Books by G.K. Beale

[Once4all]

I read two books written by G. K. Beale, both of which I highly recommend. They are The Temple and the Church's Mission and We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry.

The second book is the smaller of the two, so if you wanted to ease into Beale to see if you like his writing before tackling the larger work, try that one first.

Beale has also written a Revelation commentary, but he's not a preterist. I believe he is an Idealist. Even so, I'd love to have that book, too, but that one is a bit pricey.

In The Temple and the Church's Mission, Beale makes the case for many types of the Temple portrayed in Scripture, with the Garden of Eden being the earliest. The common understanding is that the tabernacle in the wilderness and the constructed, permanent temples were types of the true temple, the Body of Christ, but Beale makes a very strong case from Scripture for others.

We Become What We Worship is about exactly what the title says. He shows from Scripture how the people become spiritually deaf, dumb, and blind, just like the lifeless idols they worship.

Bev

[Once4all]

Nov 7, 2009 20:22:53 GMT -5 MoGrace2U said:

Bev,
Amazon had 4 reviews on Beale's book on idolatry. Which is not a subject it seems many want to address let alone talk about. I thought all the reviews were good - could you be more specific on what you found good or not?

Hi Robin. One thing I like is that Beale does a lot of scripture comparisons. One method is he'll use tables showing where the same concept is repeated in different books of the Bible. He can sometimes be repetitive, but there is usually good reason for it. Personally, I'd rather have some repetition than to be referred back to some other place in the book (because in most cases, I won't actually go back to look, but just keep forging ahead).

One thing the book is not is a contemporary handling of the issue of idolatry. Beale has about 10 pages in his concluding chapter of this 300-page book that addresses contemporary issues of idolatry (materialism, television, that sort of thing). So this is not a mass market book for the average Christian. It is for sure a Bible study of a focused topic.

He talks a lot about the "image of God" and what that means. How idolatry is exchanging the image of God for the image of an idol.

There's a few pages where he talks about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. I make notes on one of the blank pages in the front of the book with references and page numbers to things I found interesting. I'd have to go back and re-read the pages (219-221) to find out specifically why I wrote this note, but I wrote, "Resurrection of your new man = spiritual = not "end time." So something Beale wrote caused me to make that connection, but I know he's not a preterist, so I'm sure it was my own conclusion from looking at his text through preterist eyes.

That's all I've got for now.

Bev