• Home
• Catalog
• Blog
• Training
• Support
• About
• Cart
• My Account

What Does the Lord Require?: A Guide for Preaching and Teaching Biblical Ethics

View a sample

$19.95

Add to Shopping Cart

This product is an electronic addition to your WORDsearch or Bible Explorer program. This is not a physical book or a stand-alone program. Click here to get Bible Explorer for free.

"This series of studies will prove an invaluable tool to any Christian leader and will leave every thinking believer, even if not in agreement with all Dr. Kaiser's conclusions on every issue, sharing the Jubilee Centre's desire to explore further the continued relevance of biblical principles to the social, economic, and political questions facing modern society."

—John Hayward, executive director, Jubilee Centre, Cambridge, England

"In today's churches, many ethical pronouncements are made without firm biblical grounding, and many biblical sermons are preached without concrete application to the issues of the day. This book will help preachers and teachers speak to the ethical challenges facing the church from an informed perspective rooted in sound biblical theology and solid scholarship. I heartily recommend it."

—John Jefferson Davis, professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

"Walt Kaiser is the right person to write this book. The work reveals a lifetime of experience in the Scriptures, in the classroom, and in churches. Kaiser's strategy of working primarily with one or two focal texts in relation to each ethical issue addressed is a unique and valuable aspect of the book. His close adherence to the biblical text offers a fine model for expository preaching and teaching. This work will serve well as a textbook for college- and seminary-level ethics courses and as a trustworthy guide for pastors, lay leaders, and all ministry professionals who desire to apply faithfully the texts of Scripture to many of today's crucial ethical issues. I highly recommend this superb volume and expect it will have a long and useful life."

—Robert V. Rakestraw, emeritus professor of theology, Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota

"Many people feel overwhelmed by the number and complexity of the moral questions we face. And with people knowing less of God's Word, the need for accurate biblical guidance for navigating today's ethical dilemmas has never been greater. Thankfully, Walter Kaiser fills the void by clearly pointing us back to our biblical roots for moral guidance and by unpacking the meaning and implications of central teaching passages from the Bible. Kaiser has done it again!"

—David K. Clark, Master of Arts in Christian Thought, Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota

The situational ethics made popular in the 1960s teach that 'all we need is love.' Loving is how we should be, but it does not tell us what to do. A biblical ethic can provide guidance and begins with the light of Scripture. But how applicable is the Bible's moral standard to the complex issues we face today, such as stem cell research, euthanasia, racism, gambling, and environmental care? And how does a person use Scripture in making or evaluating ethical decisions?

Trusted Bible scholar and teacher Walter Kaiser answers these questions by connecting eighteen key teaching Scriptures to eighteen tough ethical issues, including, for example, poverty with Isaiah 58, genetic engineering with Genesis 1:26-30 and 2:15-25, substance abuse with Proverbs 23:29-35, cohabitation with 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, and war with Deuteronomy 20:1-20 and Romans 13:1-7. Through authoritative teaching from Scripture, suggested expositional outlines, and insights from years of teaching this material at Gordon-Conwell and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Kaiser demonstrates how to connect Scripture to ethical issues and train congregations to think biblically about ethics. The result is a vital text for teaching pastors, a stimulating resource and guide for preaching, and a foundation for developing Bible studies.

About the Author

Walter Christian Kaiser, Jr. was born into a German Baptist home in Folcroft, Pennsylvania in 1933. Kaiser entered Wheaton College in 1951. While at Wheaton he majored in Bible and minored in Greek and philosophy. Kaiser worked his way through both college and seminary, still finding time to sing in the chapel choir and to teach in Sunday schools on Chicago’s South Side.

By his own reckoning, Kaiser’s interest in the Old Testament was first sparked by a high school biology class in which the Genesis account was kindly, but firmly, debunked. When Kaiser dared to voice another opinion, he was challenged to do a report that would convince his teacher otherwise. Undaunted, Kaiser prepared a forty-page paper complete with anthropological drawings and bibliography. His interest in the Old Testament continued while at Wheaton College. During his last year, in addition to teaching two senior apologetics courses at Wheaton College, Kaiser served as assistant pastor at the Geneva Baptist Church.

After graduating from Wheaton Graduate School in 1958, Kaiser taught full-time at Wheaton College. During the summer months he pursued further graduate studies in Old Testament and ancient history at Brandeis University. His course of study at Brandeis included Middle and Late Egyptian hieroglyphics, Ugaritic, Homeric Greek, biblical Hebrew, Old Babylonian cuneiform, Assyrian cuneiform, and the history and archeology of the ancient Near Eastern empires.

In the late fall of 1963, Kaiser was asked to teach a class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In the fall of 1966 he joined the Trinity faculty on a full-time basis. In 1980 Kaiser assumed the responsibilities of vice president and academic dean of Trinity and continued in that office until June of 1992. In the fall of 1993 he accepted and invitation from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to serve as the first Colman M. Mockler Distinguished Professor of Old Testament. In 1997 Kaiser assumed the presidency of Gordon-Conwell while retaining the Mockler chair. Kaiser retired from the presidency of Gordon-Conwell on July 1, 2006. Currently he is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts.