Next month, starting next Monday, we'll be working through Living With The Underworld, by Peter Bolt. Before we start discussing the book, we thought it would be good to find out a little bit more about the author and how the book came about. Peter has kindly answered a few questions for us. You can read a further interview about this book with Tony Payne here or download the podcast of this interview here.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I live in Newtown and am the head of New Testament and Greek at Moore College, where I have lectured for about 18 years. I like swimming, good humour, and walking our dogs.

How did you come to faith in Christ?

I came across some Christians in my final years of high school who told me the gospel, and I thought, if that is true, it is the best news ever; but is it true? They were gracious enough to answer heaps of my questions and eventually (after about 12 months) I decided that yes, it must be true and I gave my life to Christ.

What book has helped you the most in growing in your knowledge of God?

A book that helped me grow greatly in the knowledge of God when first a christian always makes people laugh when I tell them! The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. Helped me see how big God is and how gracious he is. It is not about us at all. But about him. But then, he is all about us!

What prompted you to write this book?

I had dabbled with magic, death and demons for my PhD studies. As people chatted with me about these things, I realised more and more that there is a lot of uncertainty and fear about such things. A lot of people have had spooky experiences. The charismatics are actually encouraging wierd practices, not condoned by Scripture. The bible tells us that deep down there is a profound anxiety about death in us all, even if we mask it over. The more I thought about the wonderful work of Christ on the cross, and how his victory is full and complete, the more I wanted to put all this together to say: there is absolutely no reason to be afraid; no, not ever.