of the many books which have been written on the subject(s)--sometimes books written by the very experts that he travels to see--and literally, never leave his desk (ever heard of ebooks?).

But relating, in a book that you are writing, about how you read a book where an expert said this-or-that does not sell the voluminous number of books that Strobel does (I am not charging that Strobel does it for that purpose!). Stories about one's jet setting does.

The positive side of this melodramatic characteristic is that some people who would never pick up and read a traditional book on apologetics will read this one, because the melodrama makes for an interesting read.

[GtrsRGr8]

[This is post #2, carried over from my previous post.]

The second criticism of Strobel's writings is that, in my opinion, they do not make their arguments in a logical, well-reasoned way (I am extrapolating from the one book of his that I've fully read. I know that that can be "dangerous"). They mainly seem to consist of disjointed points, such as the stories that he tells about flying to visit various experts and what they said. He tries to draw a conclusion from the points that he makes, but it sure is difficult to see how he "got there."

In all fairness, this probably comes from Strobel's training and career as a newspaper journalist. Articles in newspapers generally consist of a collection of quotes from people and other facts. They do not draw conclusions, so that they can make arguments; indeed they do not intend to (again, generally speaking).

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by Froide

Here's Christian Audio's free audiobook of the month:

Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel is the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and New York Times best-selling author of over 20 books including this month’s free audiobook. In The Case For The Real Jesus Strobel investigates current attacks on the identity of Christ and explores many hot-button questions.

It's read by the author, which is a big deal for me with audiobooks.

[GtrsRGr8]

Perspectives on Israel and the Church: 4 Views. By Chad Brand (Editor); various contributors (see Book Description). Not rated yet, due to the newness of the book. Print list price $29.99; digital list price $29.99; Kindle price now $2.99. B&H Academic, 329 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-I...ives+on+israel.

I happened to have seen Christianbook's price (for DRM-free ePub). It is the same as Amazon's, $2.99.

Book Description
The relationship between Israel and the church is one of the most debated issues in the history of theology. Some hold the view that there is almost seamless continuity between Israel and the church, while others believe there is very little continuity. Additional perspectives lie between these two. This debate has contributed to the formation of denominations and produced a variety of political views about the state of Israel.

To advance the conversation, Perspectives on Israel and the Church brings together respected theologians representing four positions:

- Traditional covenantal view by Robert L. Reymond

- Traditional dispensational view by Robert L. Thomas

- Progressive dispensational view by Robert L. Saucy

- Progressive covenantal view by Chad Brand and Tom Pratt Jr.

[GtrsRGr8]

The age level for both is 7-12; the grade level is 2 and up.

The English translation for both is God's Word translation.

My posting of these books does not mean that I agree with any doctrinal position taken in the non-scripture text.

GOD'S WORD for Boys. Baker Publishing Group. Not rated at Amazon yet (this edition was first published about 6 months ago). Print list price $29.99; digital list price $29.99; Kindle price now $5.99. Baker . 1728 pages. http://www.amazon.com/GODS-ebook-Bak...+word+for+boys.

Book Description
For years, boys ages 8 to 12 have been reading God's Word for Boys and discovering God's special plan for them to become men of true Christian character. Boys love the following features designed just for them:

Book introductions. Provide a preview of the content and big ideas of each book of the Bible.

Good Morning, God. Brief devotionals that encourage boys to read, think, and pray about their personal lives and relationships.

Genuine Heroes. An introduction to men in the Bible whose lives display traits for boys to admire.

Men's World. Fascinating facts about what life was like for men in Bible times.

Be All You Can Be. Challenges boys to act appropriately, make good decisions, and choose worthwhile values.

Drawings, illustrations, and maps. Engaging pictures and images bring the Bible to life.

God's Word for Boys provides all of these great features alongside the full text of the Bible in clear, everyday language to help boys grow into the men God wants them to be.


God's Word for Girls. Baker Publishing Group. Rated 5 stars, but from only 6 reviews at the present moment. Print list price ?; digital list price $29.99; Kindle price now $5.99. Baker Books. 1728 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Girls-Bak...word+for+girls.

Book Description
For years, girls ages 8 to 12 have been reading God's Word for Girls and discovering God's special plan for them to become women of true Christian character. Girls love the following features designed just for them:

Book introductions. Provide a preview of the content and big ideas of each book of the Bible.

Good Morning, God. Brief devotionals that encourage girls to read, think, and pray about their personal lives and relationships.

Genuine Heroines. An introduction to women in the Bible whose lives display traits for girls to admire.

Women's World. Fascinating facts about what life was like for women in Bible times.

Be All You Can Be. Challenges girls to act appropriately, make good decisions, and choose worthwhile values.

Drawings, illustrations, and maps. Engaging pictures and images bring the Bible to life.

God's Word for Girls provides all of these great features alongside the full text of the Bible in clear, everyday language to help girls grow into the women God wants them to be.


If you are "okay with" the ePub format, you can get these study Bibles in that format what I consider to be significantly cheaper at Christianbook than the mobi/Kindle at Amazon:
God's Word for Boys. $4.79.
God's Word for Girls. $4.79.

I didn't check anywhere else for availability and price.

[Difflugia]

The Atheist's Fatal Flaw: Exposing Conflicting Beliefs by Norman Geisler and Daniel J. McCoy is $1.59 at Christianbook and $1.99 at B&N, Kobo and Amazon. Baker books are couponable at Kobo.

Most critiques of atheism focus on refuting head-on the claims of atheists. Instead, this unique book faithfully represents what atheists say they believe and stands back to watch as the natural inconsistencies in that worldview inevitably rise to the surface.

Norman L. Geisler, the apologetic giant of our time, is joined by Daniel J. McCoy, highlighting two inconsistencies in particular. First they examine the atheist's assertion that God cannot exist because there is evil in the world and that if God truly existed, he would intervene. These same people then turn around and say any intervention on God's part would impose upon human autonomy, and thus would be unjust. Second, these very interventions that would be considered immoral if imposed upon the earth by God are lauded when they stem instead from some human institution or authority.

Geisler and McCoy highlight this kind of "doublethink" step by step, showing readers how to identify such inconsistencies in atheistic arguments and refute them--or rather show atheists how they refute themselves.

There's actually more to the book than the blurb would indicate. I almost didn't buy it because the description made the book sound simplistic, but I've read some of Geisler's apologetics and it's normally anything but simple. I decided that $1.29 and a 35% off Kobo coupon were a reasonable gamble and I wasn't disappointed when I flipped through the book. Here's the table of contents:

1. The Problem of Moral Evil
2. The Value of Human Autonomy
3. Submission and Favor
4. Death and Faith
5. Guilt and Rules
6. Punishment and Pardon
7. Hell and Heaven
8. Inconsistencies
9. Responses and Objections
10. The Request

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

The Atheist's Fatal Flaw: Exposing Conflicting Beliefs by Norman Geisler and Daniel J. McCoy is $1.59 at Christianbook and $1.99 at B&N, Kobo and Amazon. Baker books are couponable at Kobo.

There's actually more to the book than the blurb would indicate. I almost didn't buy it because the description made the book sound simplistic, but I've read some of Geisler's apologetics and it's normally anything but simple. I decided that $1.29 and a 35% off Kobo coupon were a reasonable gamble and I wasn't disappointed when I flipped through the book. Here's the table of contents:
. . . .

Thanks for the post. Thanks, as much or maybe even more, for your comments.

I went ahead and purchased the book, after seeing your post but before reading those comments. I was beginning to feel some "post-purchase cognitive dissonance," to use terms that I learned in college a long time ago (it means that you have started to feel some uncertainty, etc. about the wisdom, etc. of a purchase after you already have made the purchase). The ratings at Amazon weren't stellar (3 1/2 star-ish). Sometimes there is a great deal of disparity between their ratings and the ratings by the reviewers at GoodRead, though. I checked, and there wasn't much difference in this case. Your comments outweighed their ratings.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Thanks for the post. Thanks, as much or maybe even more, for your comments.

I went ahead and purchased the book, after seeing your post but before reading those comments. I was beginning to feel some "post-purchase cognitive dissonance," to use terms that I learned in college a long time ago (it means that you have started to feel some uncertainty, etc. about the wisdom, etc. of a purchase after you already have made the purchase). The ratings at Amazon weren't stellar (3 1/2 star-ish). Sometimes there is a great deal of disparity between their ratings and the ratings by the reviewers at GoodRead, though. I checked, and there wasn't much difference in this case. Your comments outweighed their ratings.

I read some of the reviews and I'm guessing (since I haven't read it yet) that the book doesn't live up to the title. Geisler is a dyed-in-the-wool Calvinist and his apologetics is more geared toward people that are already Christian. He's not quite a presuppositionalist, but he does start from the position that Christianity is true and usually argues positions that are of interest to other Christians (inerrancy, reliability of the Gospels, Calvinist theology). I'm expecting that the content of this book is similar, being a discussion of the nature of God and the existence of evil, but despite the title, it's probably something that doesn't really apply to atheists.

[KyBunnies]

I got it just because it seems like a great read.

Just be aware that I might come back here and ask a million questions to GtrsRGr8 & Difflugia after reading

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

I read some of the reviews and I'm guessing (since I haven't read it yet) that the book doesn't live up to the title. Geisler is a died-in-the-wool Calvinist and his apologetics is more geared toward people that are already Christian. He's not quite a presuppositionalist, but he does start from the position that Christianity is true and usually argues positions that are of interest to other Christians (inerrancy, reliability of the Gospels, Calvinist theology). I'm expecting that the content of this book is similar, being a discussion of the nature of God and the existence of evil, but despite the title, it's probably something that doesn't really apply to atheists.

Do you think that many, and maybe most, agnostics and atheists are presuppositionalists? Don't many of them start out with with the belief that nothing supernatural can happen or ever did happen in the past?

Consequently, both would say that Creation, any miracles in the Bible, et al. could not have happened and, therefore, did not happen. It seems to me that those supernatural events are the only real evidences that can convince someone that a god exists. The agnostic would say that since these things didn't happen, "I cannot know if there is a god." The atheist would say that since these things didn't happen, "there isn't a god."

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

I got it just because it seems like a great read.

Just be aware that I might come back here and ask a million questions to GtrsRGr8 & Difflugia after reading

As long as the questions don't tread too far into religious opinion.
If you enjoy reading Geisler, his web page links to a lot more of his writing.

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Do you think that many, and maybe most, agnostics and atheists are presuppositionalists? Don't many of them start out with with the belief that nothing supernatural can happen or ever did happen in the past?

Consequently, both would say that Creation, any miracles in the Bible, et al. could not have happened and, therefore, did not happen. It seems to me that those supernatural events are the only real evidences that can convince someone that a god exists. The agnostic would say that since these things didn't happen, "I cannot know if there is a god." The atheist would say that since these things didn't happen, "there isn't a god."

That's actually more-or-less the position of presuppositional apologetics (as opposed to evidential apologetics).

More discussion than that (like which is better) probably belongs in Politics & Religion.

[GtrsRGr8]

With this ebook on apologetics being rated 4 1/2 stars at Amazon, and 4.03/5.00 at GoodReads (that's a great rating there), this was a must-post markdown (hmm . . . "must-post". . . . Did I just invent a new word? If so, remember that you heard it first here! ha. I could be famous!).

Apologetics for the Twenty-first Century. By Louis Markos. Rated 4 1/2 stars at Amazon, from 14 reviews at the present moment. Print list price $18.99; digital list(?) price $9.99; Kindle price now $3.99. Crossway Books. 274 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Apologetics-Tw...ogetics+markos.

Get the ebook for $3.19 at Christianbook if you're willing to have, or prefer, the ePub format: http://www.christianbook.com/apologe...EB?event=ESRCG. I didn't check for the price and availability anywhere else.

Book Description
The vibrant and persuasive arguments of C. S. Lewis brought about a shift in the discipline of apologetics, moving the conversation from the ivory tower to the public square. The resulting strain of popular apologetics—which weaves through Lewis into twentieth-century writers like Francis Schaeffer and modern apologists like William Lane Craig, Josh McDowell, and Lee Strobel—has equipped countless believers to defend their faith against its detractors.

Apologetics for the Twenty-first Century uses Lewis’s work as the starting point for an absorbing survey of the key apologists and major arguments that inform apologetics today. Like apologists before him, Markos writes to engage Christians of all denominations as well as seekers and skeptics. His narrative, “man of letters” style and short chapters make Apologetics for the Twenty-first Century easily accessible for the general reader. But an extensive and heavily annotated bibliography, detailed timeline, list of prominent apologists, and glossary of common terms will satisfy the curiosity of the seasoned academic, as the book prepares all readers to meet the particular challenges of defending the faith today.

[GtrsRGr8]

This ebook is a little more expensive than the most expensive one that I like to post. However, the book is big--528 pages. And, you can save $1.20 if you buy the ebook (ePub format) at Christianbook.com--it's $4.79 there. http://www.christianbook.com/believe...EB?event=ESRCG.

Can You Believe It's True?: Christian Apologetics in a Modern and Postmodern Era. By John S. Feinberg. Rated 4 stars at Amazon, but from only 6 reviews at the present moment (rated 4.17/5.00 at GoodReads, from 6 reviews). Print list price $40.00; digital list price $19.99; Kindle price now $5.99. Crossway Books. 528 pages. http://www.amazon.com/Can-You-Believ...Postmodern+Era.

Book Description
Truth?

Can we know it? Many people today would say no–we can’t. This paradigmatic shift to relativism presents a direct challenge to the Christian’s witness and the challenge must be answered.

In this timely new resource, noted scholar John Feinberg argues that truth is both real and knowable, offering us a robust guide to Christian apologetics for engagement with our world today.

[koland]

Free:

Overcoming Gossip: How satan, the Accuser of the Brethren, Uses Gossip to Fragment the Body of Christ [Destiny Image] by Mark D. Michael

http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Gos...dp/B005DI9TUG/