A Biblical Frame: Current Events in Perspective

As promised some months ago, we would like to talk about the non-negotiables for the church in the world today. Many cultural movements of late have put the church in a variety of interesting positions.

In this episode, Rev. Dr. Ed Gerber, Prof. Douglas Farrow, Dr. Jens Zimmermann, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, and Ivan deSilva put forth their ideas of the church’s non-negotiable and have discussion. What are the non-negotiables for the modern church? Join us as we tackle this issue from both a Catholic and Protestant perspective. Our hope and prayer is to build up and exhort Christ’s church to be faithful in her ministry amidst todays cultural and political waves.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode.

Hosts:

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Aaron Kheriaty, MD, Fellow and Director of the Bioethics and American Democracy Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Senior Fellow and Director of the Health and Human Flourishing Program at the Zephyr Institute. Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute.

Producers:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, Calvin Theological Seminary

Dr. Greg Gerber, Associate Campus Dean, Academic; Director of the Vancouver Centre for Teaching and Learning

What is the role of the media in the Christian life? In this episode of A Biblical Frame, we continue our discussion with some Canadian journalists and discuss the relationship between the Christian life, media, and democracy.

Join us for this discussion

Hosts:

Ivan De Silva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Lee Harding, Freelance journalist, contributes to Western Standard & Epoch Times. Research Fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Jeff Sandes, A freelance contributor to The Epoch Times based in the Vancouver area

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, Calvin Theological Seminary

One of the things that the Bible talks about over and over again is that when it comes to matters of justice, especially community justice, where life and other serious things hang in the balance, the situation or an event or an incident must be established by a multiplicity of witnesses, not just by one. In Canada we seem to have a single voice from the establishment media. How then are we to determine truth without a multiplicity of voices?

On this episode of A Biblical Frame we have invited a few members of the Canadian media to join us to discuss how the Christian ought to engage the current media landscape. We are very thankful to our guests for their time.

Subscribe so you do not miss any future episodes.

Hosts:

Ivan De Silva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Lee Harding, Freelance journalist, contributes to Western Standard & Epoch Times. Research Fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Jeff Sandes, A freelance contributor to The Epoch Times based in the Vancouver area

David Cayley, Retired CBC radio documentary host and author

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, Calvin Theological Seminary

Our second episode, part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty continues today.

What have the churches learned from the pandemic?  What should they learn? As the covid narrative crumbles and examination of what went wrong begins, it is vital that we wrestle with such questions and that we prepare for whatever should be expected next.  We sat down with Aaron Kheriaty, author of The New Abnormal, and Douglas Farrow to discuss these things.  

Psalm 139 - Re-Written for the Present Day

By Ivan De Silva

O State of the New World Order, you have hacked me

    and know everything about me

By your all-encompassing surveillance, you know when I sit down or stand up.

    by your implanted nanoparticles you know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

By tracking my every central bank digital currency purchase you see me when I travel

    and when I rest at home.

    You know everything I do.

Hear the rest in the podcast

Hosts:

Ivan De Silva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Aaron Kheriaty, MD, Fellow and Director of the Bioethics and American Democracy Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Senior Fellow and Director of the Health and Human Flourishing Program at the Zephyr Institute. Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute.

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, Calvin Theological Seminary

As we look back on the various stages of the Covid-19 pandemic it is plain to see that there are many ways the church responded to the virus and restrictions. Even today the frustration and division caused by Covid are still felt in our families, church communities, and society at large. Covid is apocalyptic because, true to the meaning of this word,  it “unveiled” the church’s weaknesses and lays bare her shortcomings.

What have the churches learned from the pandemic?  What should they learn? As the covid narrative crumbles and examination of what went wrong begins, it is vital that we wrestle with such questions and that we prepare for whatever should be expected next.  We sat down with Aaron Kheriaty, author of The New Abnormal, and Douglas Farrow to discuss these things.   

This will be the first of two episodes of this conversation discussing the covid apocalypse. In this first episode, the focus is on some of the themes of how the church responded to the virus and the restrictions.

Hosts:

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Aaron Kheriaty, MD, Fellow and Director of the Bioethics and American Democracy Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Senior Fellow and Director of the Health and Human Flourishing Program at the Zephyr Institute. Scholar at the Paul Ramsey Institute.

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, Calvin Theological Seminary

In the second of our doublet of episodes with Dr. Charles Hoffe, we discuss the church’s response to the Covid crisis and what might the church need to do to pull herself out of the fog that her responses to the covid measures created. Join us in this conversational journey as we discuss and contemplate the nature and future of the church.

Wherever we find the word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ; there, it is not to be doubted, is a Church of God: for his promise can never deceive: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” - John Calvin

Thank you for listening. We are thankful for your time and ask that you would share this podcast with some friends and family or fellow church members. We record and produce this podcast to serve Christ’s bride and we want to see her flourish.

Hosts:

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Dr. Charles Hoffe, GP & Emergency Room Doctor

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, Calvin Theological Seminary

We are back with a doublet of new episodes. It has been a while since a new episode was released but we have not given up on this ministry. We gathered together this past weekend and talked with Dr. Charles Hoffe, we recorded two episodes together and here is the first.

“Unfortunately most of the medical profession has failed the moral integrity test because if you see evidence of harm you are not supposed to cover it up and there has been a massive cover up of the evidence of harm.” - Dr. Charles Hoffe

In this episode we hear the story, research, and advice from Dr. Charles Hoffe, a British Columbia family doctor and emergency room doctor. Dr. Hoffe is currently under investigation by the provincial college because he started to ask questions and speak about vaccine injuries caused by the Covid-19 MRNA vaccines.

Thank you for listening and please share this episode to increase our listeners. We exist to serve and strengthen the Church.

Hosts:

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Dr. Charles Hoffe, GP & Emergency Room Doctor

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, ACTS Seminaries

And this is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our inertness, the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies. For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.

We are not called upon to step out onto the square and shout out the truth, to say out loud what we think—this is scary, we are not ready. But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think!

This is the way, then, the easiest and most accessible for us given our deep-seated organic cowardice, much easier than (it’s scary even to utter the words) civil disobedience à la Gandhi.

Our way must be: Never knowingly support lies! Having understood where the lies begin (and many see this line differently)—step back from that gangrenous edge! Let us not glue back the flaking scales of the Ideology, not gather back its crumbling bones, nor patch together its decomposing garb, and we will be amazed how swiftly and helplessly the lies will fall away, and that which is destined to be naked will be exposed as such to the world.

And thus, overcoming our temerity, let each man choose: Will he remain a witting servant of the lies (needless to say, not due to natural predisposition, but in order to provide a living for the family, to rear the children in the spirit of lies!), or has the time come for him to stand straight as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries? - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Live not by Lies

Published in November of 2021, or 621 days after the WHO declared the Covid-19 Pandemic, Till We Have Faces is Dr. Bruce Hindmarsh’s attempt at cataloguing and critiquing Covid policies in Canada. Dr. Steven Pelech wrote the foreword to this essay and it is because of that connection that we have invited him onto the show this week.

Dr. Pelech is a leading researcher in Covid-19 immunity and we are grateful to sit with him and grill him with questions. We, like many of our listeners, are simply seeking the truth and we desire to listen and learn from experts.

In this longer than normal episode, we wander through the details and intricacies of governmental covid restrictions, vaccines and vaccine effectiveness, and we seek advice for ourselves, the listeners, and the Church.

Thank you for listening and please share this episode to increase our listeners. We exist to serve and strengthen the Church.

Hosts:

Host

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Dr. Steven Pelech, UBC, Faculty of Medicine

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, ACTS Seminaries

It is not an understatement to say that Bill C-4 could have severe effects on the witness of the Church in Canada. Due to the rushed nature of this legislation, pastors, priests, and Christian counsellors have been reeling since its adoption. Many are not sure what they can now say in a pastoring conversation.

We hope to add some insight into this predicament. We are extremely grateful to have Dr. Iain Provan as a featured guest today. Dr. Provan has spent a significant portion of his last few years wading into this problem and speaking to countless church leaders about Bill C-4 and the impact on Christian ministry.

We continue to create these episodes as a service to the church in Canada. If you are listening and enjoying the content, please leave a comment with requests for future episodes. If there is a topic you would like us to cover, we want to know. Also, if you know of someone who would benefit from this podcast, please share it with them. Thank you for listening.

Links:

Define the Crime in Conversion Therapy - Dr. Iain Provan

On criminalizing freedom: the reality of Bill C-4 (conversion therapy) - Dr. Iain Provan

“Hey, Parents, Leave Your Kids Alone” - Dr. Iain Provan

Freedom Feature: Interview on Bill C-4

Cracking the Gender Code - Douglas Farrow

The Right to be Yourself? Gender Identity as The Baptism Of Autonomy - Douglas Farrow

A Reply to Canada’s Minister of Justice - Douglas Farrow

Hosts:

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Iain Provan, PhD, Professor of Old Testament, Regent College

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Dr. Steven Pelech, UBC, Faculty of Medicine

Producer:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, ACTS Seminaries

“What we have to do is look evil squarely in the eye and decide how we are going to resist it.” - Prof. Douglas Farrow

It may come as no surprise that when we gather together to record these episodes we enjoy some good food and drink and rich fellowship with one another. It was during one of our previous recording sessions that conversations around Prof. Douglas Farrow’s work on Chesterton and Dr. Stephen Dunning’s expertise with Lewis were being discussed. It turns out that both Lewis and Chesterton had some foresight into what we have experienced with COVID-19 and government mandates in the last two years.

We are very excited to have two expert fellows on the show this week to discuss their prescient work.

In this episode, Douglas Farrow and Stephen Dunning walk us through some of the writings of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton and lead us in a discussion of how their thoughts and words might offer some wisdom for us grappling with current events in Canada.

“Lewis was also eerily prescient about what we have witnessed from governments during Covid, what I would describe as a form of scientific activism.  Think of all the calls to “follow the science,” as if science spoke univocally in support of whatever the current policy happened to be.  As an aside, this required everyone to consign yesterday’s policies to the memory hole and to ignore (or distort) what was happening in other jurisdictions, such as Florida or Sweden.  That Hideous Strength goes to macabre (and at times comic) lengths to demonstrate that the enemy of these scientific activists--these Controllers as Lewis calls them in The Abolition of Man, or directors of NICE in the novel--is clarity of thought, clarity of speech. The essential problem, according to Lewis in both these works, is as I suggested earlier, that the activists have rejected the only source of real authority through which they could justify the ends they seek to achieve.  And yet they are compelled to act, motivated by ends that they can only vaguely articulate.  And they most certainly do not want to look carefully at the concrete reality experienced by those who fall victim to the means they use to achieve these vague ends.” -Stephen Dunning, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Trinity Western University

Hosts:

Ivan DeSilva, MDiv, ThM, Instructor in Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Pacific Life Bible College

Jens Zimmermann, PhD, JI Packer Chair of Theology, Regent College

Stephen Dunning, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Trinity Western University

Douglas Farrow, Professor of Theology and Ethics, McGill University

Producers:

Curtis Meliefste, MDiv Student, ACTS Seminaries

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