In the New Testament there's a powerful group of political/religious leaders in Israel who came to Jesus with their most clever conundrum yet to try and undermine his credibility and Jesus's response gives us a whole new perspective on what it means to know God. Jesus' answer might leave us wondering how it is we can come to actually know God when all of our best notions of understanding the Divine fall short when it is in fact God who meets us right where we're at using every opportunity at His disposal to encounter us so that we might know Him, in right relationship, forever. 

One of the oldest questions humans have asked is "If God is good then why does He allow bad things to happen?" There is one story in the Bible in particular that really forces us to wrestle with this question, and as it's in the Bible God is inviting us to explore it. However, the answer won't fit on a bumper sticker or cleverly into a meme you can post, it's a journey and Job tells us exactly where to start.

Out of the 66 books of the Bible, there is one written about and dedicated to honoring a Gentile, a Moabite Princess named Ruth. With a classic Hallmark flare, the story of Ruth and Boaz is one worth telling but it also gives us a powerful glimpse into God's desire for his children, that they would be a people after his own heart. And Ruth sets for us the prime example and raises a King after God's own heart as well. 

The God of the Bible is revealed to be one being in three persons, and this idea is a high-level theological concept that for most of us is an abstract idea that might be difficult for us to wrap our heads around. At Dumb Christian we're gonna try and take a simplified look at how this is possible and how God reveals the three different persons of the Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In this episode, we are joined by Mrs. Dumb Christian (Emilee) as she challenges us to shift our thinking when reading the Bible. Studying the Bible can be tricky. It's fortunate that many men and women have dedicated themselves to studying this ancient text and can help us understand it, but what if we want to try and wrap our heads around it and we don't have someone who can help? Thanks to a system called "Hermeneutics" we can approach scripture with a better mentality by shifting the way we approach and think about it.

When we look at individual stories in the Bible we can miss the overarching theme and purpose that it’s ultimately working to teach us about God and our relationship with Him. So today we’re going to take a step back and look at the WHOLE Bible through the lens of 'covenant'. It will get a little messy and may be uncomfortable so buckle up.

The gospels are full of the parables of Jesus but there is one in particular that really stands out from the rest and it's because the ending and moral of the story seem so radically different to Jesus' typical conclusions. In Luke 16 we read a story Jesus tells about a shrewd/dishonest manager and it sounds like Jesus is encouraging the same kind of behavior in us, so we better take some time to walk through it and process what it is He's really saying.

Warning: This episode contains sexual content and may not be suitable for all ages. 

God's promise to Abraham was to bless the entire world by Abraham's lineage and this made procreation not just fun, but crucial for the purpose of expanding the reach of Abraham's offspring. Yet, in the book of Genesis, only four generations from Abraham, the fruit of his loins are actively resisting and even rejecting God's purpose and mission for themselves. In this episode, we look at a situation involving a man named Onan and his dead brother's wife, whom he was supposed to impregnate, and when he pulls out instead God puts him to death. 

In the book of Numbers there's a brief story about a guy picking up sticks on the Sabbath and ends up getting put to death because of it. This is another one of those confusing passages in the Bible that makes you go hrrmmmmm. We're going to take some time to wrestle with this unusual story in the middle of God's revelation of who He is. As usual we will go back and build some context from the book of Exodus and look at how this newly liberation nation would think about God.

Caution: This episode includes content addressing rape and incest. The Bible is full of crazy and often disturbing stories and doesn't pull any punches when painting a clear picture of what the world is like, this is just one of those instances. The story of Lot and his daughters in Genesis 19 doesn't sit well with most readers and can leave us feeling a little confused as to why it's even in the Bible. We're going to take some time to build context around this story and get a better understanding of what's happening in this Old Testament story, how Abraham is connected, and what it tells us about Jesus.