{"id":52493,"date":"2022-12-05T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.olivetree.com\/blog\/?p=52493"},"modified":"2025-03-21T12:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T19:37:03","slug":"look-inside-christian-basics-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olivetree.com\/blog\/look-inside-christian-basics-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Look Inside: Christian Basics Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here’s a guest post from author and pastor Michael Beaumont<\/a> on the Christian Basics Bible<\/a>. Keep reading to learn more about this excellent resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHY A ‘CHRISTIAN BASICS BIBLE’?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For three simple reasons. First<\/strong>, there are more and more people coming to faith in Christ in the West with little or no church or Christian background, and utterly devoid of Christian language and ideas; so the need for them to have a Bible they can actually understand and start to come to grips with is more needed than ever before. Second<\/strong>, there are people who aren\u2019t yet Christians who are searching, but who find traditional Bibles difficult to read and understand. Third<\/strong>, because there are many people who became Christians years ago but who somehow missed out on some of the basic building-blocks of the faith along the way and need help to go back and put those building-blocks in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this is where the Christian Basics Bible<\/a> comes in. \u201cBasics\u201d, not because it is simplistic or stripped back in any way, but because it tries to help people to get hold of the very basics of the Christian life and to get into loving this life-changing book and the One it leads us to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT EDITION IS IT BASED ON?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Because of its target audience, Christian Basics Bible<\/a> is built around the highly readable and accessible New Living Translation<\/a>. While editions like ESV, NIV and NASB are fantastic for people who have been Christians for some time and who really want to dig deeper into God\u2019s Word, it\u2019s sometimes easy for us to forget how alien our \u201creligious\u201d language is to most people today. NLT therefore seeks to bring the truth of God\u2019s eternal Word, using the principle of dynamic equivalence, but in the language of today. If after a couple of years of using Christian Basics Bible<\/a>, readers feel the \u201cbasics\u201d are now in place and they are ready to move on to one of these other editions\u2019 Study Bibles, then none will be more pleased than CBB\u2019s authors, for they will feel their work is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT\u2019S INSIDE IT?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Christians Basics Bible<\/a> is full of helpful notes and introductions, all written in non-religious, non-technical language for people who have little or no knowledge of the Bible, or who grew up in traditions where the Bible found little place. We assume nothing in it, so you can read it without knowing who the Bible\u2019s key characters are, or what the significance of certain events was, or what the overall storyline of the Bible is all about. We\u2019ve done our best to explain everything and to set things in their historical context, yet to show how and why they apply to life today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the notes and comments are accessed in the Resource Guide<\/a>. They are in blue font, so it\u2019s really easy to see the contrast between the \u201cBible\u201d and the \u201ccomments\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each of the Bible\u2019s 66 books begins with four key features:<\/p>\n\n\n\n