Craig S. Keener, “Apostles Today” YouTube (October 18, 2025).

Pastor John Lathrop says: “At the link you can hear Dr. Craig Keener speak about apostles (about 42 minutes long). In part of his teaching he shares the names of people in church history that he thinks qualify as apostles using Paul’s criteria for apostles.”

James F. Linzey, “International Pentecostal Leaders Minister in Coffeyville, Kansas: ORU Scholars Step into a Century-Old Prophetic Stream in Coffeyville” Christian Newswire (November 12, 2025).

Gordon Govier, “10 Striking Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2025: Research and natural disaster uncovered exciting finds from the ancient world” Christianity Today (December 23, 2025).

Craig S. Keener, “Yes, there IS a Christian genocide in Nigeria” Bible Background (December 28, 2025).

Craig Keener introduces this 26 minute video: “I am not interested in defending the partisan right or left, and that’s not what this is about. The suffering in northern Nigeria didn’t start recently—it’s been going on for decades. I have interviewed many friends from northern Nigeria, plus I depend on reports I received already when I taught there in the 1990s. In some places, there is ‘religious cleansing’ taking place, alongside other terrorist activity.”

Image: Filip Bunkens

Craig Keener, “Differing with John MacArthur on 1 Cor 14” Bible Background (January 5, 2026).

Joy Ren, “Influential Chinese House Church Faces New Crackdown” Christianity Today (January 16, 2026).

Updated on January 21, 2026: “Two of the detained face charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power.’”

Frank Viola, “50 Things the Holy Spirit Does” Frank Viola Unfiltered (January 25, 2026).

Bonnie Kristian, “Protesting in Church Is Wrong. So Is Immigration Theater” Christianity Today (January 20, 2026).

The subtitle of this opinion piece by Christianity Today deputy editor Bonnie Kristian reads: “Demonstrators should not disrupt worship services. ICE should be competent, cool-headed, and constrained by the Constitution.”

Craig Keener, “A charismatic view of suffering?: Suffering and baptism in the Spirit in Mark’s introduction” Bible Background (March 2, 2026).

Carey Nieuwhof and James Sells, “Reclaiming the Church’s Role in Mental Health: We have a holy opportunity to return to our roots—a chance to recover the kind of care that once marked every aspect of the early church” Leadership Journal (Fall 2025).

This article is from CT Pastors, Volume 38 of Leadership Journal.

PR

Craig S. Keener, Suffering: Its Meaning for the Spirit-Filled Life (Baker Academic, November 11, 2025).

Craig Keener: Seeing what dominates our culture’s interests reinforced my feeling that the church in the U.S. is largely unprepared for suffering. Although the Bible talks a lot about suffering, sometimes when it strikes people who have heard only messages about blessing, they can feel that God has not treated them as he promised. While we have foretastes of the kingdom today, such as healings, the kingdom isn’t consummated yet. There’s still sickness and suffering and death in this world. Jesus, prophets and apostles also modeled for us how to face suffering.

PneumaReview.com: Suffering can take many forms. What kinds of suffering do you address in your book?

Craig Keener: As you say, suffering comes in many forms; I could therefore illustrate the principles with only some of them. Because persecution features dominantly in the New Testament, and it remains a living reality (even to the point of martyrdom) among Christians in many parts of the world today, that naturally features heavily in the book. But we also suffer from other sources. Some accounts from refugees fleeing other sorts of violence or suffering are heartrending. Most of us have encountered, or know others who have encountered, health or financial challenges for which our theology of healing and blessing do not, sometimes, satisfactorily address. Broken families are among the many other struggles that Christians may face.

PneumaReview.com: All people are susceptible to some forms of suffering. Should Christians expect the possibility of more suffering in their lives because of their faith?

PneumaReview.com: How would you respond to a person who says that suffering is a sign that one has failed God or is out of His will?

Craig Keener: That makes nonsense out of Paul’s lists of sufferings and defies the message of the cross. Granted, some kinds of sufferings are biblically normal for Christians (opposition to our faith) and some are biblically abnormal (punishment for non-Christian behaviors, 1 Pet 4:15). But we have plenty of biblical examples of God-followers who suffered from things from which God often delivers; for example, Elisha died from sickness and Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

PneumaReview.com: What teachings or trends in the church today downplay the biblical teaching about suffering?

Craig Keener: I’ve not run into many people who actually teach that Christians will never suffer; but in circles that teach almost exclusively about blessings, some Christians seem to get that idea. I’ve heard some versions of “prosperity teaching” that simply mean that we should trust God to supply our needs for our lives and callings, and I certainly agree with that. But there are also the many versions (what Michael Brown calls “carnal prosperity teaching”) that claim material prosperity as a selfish promise. There are some who insist that everyone with faith will always get healed—although it’s evident that, given enough time, everybody in history, no matter how much faith, without exception, eventually dies.

PneumaReview.com: Do you think ministerial training in the West should place more of an emphasis on the possibility of one suffering for their Christian ministry?

Craig Keener: So many seminary and Bible college graduates go out ready to change the world and are out of ministry after a few years. It would help them to graduate with open eyes. Church people can be mean. We walk with many other church people through their heart-wrenching hardships. We may face opposition from various sources. A church with financial challenges (or even without them) may not pay as much as ministers can get elsewhere (I worked in a restaurant and pastored for free). We also can face discouragement when exaltation does not come as fast as social media sensations might lead us to expect. But faith means not just following God’s call or a heart for ministry when things are going well; it means trusting the God who is trustworthy no matter what.

PneumaReview.com: Please share some things that believers in the persecuted church can teach the church in America.

PneumaReview.com: How can we practically help others when they are suffering?

Craig Keener: It helps us to remember that the sufferings of the present are not worthy to be compared with the glory that awaits us; the struggles of this world are birth pangs (Rom 8:22) from which God will bring forth the perfect world to come. It helps to know that in God’s plan, all things work for good, for us ultimately sharing Christ’s glory and image (8:28-29). But these are things we need to learn before we suffer, because not everybody is in a good place to hear them during their suffering. In all cases, though, we can weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15). Loving people means sharing with them as fellow members of the same body, walking with them, as best as possible, in their pain. In that setting, we can also join them in seeking healing and restoration, and reminding them of the hope that we too find in the face of our brokenness.

PR 

Publisher’s page: https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/products/9781540969439_suffering

Further Reading

Craig Keener, “How to Succeed at Suffering: Lessons from the Gospel of Mark” Influence (February 14, 2024)

“Why Do Christians Suffer?” WTC Theology (TheoDisc/YouTube, October 1, 2025)

Raul Mock of The Pneuma Review recently interviewed bestselling author Frank Viola about his new book The Untold Story of the New Testament Church (2025) with Foreword by Craig Keener.

Raul Mock: For PneumaReview.com readers that have not yet encountered you, please tell us about your spiritual journey and your ministry.

Frank Viola: I’m someone who writes books and speaks in conferences for hungry and thirsty Christians who love Jesus, but who know in their bones that “there must be more” to the Christian faith, to Jesus Christ, to the Bible, and to church.

I’ve been part of every denomination and every movement you can name. From the Pentecostals to the Charismatics, all their flavors, as well as most evangelical denominations and camps.

And while I learned valuable things from all of them, they all left me saying, “there’s got to be more than this.” That’s what my books, my articles, and my podcasts are all about.

I’ve written over 20 books to date, and they can be divided up into Light and Shade.

“Light” are books containing the element of the sublime.

“Shade” are books containing a prophetic edge that challenges the status quo.

Your readers can check out my entire book catalog at frankviola.org.

All the books take God’s people into the deeper Christian life.

I also have two podcasts – Christ is All and The Insurgence Podcast. Combined, the two podcasts have almost 3 million downloads.

These two podcasts are designed for Christians who know there must be more.

(Details for each podcast can be found on my website, linked above. We also have a YouTube channel.)

Raul: How do you describe your new book, The Untold Story?

However, we live in an era where Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians regularly face criticism for apparent gaps between experiential faith and biblical understanding.

And that criticism is often valid.

My book, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded, resolves this problem. The book transforms how all Bible-believing Christians engage Scripture, including those in the Charismatic world

The book does this by providing a key that unlocks the New Testament, addressing a long-standing need within the Charismatic community for deeper and clearer biblical understanding.

Dr. Craig Keener, the world’s leading scholar in New Testament background and a Charismatic himself, wrote the Foreword to the book. This is how he describes it:

“In The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded, Frank Viola brings context and background together, inviting us on a captivating journey through the birth and growth of the first-century church. With a reputation for captivating prose and heartfelt storytelling, Viola brings his unique perspective to reconstruct the events from Matthew to Revelation. The Untold Story offers a plausible chronological narrative that reveals the grand tapestry of God’s kingdom plan and brings the characters of the story to life.”

Respected New Testament scholar Clinton Arnold, who is known for his work on spiritual warfare, powers and principalities, also endorsed the book saying,

“This volume is a creative and fascinating portrayal of the rise of Christianity and the establishment of churches throughout the Mediterranean world. Viola weaves the evidence of the New Testament into a single unfolding and compelling story. Yet he does so not with unbridled imagination, but with a profound reliance on the best scholarship available. The end result is an accurate, engaging and compelling account of this movement that has had a monumental impact on history and continues to do so today.”

The uniqueness of my book is that it blends together the narrative found in the book of Acts with the epistles, all in chronological order, telling one unified story with all the historical details filled in from different parts of the New Testament and from first-century history.

This approach puts you in the dramatic story. You watch it unfold before your eyes sequentially. The result is that you understand the New Testament like never before – accurately, powerfully, and in an electrifying way. The book is a cinematic experience that unlocks the letters of the New Testament.

Raul: The 2025 edition of The Untold Story is “revised and expanded.” What are some of the differences in this edition from the very old edition from decades ago?

Frank: Unfortunately, there is a very old edition from 20 years ago with an ugly orange cover on it. That book is similar to an experimental high school paper. I wrote it in my youth. It was written in a hurry, it wasn’t peer reviewed, and no scholars read it beforehand to ensure its accuracy.

In addition, the scholarship is outdated and most of the best books written on the New Testament didn’t even exist back then.

So it was a “rough draft experiment” from my youth. In this regard, the new book is not exactly a “new edition.” It’s a brand new work. We just kept the same title because it appears in my other books, which represents over 600,000 copies to date.

The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded – with the white cover and brushstrokes on the borders – came out this year (2025).

It’s been endorsed by 20 first-rate New Testament scholars. However, the main narrative is highly accessible and “reads like a motion picture on paper” as some readers have described it.

The Christians – including pastors and teachers – who are reading it have reported that they are experiencing a “revolution” in their understanding of the Bible.

Raul: In one of the early footnotes, you say that you set out to write a book that tells “the entire story of the primitive church from Pentecost to Patmos.” But this isn’t merely a study Bible or a textbook on Christian history. Who is your intended audience and what gap do you want this book to fill?

Frank: Correct, the book is not a textbook or study Bible or even a history book. It’s been described as “the New Testament guides of all New Testament guides.”

The intended audience is any Christian who wants to understand the New Testament in a powerful new way. The book also brings the people and places to life.

It’s also for any Christian who wants to understand the early church, what really happened and didn’t happen.

Therefore, the book was written for pastors, preachers, teachers, Bible study leaders, and all Christians who read their Bibles regularly.

(While there have been a few titles from the past that tried to reconstruct the New Testament story in chronological order, none of them were comprehensive, none were documented with up-to-date scholarship, nor have any of them been reviewed by scholars to ensure accuracy.)

A number of the twenty scholars who endorsed my book have confirmed it’s uniqueness by saying, “There is no book like this.”

I’ve described the book as a contribution to New Testament 3.0 in contrast with New Testament 1.0 and 2.0 (See New Testament 3.0 – A Breakthrough for details on what I mean by that).

The sad truth is that most Christians today, including preachers and teachers, have built their theology on a crossword puzzle of verses.

They don’t know The Story. They know chapters and verses. And some of them are experts at a particular book of the Bible, but this all misses the forest for the trees.

The Story – the narrative of what happened from Pentecost to Patmos chronologically and where the 21 letters in the New Testament fit into that grand drama – is largely unknown. Even among scholars.

That’s precisely why I decided to take the time and effort to write the book, which was no small endeavor. It was a super heavy lift.

Raul: In the Foreword, Dr. Craig S. Keener said that Untold Story is an invitation to see ourselves as part of the ongoing story God has been telling. What are some of the places that did this most meaningfully for you?

Frank: There are so many. One can never fully understand Paul’s letters unless they learn The Story. So it’s meaningful how the Story told in the book opens up the New Testament epistles, including those of Paul who wrote the majority of them.

Another is the way that Christian workers (ministers) were trained in the first century. It’s drastically different from the way ministers are trained today.

Also, the way churches were planted is completely different from how they are founded today.

Without knowing the Story, we are left to interpreting the New Testament we want through cutting and pasting verses together. The result is that we arrive at conclusions that are unbiblical, even though the conclusions are based on certain portions of the Bible. The problem is that context is missing.

Jeremiah 8:8 in the NET Bible says,

How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the Lord”? The truth is, those who teach it have used their writings to make it say what it does not really mean.

This text was delivered during a period of spiritual and moral crisis in ancient Judah, when the people and their religious leaders (especially the scribes) claimed wisdom and faithfulness to God’s word. But they were in fact corrupting it through false interpretation and misleading teaching.

The verse addresses the scribes and religious leaders who boasted, “We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us,” yet Jeremiah exposes their reliance on the pen of the scribes (the Bible experts) who “have twisted it by writing lies” suggesting they distorted or misrepresented the Torah, misleading the people.

This same thing is done today unwittingly and unknowingly when Christian leaders and teachers don’t know The Story. Yet they still teach the New Testament. So they inevitably misinterpret the text.

Knowing the Story prevents this problem. So far, it’s been a tremendous help to Charismatics and Pentecostals who honor the word of God and want to fully understand it. It’s done the same for other denominations and movements in the Christian world.

I explain this in more detail in the many of the interviews I’ve done on the book which your readers can check out here. The interviews delve deeper than this interview. (More interviews will be added to that page in the coming days, so check back.)

Also, we recently launched a visual podcast that goes along with the book. Your readers can check it out at TheUntoldStory.me.

PR

Glen Menzies, Commentary on Romans

First, my brother has produced an exceptional commentary on Romans (of course, I’m entirely objective here). This book is a member of the “Pentecostal Commentary Series” and I am confident that it will serve the church well by stimulating reflection and discussion on a host of important theological themes.

To order, click on this link: https://amzn.to/4mmOP20

Publisher’s page: https://wipfandstock.com/9781532610240/a-pentecostal-commentary-on-romans/

Timothy Dresselhaus, The Crimson Thread

Second, Dr. Timothy Dresselhaus, a gifted medical doctor (Professor Emeritus at the UCSD School of Medicine) and a dedicated teaching elder of the church, has produced a wonderful resource for Christians at every stage of their spiritual development. This book, The Crimson Thread: Tracing the Story of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, offers a sweeping overview of the biblical narrative.

To order, click on this link: https://amzn.to/4of4u5a

Robert Menzies and Craig Keener, Commentary on Acts

Finally, the commentary on Acts that Craig Keener and I have written for Baker’s “Word and Spirit” NT Commentary Series is now available! This commentary uniquely highlights Luke’s missiological purpose, his understanding of the church as a community of prophets called to be “a light for the nations” (Isa 49:6), and his invitation for every disciple of Jesus to minister in the power of the Spirit (Luke 11:13; Acts 1:8).

To order, click on this link: https://amzn.to/3HcvWjk

Publisher’s page: https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/acts/417270

Bob with the Acts commentary he and Craig Keener have produced.

Holly Beers and Craig Keener: We love the Bible, and at heart we want to understand it well and help others understand it also. That’s how we see our scholarship – as a way to serve the church. We both have our specific areas of interest and specialty, including how Craig works with ancient Greek and Latin texts which help us better understand the New Testament, and Holly studies the way that the Old Testament is incorporated into the New Testament, but we both simply love to study and teach more generally. We are both very involved in our local churches: teaching, preaching, and offering our gifts in a variety of ways.

PneumaReview.com: If they asked, what would tell this leader about your experience with the contemporary ministry of the Holy Spirit?

Beers & Keener: Both of us are Pentecostal and desire to deeply know and be led by the Spirit. We regularly practice the gifts of the Spirit both individually and in (church) community. Craig especially has traveled extensively and observed and participated in the Spirit’s work around the world. Holly teaches at a college where most students come from non-charismatic/Pentecostal backgrounds, and she regularly exposes interested students to the Spirit’s contemporary work and trains them to engage in it.

PneumaReview.com: Where did the idea for the Word & Spirit Commentary on the New Testament series originate?

Word and Spirit Commentary on the New Testament Series from Baker Academic (as of July 2025)

Beers & Keener: We noticed that there have not been very many biblical resources authored by scholars from Pentecostal/charismatic traditions. When researching for projects or preparing for classes, we had difficulty finding those voices. The need for a series like this was even more apparent because of the documented growth of Spirit-filled movements around the world. In conversations with an editor at Baker Academic we suggested this series, and Baker was happy to support us as editors and publish it.

PneumaReview.com: How were the various contributors selected?

Beers & Keener: We wanted to be intentional about including scholars from across the global Pentecostal and charismatic spectrum, so we recruited accordingly. The range of voices includes denominational Pentecostals, Reformed charismatics, charismatic Methodists, and others. They also reflect a range of cultures, including Spirit-filled voices from multiple continents.

PneumaReview.com: In what ways is the importance of the Word emphasized in these commentaries?

Beers & Keener: They are, at their core, biblical commentaries; in that sense the Word is central. They explain the best of what biblical scholars know about the original context of the books as they work through the entirety of each. They also highlight the Spirit’s inspiration of the biblical texts.

PneumaReview.com: How is the work of the Holy Spirit highlighted in these volumes?

Beers & Keener: This series focuses on how the same Spirit who inspired the text speaks and works today. Our authors “preach” their way through the texts, emphasizing how we listen alongside the ancient audiences for the Spirit’s voice in our time and contexts.

PneumaReview.com: What is the most unique aspect of this commentary series?

Beers & Keener: The authors engage the biblical text in both its ancient setting and its message for Spirit-filled Christians today. The commentaries do not separate the exegetical and application sections, as readers in Spirit-filled traditions tend to integrate and move naturally between these categories. In other words, Spirit-filled readers traditionally blend the ancient and modern horizons so as to read themselves within the continuing narrative of salvation history—that is, as part of the ongoing biblical story (not culturally but theologically/spiritually/eschatologically). Particularly distinctive of this approach, then, will be observing how God works in the biblical texts and how Christians can expect God to be working today, even if in new and/or culturally surprising ways. The commentaries are written with distinctives of the tradition(s), including testimony, a conversational style (“preaching”), and sidebars that feature connections to Spirit-filled history and interest, such as healing, exorcism, spiritual gifts, etc.

PneumaReview.com: In your opinion, is the divide in the church regarding the Word and the Spirit declining?

Beers & Keener: Yes, we see a growing interest in and commitment to keeping the Word and Spirit together. We find this to be very encouraging, and are convinced that the Spirit’s own prompting is the main reason.

PneumaReview.com: What factors are contributing to this?

Beers & Keener: Beyond the Spirit’s own initiation, it seems due to our increased global awareness and connectedness. More and more Christians have contact and even relationships with Christians from different traditions in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and online. We hear about what the Spirit is doing around the world.

PneumaReview.com: Can you tell us about some of the forthcoming volumes and who is writing them?

Beers & Keener: This summer Craig’s co-authored volume with Robert P. Menzies on Acts will be published, and this fall Craig’s volume on 1-2 Peter and Jude will also be released. In the next couple of years you will see commentaries on 1-3 John by Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, 1-2 Timothy and Titus by Amy Anderson and Gordon Fee (revising Fee’s earlier contribution), Matthew by David Instone-Brewer, and Galatians by Roji George.

PneumaReview.com: What do you hope the lasting legacy of this commentary series will be?

Beers & Keener: Although the series naturally welcomes all readers, we especially hope to serve those who identify as Spirit-filled (broadly defined) leaders: pastors, seminarians, theology and ministry students, youth leaders, and Bible study leaders. We pray that the series testifies to the creative work and restorative goodness of the triune God.

PneumaReview.com: When will the series be complete?

Beers & Keener: The goal is 2030; at this point the date appears realistic, as authors are very excited about and committed to the series.

Craig S. Keener (PhD, Duke University) is F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is author of thirty-seven books, with some 1.4 million copies in circulation. The books have won fifteen national or international awards, including six in Christianity Today; together the books take up 19,000 pages. He has also authored roughly one hundred academic articles; seven booklets; and roughly two hundred popular-level articles. In 2020 Craig was president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is ordained with the Assemblies of God. His YouTube channel is: www.youtube.com/c/CraigKeenerPhD; his blog site is www.craigkeener.com/.

Learn more about this series and series co-editor, Holly Beers:

Keener also speaks to the matter of applying biblical texts in our lives. Are all of the practices and directives that we find in Scripture eternal, or are some of them limited by culture or context? This is not always easy to determine. For two examples in this regard, he speaks about women’s head coverings and holy kisses.

Keener is one of the top scholars in the area of Bible backgrounds. This is a great opportunity to learn more about this area that is so vital to a proper understanding of Scripture.

Trailer for New Testament Backgrounds

Find many more courses and introductions at: SeminaryNow.com

More from Craig Keener at PneumaReview.com:

“People Met Jesus Deeply Here: Craig Keener on the Asbury Outpouring”

A series of 19 lectures on the Gospel of Matthew

Round-up of excerpts and additional comments on Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

John MacArthur’s Strange Fire, reviewed by Craig S. Keener

Rightly Understanding God’s Word series – A course on biblical interpretation in 8 chapters

I always enjoy the opportunity to listen to what world-class Pentecostal scholars are producing and it is a real pleasure to reconnect with PneumaReview.com writers. This year’s convention provided many memorable meetings.

I experienced a spirit of unity during the powerful worship service that opened the 2017 convention. There is nothing like celebrating God’s goodness together with Pentecostal scholars from all over the world. You would not know from my pictures how involved this crowd of academics and professors was in dancing before the Lord, raising their hands in praise, singing, or praying in the Spirit—but it was wonderful.

I love books and was glad to browse the many offerings from the numerous publishers present for the conference. Standing at the Eerdmans table, I was able to personally thank Craig Keener for doing an interview with us about his recent book Spirit Hermeneutics. I also learned that it is Harrison House’s new imprint, Empowered Life, that is publishing Robert Graves‘ expanded and revised Praying in the Spirit (the earlier edition was reprinted in full in The Pneuma Review).

To see a list of papers and panels presented during the convention, see the SPS website. As always, there were many presentations I missed because I could not be in more than one place at a time.

I will be adding more pictures to the Pneuma Review Facebook page if you would like to connect with me there. Update: I’ve been able to add a direct link to the Facebook album on the third page of this article.

From left to right: Tony Richie, Mike Dies, Raul Mock, and Martin Mittelstadt. Lee Roy Martin.

From left to right: Craig S. Keener and Raul Mock. Raul Mock and Antipas Harris.

Craig S. Keener discusses his book, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. Part of the Seedbed series from Asbury Theological Seminary.

Craig S. Keener discusses his book, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. Part of the Seedbed series from Asbury Theological Seminary.

Craig S. Keener discusses his book, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. Part of the Seedbed series from Asbury Theological Seminary.