Hailed as "the most radical repackaging of the Bible since Gutenberg", these Pocket Canons give an up-close look at each book of the Bible.

There are two ways of rendering the first line of Genesis: one way is exoteric, by Christian Bible interpreters; the other, Kabbalistic — divided into the Rabbinical, and the purely Kabbalistic or Occult method. Why Christians sing never-ceasing laudations to the Mosaic Jews, who repudiated all the other Gods, preserved the most phallic and, then, most impudently, proclaimed themselves Monotheists? Jesus ever steadily ignored Jehovah and went against the Mosaic commandments. He recognized his Heavenly Father alone, and prohibited public worship. Ralston Skinner’s numerical analysis of the first sentence of Genesis, on which hung in blind faith the whole Christian religion, shows that the Bible was made to yield Phallicism, and that alone. To know the full septenary significance of the Primordial Circle, the Pyramid and the Kabbalistic Bible must be read in the light of the figure on which the temples of India are built. Genesis cannot yield anything higher or more sublime than phallic elements, the root and the cornerstone of its dead-letter meaning. Anthropomorphism and Revelation dig an impassable chasm between the material world and the ultimate spiritual truths. The so-called “creation” of Genesis is not the Primary Creation, and the Elohim are not “God,” not even the higher Planetary Spirits, but the Architects of this physical planet and of man’s material body or encasement. The Elohim, far from being supreme or even exalted powers in Nature, are only lower Angels. This was the teaching of the Gnostics, the most philosophical of all the early Christian Churches. They correspond to the Prajapatis of the Hindus, the fashioners of man’s material and astral form only. Mathers censures the translators of the Bible, who have suppressed every single reference to the feminine form of Deity. With the Occultists of the East the “One and Changeless,” Parabrahman, the Absolute All, the ONE and Secondless, cannot be conceived as standing in any relation to things finite and conditioned. But what especially strikes the student of the Kabbalah is the malicious persistency with which the translators of the Bible have jealously crowded out of sight and suppressed every reference to the feminine form of the Deity. They have, as we have just seen, translated the feminine plural “Elohim,” by the masculine singular, “God.” They also concealed the fact that Ruah, “Spirit,” is feminine. It then follows that the Holy Ghost of the New Testament is a feminine Potency. In the Hebrew, as in the Greek alphabet, there are no distinct numeral characters, and consequently each letter has a certain numerical value attached to it. From this circumstance results the important fact that every Hebrew word constitutes a number, and every number a word. The conclusion of Mathers’ analysis of the Elohim is that they are not one, nor two, nor even a trinity, but an army of Creative Powers. Madame Blavatsky names the true Creators. The “First-Born,” or Logos, is not an Emanation, but an Energy inherent in, and co-eternal with, Parabrahman — the ONE. Thus it is not the ONE and Unconditioned, nor even Its reflection, that creates, but only the “Seven Gods” who fashion the Universe out of primordial Matter, vivified into objective life by the reflection into it of the One and only Reality. Jehovah is at best, the Heavenly Man or Adam-Kadmon, used by the self-created Spirit (Logos), as a chariot, a vehicle in His descent to the phenomenal world of gross matter. The Secret Doctrine and the Kabbalah are in perfect concordance in St. Paul’s Epistles. The Zohar is not a genuine production of the Hebrew mind. It is a veil over the Secret Doctrine. The Zohar is the repository and compendium of the oldest doctrines of the East, transmitted orally at first, and then written down in independent treatises during the Captivity at Babylon, and finally brought together by Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai, toward the beginning of the Christian era. Modern Christianity is Paganism pure and simple, exoterically; and transcendental and practical Magic or Occultism, esoterically. The Solar Trinity is not Mazdean, but Universal, and as old as man. All temples in Antiquity were invariably made to face the Sun, their portals opening to the East. The last of the Solar Priests in Europe was the Imperial Initiate, Julian, now called the Apostate. He tried to benefit the world by revealing a portion of the great mystery of the Solar Trinity, and died for the same crime as Socrates. The Roman Catholic Church stands accused, not of worshipping under other names the Divine Beings worshipped throughout Antiquity, but of declaring idolatrous, not only the Pagans ancient and modern, but every Christian nation that has freed itself from the Roman yoke. Only the Philosophers, who studied Astrology and Magic, knew that the “Last Word” was to be sought in the Occult forces emanating from those constellations that are the physical bodies of Divine Beings.

Verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Genesis.

Fourteen theological scholars address key topics related to the age of the earth, which is the crucial issue of debate in the church today regarding origins. Bringing to bear rigorous biblical, theological, and historical arguments in favor of a six-day creation, the global Flood, and a young earth, they also provide much-needed critiques of a number of contemporary old-earth interpretations of the book of Genesis. This fresh defense of the literal history of Genesis 1-11 nicely complements other studies which focus more on the scientific evidence of young-earth creationism. As such, this book can serve as a versatile supplement to other works, but is also designed to be used as a standalone text for seminary and Bible college professors and students, pastors, missionaries, and others who want in-depth apologetic resources. Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earthincludes: Forewords by Dr. John MacArthur, President of the Master's Seminary and Senior Pastor of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, CA; and the late Dr. Henry Morris, Founder and President Emeritus, Institute for Creation Research Detailed analysis of the verbs of Genesis 1 A defense of the Genesis 5 & 11 genealogies as strict chronologies Reasons for rejecting millions of years of death and natural evil before Adam's sin Careful reflection on Jesus' teachings regarding a young earth

To read Genesis intelligently, we must consider the questions, the literature, and the times in which Genesis was written. In How to Read Genesis Tremper Longman III provides a welcome guide to reading, studying, understanding, and savoring this panorama of beginnings—of both the world and of Israel. And importantly for Christian readers, we gain insight into how Genesis points to Christ and can be read in light of the gospel.

"This book...is designed to make the Bible of Israel intelligible, relevant, and hopefully, inspiring to a sophisticated generation, possessed of intellectual curiosity and ethical sensitivity...It is based on the belief that the study of the Book of Books must constitute a mature intellectual challenge, an exposure to the expanding universe of scientific biblical scholarship...Far from presenting a threat to faith, a challenge to the intellect may reinforce faith and purify it."--from the Introduction

"[Here is] the Genesis for our generation and beyond."—Robert Fagles Genesis begins with the making of heaven and earth and all life, and ends with the image of a mummy—Joseph's—in a coffin. In between come many of the primal stories in Western culture: Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden of Eden, Cain's murder of Abel, Noah and the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham's binding of Isaac, the covenant of God and Abraham, Isaac's blessing of Jacob in place of Esau, the saga of Joseph and his brothers. In Robert Alter's brilliant translation, these stories cohere in a powerful narrative of the tortuous relations between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, eldest and younger brothers, God and his chosen people, the people of Israel and their neighbors. Alter's translation honors the meanings and literary strategies of the ancient Hebrew and conveys them in fluent English prose. It recovers a Genesis with the continuity of theme and motif of a wholly conceived and fully realized book. His insightful, fully informed commentary illuminates the book in all its dimensions.

It can no longer be assumed that most people--or even most Christians--have a basic understanding of the Bible. Many don't know the difference between the Old and New Testament, and even the more well-known biblical figures are often misunderstood. It is getting harder to talk about Jesus accurately and compellingly because listeners have no proper context with which to understand God's story of redemption. In this basic introduction to faith, D. A. Carson takes seekers, new Christians, and small groups through the big story of Scripture. He helps readers to know what they believe and why they believe it. The companion leader's guide helps evangelistic study groups, small groups, and Sunday school classes make the best use of this book in group settings.

Kevin Giles has been writing on women in the Bible for over forty years. In this book, What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women, he gives the most comprehensive account to date of the competing conclusions to this question and the issues surrounding it. To understand the bitter and divisive debate among evangelicals over the status and ministry of women, it needs to be understood that those who since 1990 have called themselves "complementarians" argue that in creation before the fall God set the man over the woman. Thus, the leadership of the man and the subordination of the woman in the home, the church, and wherever possible in the world (the whole creation) is the God-given ideal that is pleasing to God. It is this "theology" that Kevin Giles deconstructs and shows to be without a biblical foundation. Giles shows that he is fully conversant with the complementarian position and yet is unpersuaded by it. He sees it as an appeal to the Bible to preserve male privilege, similar to the appeals to the Bible to validate slavery and Apartheid; appeals to the Bible made by some of the best Reformed and evangelical biblical scholars, and now seen to be special pleading. Carefully studying the limited number of texts on which complementarians predicate their theology of the sexes, Giles finds not one of them actually teaches what complementarians claim. Furthermore, complementarians too often ignore the texts that are very difficult for them. In this book the ordination of women gets only passing mention. The constant focus is on whether or not the Bible subordinates women to men as an abiding theological principle.

In this brief and winsome book, Michael Reeves presents an introduction to the Christian faith that is rooted in the triune God. He takes cues from preachers and teachers down through the ages, setting key doctrines of creation, the person and work of Christ, and life in the Spirit into a simple framework of the Christian life.