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The Gospel of Our King: Bible, Worldview, and the Mission of Every Christian
This accessible overview shows how the Bible--with its 66 books, dozens of authors, and multiple genres--comes together to provide an overarching story about God the King and explains how the Christian gospel and mission address the totality of human life.
Written by a biblical scholar and a theologian, The Gospel of Our King shows how any account of gospel and mission can only be understood in light of the whole biblical testimony. The authors help us understand the Bible's overarching narrative as the story that encompasses everything. This story, revealed by God and centered on Jesus the King, enables us to know and love God and to fulfill his purpose for our lives. It is the framework within which we come to understand the Christian worldview, the Christian gospel, and the Christian mission. When we understand how the whole Bible fits together to shape the totality of a Christian's life, we will be prepared to show the goodness of Christ and the gospel to others in our personal, social, cultural, and global contexts.
Written by a biblical scholar and a theologian, The Gospel of Our King shows how any account of gospel and mission can only be understood in light of the whole biblical testimony. The authors help us understand the Bible's overarching narrative as the story that encompasses everything. This story, revealed by God and centered on Jesus the King, enables us to know and love God and to fulfill his purpose for our lives. It is the framework within which we come to understand the Christian worldview, the Christian gospel, and the Christian mission. When we understand how the whole Bible fits together to shape the totality of a Christian's life, we will be prepared to show the goodness of Christ and the gospel to others in our personal, social, cultural, and global contexts.
208 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2019
11 people are currently reading
669 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 30, 2019
This book was a “sheer delight” it made me fall in love with the true story of the whole world again and again and caused me to be in awe of a gracious and good God who is redeeming a broken world to himself.
September 14, 2019
I really enjoyed this. I find it a helpful alternative to Christopher Wright's, "The Mission of God," and though it is shorter, it even goes beyond Wright's work a bit, in that Ashford and Thomas rightly include the New Testament. The authors show us that the biblical narrative of Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration has implications on the way Christians are to live (what they call "mission"). I do think the danger here is that "mission" can become too interwined/confused with "missions," which the authors seem to distinguish in the last chapter (and thankfully so).
My main critique is that I believe Ashford and Thomas present a prioritistic view of missions, though they over and over call it holistic mission. Interacting with Hesselgrave's "Paradigms in Conflict" could've helped with this.
My main critique is that I believe Ashford and Thomas present a prioritistic view of missions, though they over and over call it holistic mission. Interacting with Hesselgrave's "Paradigms in Conflict" could've helped with this.
September 26, 2019
Excellent overview of the Bible's story arc that directly connects to the good news of Jesus, followed by a holistic kingdom agenda for Christian action in the world (theological, social, cultural and global). Loved how the authors drew out the implications of Jesus' kingship that is not just confined to our individual lives; the gospel makes a total claim on all human existence including education, culture, politics, arts and business. I particularly liked the invitation for Christians to engage in cultural mission - redirecting cultural spheres corrupted by human sin and idolatry back to God's creational design. A refreshing challenge for Christians to imagine (and re-imagine) their faithful witness in our cultural moment.
I've yet come across a popular-level book on biblical theology that combines theory and practice in such an accessible way. A must-read for all Christians especially in the West.
I've yet come across a popular-level book on biblical theology that combines theory and practice in such an accessible way. A must-read for all Christians especially in the West.
November 21, 2025
The Gospel of Our King is a book broken into two parts with an “interlude” in the middle. The first part includes four chapters that are a sort of storied theology: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. These chapters take readers through the grand narrative of scripture and explore how religious beliefs have impacted the world. The interlude explores how the Christian worldview, gospel, and mission are essential to believers, and how believers ought to think and act in light of them. The second part then has four chapters that explore Christian mission through theological, social, cultural, and global lenses. Key themes in this book are God’s authority over Creation and humanity’s role and responsibilities as image-bearers who are meant to steward creation, worship God, and exist in relationship. We also are taken through the narrative of scripture as seen through the lens of sin, Israel’s journey through sin and into slavery and through redemption, hope in the law, and into backsliding. We are then carried through redemption through Jesus and the believer’s mission through the gospel of the King.
As the first 4 chapters discuss, the Bible can be understood in the categories of literature, ethics, doctrine, and history (p. 3). Ashford and Thomas argue that the Christian mission is comprehensively cultural, and that all of humanity interacting with each other and with the creation that God has ordained is a part of this culture. This cultural context that humans live in is so completely shaping beliefs, attitudes, and actions, that it is essential for Christians to analyze what their cultural actions are and make sure that everything they do points towards Christ (p. 9). God is presented as the King of all that is on the earth that he created, and he is shown as distinct from all that he created. Genesis 1’s creation narrative shows that the earth is the “natural habitat for humanity” (p. 16). Creation is good, and salvation doesn’t mean we will be taken away to heaven and escape this earth and all its corruption, but rather that there will be a new and good earth that we will be able to dwell in. This earth, the renewed earth, will be our final home. This will be the kingdom we will dwell in, and Christ will be our King. We are made in the image of God, and that has implications that are structural, functional, and relational. Part of humanity’s reflection of God includes the command for humans to rule over the earth for the benefit of all.
Chapter two covers the Bible’s theology of sin and traces its ramifications throughout the grand narrative of scripture, covering Old Testament stories while also integrating stories and principles from the New Testament. One position the authors take that I think they miss the mark on is that sin, while broad in its negative impact, does not change things comprehensively, as “sin doesn’t have the power to destroy creation’s order, make the natural world evil in itself, or obliterate our humanity” (p. 37). They posit that the world that God designed and created remains good, even in the midst of all the corruption of sin, and that it is due to “sinful humanity [that takes] the good world he made and directs it toward sinful ends, causing life to be frustrating and painful.” While the authors’ position makes sense for humanity, they have neglected to take into account the corruption of the world and even of animals. This can be seen most evidently in the flood account in Genesis 6:7, when God says “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them” (ESV). The corruption of sin has not only impacted the nature of man, but the nature of the world itself, and the frustrations and pains of life do not only have causes arising from man, but also sometimes from animals and nature itself. One might argue that the world’s structure has been corrupted as well in light of earthquakes and hurricanes, plagues and famines. Are natural disasters considered good and a part of the pre-fall world? Is homosexuality practiced among animals a good and natural thing, or is it also a result of a world that has been broken by sin? I believe that sin has infected every part of the natural world, and to say that there is no evil in the natural world itself is a philosophical and theological stance that the authors purported without scriptural evidence or logical arguments. Their book would benefit from further exploration and elaboration of this point.
Chapter 3 covers the story of redemption. The authors here do an excellent job of integrating biblical verses with their positions. While the New Testament gives us a name for redemption (that of Jesus Christ), the entirety of the old testament weaves together the story of redemption and covenant. The Davidic covenant will be fulfilled by a future king. Even with the sacrificial system, there needs to be a good king who can bring forth true reconciliation. The New Covenant ushers in an era that offers a fulfillment of all previous covenants through Jesus Christ. Now, believers are able to understand in a new, intimate way what it means to truly live for the King (p. 75). Chapter 4 is closely connected in its journey of restoration, further expounding upon the idea of the new covenant bringing forth a consummated kingdom. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament. He is the perfect and better Adam, he is the fulfillment of all of the judgement and salvation that was promised to Noah, He fulfills all of Israels’ prophecies, and is a more faithful Israel. Jesus is God and is the center of all of Scripture. The New Covenant is distinct from others, in that Jesus is able to fulfill it in ways no other covenants with humans could. The authors describe these in a few ways: divine forgiveness, divine transformation of the heart, divine presence, and divine promises. Their position can be succinctly understood with this quote:
“The difference between the Old Covenant sacrifices and the New Covenant sacrifice lay in this: while the former sacrifices managed sin, Jesus’s sacrifice eradicates the blame of sin ultimately. “But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26). In Jesus Christ, sin is dealt a death blow. Jesus absorbs God’s wrath for sin, and his blood covers sin once for all.” (p. 84).
This restoration covers not only the original promised people from the nation of Israel, but has instead extended to all nations, offering a beauty made manifest through a liberated creation that is resplendent in both unity and diversity, the way God had always intended (p. 96). Christians living in our modern age are meant to live in the shadow of Jesus’s first coming, and in the light of his second coming, ambassadors united together “on mission for the King” (p. 96). Chapter 5 offers an interlude between the first four chapters and the last four, with an encouragement that the Bible informs the modern believer’s worldview, beliefs, and their mission. The authors describe the dualism of the sacred and the secular, and how the modern worldviews take out all things spiritual. The gospel is summed up as the announcement to the world that Jesus is King, and a King who died and rose from the grave to save humans from their sins and to offer them both a new life and a new purpose. The authors remind readers that “any summary of the gospel is just that—a summary—which means that it will necessarily leave out some of the fullness of the gospel. Gospel summaries ought to drive us more deeply into the Bible to explore its rich exposition of the gospel” (p. 109). The final four chapters offer encouragement towards missions and what this looks like in a secular age.The authors reference Taylor’s work about the new secular age humanity has entered into, and how that has impacted the human psyche. In this modern, secular era, belief in God is implausible, and people’s worldview is entirely shaped on experiential framing. Existential questions cannot be answered without great confusion and doubt, and the options for relative truth are limitless. Taylor argues that humans are caught in a sort of unending unease, and that there is a sort of cross-pressurization where the secularization of modern culture is at odds with the haunting belief in a “transcendent God” which ultimately leaves humans with a “perpetual unease” and a noticeable lack of depth and security about their own beliefs (p. 117). The original assertion in Genesis that there is a monotheistic God was previously discredited by the prevailing beliefs of the polytheistic age that the Ancient Israelites lived in; likewise, the monotheistic God is presently discredited by the prevailing beliefs of our modern secular age. Contrary to the lack of certainty in the future that prevailing beliefs have, it is through the humble confidence of knowing that one day all of the earth will bow to the king that we are able to serve the Lord sacrificially and serve the earth out of this love.
In the remaining chapters, the authors explore how personal freedom has become something that is not merely a desire, but a sort of absolute right. Individuals are viewed as supreme, and community has lost its original meaning and has instead become “nothing more than aggregates of individuals” (p. 133). With this mindset, all manners of relationships are things that can be broken rather than having the permanence they were once afforded. Church is a place that displays a community that has been redeemed, and tries to refocus this bent towards individualism. The authors then emphasize that the mission is more than evangelism, but is also found through the cultivation of our culture since creation itself (p. 155). They posit that every sphere of culture was marred by sin, and encourage readers to pursue redemption and reconciliation in every sphere.
The authors did an excellent job of exploring the creation narrative and how it unfolded throughout the rest of humankind. Creation is filled with orderliness, in a way that was designed to be understood and to point back to the goodness of God. It also was designed with a hierarchy in mind, with God the creator at the top, and with humanity at the peak of creation designed to steward all created things. Creation also reflects the creativity of God and his design for diversity. “Genesis 1 is significant for its wide-lens perspective, as it informs its readers that God’s world is a habitat for humanity, specially designed for humans to know and love their Maker and live before him ” (p. 19). Something I thought was missing that would have been helpful was the original definition of Gospel, from the word Euangelion, which is meant to be a royal announcement that people in ancient times would understand came from a king, but this didn’t come up until halfway through the book in Chapter 5 (p. 109). While the book was well-written, there was in some ways a lack of the narrative of the gospel throughout its contents. I think it would have been more cohesive to incorporate more of the purpose behind the writing of the book throughout the writing rather than breaking it down into two parts, since the first part presented a gospel that readers would be quite familiar with, while the second part presented a mission that readers would likely also be quite familiar with. Offering a more integrated approach could have been more beneficial to readers
Another strength was the simple manner in which the authors portrayed humans as being image-bearers of God in structure, function, and relational nature. They demonstrate how God had purposed humanity even from the very beginning in the creation narrative in Genesis, and emphasize that being image-bearers is not simply a responsibility that we must carry out, but it is even more-so who we are, and living in the truth of our God-given identities is the path to true flourishing.
Another point of criticism is that the authors assert that “God’s thesis was that the world he had created and ordered was very good, Satan’s antithesis (his assertion against God’s assertion) is that God’s thesis should be questioned and even rejected. In the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s sin, the world has continued to be characterized by conflict between God’s thesis and Satan’s antithesis” (123), while the Genesis account actually describes the creation as good, and the creation of humanity as very good. No where in scripture is the world called very good, and in fact we can see in the flood narrative in Genesis 6:7 that God regretted he had made all of creation because of the corruption he saw. Thus, the authors’ premise was to boldly say “God’s thesis” was something that is antithetical to scripture, and while not missing the mark by very much, it is still a point against them to be loose in such an important area, and it makes readers question their credibility in other areas as well.
Another strength is how the authors spend considerable time talking about the gift of evangelism through the church; how to identify if the reader has this gift, and how to do it even if the reader doesn’t. They cite 1 Peter 3:15, and explore how “Peter does not instruct us to preach to every person we meet. Neither does he say that he expects us to successfully persuade every person with whom we share the gospel. But he does expect us to be ready” (142). I thought this was an excellent point, because often books that discuss evangelism offer undue pressure on readers to act in certain ways when the Bible does not necessarily command that. This book offered a well-rounded perspective that pointed out what scripture says and encourages believers to live in light of it, on all sides of the spectrum. They encourage readers to evangelize because “it is no burden to speak about what we love. Just as we might speak in a relaxed and natural manner about our families or friends, we can engage in conversation about the one we love the most—the Lord Jesus Christ” (143).
Another criticism is that in the final chapters the authors view their position on missions as holistic, while in reality their view is more prioritistic. I think it can be easy to use a lovely word like holistic because it seems to be healthy, but they view missions and evangelism as a priority firstly, and other forms of missions like social justice/disaster relief/mercy ministries are not considered as important. Their theological priority of evangelism is evident in the narrative of this book, so I think they would benefit from viewing their work more fairly in light of this.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how the Christian Bible is woven together. I would specifically recommend this book to those who are more intellectual in nature and who are interested in philosophy and theology, as the authors are not offering a shallow view of the Gospel. I would be more hesitant to recommend this book to Christians who are far from evangelical denominations, although I do think the mission that Christians are commissioned to in the final chapters is one in which even non-evangelicals could find reasonable.
As the first 4 chapters discuss, the Bible can be understood in the categories of literature, ethics, doctrine, and history (p. 3). Ashford and Thomas argue that the Christian mission is comprehensively cultural, and that all of humanity interacting with each other and with the creation that God has ordained is a part of this culture. This cultural context that humans live in is so completely shaping beliefs, attitudes, and actions, that it is essential for Christians to analyze what their cultural actions are and make sure that everything they do points towards Christ (p. 9). God is presented as the King of all that is on the earth that he created, and he is shown as distinct from all that he created. Genesis 1’s creation narrative shows that the earth is the “natural habitat for humanity” (p. 16). Creation is good, and salvation doesn’t mean we will be taken away to heaven and escape this earth and all its corruption, but rather that there will be a new and good earth that we will be able to dwell in. This earth, the renewed earth, will be our final home. This will be the kingdom we will dwell in, and Christ will be our King. We are made in the image of God, and that has implications that are structural, functional, and relational. Part of humanity’s reflection of God includes the command for humans to rule over the earth for the benefit of all.
Chapter two covers the Bible’s theology of sin and traces its ramifications throughout the grand narrative of scripture, covering Old Testament stories while also integrating stories and principles from the New Testament. One position the authors take that I think they miss the mark on is that sin, while broad in its negative impact, does not change things comprehensively, as “sin doesn’t have the power to destroy creation’s order, make the natural world evil in itself, or obliterate our humanity” (p. 37). They posit that the world that God designed and created remains good, even in the midst of all the corruption of sin, and that it is due to “sinful humanity [that takes] the good world he made and directs it toward sinful ends, causing life to be frustrating and painful.” While the authors’ position makes sense for humanity, they have neglected to take into account the corruption of the world and even of animals. This can be seen most evidently in the flood account in Genesis 6:7, when God says “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them” (ESV). The corruption of sin has not only impacted the nature of man, but the nature of the world itself, and the frustrations and pains of life do not only have causes arising from man, but also sometimes from animals and nature itself. One might argue that the world’s structure has been corrupted as well in light of earthquakes and hurricanes, plagues and famines. Are natural disasters considered good and a part of the pre-fall world? Is homosexuality practiced among animals a good and natural thing, or is it also a result of a world that has been broken by sin? I believe that sin has infected every part of the natural world, and to say that there is no evil in the natural world itself is a philosophical and theological stance that the authors purported without scriptural evidence or logical arguments. Their book would benefit from further exploration and elaboration of this point.
Chapter 3 covers the story of redemption. The authors here do an excellent job of integrating biblical verses with their positions. While the New Testament gives us a name for redemption (that of Jesus Christ), the entirety of the old testament weaves together the story of redemption and covenant. The Davidic covenant will be fulfilled by a future king. Even with the sacrificial system, there needs to be a good king who can bring forth true reconciliation. The New Covenant ushers in an era that offers a fulfillment of all previous covenants through Jesus Christ. Now, believers are able to understand in a new, intimate way what it means to truly live for the King (p. 75). Chapter 4 is closely connected in its journey of restoration, further expounding upon the idea of the new covenant bringing forth a consummated kingdom. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament. He is the perfect and better Adam, he is the fulfillment of all of the judgement and salvation that was promised to Noah, He fulfills all of Israels’ prophecies, and is a more faithful Israel. Jesus is God and is the center of all of Scripture. The New Covenant is distinct from others, in that Jesus is able to fulfill it in ways no other covenants with humans could. The authors describe these in a few ways: divine forgiveness, divine transformation of the heart, divine presence, and divine promises. Their position can be succinctly understood with this quote:
“The difference between the Old Covenant sacrifices and the New Covenant sacrifice lay in this: while the former sacrifices managed sin, Jesus’s sacrifice eradicates the blame of sin ultimately. “But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26). In Jesus Christ, sin is dealt a death blow. Jesus absorbs God’s wrath for sin, and his blood covers sin once for all.” (p. 84).
This restoration covers not only the original promised people from the nation of Israel, but has instead extended to all nations, offering a beauty made manifest through a liberated creation that is resplendent in both unity and diversity, the way God had always intended (p. 96). Christians living in our modern age are meant to live in the shadow of Jesus’s first coming, and in the light of his second coming, ambassadors united together “on mission for the King” (p. 96). Chapter 5 offers an interlude between the first four chapters and the last four, with an encouragement that the Bible informs the modern believer’s worldview, beliefs, and their mission. The authors describe the dualism of the sacred and the secular, and how the modern worldviews take out all things spiritual. The gospel is summed up as the announcement to the world that Jesus is King, and a King who died and rose from the grave to save humans from their sins and to offer them both a new life and a new purpose. The authors remind readers that “any summary of the gospel is just that—a summary—which means that it will necessarily leave out some of the fullness of the gospel. Gospel summaries ought to drive us more deeply into the Bible to explore its rich exposition of the gospel” (p. 109). The final four chapters offer encouragement towards missions and what this looks like in a secular age.The authors reference Taylor’s work about the new secular age humanity has entered into, and how that has impacted the human psyche. In this modern, secular era, belief in God is implausible, and people’s worldview is entirely shaped on experiential framing. Existential questions cannot be answered without great confusion and doubt, and the options for relative truth are limitless. Taylor argues that humans are caught in a sort of unending unease, and that there is a sort of cross-pressurization where the secularization of modern culture is at odds with the haunting belief in a “transcendent God” which ultimately leaves humans with a “perpetual unease” and a noticeable lack of depth and security about their own beliefs (p. 117). The original assertion in Genesis that there is a monotheistic God was previously discredited by the prevailing beliefs of the polytheistic age that the Ancient Israelites lived in; likewise, the monotheistic God is presently discredited by the prevailing beliefs of our modern secular age. Contrary to the lack of certainty in the future that prevailing beliefs have, it is through the humble confidence of knowing that one day all of the earth will bow to the king that we are able to serve the Lord sacrificially and serve the earth out of this love.
In the remaining chapters, the authors explore how personal freedom has become something that is not merely a desire, but a sort of absolute right. Individuals are viewed as supreme, and community has lost its original meaning and has instead become “nothing more than aggregates of individuals” (p. 133). With this mindset, all manners of relationships are things that can be broken rather than having the permanence they were once afforded. Church is a place that displays a community that has been redeemed, and tries to refocus this bent towards individualism. The authors then emphasize that the mission is more than evangelism, but is also found through the cultivation of our culture since creation itself (p. 155). They posit that every sphere of culture was marred by sin, and encourage readers to pursue redemption and reconciliation in every sphere.
The authors did an excellent job of exploring the creation narrative and how it unfolded throughout the rest of humankind. Creation is filled with orderliness, in a way that was designed to be understood and to point back to the goodness of God. It also was designed with a hierarchy in mind, with God the creator at the top, and with humanity at the peak of creation designed to steward all created things. Creation also reflects the creativity of God and his design for diversity. “Genesis 1 is significant for its wide-lens perspective, as it informs its readers that God’s world is a habitat for humanity, specially designed for humans to know and love their Maker and live before him ” (p. 19). Something I thought was missing that would have been helpful was the original definition of Gospel, from the word Euangelion, which is meant to be a royal announcement that people in ancient times would understand came from a king, but this didn’t come up until halfway through the book in Chapter 5 (p. 109). While the book was well-written, there was in some ways a lack of the narrative of the gospel throughout its contents. I think it would have been more cohesive to incorporate more of the purpose behind the writing of the book throughout the writing rather than breaking it down into two parts, since the first part presented a gospel that readers would be quite familiar with, while the second part presented a mission that readers would likely also be quite familiar with. Offering a more integrated approach could have been more beneficial to readers
Another strength was the simple manner in which the authors portrayed humans as being image-bearers of God in structure, function, and relational nature. They demonstrate how God had purposed humanity even from the very beginning in the creation narrative in Genesis, and emphasize that being image-bearers is not simply a responsibility that we must carry out, but it is even more-so who we are, and living in the truth of our God-given identities is the path to true flourishing.
Another point of criticism is that the authors assert that “God’s thesis was that the world he had created and ordered was very good, Satan’s antithesis (his assertion against God’s assertion) is that God’s thesis should be questioned and even rejected. In the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s sin, the world has continued to be characterized by conflict between God’s thesis and Satan’s antithesis” (123), while the Genesis account actually describes the creation as good, and the creation of humanity as very good. No where in scripture is the world called very good, and in fact we can see in the flood narrative in Genesis 6:7 that God regretted he had made all of creation because of the corruption he saw. Thus, the authors’ premise was to boldly say “God’s thesis” was something that is antithetical to scripture, and while not missing the mark by very much, it is still a point against them to be loose in such an important area, and it makes readers question their credibility in other areas as well.
Another strength is how the authors spend considerable time talking about the gift of evangelism through the church; how to identify if the reader has this gift, and how to do it even if the reader doesn’t. They cite 1 Peter 3:15, and explore how “Peter does not instruct us to preach to every person we meet. Neither does he say that he expects us to successfully persuade every person with whom we share the gospel. But he does expect us to be ready” (142). I thought this was an excellent point, because often books that discuss evangelism offer undue pressure on readers to act in certain ways when the Bible does not necessarily command that. This book offered a well-rounded perspective that pointed out what scripture says and encourages believers to live in light of it, on all sides of the spectrum. They encourage readers to evangelize because “it is no burden to speak about what we love. Just as we might speak in a relaxed and natural manner about our families or friends, we can engage in conversation about the one we love the most—the Lord Jesus Christ” (143).
Another criticism is that in the final chapters the authors view their position on missions as holistic, while in reality their view is more prioritistic. I think it can be easy to use a lovely word like holistic because it seems to be healthy, but they view missions and evangelism as a priority firstly, and other forms of missions like social justice/disaster relief/mercy ministries are not considered as important. Their theological priority of evangelism is evident in the narrative of this book, so I think they would benefit from viewing their work more fairly in light of this.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how the Christian Bible is woven together. I would specifically recommend this book to those who are more intellectual in nature and who are interested in philosophy and theology, as the authors are not offering a shallow view of the Gospel. I would be more hesitant to recommend this book to Christians who are far from evangelical denominations, although I do think the mission that Christians are commissioned to in the final chapters is one in which even non-evangelicals could find reasonable.
November 16, 2022
It’s a good introduction to biblical theology, that is the unified biblical narrative of God’s redemption through Christ from Genesis to Revelation. Evenly broken in nine chapters, the first four deal with Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. Chapter 5 is an introduction to the second half dealing with Worldview, the Gospel and Mission, chapters 6-9 respectively. Chapter 6 offers the theological basis of our worldview, chapter 7 the relational aspect (church) of our mission, chapter 8 the cultural aspect and chapter 9 the missional or global aspect.
It is theologically dense with many references (footnotes) but accessible for anyone who wants to learn what the biblical narrative is all about and how it gives us the foundation of our faith, beliefs, worldview and mission. It is a good primer. I highly recommend it.
We read this book with our senior pastor and several staff members and had really good interaction and dialogue.
It is theologically dense with many references (footnotes) but accessible for anyone who wants to learn what the biblical narrative is all about and how it gives us the foundation of our faith, beliefs, worldview and mission. It is a good primer. I highly recommend it.
We read this book with our senior pastor and several staff members and had really good interaction and dialogue.
April 30, 2022
An excellent read that both explains the story of the Bible in various acts and applies that narrative to four distinct aspects of the Christian worldview: theological, social, cultural, global. Highly recommend to anyone desiring to better understand the vitality of biblical theology and its relevance to the daily life of a follower of Jesus.
April 17, 2019
A captivating explanation of why humans are here. My full review: https://medium.com/park-recommendatio...
April 1, 2025
I cannot recommend a book more when searching for Christ or searching for an answer on how to view the world. Beautifully written, intense study.
July 26, 2023
I appreciate this book for its interpretation of the creation story in Genesis 1 and for its consistent theme that people are supposed to 'live for the King." I enjoyed the discussion on politics, which whet my appetite to read more on the Kuyper's approach to society. I would give this book a solid 8 out of 10. It would make a good text for an undergraduate introduction to the Bible story and the Kingdom of God.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews