Bible Feed

A bit of a change of focus for this episode as Josh talks to Kat about an aspect of faith in the modern world, faith in real life situations, in the here and now. They reflect on what it means to be a believer as part of a community, and specifically, their experience of how believing communities adapted to the pandemic and what they may have learned as we head into a 'new normal'.   

Laurence and Dan pick up where they left off in Matthew's Gospel by exploring why Matthew uses the phrase: "the Kingdom of Heaven" so often.  When Jesus says "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"  what kind of kingdom is he talking about? Is heaven a location or something else?  Dan and Laurence discover that the kingdom concept is deeply rooted in the message of Israel's ancient prophets while also carrying a timeless call to action.  Intrigued?  Listen on... a slightly longer episode than usual, but hey... it's about the Kingdom of Heaven!!

What is a soul?  Can it be destroyed?  Where does it come from and where does it go?  In this episode Laurence and Paul get underneath the biblical meaning of 'soul' and they find that the Hebrew and Greek words for soul reveal something quite unexpected.  Oh and there may be a few musical references...

Paul and Dan take another look into how the Bible narrative and the prophets intersect with history, this time focusing on the city of Tyre.  Starting with a historical source that every Bible student should be familiar with, Asterix the Gaul, they take a deeper look at a short passage about the island fortress from the prophet Ezekiel.  By exploring what actually happened to Tyre, Dan and Paul tease out how the language of the prophets can be read and understood.  They close by thinking about the role that Tyre plays in the narrative and highlight how that is relevant to faithful Christians today.

Here we are in Easter 2021 and Christians are still talking about the resurrection!  What's the deal?!  Josh and our guest for this episode, Nathan Sutcliffe, discuss the origin of this astonishing claim and highlight the historical phenomena that simply refuse to be explained by anything else other than Jesus actually rising from the dead.  We'd love to hear your thoughts on this world-changing few days in history and what it means to you.  Wishing all our listeners safety and peace this Easter.

Laurence and Dan continue their exploration of the Gospel of Matthew.  This time they take a journey into the wilderness and, through the text of Matthew 4, they witness a strange encounter between the newly baptised Jesus and "the devil", the tempter, or satan.  Who or what is this character? Is it a person or a being of some sort?  As they explore the text they discover a number of 'flags' which indicate that all is not as it may seem at first sight. Intrigued?!  Listen in to hear how their enquiries lead to a compelling explanation!

Our guest, Sam Walton explains his thoughts on this question to Josh and Jon.  The legacy of Jesus of Nazareth is felt today in all kinds of ways, in religion, in culture, music and art. But what about the question that Christians and others have been asking and debating for centuries - Did Jesus pre-exist? Was he alive in some sense before being born into a quiet small town in Israel about 2000 years ago? And if that question is answered with a yes or with a no, does it change anything for Christians?  Enjoy the conversation and let us know what you think!

Laurence Davenport and Dan Weatherall continue delving into the gospel of Matthew. The focus this time is how well structured the book is around major themes that are developed throughout the book. Jesus is presented as someone with authority and he is given that curious name, Immanuel. What does that mean? And how would the first readers of Matthew have understood God to be with them? Listen in to discover more about Jesus!

We begin a new series in which we explore the deep questions around the relationship between God and Jesus, the Son of God. In this episode Josh Dean and Paul Davenport look at how Unitarians and Trinitarians both look at the same scriptural 'raw materials' but come to different conclusions. Why is that? How should we evaluate whether one view is more appropriate than the other?  Are they both truly Christian perspectives?  We'd love to hear your point of view on the questions raised here. Let's help each other understand the Bible better!

Famous names and outsider characters - they're all in the family tree of Jesus right at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel! Laurence Davenport and Dan Weatherall start a series of episodes that explores this book in greater detail to discover the real Jesus. Listen in to find out why some apparently dubious (but actually faithful) women feature in the opening verses of this Gospel and what that helps us to discover about Jesus!