I hope that caught your attention. I know . . . prefaces are the reading equivalent to waiting in line (for anything), watching C-Span, and being stuck in traffic. I won’t promise this one will be a thrill, but it’s important.
This book is an introduction to what the Bible is really about—God’s love, how God wants you to have eternal life with him, and how God wants you to help others learn about those first two items. Pretty simple . . . but likely not what you’re used to in that regard. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill “Christianity 101” book. It will cover some things you’ve not heard before, and I’ll have a bit of a different angle for a lot that might be familiar.
I have two kinds of readers in mind. The first is someone who has very recently come to faith in Jesus. If that’s you, you’re probably already a little intimidated by the Bible. There’s a lot in it that sounds strange and isn’t easy to understand. Trust me, I know how you feel. When I came to believe in Jesus as a teenager I knew next to nothing about the Bible. I had heard of Jesus, Noah, and Adam and Eve. That was it. This is a book I wish someone had handed me right after I embraced the gospel. It would have helped me make sense of the story of the Bible and some pretty important concepts. I believe it will do that for you.
The second reader I have in view is the person who has known Jesus for a while, but who somehow feels “stuck.” You believe in Jesus, you’ve been engaged in church for a while (maybe a long time). But you have this nagging sense that there must be more to it all—there just has to be more to the Bible than what you’ve picked up on to this point. You feel a little lost when it comes to what it really means to follow Jesus. There has to be more to that than Sunday worship, hanging out with Christian friends, and getting involved in groups at church. I want you to know that your instincts are correct. This book will help you move forward.
It may sound contradictory, but this book aims to introduce (or perhaps re-introduce) some basic but important ideas to smart people. I always assume my readers are intelligent. For some of you, this book will help you re-learn some things in fresh ways. For others, just beginning, we all have to start somewhere. So here we are.
I am hoping this book prepares readers to move on to some other books I have written. After you finish this book, I recommend moving on to Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches about the Unseen World—And Why It Matters. For English readers that book is available online, either through Amazon.com or the publisher, Lexham Press. There are also a number of free videos online where I discuss some of the important concepts in this book. For readers of other languages, that book is free for download at https://www.miqlat.org/translations-of-supernatural.htm.
After reading Supernatural I hope readers graduate to several other books I’ve written that demonstrate there’s a lot more to learn about the Bible and God than what you might hear in church: I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible; The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching Scripture on Its Own Terms; and The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible.
I’m also hoping you’ll all become listeners to my Naked Bible Podcast. The name reflects my goal of giving listeners biblical content in its own, original ancient context, free from modern denominational filters and assumptions based on modern Western paradigms. I care only about what the biblical text, understood in its own context, can sustain—not what traditions have said about the text. Every month hundreds of thousands of listeners learn to read the Bible again for the first time. The thrill of discovery is something every believer should experience with regularity. That’s why I do what I do.
Thanks for reading this!
What Does God Want?
Michael S. Heiser