Tyler Dawn Rosenquist

Context For Adults Tyler Dawn Rosenquist

Are you tired of being asked tough questions, both by kids and skeptics, about some of the terrible things in the Bible? Are you tired of not having real answers? Don't you wish you understood why Bible people sometimes did terrible things? No one is satisfied with pat answers like, "Well, I know God is good," or "Jesus came to change all that." If we truly believe that God is good and that Jesus is the exact image of the Father, then those answers won't satisfy us - much less anyone else. What if I told you that we can learn the answers to the hard questions by studying ancient Near Eastern law codes and sociology? What if I told you that Western Christianity fundamentally misunderstands the meaning of words like righteous and has misconstrued concepts like kinship? What would you say if I told you that the ancients' concept of family, loyalty, honor, shame, and community was completely different than ours is today? What if, by understanding these ancient beliefs, you could provide concrete answers instead of platitudes to people's questions? And what if by doing so you could offer hope and the reassurance that God is loving and good? When people ask what kind of God would allow slavery, require women to marry their "rapists," or tell parents to stone their children, wouldn't you like to clear up their misconceptions instead of sidestepping the issues? Good questions deserve real answers, and that's why I am here. As I have explored Honor and Shame culture and ancient covenants in previous volumes, this curriculum will be dedicated to the subjects of ancient law, social identity, and kinship relations. This information is going to change forever the way you read your Bible. What you learn here will equip you to answer those "skeptics" whose only real crime is that they are honest about some of the situations in the Bible that are, or seem to be, very disturbing.