Dr Andy Nash has served the Adventist Church as an editor, author, university professor and now senior pastor of Ooltewah Adventist Church in Tennessee, USA. He is author of five books, among other projects, and recently talked about his new book, Saved.
What is your elevator pitch for Saved?
Have you ever desired to understand the Bible chronologically, from Genesis to Revelation? Saved: The Story of God and Us is a fast-moving life-changing journey through the Bible. Soar over the windswept peak of the salvation story: our separation from God and God’s relentless pursuit of us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
As a large book, how do you imagine people using it?
Saved can be used either as a storybook or textbook. It flows as a single narrative from Genesis to Revelation, in chronological order. With 464 pages and more than 50 biblical maps, Saved can also be used to reference a particular passage in the Bible.
Much of our Bible study tends to focus on specific texts. Why is the big sweep of Scripture important?
There are three ways to study the Bible: walking, running and flying. Most of the time, we should walk verse-by-verse within a book of the Bible, savouring the hills and valleys. Another method is running through Scripture—moving more quickly through a book or a topic, such as the life of Jesus. But there’s also a time to take flight—to fly over the windswept peaks of Scripture and take in the story of redemption.
One of the most moving experiences of my life was reading through the Bible in a month. Each day I would read an entire book, such as Genesis, or even a series of books. All day long my mind was filled with Scripture, and I understood the story of redemption more fully than ever before. Out of that experience came this book: another tool to help people fall in love with God’s Living Word.
How has this book been shaped by your experiences of travelling in the Holy Lands?
As a little boy I had dreamed of someday visiting the Holy Land, and at age 37 I finally got the chance. Traveling in the Holy Land changed my life because I could freshly visualise the very stories of Scripture. As my friend Nathan Brown says, it’s not about holy places; it’s about holy stories. When you’re boating on the Sea of Galilee, panning the landscape of Magdala and Capernaum, Bethsaida and Gadara—studying how Jesus touched so many lives—it’s a pretty powerful visual aid. As I wrote through this book, I was picturing these real places the entire time.
How have your changing experiences as a writer, editor, professor and pastor grown your understanding of the importance of the Bible in Adventist faith?
I had a major life change in my 30s. My focus shifted from magazines and newspapers to the Word of God. This was a very formative, even painful time for me. I went through a theological desert, with many of our friends and relatives leaving the Adventist Church. I needed to go deeper into the Bible for myself, verse by verse. This was the earliest Adventist experience—young people studying the Bible deep into the night. It’s an experience we all must have. We should be more focused on Bible study and less focused on Bible studies.
What message do you hope readers take away from Saved?
As I mention in the prologue to the book, my prayer for this book is that we will each be drawn more closely to Christ and His Word—that that we will know the “the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved . . .” (Ephesians 2:7, 8).Saved and other books by Andy Nash are available from Adventist bookshops in Australia and New Zealand, or online.
