Restoring the Foundations

Many of us were handed the Bible already sorted. A list of proof texts. A set of doctrines to defend. A creed or a publication that told us, before we ever opened the book, what each verse was allowed to mean.

Restoring the Foundations sets those aside and reads the Bible the way it presents itself: as one unfolding story, from God's very good creation to the new creation where "God's dwelling is with people" (Revelation 21:3).

In fourteen studies, you will trace that story step by step:

• How to read the Bible as one story, the way Jesus and the apostles read it
• The one God, the Father, and the very good world he made
• What went wrong, and the first promise of rescue
• Noah, Abraham, and the promises that shape everything after
• The exodus, Sinai, the land, and God's oath to David
• Exile, and the prophets' hope of a new covenant
• Jesus the Messiah: his life, his cross, and his resurrection
• The gift of the Spirit, the Good News, and how to respond
• One people from Israel and the nations
• The King's return, the resurrection, the judgment, and the new creation

Honest answers to hard questions. Along the way, the book takes up teachings many readers were given and tests each one against Scripture:

• the Trinity;
• an immortal soul;
• eternal torment;
• going to heaven or hell at death;
• whether the church replaced Israel;
• teachings familiar to readers from a Jehovah's Witness background: that Jesus is Michael the archangel, that he was raised as a spirit, that his invisible presence began in 1914, and the place of the 144,000.

Each teaching is stated fairly, its strongest verses are weighed in context, and the answer comes from the text itself.

Built so you can check everything.

• Every Scripture quotation is from the World English Bible and can be checked word for word.
• Each chapter separates what the text says from what we conclude, and labels our conclusions so you can test them.
• Where Scripture is silent, the book says so.
• A full Scripture index lists every passage cited.

For personal study or small groups. Each chapter ends with passages to read and questions to discuss, so a group can work through one study a week with an ordinary Bible open.

You do not need to trust us. You need a Bible and a willingness to check.