Showing results by author "Bill Creasy" in All Categories

The Book of Micah is a complex mixture of judgment and hope. God is a god of justice, as well as a god of love, and genuine peace cannot come until justice prevails on earth. Micah’s message of judgment culminates in the redemption of Israel and of all humanity, but a fearful judgment must come first. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he explains how judgment and hope are intimately intertwined in the plan of salvation.

As Proverbs fits squarely into the genre of “advice to a son” literature, so the Song of Songs fits squarely into the genre of erotic love poetry. Traditionally read as an allegory of God’s love for Israel or of Christ’s love for the Church, Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy explores the Song of Songs as what it is, first and foremost: an erotic love poem written by Solomon in the final years of his life, a poem tinged with deep regret and longing.

In Ezra we witness the exiles’ return to rebuild the temple. Destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the temple is rebuilt and dedicated in 516 B.C. But it is nothing like the fabulous temple Solomon built. In fact, when those who had seen Solomon’s temple see the second temple, they weep at its inadequacy!

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.

Logos Bible Study presents another masterful presentation of a how a divided kingdom will surely fall. Join Dr. Bill Creasy as he guides us across the landscape of a broken nation ruled by evil kings, the prophets who confront them, and the idolatrous worshippers who turn their backs on God. In the end, both Israel and Judah fall into captivity, and once again it seems that God’s plan of salvation has come to an end.

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.

Written during a period of intense persecution under the Roman emperor Nero in 64-68 B.C., Mark offers an urgent message for a community in crisis. With its fast start (“Beginning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God... as it is written in Isaiah the prophet”), Mark hits the ground running, and he doesn’t slow down until the final episode at the end, in which the women who see Jesus’ empty tomb say nothing, for they were terrified." Mark’s Gospel is a clarion call to action. Master story teller, Dr. Bill Creasy, sounds the trumpet!

Join Logos Bible Study as we continue the story of redemption. As told by Dr. Bill Creasy, Israel falls into the cruel bondage of slavery in Egypt. And it is no accident: God had said to Abraham 500 years earlier that his descendants would be “enslaved and mistreated four hundred years”.

In the Bible’s longest soliloquy, Moses imparts his final thoughts to the people of Israel. Deuteronomy is not a “repetition” of the Law, but a retelling of it to a new audience, on the backside of 40 years of experience. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as we listen to Moses address a new generation of God’s people on the plains of Jericho.

God sends Amos to the northern kingdom of Israel to prophecy against it. Confronting the king and his priests, Amos tells the leaders precisely what will happen if they do not return to God: the northern kingdom of Israel will be destroyed by the Assyrians, and the high priest’s wife will become a prostitute in the city! Join Logos Bible’s Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he highlights the social, political, and historical milieu of the era in which this most unlikely of prophets speaks.

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.

Joel may be the earliest of the writing prophets; if he is, then he introduces the term “the Day of the Lord” as a reference to a set of final, catastrophic events that will befall Israel—and indeed all humanity in the “end times.” Illustrating his message with reference to a dreadful locust plague that occurred in the past, we shudder as God makes clear that if Israel does not repent something much greater than a locust plague will occur.

The story of David continues in 2 Samuel. With the death of Saul and his three sons at Mt. Gilboa, the door opens for David to become king. But David has, in fact, no legitimate claim to the kingship; indeed, he has been working for a decade as a mercenary for Israel’s Philistine enemies. Listen as Dr. Bill Creasy follows David from the triumph of his kingship to his colossal fall and ultimate reconciliation with God.

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.

As Paul writes his last will and testament in 2 Timothy, so Peter writes his in 2 Peter. It is A.D. 68, and Peter, like Paul, has been arrested during the persecutions under Nero, then tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. In his second epistle, Peter urges us to remember the foundational teachings of the Gospel and not to be led astray by false teachers and those who serve their own interests, rather than Christ’s. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as we bid farewell to Peter and listen to his last words of encouragement.

Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of those who return to Judah to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem. In fact, little more than 40,000 people return, only about 10% of the Jewish population in the Persian Empire. Esther tells the story of the 90% who remain behind. This is a fabulous story - and Dr. Creasy tells us the “X-rated” version!

Timothy joins Paul and Silas at the beginning of the second missionary journey, A.D. 50-52. A young man from Lystra, Timothy is the “Macgiver” of the Bible—he can fix anything with duct tape and a can of WD-40! This very resourceful young man becomes Paul’s protégé, but on assignment to Ephesus, Timothy finds himself in deep water, well over his head. Paul writes 1 Timothy to offer Timothy guidance and encouragement.

As we rebuild the temple in Ezra, so we rebuild Jerusalem in Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah work together, priest and layman, to complete God’s work—and you will not find two more different characters in all of Scripture. When Ezra learns that the Israelite leaders have been unfaithful to God, he sits on the ground appalled and pulls out the hairs of his beard; when Nehemiah hears the same message, he gathers the leaders together, sits them on the ground, and he pulls out the hairs of their beards!

Paul sends 1 Corinthians to the church at Corinth, and when they receive the epistle, they are livid! They immediately write back to Paul in very harsh terms (the letter from Corinth has been lost, but Paul alludes to it in 2 Corinthians), prompting Paul to get on board ship in Ephesus, sail to Corinth and address the church in person. It is not a pleasant visit. When Paul gets back to Ephesus he has second thoughts about his “short but painful visit”, and he writes 2 Corinthians to smooth things over.

Working hand-in-hand with the prophet Haggai, Zechariah also encourages the people to resume work on the temple in 520 B.C.; but unlike Haggai, Zechariah extends his prophecy to foreshadow future messianic and end-time events. Like Ezekiel, Zechariah has several “weird” visions, including that of an ugly woman in a flying bushel basket! Listen as Dr. Bill Creasy of Logos Bible Study explores this fascinating book.