Most Christians don’t quite know what to do with the first half of the Bible. Some are fascinated by the historical sweep of the Old Testament. Others are blessed by its poetry. Still others focus on its prophecies. But what are the heart and soul of the Old Testament?

In From Creation to the Cross, Al Baylis is a guide who shares with us his love for, and profound understanding of, the Old Testament. He walks us through the Old Testament, pointing out along the way perspectives and insights that leave us with a new, personal understanding of these thirty-nine books — and more importantly, of the God of the Old Testament, who lovingly prepared the way before sending his Son.

So maybe you get a sense for where this book is coming from. I would recommend it for anyone interested in studying the Old Testament in a fresh way (it was written for a wide audience, it is an ideal book even for home Bible studies — it even has questions at the end of each chapter). Baylis is a great Bible teacher, he taught one of my favorite classes in seminary — New Testament Usage of the Old Testament, a seminar class where we exhaustively worked through New Testament books, looked at all that book’s quotations and allusions of the Old Testament; and learned how to study the Bible in that way. I hope all of the ensuing posts engender you to pick your Bibles in an excited way; and maybe you might be encouraged even to go and get this book (“From Creation to the Cross”).