Paul R. Williamson – författare

It is a puzzle that while academic research has increased in specialization, the important and complex problems facing humans urgently require a synthesis of understanding. This unique collaboration attempts to address such a problem by bringing together a host of prominent scholars from across the sciences to offer new insights into predicting the future. They demonstrate that long-term trends and short-term incentives need to be understood in order to adopt effective policies, or even to comprehend where we currently stand and the sort of future that awaits us.Developing novel techniques to forecast global conditions, the authors tackle important questions such as: What does the future hold? How can we sustain prosperity? Are we likely to have less war and genocide? Are nuclear weapons destined to spread to unstable countries? What environmental scarcities and conflicts are we likely to face? Each chapter is built around cause and effect relationships based on empirical evidence that creates a unified predictive model of global economic and political conditions. The limits and possibilities of scientific prediction are also explored, as are the physical, biological, and social properties of the global system.This book will have a wide appeal among physical and social scientists interested in the linkages between scientific method and the prediction of future human behavior and global conditions.Contributors: R.D. Alexander, B. Bueno de Mesquita, J.D. Farmer, J. Geanakoplos, J. Holland, S. di Iorio, M.S. Karasik, U. Luterbacher, S.W. Polachek, D. Rohner, G. Schneider, J.D. Singer, D.F. Sprinz, A. Tago, F.W. Wayman, E. Wiegandt, D. Wilkinson, P.R. Williamson, E.O. Wilson

‘This volume is likely to become the stimulus for more than one series of sermons . . . More importantly, it may well stimulate its readers to live life now and die well because they have learned to live with eternity in view, cherishing the blessed promises and consolations of the gospel of Jesus Christ’ (D. A. Carson).Significant aspects of death and the afterlife continue to be debated among evangelical Christians. Paul Williamson surveys the perspectives of our contemporary culture and the biblical world, and then highlights the traditional understanding of the biblical perspective and the issues over which evangelicals have become increasingly polarized.Subsequent chapters explore the controversial areas: what happens immediately after we die; bodily resurrection; a final, universal judgment; the ultimate fate of those who do not receive God’s approval on the last day; and the biblical concept of an eschatological ‘heaven’.Taking care to understand the ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman backgrounds, Williamson works through the most important Old and New Testament passages. He demonstrates that there is considerable exegetical support for the traditional evangelical understanding of death and the afterlife, and raises questions about the basis for the growing popularity of alternative understandings.

This commentary explains the true meaning of the book of Exodus and makes its message plain.Exodus recounts the supreme Old Testament example of the saving acts of God, narrates the instituting of Passover and enshrines the giving of God's law. It portrays Moses as the prototype of all Israel's prophets, and Aaron, the first high priest.Paul Williamson offers a careful and clear treatment of this foundational text, with its overarching focus on the divine-human relationship between the Lord/Yahweh and Israel: Abraham's offspring and heirs to God's promises. This commentary shows how the story and theology of Exodus continues to speak of God's faithfulness to His people today.The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary is designed to help the reader of the Bible understand what the text says and what it means. The Introduction to each book gives a concise but thorough treatment of its authorship, date, original setting and purpose. Following a structural Analysis, the Commentary takes the book section by section, drawing out its main themes, and also comments on individual verses and problems of interpretation.

This commentary explains the true meaning of the book of Exodus and makes its message plain.Exodus recounts the supreme Old Testament example of the saving acts of God, narrates the instituting of Passover and enshrines the giving of God's law. It portrays Moses as the prototype of all Israel's prophets, and Aaron, the first high priest.Paul Williamson offers a careful and clear treatment of this foundational text, with its overarching focus on the divine-human relationship between the Lord/Yahweh and Israel: Abraham's offspring and heirs to God's promises. This commentary shows how the story and theology of Exodus continues to speak of God's faithfulness to His people today.The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary is designed to help the reader of the Bible understand what the text says and what it means. The Introduction to each book gives a concise but thorough treatment of its authorship, date, original setting and purpose. Following a structural Analysis, the Commentary takes the book section by section, drawing out its main themes, and also comments on individual verses and problems of interpretation.

The divine promises to Abraham have long been recognized as a key to the book of Genesis as a whole. But their variety, often noted, also raises literary and theological problems. Why do they differ each time, and how are they related to each other and to the story of Abraham? Williamson focuses on the promises in Genesis 15 and 17, and concludes that they are concerned with two distinct but related issues. Genesis 15 guarantees God's promise to make Abraham into a great nation, while Genesis 17 focuses chiefly on God's promise to mediate blessing (through Abraham) to the nations. The two chapters are connected, however, by the theme of an individual, royal descendant who will come from the nation (Israel) and mediate blessing to all the nations of the earth.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you ... ' (Isaiah 55:3).'Covenant' is a major theme in the Bible, and many Christian thinkers across the centuries have made it the organizing principle by which they understand the Old and New Testaments. The biblical material is undoubtedly plentiful, but some specific texts are also much disputed.In this stimulating overview, Paul Williamson offers fresh readings of many passages that contribute to the theme of covenant, highlights its significance for biblical theology, and explores its role within God's unfolding purpose. He concludes that covenant is essentially 'a solemn commitment, guaranteeing promises undertaken by one or both parties, sealed with an oath', and that its primary function is to advance God's creative purpose of universal blessing, from its inception in the primeval period to its consummation in the new heavens and the new earth.