How to Read the Bible in Changing Times: Understanding and Applying God's Word Today

Many find it difficult to take words that were written thousands of years ago and apply them to twenty-first-century life in the Western world. How do we read God's unchanging Word in a world that is increasingly defined by change?

How to Read the Bible in Changing Times shows everyday Christians how to interpret and apply the Scriptures regardless of time and culture. Rather than seeing the Bible as a magic answer book, a list of commands to obey, or a series of promises to claim, this insightful book allows the Bible to retain its identity as a complex, inspired document while showing that the truth it contains is relevant and life-changing. It shows the reader how to

determine the meaning of the text in its original context
identify culturally relative features
understand what the text teaches about God, his will, and his purposes
apply the truths discovered to contemporary life situations

It even shows readers how to discern God's will on the many modern issues that the Bible does not directly address.

Mark L. Strauss (PhD, University of Aberdeen) has a passion for teaching the Bible and has taught principles for reading and applying the Bible to students in undergraduate, graduate, and church settings. He is University Professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary San Diego and the author of several books, including How to Read the Bible in Changing Times: Understanding and Applying God's Word Today and Four Portraits, One Jesus: A Survey of Jesus and the Gospels.