Combining three incredibly important books for the teaching of the Church, 'The Goldsworthy Trilogy' offers a complete and comprehensive guide to understanding the gospel throughout the whole of Scripture. Hugely popular, this collection is being released in this special format and will be an essential guide to be used again and again for those who seek to understand the Bible in the light of who Jesus is. Straightforward in his approach, Goldsworthy looks at how the Bible can only be understood through the eyes of the gospel. This being the base of his interpretation, he studies the Old Testament and its application for today, Israel's wisdom literature and its role in the Christian life and the purpose and contemporary relevance of the book of Revelation. This trilogy follows the Bible chronologically to give the reader a complete overview of evangelical biblical interpretation forming an essential one-stop reference that will last a lifetime.
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A collection that brings together the three acclaimed books 'Gospel & Kingdom', 'Gospel & Wisdom' and 'The Gospel in Revelation'.
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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a child growing up, my parents taught me a great deal of what theologians would call systematic theology. That means, how do you order the Christian religion. This has a most important application: evangelism and discipleship.
However, there is another side of the coin: Biblical theology. Biblical and systematic theology are not enemies, nor is one more important than the other. However, if you look at the order of events in evangelism or discipleship, Biblical theology comes first. Biblical theology is concerned about rightly extracting meaning out of the Bible. This process has many facets, including an understanding of the culture of the times, Greek and Hebrew grammar, and understanding the writers' intentions.
However, there is another side of the coin: Biblical theology. Biblical and systematic theology are not enemies, nor is one more important than the other. However, if you look at the order of events in evangelism or discipleship, Biblical theology comes first. Biblical theology is concerned about rightly extracting meaning out of the Bible. This process has many facets, including an understanding of the culture of the times, Greek and Hebrew grammar, and understanding the writers' intentions.
Graeme Goldsworthy has correctly identified the whole flow of the Bible: it's _all_ about Christ. Some people mention this fact in different ways. One common form is say that the Bible is the history of redemption. Another form is to say that the Bible is all about covenants: God's dealings with men. Either way, it still comes down to Christ.
One example of this is found on page 28, in which Goldsworthy tries to debunk (at least partially) what he calls the "character study approach" to the Old Testament. In that approach, as an example, we study the story of David and Goliath in order to make sure we know that, just like David, we must rely on God's strength and power to conquer our Goliaths (which happen to correspond to whatever random collection of sins we want it to be). In contrast to this character study approach, Goldsworthy puts forth the importance of the context of the passage, which happens to be the whole Bible. In that approach, we should not identify ourselves with David, but with the ordinary Israelite soldiers on the sidelines who watch David, the type (which means pattern or foreshadow) of Christ, deliver and save Israel (which in the New Testament corresponds to the church). This example really broadened my view of the Bible in a number of ways. Certain passages in the Old Testament, which seemed "dry" or "boring", really have their voice in speaking about Christ.
I would highly recommend this book!
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a review of Gospel and Kingdom, one of the three books in The Goldworthy Trilogy. Gospel and Kingdom is an immensely helpful, gospel-laden, theologically-rich, lay-friendly feast in this short book on the Old Testament. Writing from "a deep concern for the recovery of the Old Testament as part of the Christian Bible" (5), Goldsworthy masterfully demonstrates how the gospel of Christ provides the key to interpreting the three-quarters of the Bible that most Christians tend to neglect.
In his Introduction, Goldsworthy rehearses a scene that most of us have probably experienced - a young man faced with the challenge of sharing a Bible lesson to a group of children during a Sunday School Anniversary service. The big question is how to apply a familiar story from the Old Testament to his young hearers. He has recently seen someone tell the story of David and Goliath, but he was troubled with the application. "The fellow dressed up as Goliath had progressively revealed a list of childhood sins by peeling cardboard strips off his breastplate one by one, as the speaker explained the kind of `Goliaths' we all have to meet. Then a strapping young David appeared on cue, and produced his arsenal - a sling labeled `faith' and five stones listed as `obedience', `service', `Bible reading', `prayer', and `fellowship'" (8). Was this a legitimate application of the familiar story? We've all faced similar quandaries and, if we've given the least amount of reflection to it, have wrestled with such questions. "Every time we read the Bible we meet this problem of the right application of the text to us" (9). To help us navigate the choppy waters of Old Testament interpretation is the purpose of this book.
Chapter one begins with a more basic question: why read the Old Testament at all? There are multiple reasons why most people do not: on the left, there are those who view the Old Testament as sub-Christian and believing that it is merely the record of man's natural religious evolution, have written it off as irrelevant. On the right are those who are desperately trying to reconcile a high view of Scripture with disturbing things as imprecatory Psalms, Israel's slaughtering of enemy nations, and the imposition of the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes in the Mosaic law. Still others avoid the Old Testament because they find it "dry and uninteresting . . . wordy, cumbersome, and confusing" (12). To add the confusion are many "false trails" (13) that lead to faulty interpretation, especially the "allegorical method" of the early and medieval church (the author mentions W. Ian Thomas's If I Perish, I Perish as a modern example). Help, however, can be found from the Protestant Reformers whose rallying-cry of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) helped believers begin to see the value of the Old Testament and its "significance for Christians because of its organic relationship to Christ" (17).
This brief foray into history is concluded with the author's contention that "the most compelling reason for Christians to read and study the Old Testament lies in the New Testament" (18). The New Testament, with at least 1600 direct quotations from Old, and several thousand more allusions, "presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament." The attitude of Christ Himself towards the Old Testament must determine our own. "The more we study the New Testament the more apparent becomes the conviction shared by Jesus, the apostles and the New Testament writers in general: namely, the Old Testament is Scripture and Scripture points to Christ" (19-20). Just how the Old Testament points to Christ is what we must learn. The New Testament itself will govern our steps as we remember that "the process of redemptive history finds its goal, its focus and fulfillment in the person and work of Christ. This is the principle underlying this book" (20).
Chapter two focuses on the importance of "Bridging the Gap" between the ancient text and the contemporary world. We must bridge the gap of time and culture, but also of theology. But the gap widens with each move backwards in redemptive history, so that the gap between us and pre-Pentecost believers is greater than the gap between us and Paul, while the gap between us and the pre-crucifixion disciples is greater still, and the gap between us and Old Testament Israel greatest of all. The upshot of this is that ways of handling the Old Testament which ignore its redemptive-historical context are inherently dangerous. For example, we should be wary of character studies which simply consist of observing behavior and exhorting people to learn from those observations. "We must not view these recorded events as if they were a mere succession of events from which we draw little moral lessons or example for life" (25). For example, to apply the story of David and Goliath with the exhortation that believers should overcome the giants in their lives as David did Goliath ignores a significant contextual consideration - namely that "David is the one who, immediately prior to the Goliath episode (I Samuel 17), is shown to be God's anointed king . . .So when it comes to his slaying of Goliath it is as the unique anointed one of God that he wins the battle" (27-28). This changes the application. Rather than identifying ourselves with David, we should identify ourselves with soldiers who watched the anointed king battle in their stead. "The same point may be made about the lives of all the biblical characters who have some distinct office bestowed on them by God. If their achievement is that of any godly man the lesson is clear, but if it is the achievement of a prophet, a judge or the messianic king, then to that extent it no more applies to the people of God in general than does the unique work of Jesus as the Christ" (28). This then raises the question of "what governs the right approach to the meaning of the Bible" (28). What principles will help us avoid "flights of fancy" in our interpretation? Is there a unifying theme to Scripture, and if so, what is the structure of that theme? Discovering that theme and structure is all important and determines everything else in our interpretation. "If the unity of the Bible has any meaning at all, the real context of any Bible text is the whole Bible" (31).
"What is the Old Testament?" asks Goldsworthy (chapter three). It is three things: literature (with many different genres), history (although not a simple history of Israel, or the history of ancient religion), and theology. In fact, it is "theological history" (41) which is governed by God's purpose and comes to us as "a part of God's word to man" (41). The Old Testament "records how God speaks to man declaring his purposes and intentions, how he acts on the on the basis of his word, and how he then interprets the events of his word" (42). The theology controls the history. "Theology means the knowledge of God as God himself reveals it" (42). The task of the interpreter is to discover that theology. "But we may not separate what God says and does from the context in which he says it and does it (the history) nor from the way he says what he does (the literary record)" (43). The unity of the Bible's message must take into account both its complexity and its diversity.
The fourth chapter discusses "Biblical Theology and the History of Redemption." Goldsworthy reminds the reader that biblical theology is to be distinguished from Christian doctrine. "Christian doctrine (systematic or dogmatic theology) involves a systematic gathering of the doctrines of the Bible under various topics to form a body of definitive Christian teaching" (44-45). This approach is helpful in many ways, but has certain limitations. Since the Bible itself is not a systematized textbook, the discipline of systematic theology necessarily involves the transformation if truth revealed in the dynamic historically-grounded text of Scripture into static, timeless truths. Biblical theology, on the other hand, "follows the movement and process of God's revelation in the Bible" (45). "Biblical theology is not concerned to state the final doctrines which go to make up the content of Christian belief, but rather to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves toward the goal of God's final revelation of his purposes in Jesus Christ" (45). Whereas systematic theology is more concerned with the finished product - a summary of Christian belief - biblical theology seeks to understand the progressive unfolding of truth within the historical context of God's revealed and redemptive word. The Old Testament is to studied, in fact, as "a history of redemption" (46) which progressively moves forward to the goal of "the Kingdom of God" (47). The author then highlights several features of this history of redemption. First, it is progressive, unfolding in "a series of stages, each self-contained, each coming to a climax leading in turn to a new stage" (47). Further, "the history of redemption is incomplete without the New Testament" (47). The Old Testament must be understood in light of the New. Which leads to a third feature, "the history of redemption is to be interpreted" (48). When the biblical text has been understood in its original context (exegesis) and interpreted in light of God's full revelation in Jesus Christ (hermeneutics), then (and only then) can it be rightly applied to the people of God today.
The next chapter is simply profound in its treatment of "The Covenant and the Kingdom of God." In only seven pages, Goldsworthy provides an interpretive compass that will greatly aid any reader to navigate the Old Testament Scriptures. "The Kingdom of God involves: (a) God's people (b) in God's place (c) under God's rule" (53-54). Read more ›
In his Introduction, Goldsworthy rehearses a scene that most of us have probably experienced - a young man faced with the challenge of sharing a Bible lesson to a group of children during a Sunday School Anniversary service. The big question is how to apply a familiar story from the Old Testament to his young hearers. He has recently seen someone tell the story of David and Goliath, but he was troubled with the application. "The fellow dressed up as Goliath had progressively revealed a list of childhood sins by peeling cardboard strips off his breastplate one by one, as the speaker explained the kind of `Goliaths' we all have to meet. Then a strapping young David appeared on cue, and produced his arsenal - a sling labeled `faith' and five stones listed as `obedience', `service', `Bible reading', `prayer', and `fellowship'" (8). Was this a legitimate application of the familiar story? We've all faced similar quandaries and, if we've given the least amount of reflection to it, have wrestled with such questions. "Every time we read the Bible we meet this problem of the right application of the text to us" (9). To help us navigate the choppy waters of Old Testament interpretation is the purpose of this book.
Chapter one begins with a more basic question: why read the Old Testament at all? There are multiple reasons why most people do not: on the left, there are those who view the Old Testament as sub-Christian and believing that it is merely the record of man's natural religious evolution, have written it off as irrelevant. On the right are those who are desperately trying to reconcile a high view of Scripture with disturbing things as imprecatory Psalms, Israel's slaughtering of enemy nations, and the imposition of the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes in the Mosaic law. Still others avoid the Old Testament because they find it "dry and uninteresting . . . wordy, cumbersome, and confusing" (12). To add the confusion are many "false trails" (13) that lead to faulty interpretation, especially the "allegorical method" of the early and medieval church (the author mentions W. Ian Thomas's If I Perish, I Perish as a modern example). Help, however, can be found from the Protestant Reformers whose rallying-cry of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) helped believers begin to see the value of the Old Testament and its "significance for Christians because of its organic relationship to Christ" (17).
This brief foray into history is concluded with the author's contention that "the most compelling reason for Christians to read and study the Old Testament lies in the New Testament" (18). The New Testament, with at least 1600 direct quotations from Old, and several thousand more allusions, "presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament." The attitude of Christ Himself towards the Old Testament must determine our own. "The more we study the New Testament the more apparent becomes the conviction shared by Jesus, the apostles and the New Testament writers in general: namely, the Old Testament is Scripture and Scripture points to Christ" (19-20). Just how the Old Testament points to Christ is what we must learn. The New Testament itself will govern our steps as we remember that "the process of redemptive history finds its goal, its focus and fulfillment in the person and work of Christ. This is the principle underlying this book" (20).
Chapter two focuses on the importance of "Bridging the Gap" between the ancient text and the contemporary world. We must bridge the gap of time and culture, but also of theology. But the gap widens with each move backwards in redemptive history, so that the gap between us and pre-Pentecost believers is greater than the gap between us and Paul, while the gap between us and the pre-crucifixion disciples is greater still, and the gap between us and Old Testament Israel greatest of all. The upshot of this is that ways of handling the Old Testament which ignore its redemptive-historical context are inherently dangerous. For example, we should be wary of character studies which simply consist of observing behavior and exhorting people to learn from those observations. "We must not view these recorded events as if they were a mere succession of events from which we draw little moral lessons or example for life" (25). For example, to apply the story of David and Goliath with the exhortation that believers should overcome the giants in their lives as David did Goliath ignores a significant contextual consideration - namely that "David is the one who, immediately prior to the Goliath episode (I Samuel 17), is shown to be God's anointed king . . .So when it comes to his slaying of Goliath it is as the unique anointed one of God that he wins the battle" (27-28). This changes the application. Rather than identifying ourselves with David, we should identify ourselves with soldiers who watched the anointed king battle in their stead. "The same point may be made about the lives of all the biblical characters who have some distinct office bestowed on them by God. If their achievement is that of any godly man the lesson is clear, but if it is the achievement of a prophet, a judge or the messianic king, then to that extent it no more applies to the people of God in general than does the unique work of Jesus as the Christ" (28). This then raises the question of "what governs the right approach to the meaning of the Bible" (28). What principles will help us avoid "flights of fancy" in our interpretation? Is there a unifying theme to Scripture, and if so, what is the structure of that theme? Discovering that theme and structure is all important and determines everything else in our interpretation. "If the unity of the Bible has any meaning at all, the real context of any Bible text is the whole Bible" (31).
"What is the Old Testament?" asks Goldsworthy (chapter three). It is three things: literature (with many different genres), history (although not a simple history of Israel, or the history of ancient religion), and theology. In fact, it is "theological history" (41) which is governed by God's purpose and comes to us as "a part of God's word to man" (41). The Old Testament "records how God speaks to man declaring his purposes and intentions, how he acts on the on the basis of his word, and how he then interprets the events of his word" (42). The theology controls the history. "Theology means the knowledge of God as God himself reveals it" (42). The task of the interpreter is to discover that theology. "But we may not separate what God says and does from the context in which he says it and does it (the history) nor from the way he says what he does (the literary record)" (43). The unity of the Bible's message must take into account both its complexity and its diversity.
The fourth chapter discusses "Biblical Theology and the History of Redemption." Goldsworthy reminds the reader that biblical theology is to be distinguished from Christian doctrine. "Christian doctrine (systematic or dogmatic theology) involves a systematic gathering of the doctrines of the Bible under various topics to form a body of definitive Christian teaching" (44-45). This approach is helpful in many ways, but has certain limitations. Since the Bible itself is not a systematized textbook, the discipline of systematic theology necessarily involves the transformation if truth revealed in the dynamic historically-grounded text of Scripture into static, timeless truths. Biblical theology, on the other hand, "follows the movement and process of God's revelation in the Bible" (45). "Biblical theology is not concerned to state the final doctrines which go to make up the content of Christian belief, but rather to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves toward the goal of God's final revelation of his purposes in Jesus Christ" (45). Whereas systematic theology is more concerned with the finished product - a summary of Christian belief - biblical theology seeks to understand the progressive unfolding of truth within the historical context of God's revealed and redemptive word. The Old Testament is to studied, in fact, as "a history of redemption" (46) which progressively moves forward to the goal of "the Kingdom of God" (47). The author then highlights several features of this history of redemption. First, it is progressive, unfolding in "a series of stages, each self-contained, each coming to a climax leading in turn to a new stage" (47). Further, "the history of redemption is incomplete without the New Testament" (47). The Old Testament must be understood in light of the New. Which leads to a third feature, "the history of redemption is to be interpreted" (48). When the biblical text has been understood in its original context (exegesis) and interpreted in light of God's full revelation in Jesus Christ (hermeneutics), then (and only then) can it be rightly applied to the people of God today.
The next chapter is simply profound in its treatment of "The Covenant and the Kingdom of God." In only seven pages, Goldsworthy provides an interpretive compass that will greatly aid any reader to navigate the Old Testament Scriptures. "The Kingdom of God involves: (a) God's people (b) in God's place (c) under God's rule" (53-54). Read more ›
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you think Goldsworthy has written much better books since these you're wrong. These are fantastic ! I was blown away by the depth he brings out of scripture. He is a skillfull exegete, and has a good handle on the big picture of scripture.
I had previously read his book "According to Plan" and while it too was excellent, there is only so much detail you can put into an overview book before it ceases to be an overview. These books provided the depth I needed.
These books could not be more useful - if there is one thing I could say Goldworthy has opened my eyes to, it is that the Gospel is central in all things. We see everything from Christ. He is the supreme revelation of God himself. All the prophets testify of Him, and he is the one who has fulfilled the prophetic hope.
These books are easy to read, non technical yet surprisingly detailed books on biblical theology. A very worthy addittion to anyones library.
I had previously read his book "According to Plan" and while it too was excellent, there is only so much detail you can put into an overview book before it ceases to be an overview. These books provided the depth I needed.
These books could not be more useful - if there is one thing I could say Goldworthy has opened my eyes to, it is that the Gospel is central in all things. We see everything from Christ. He is the supreme revelation of God himself. All the prophets testify of Him, and he is the one who has fulfilled the prophetic hope.
These books are easy to read, non technical yet surprisingly detailed books on biblical theology. A very worthy addittion to anyones library.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Biblical Theology
Overview of Biblical history, covenant theology, relates Old Testament to New Testament -shows how the gospel is woven through entire Bible -a good study aid for anyone wanting to... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Sharon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Gift
This trilogy is another hit for a Christmas gift. The book combines 3 of Goldsworthy's works. Convenient and practical for storage.
Published 3 months ago by Granny1
5.0 out of 5 stars
bought as a gift for someone else
I bought this book for someone else as gift because they had heard from someone else that it was a good book. I have not read it personally (yet). Read more
Published 3 months ago by algea
5.0 out of 5 stars
theology at its best
For those that are into Covenant Theology should have this book. HIGHly recommend it. A great book for those who love the gospel.
Published 12 months ago by Mr.C
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a good idea!
Happy days somebody has put together G.G works into a single volume that will be invaluable to anyone who wishes to interact with the Bible. Is revelation scary? Read more
Published 23 months ago by Daniel Pollin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview of the Bible and Theology
This is a great book, a collection of three of Graeme Goldsworthy's works. All of them deal with the "Kingdom of God" and are a great resource. Read more
Published on December 23, 2010 by William D. Curnutt
5.0 out of 5 stars
The gospel interprets the Bible.
The gospel interprets the entire bible. This book presents a unique and essential method of hermeneutics; it will either confirm or adjust your soteriology and eschatology. Read more
Published on July 20, 2010 by James A. Gunn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gospel in Revelation
This review is only of the second book, The Gospel in Revelation.
I have been greatly blessed by previous Graeme Goldsworthy books that I've read and I was really... Read more
I have been greatly blessed by previous Graeme Goldsworthy books that I've read and I was really... Read more
Published on April 4, 2010 by Jamie L. Fugate
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly organized and Poorly Supported.
Mr. Goldsworthly has written better as of late, especially his work entitled According to Plan, so this book was a huge disappointment. Read more
Published on December 29, 2005 by Michael V. Baxter
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