Showing results by author "Bill Creasy" in All Categories

Study through the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, in one year! This "flagship" Logos course grew out of Dr. Creasy's year-long UCLA program, "The English Bible as Literature." One of the most highly rated courses on campus, "The English Bible as Literature" placed Dr. Creasy among the top 2% of UCLA teaching faculty for over 20 years!

Although Matthew may not be the first written Gospel, like Isaiah it is positioned first in its sequence of four Gospels. Opening with a 42-generation genealogy, Matthew reminds us of the linear nature of God’s plan, and Matthew forms a link—a swinging door—between the Old and New Testaments. Matthew is a Jew writing for a Jewish audience, and his Gospel provides our first perspective on the birth and public ministry of Jesus Christ. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he leads us through this dazzling work.

Seventy-three of the 150 psalms are traditionally ascribed to David. As we read the "Davidic Psalms," we see deeply into David's heart as he struggles with God, with others and with himself. These psalms are deeply moving and often, brutally honest.

With Moses dead, Israel stands on the threshold of the Promised Land, looking to Joshua for leadership. Join Logos Bible Study as Dr. Bill Creasy takes us across the Jordan River and into the land of “milk and honey” in a brutal conquest - a campaign of extermination that raises profound moral and ethical questions in its day, as well as in ours.

Peter and Paul were close associates, and Peter had read many of Paul's writings, some of which, he says “are hard to understand”. Peter was a commercial fisherman, not a scholar like Paul. Nonetheless, Peter has in mind in the early 60s to write an epistle addressing a number of important issues - but he doesn’t feel rhetorically equipped to do so. Enter Paul’s associate, Silas. Peter says, “With the help of Silas I have written this letter.” And what a letter it is!

Some think Leviticus is a “boring” book, yet it springs to life with the masterful storytelling skills of Dr. Bill Creasy. Listen as he weaves the texture, tone, and color of daily Israelite life during this amazing period of biblical history. With its emphasis on personal holiness, atonement, and sacrifice for sins, Leviticus separates the Israelites from their surrounding culture, calling them to be holy, as God is holy.

Jesus’ entire public ministry leads to his death, burial and resurrection. Indeed, Jesus tells us himself that he came “to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20: 28). We often are given the impression that Jesus was the innocent victim of corrupt religious authority and political intrigue. That is wrong. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he left Galilee for Jerusalem on Passover in the third year of his ministry.

In Joshua we conquer the land; in Judges we settle it. This book recounts the chaotic downward spiral of a people who turn away from God. Not a nation, but a loose confederation of 12 tribes, Israel spirals downward from a people obeying God to one that turns their back on him, a nation in which everyone “does that which is right in his own eyes.” By the end of Judges, Israel is in total apostasy—and God’s plan of salvation seems to have vanished.

Seventy-three of the 150 psalms are traditionally ascribed to David. As we read the "Davidic Psalms," we see deeply into David's heart as he struggles with God, with others and with himself. These psalms are deeply moving and often, brutally honest.

The Psalms have been the prayer book of Israel for the past 3,000 years and the prayer book of the church for the past 2,000 years. The Psalms explore every possible response we can have to God, from the highest awe to the deepest love, from the darkest despair to icy anger. In the Psalms, we join David as we plumb the very depths of our hearts in our relationship with God. Join Logos Bible Study as Dr. Bill Creasy explores the Psalms, a journey through the poetry of experience.

Lamentations is Jeremiah’s eyewitness account of the terrible suffering of a people who watch priest and prophet killed in the temple and are driven in desperation to “eat their own children”. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he explores the five acrostic poems that compose the book of Lamentations.

As a church born in the flames of persecution, the church at Thessalonica has several very important questions to ask Paul - especially about the Lord’s return - and Paul addresses these questions in 1 Thessalonians. Enjoy the rich discussion Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy brings to this book as he emphasizes Paul’s words of faith, hope, and love.

Written considerably later that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), John takes a very different approach to the Gospel story. Traditionally attributed to the "Beloved Apostle" John, this Gospel doesn’t give us yet another version of the events in Jesus’ public ministry; John illustrates what those events mean in light of 60 years of reflection upon them. The Gospel according to John is a brilliant book, and it offers us a profoundly intimate glimpse into the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Imitation of Christ is one of the great spiritual classics of Christianity. Dr. Creasy's new reading of Thomas A Kempis' 1441 Latin Autograph Manuscript has become "the standard translation of this spiritual classic." The printed trade edition has been a best seller and was chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection. It remains an essential spiritual work for contemporary readers. This audio version read by Don Ranson captures the intimacy and depth of this superb translation.

Dr. Creasy has noted on many occasions that the Bible—in its final, finished form—is a unified literary work that is linear in structure; its main character is God; its conflict is sin; and its theme is redemption. Viewing the Bible from this perspective, the curtain rises on our story in Genesis 1, and it falls in Revelation 22. From a literary perspective, Revelation is the final chapter in a sprawling 2,000 page, 66-chapter story.

Prophets are emphatically not seers who gaze into the future and predict far-off events; they are God’s spokesmen who always speak into their own historical context. Sometimes what they say may foreshadow messianic or “end time” events, but they always have an immediate historical reference. Understanding a prophet’s historical context is essential to understanding his message. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy in this dazzling exposition of Isaiah, the first of the major prophets.

For Paul, Corinth was nothing but trouble. In the winter of A.D. 54, a delegation from Corinth arrives in Ephesus to meet with Paul. They inform Paul that the church in Corinth has (1) developed factions and divisions among the believers, and that (2) believers are suing one another in the secular courts, and that (3) rampant sexual immorality is spreading throughout the church. In 1 Corinthians Paul addresses each of these issues.

In Genesis the curtain rises on our story. Genesis introduces most of the major themes in the Bible. Listen closely as Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy takes you through the story of creation, the fall of man, grace, atonement, faith, justification, redemption and much more in this extraordinary story of beginnings.

Although remembered as a stunningly successful king, Solomon is the Bible’s greatest failure in the end. And in Ecclesiastes, he admits it. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he explores Ecclesiastes, a study of Solomon in sharp contrast to his father, David.

Read through a Christian interpretative lens, Daniel foreshadows the coming of the Messiah as well as the “end time” events in the book of Revelation. Daniel is a very important book for Jesus, who draws his self-referential title “Son of Man” from Daniel 7:13-14; who quotes directly from Daniel 12 in the Olivet Discourse; and who seals his “guilty” verdict before Jerusalem’s religious leaders by reference to the book of Daniel.