Robert C. Walton

The Zondervan Charts Library: Complete 17-Volume Set is an amazing value for pastors, ministry leaders, and serious students of the Bible (retail value of individual books is $403). The volumes included in the set cover a wide range of topics including the Old Testament, the New Testament, Church History, Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, Apologetics, World Religions, and more, making it a vital resource for those teaching and studying the Bible. Zondervan Charts are ready references for those who need essential information in a hurry. Accessible and highly useful, the books in this library offer clear organization and thorough summaries of issues, subjects, and topics that are key for Christian students. The Zondervan Charts Library: Complete 17-Volume Set includes: Charts of Ancient and Medieval Church History Charts of Apologetics and Christian Evidences Charts of Bible Prophecy Charts of Biblical Hebrew Charts of Christian Ethics Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements Charts of Modern and Postmodern Church History Charts of Philosophy and Philosophers Charts of Reformation and Enlightenment Church History Charts of the Gospels and the Life of Christ Charts of World Religions Chronological and Background Charts of Church History Chronological and Background Charts of the New Testament Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament Taxonomic Charts of Theology and Biblical Studies Timeline Charts of the Western Church

Chronology matters. The time during which a particular book was written provides an important context for understanding the content of that book and the purpose for which the author wrote it. In many cases, those who read the Bible are unaware of the chronological context of the books of which it consists, and therefore miss important clues that enrich its content and meaning. What can we hope to gain from a chronological approach to the books of the New Testament? Doing so allows us to see, for example, connections between the founding of churches by the Apostle Paul and the letters he later wrote to those same churches. Do the circumstances under which the churches were founded aid our understanding of the issues addressed in the epistles later on, or do the matters addressed in the epistles give us an idea of how the churches developed in the months or years after their founding? Studying the New Testament in chronological order also enables us to see developments in the Church at large. As the Church grows and spreads throughout the Roman Empire, persecution becomes more of a prominent issue, and the later writings indicate this. Troubles plague first-century believers not only from the unbelieving world in which they live, but also from among their own number, as heresies spring up and multiply; the growth of these false teachings can also be traced chronologically through the epistles. Furthermore, the larger and more geographically diverse the Church becomes, the more organization matters, so the focus on structural concerns in the Pastoral Epistles should not surprise us. While chronology is useful in comprehending the messages of the New Testament writings, we also need to recognize that the one central message of those writings remains consistent throughout - the Good News of the salvation provided by God through the Incarnation, perfect life, teaching ministry, miracles, atoning death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The main purpose of the books of the New Testament is to explicate that Gospel, and we should anticipate that each of the writings inspired by God for the edification of His people focuses on different aspects of it. These writings were preserved for future generations for a reason; they are intended for us as well as for the Christians to whom they were originally written. Because the book of Acts is the only historical writing after the Gospels, it must of necessity provide the structure for the book before us, and we will be examining it in verse-by-verse detail. Acts takes us from the Ascension of Christ to Paul's first Roman imprisonment and follows the outline that Jesus Himself gave His disciples in Acts 1:8 - "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end if the earth." The Church begins in Jerusalem, spreads to other places in Judea, then into Samaria, and finally, through the missionary journeys of Paul, throughout the Roman Empire. This growth serves as the outline for this book, with chapters interspersed dealing with the epistles written during the time covered in each section of Acts. Once we arrive at the end of Acts, books written later, including the Pastoral Epistles, most of the General Epistles, and the book of Revelation are given chapters in roughly chronological order. In covering the remaining books of the New Testament, we will deal with background information, an overview of the book, some representative passages, and study questions for discussion and further thought.

"The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins was the first of the so-called Sensation Novels. It is a melodrama, full of mystery, romance, heroes and heroines who demonstrate integrity and overcome adversity, and despicable villains who seek to destroy others for their own benefit. It was published at the same time and in the same magazine as Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," and the two novels share some remarkable traits, including lookalike characters and contrasting settings. The playwright has conveyed both the plot and characters of Collins' classic novel, but has also made an effort to retain the style, diction, and vocabulary of the original as much as possible in order to bring the story to the stage. Royalties are $50 for each performance and are payable to the playwright.

"Sense and Sensibility" is a novel by Jane Austen about two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who are in many ways polar opposites, and their struggles to find true love. In the process, they learn much about not judging by appearances and the importance of communicating with those we care about. Austen's tale has been adapted for the stage in a way that not only conveys the plot and characters of the novel, but also to a large extent preserves the sharp and witty language of the original. Royalties are $50 for each performance and are payable to the playwright.

The Old Testament is a fascinating compilation of literary masterpieces. Within its pages we find historical narratives, great poetry, collections of wise sayings, and prophetic utterances both glorious and terrifying. The stories have long kept children and adults alike spellbound, and the greatest writers in history have incorporated allusions from its pages into their works. In fact, no book has been mined by authors as a source of language and references to events and characters more often than the Bible. But the Old Testament is much more than a collection of great literature from the ancient world. It is also the Word of God. As Peter affirms, "No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Because the Old Testament is the Word of God, we must acknowledge certain basic truths about its contents. First of all, because the Old Testament is God's Word, it is completely true in all it affirms. Secondly, if the Old Testament is God's Word it is coherent in all it teaches. Despite the fact that the books contained in it were written over a period of more than a thousand years by more than twenty different authors, many of whom are unknown to us, the facts and doctrines found in it do not contradict one another, but complement each other to communicate a single coherent message. What, then, is that message? While countless teachers and writers have drawn on the narratives of the Old Testament for moral lessons, and rightly so, this is not the basic purpose of these documents. God's revelation is primarily a revelation of Himself; the Old Testament, like the New Testament that follows it, is chiefly about God. Thus the repeated human failures and God's responses that we see recorded in the pages of the Old Testament speak to us of God's holiness, His faithfulness, and His great mercy. The overarching narrative that flows throughout the books of the Old Testament is the one Great Story of human history - Creation, Fall, and Redemption. God made man in His image in a state of moral perfection to inhabit and exercise dominion over His perfect created universe, man rebelled against God and thus earned His just condemnation, and God, in His mercy, took the initiative to establish a covenant by which He would show grace to His chosen people - not just the nation of Israel, but implemented in such a way that "all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The first thirty-nine books of the Bible thus tell the story of God's preparation for the coming of His Son into the world to save sinners. Jesus Himself affirmed this when He challenged the religious leaders of His day (John 5:39) and when He comforted His disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:27,44-45). We should therefore not be surprised when much of what we study turns our eyes toward Jesus in one way or another, and numerous sections of The Road to Redemption are devoted to pointing out these connections. Most works of this kind are organized textually, with a chapter given to each book of the Old Testament. This has definite advantages, especially if one is looking for information about a particular book. I have chosen, however, to arrange the book chronologically. The structure follows the history of God's dealings with mankind from the Creation to approximately four hundred years before the coming of Christ. The non-narrative books of the Old Testament are woven into the study in their proper historical contexts. While some may initially find this confusing, the hope is that such an arrangement will enable the reader to get an overall picture of the period covered by the text while at the same time seeing how the different books relate to one another chronologically. Thus, the text is designed to give an overall picture of the history of redemption as we see God's plan of salvation gradually revealed to His people and carried forward toward the coming of the Promi

Have you ever heard critics of Christianity say these things? -Ancient Near Eastern religions all had creation and flood stories and legends of gods coming to earth, dying, and rising again; Christianity just borrowed from them. -All religions are basically man-made and are derived from the cultural environment in which they arose. -All religions are basically the same because they are different ways of worshiping the same Ultimate Reality. It doesn't really matter what religion you practice as long as it meets your needs. -All religions are essentially harmful. They are relics of our primitive past, and we are quickly evolving beyond the need for them. Christianity is the worst of the lot because of its record of violence and prejudice regarding race, gender, and sexual preference. -How can Christians claim to have the truth when they are divided into thousands of denominations and can't even agree among themselves? In Ephesians 6:10-18, the Apostle Paul describes the armor God has given His people to defend themselves against the attacks of the devil and the "spiritual forces of evil." One of the pieces of armor he lists is the shield of faith. The faith to which he refers is the trust in Christ that enables the believer to stand firmly against all challenges that he may face in this life. While those challenges may often take the form of personal trials and suffering, they sometimes take the form of intellectual attacks as well. In Defending Your Sword, I delineated and responded to attacks against the Bible and its veracity. In this volume, I address attacks against the uniqueness of Christianity. All too often the Christian's shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16) is weakened or penetrated by those who would attack the Faith - the system of belief with which Christians identify. Some even lose their faith and turn away because they have no answers for those who seek to undermine the Faith. This book seeks to provide some of those answers. Christianity is unique, but just because an idea or practice is unique does not make it true; Mormons teach that God lives on the planet Kolob - surely a unique doctrine, but this gives it no special claim to truth. How, then, can Christians argue that Christianity is not really a religion at all, but the only truth that all man-made religions distort in their rebellion against God? If we are to be able to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ (I Peter 3:15), we must be prepared to use the shield of faith to ward off attacks against the "faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).

In Ephesians 6, Paul paints a picture of a Christian in the complete armor needed to engage in battle against Satan and his cohorts. Most of the pieces that Paul describes are defensive in nature. One, however, is to be used to advance against the foe - the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This weapon is so powerful that it can divide the soul and spirit, pierce the joints and marrow, and discern the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Why, then, would a Christian think to defend the Word rather than allowing it to defend him and enable him to fight against those who would oppose the Gospel? After all, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to change hearts and transform minds. Why, then, write a book defending the Bible? We need to meet people where they are. The arguments of those who reject Christ may not be logical, nor may they sound convincing to us, but they are convincing to those who make them. They must therefore be addressed, both with sound reasoning and with kindness and gentleness. Too many unbelievers reject Christianity because they think believers are ignorant fools who refuse to think. Our task, therefore, is not only to demonstrate the weakness of the arguments for unbelief, but also to give a reason for the hope within us (I Peter 3:15). The book is divided into three major sections. The first deals with fundamental underlying issues apart from which no discussion of the validity of the Scriptures (or any other source of knowledge) can take place. Unbelievers too often assume the answers to these questions, grounding their concepts of knowledge in some form of human experience without realizing the assumptions they are making or, more importantly, the inadequacy of those assumptions. The first section also deals with the nature and limitations of science, since so many in our world believe that only that which is scientific is worthy of belief. The main body of the book then addresses specific questions often raised by unbelieving critics of the Scriptures, incorporating in the process historical and empirical evidence to support the answers to those questions. Matters such as the manuscript evidence for the Bible, questions of authorship and the formation of the canon, and arguments relating to the accuracy, consistency, and ultimately the inspiration of God's Word are addressed here, along with the essential role of faith in any person's system of belief. The final section attempts to do what Jesus did in His encounters with people such as Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and the Rich Young Ruler. In each case, Jesus began by addressing the presentation problem, but then moved on to the real heart issues behind the questions each person raised. Most critics of the Bible, especially those who have been raised in the faith and turned away from it as they got older, do not desert Christianity because they are convinced that it fails any number of logical tests, but because they have had some kind of negative experience, either with individual Christians or the church in general. Unbelief is not basically a logical problem, but a moral one - those apart from Christ simply want to live the way they want to live and reject the idea of submitting to any outside authority, most of all the authority of God as represented by His Word. Arguments against Scripture thus become justifications after the fact; "I don't want to submit to God, but in order to avoid sounding selfish I must have some reasonable basis for rejecting Him." By the grace of God, I trust that defending your sword will open the door for many opportunities to use that sword to advance the Kingdom of God.

The life and ministry of Jesus serve as the focal point, not only of the Bible, but indeed of all human history. The entirety of God's revelation to man points toward, describes, and then flows from the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. Thus a proper understanding of the life of Christ is essential in order to comprehend everything from Creation to Consummation, the meaning and direction of history, and the significance of each individual life. Pilate's question, "What shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?" (Matthew 27:22) is decisive in the eternal destiny of every person who lives on this earth. As the Apostle John indicates, the Gospel narratives were written "so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in His name" (John 20:31). They were intended to elicit faith in Christ as Savior, not to serve as the object of academic study. At the same time, when Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life" (John 5:39), He was not criticizing their extensive study of the Word, but rather the fact that they did so without faith. The Gospels must therefore be studied with a desire to know personally the Messiah of whom they speak. Knowledge without personal application is as fruitless today as it was among the religious leaders to whom Jesus spoke two thousand years ago. The fact that God has given us four Gospels is a source of great richness in our search for the Savior of whom they speak, but it has also been the basis for much criticism. It is no accident that one of the earliest apologetic works written in the Early Church was a harmony of the Gospels (Tatian's Diatessaron). Pagan philosophers and Jewish scholars alike pointed to supposed contradictions in the Gospels in an effort to discredit their reliability and authority. In modern times, critical scholars have gone even further, denying the traditional authorship of the books and suggesting that they were written by people who lived long after the time of Christ and never knew Him personally. Studying the life of Christ in the form of a harmony, weaving the Gospel narratives together into a smooth whole, can thus serve an apologetic as well as devotional purpose, enabling the believer to "be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (I Peter 3:15). Note, however, that the task is complicated by the fact that Jesus undoubtedly said many of the things recorded in the Gospels on multiple occasions during his ministry of approximately three and a half years. Many scholars since the time of Tatian have attempted to harmonize the Gospel narratives, and the results vary in many particulars. In this text I have relied mostly on A. T. Robertson's classic Harmony of the Gospels (1932) while supplementing it with other sources. Most efforts to create a chronology of the life and ministry of Jesus have assumed that Mark, Luke, and John are basically chronological, while Matthew tends to group material topically, leading the writers to build their harmonies around either Mark or Luke. Robertson succeeds more than most in retaining the sequence of all three narratives other than Matthew, and thus I have chosen to use his work as the foundation for this book. Another issue that arises when studying the life of Christ as recorded in the Gospels is the problem of matching it with what we know about the history of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus. Luke gives more chronological markers than the other Gospel writers, but the range of times associated with the rulers he mentions still leaves quite a bit of room for controversy. The dating scheme I have chosen to follow has Jesus being born around 6 BC, beginning His public ministry in 29 AD, and going to the Cross during the Passover in 33 AD.

'The volume, in its constitution and authorship, presents a balance between academic scholarship and practical educational expertise. For that reason, as well as for many others, it is a work of obvious weight and value, containing a vast amount of information, lucidly and attractively presented, which many teachers are sure to find most helpful to them in their work' (Church Times).

Anyone looking at Scripture finds that the material in the Bible is not arranged topically. Thus the pursuit of Systematic Theology requires some justification. Why should anyone rearrange the teaching found in the Bible on the basis of some man-made scheme? First of all, the practice of Systematic Theology is supported by Scripture itself, where we find instances where those who sought to understand its teachings drew from a variety of passages in order to do so. Second, Systematic Theology is legitimized by the inspiration and unity of Scripture. The Bible is made up of sixty-six books, but is really one Book with one Author that speaks with a coherent message. In fact, if the Bible were not the work of a single Author, the topical study of it would be absurd because unity of thought would not exist. Third, Systematic Theology is justified by the progressive nature of revelation. God did not tell His people everything He intended to reveal at once, but gradually unfolded the truth, expanding on previous teachings by clarifying and illuminating them later. As a result, if we want to discover the complete teaching of the Bible on any subject, we must gather together many relevant passages in order to answer the question, "What does the Bible teach about ______?" What about the arrangement of the material in the book? Why treat subjects in the order in which they are presented in this text? The Doctrine of Scripture is the logical place to begin - if the Bible is to be our authority, we must have confidence that it is indeed the Word of God. We then seek to discover what God has revealed about Himself, and we find that He is one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, leading us to the study of the members of the Trinity. Having come to a clear understanding of who God is, we must then consider who we are, so we study the Doctrine of Man. What we find is that we are sinners alienated from God. What is to be done? We find that God has provided a solution to man's greatest need in the Gospel, which leads us to the Doctrine of Salvation. Once we see that God has called sinners to Himself, we find that His intention is to bring them together into one body, the Church, and to gather that Church into His presence forever. We thus finish the course by studying Ecclesiology and Eschatology. The reader of this book should keep several things in mind. The first is that the organization of the biblical material is artificial rather than one demanded by the text itself, and therefore attention to context is essential. Proof-texting in the study of Bible Doctrine is very easy to do. Second, be aware that many of the questions discussed in the book are ones about which Christians disagree. The faithful interpreter of Scripture must be able to discern between those clear teachings that are of the essence of the faith and those issues where our understanding of the Bible may not be as clear and sincere believers may harmoniously agree to disagree. A third reminder is that Christians must be humble enough to let God be God. Many of the doctrinal disputes that have arisen over the years stemmed from the attempt on man's part to delve into divine mysteries that God has not chosen to reveal to us. Such pursuits are dangerous; many heresies in the history of the church have grown out of the desire to present dogmatic answers to questions about which God has not spoken. Lastly, keep in mind that Bible Doctrine can never be simply a theoretical academic pursuit. The Bible never teaches abstract doctrine, but always presents ideas in the context of real-life application. So it must be for us. We must always ask the "So what?" question, seeking from our studies not only intellectual stimulation and greater understanding, but also a deeper relationship to God.

See how the rich tapestry of nearly 2,000 years of church history unfolded. Packed with teaching and learning tools, from charts and timelines, to maps and visual guides, Chronological and Background Charts of Church History will help you quickly grasp the historic foundation on which contemporary Christianity rests. This revised and expanded edition contains 126 charts (43 of which are new) that cover:The history of the ancient churchThe medieval churchThe ReformationThe modern European churchThe American churchand moreThe accessible visual presentation is perfect for enhancing every type of teaching and learning situation and style, including homeschooling curricula and tutoring, church classes and Sunday school. ZondervanCharts are ready references for those who need the essential information at their fingertips. Accessible and highly useful, the books in this library offer clear organization and thorough summaries of issues, subjects, and topics that are key for Christian students and learners. The visuals and captions will cater to any teaching methodology, style, or program.