About David

The Origins of "Through the Bible in 80 Days"

In 1990 David Cooke, a member of The Kings Church Horsham, developed a course called "Through the Bible in 50 days", which set out to give people a high level overview of the Bible in eight weekly sessions. After running it for a couple of times it lay dormant for many years until 1998 when David, then an elder of The Kings Church, updated the course and presented it as a "Bird’s Eye View of the Bible" (or BEVOB) - this time over a period of eight months. After completing the presentation of BEVOB in 1999 David started to convert the BEVOB material into book form and "Through the Bible in 80 Days" in the result.

Influences on "Through the Bible in 80 Days"

David grew up in Congregational churches where his father was the minister. His father was a Bible teacher and David was privileged to receive a thorough grounding in the Bible from him. Then in his teens he became part of the House Church movement, initially joining Arthur Wallis’s church in Ottery St Mary, Devon. This was a very fortunate church as it regularly heard both Arthur, an author of a number of well known Christian books, and Robin Talbot, who had been a missionary in Thailand for many years before leading the church, speak regularly.

David was part of what became known as the New Church movement - which has been the fastest growing part of the church in the UK - for 25 years during which time he attended many Bible weeks (Dales, Downs and Stoneleigh) where, along with thousands of others, he heard speakers such as Bryn Jones, Terry Virgo, C J Mahaney who made the Bible come alive. Their influence on specific sections of "Through the Bible in 80 Days" will be apparent to those who heard them speak.

In 1987 David moved to Horsham where he became part of the church which is now known as The Kings Church Horsham. Here David was to regularly hear the remarkable Allan Johnson whose insight into the Bible is quite extraordinary. (Allan now leads Cowfold Christian Fellowship.) Horsham was also led by Alun Davies, a passionate Welsh preacher, and David Alliston, who provided strong encouragement in the development of a "Birds Eye View of the Bible" which was the springboard for "Through the Bible in 80 Days". In 2004 David moved to St Saviour's church in Guildford became part of St Saviours Anglican church in Guildford. David Bracewell, the Rector of St Saviours, quickly had an influence on the section on John’s gospel.

David now lives in Woking, Surrey, and belongs to St Mary of Bethany's church. He is married, has three grown up sons and works full time as an IT Manager for a leading UK Life Assurance company.