Thursday, June 4, 2009

Telling God's Story by Preban Vang and Terry Carter

While I have not been asked to do a review of the book "Telling God's Story" by Preban Vang and Terry Carter, I decided I needed to tell "the world" what a fine job they have done.

Reading about how they decided this type of teaching material was needed helped me to realize that their assessment was certainly correct - at least for myself and almost everyone I know.

I have been in church all my life and a very serious Bible student for the past 40 years. I absolutely love studying under great teachers but none of these have helped me "grasp" the whole picture and understand the continuity of the Bible like these two gifted professors.

At the university they have taught Old Testament and New Testament surveys and tried to cover the various books of the Bible and peruse its history. In the end they found they had failed to help their students make the connection between the individual books and even more so between the two testaments. Their students did not see the story of the Bible as one story beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. This book is a result of this realization. They changed their teaching philosophy. The book serves as a text for a course that takes students through the entire biblical story helping them learn and understand the Bible as one story. As a result, students now leave their classes much better church members who hear sermons more clearly and read their Bibles with a greater understanding of its whole message and purpose.

I would like to see the book taught in our Sunday Schools as an elective course as I believe many would agree it is certainly needed. I also believe that understanding the Bible as one story can help us avoid poor interpretations of individual biblical passages and also help us explain the Bible more effectively to others. I am reading it now for the third time and enjoying discovering more and more treasures.

No comments: