Tackling the Bible's tough topics

How do you react when you read the Bible for the first time and find creation and floods in the first few chapters? How do you believe in a God of love when there’s so much violence in the Old Testament? As Bible sales are exploding, new readers are encountering tough topics. That’s why Andrew Ollerton pioneered a teaching series at Cardiff City Church to help believers tackle them.

The headline-making news that Bible sales have increased by 134 per cent since 2019 is presenting both a huge opportunity and a challenge for the church.

The Bible has been propelled into pole position as an evangelistic tool for curious seekers, but this has brought them face to face with some extremely tough topics in the Scriptures.

“People start reading from Genesis and find difficult subjects from the get-go,” says author and theologian Andrew Ollerton, who works with the Bible Society.

“There are floods and destruction, violence and killing, then the laws of Moses, animal sacrifices and laws about holding slaves early on.

“Thirty-five per cent of young adults interviewed for the Quiet Revival research said what they read in certain parts of the Bible undermines their faith.”

Addressing the issue

Recognising the problem, Andrew researched and wrote God’s Book – an honest look at the Bible’s seven toughest topics to take readers through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and tackle these subjects head-on.

When Cardi ff City Church pastor Stephen Gibson read it, it resonated with his own desire to create proper space to explore these big issues.

Andrew had developed a teaching series from the book, and Stephen invited him to deliver it at Cardiff.

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