PREPARING FOR YOUR LOGOS BIBLE STUDY ISRAEL TOUR
You’re about to begin a remarkable journey, a pilgrimage to Israel where we will walk “in the footsteps of Jesus.” For many of you, this will be the trip of a lifetime and a profound spiritual experience. It will also be a whole lot of fun! For me, it will be my 64th Israel teaching tour, and the sixth tour in which Msgr. Richard Duncanson has joined me as pastor for the group.
Many of you are my current or former Logos Bible Study students; many are my listeners on Audible.com; and some are new to Logos Bible Study. What we all have in common, though, is a love of Scripture; an intimate, personal relationship with Christ; and a desire to know him and serve him better as a result of this tour.
Several of you have asked me what you might read to better prepare for our adventure together. The more you learn before our tour, the deeper will be your experience, both intellectually and spiritually. Here are a few suggestions:
First, become a subscriber to my website, logosbiblestudy.com. You will then have unlimited access to my Logos “Course Catalogue,” which includes 22 university-level courses (450 video lessons and tons of written material) covering the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, including the Deuterocanonical books (or “Apocrypha”). Work through the course on the Gospel according to Luke and the Gospel according to John, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. That will give you a firm foundation for our tour.
Second, expand your knowledge with additional reading. Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) has written a superb 3-volume work on Jesus, and I highly recommend it:
Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives. New York: Image, 2012.
Jesus of Nazareth: from the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration. New York: Image, 2007.
Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, from the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011.
Three other books are worth reading before our tour, as well:
James Mitchner’s The Source, an epic novel that paints a broad and vivid picture of Israel, from its beginnings through its modern-day history.
John Bright’s A History of Israel, the classic university and seminary textbook on Israel’s Old Testament history. The new 4th edition has an introduction and an updated appendix by William P. Brown.
Israeli journalist Tom Segev’s One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate offers, in my opinion, an insightful, balanced and cogent study on the roots of today’s Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
That will give you a good start. As we get closer to our departure date, I’ll send you more information on our flights, on what to bring and so on. We’ll also have a group orientation on Zoom, where we’ll go over all the details together and you can ask questions of me, Msgr. Richard and our team at Devotion Travel.
Thank you so much for traveling with us. I can’t wait to ‘hit the road” with you! Rest assured that we will move heaven and earth to make our Israel tour safe, secure and efficient, not to mention a profound educational and spiritual experience . . . and a whole lot of fun!
DEVOTION TRAVEL
11111 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 1675 Los Angeles CA 90025
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