Faith in the Folds

Today I sat down with a scholar, a friend, and Associate Professor of Theology at Houston Baptist University, Mike Licona. Mike has written several books, including Paul Meets Muhammad, and coauthored with Gary Habermas the award-winning book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Mike’s largest work is also on the resurrection, entitled The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach. Links to these works can be found below.

This episode of the podcast is the second in a new series where we’ll take a book-by-book approach for most of the New Testament, and it’s my hope to take some of the best of what the Academy has to offer and help make that relatable for church audiences.

For The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, go here: https://www.ivpress.com/the-resurrection-of-jesus

For Paul Meets Muhammad, go here: http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/paul-meets-muhammad/269070

For The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, go here: https://www.kregel.com/theology-and-religious-studies/the-case-for-the-resurrection-of-jesus-6964/

You can also find several of Mike’s resources at his personal website, Risen Jesus: https://www.risenjesus.com/

Today I sat down with Dr. Kevin Youngblood (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Professor of Old Testament at Harding University and author of the highly praised commentary on Jonah in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the OT series (links below).

Kevin has a gift for making the #OldTestament seem less strange and more accessible. This episode of the podcast is the first in a new series where we’ll take a book-by-book approach for most of the New Testament. To help us set the stage, I wanted to ask Kevin one simple but profound question, “How does the Old Testament anticipate Jesus?”

Because the Old Testament is so strange and so remote from our normal experience, I think it’s easy for many Christians to use the Old Testament like a buffet line: we so often pick out just the things we like and we leave the rest behind. The problem is, if we take the arrangement of the Christian Bible seriously, we can’t leave all this other stuff out just because it’s weird or uncomfortable. The Hebrew Old Testament ends with Chronicles, and in English with Malachi, and both endings leave something to be finished. Youngblood thinks this is intentional: the entire Old Testament story drives us to anticipate some final, decisive act of God, and that is where #Jesus enters in.

Kevin’s commentary on Jonah is now in a 2nd edition: https://zondervanacademic.com/products/jonah2

You can find Kevin’s lectures on Jonah in Zondervan’s Master Lectures series: https://masterlectures.zondervanacademic.com/jonah-kevin-j-youngblood

Faith in the Folds is a podcast for ministry, biblical studies, and Christian living. You can find full videos on Facebook or YouTube, and audio versions on Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, and iHeartRadio podcasts, as well as rss.com/podcasts/faithinthefolds/. You can also follow us on Instagram @faithinthefolds.

Today I sat down with two friends to discuss an interesting article they co-authored earlier this year. Garrett Best is a friend of the podcast and joins us again today. I really appreciated talking with him in June of 2021 about the book of Revelation, a book which simultaneously fascinates and disturbs many. He helped us demystify Revelation a little bit as we talked about the seven letters, the number 666, and other things: go check it out—Faith in the Folds episode 19.

Joining me and Garrett today is the primary author of the article which we’ll talk about today, Alan Howell. Alan and I have known each other for almost two decades now as my home congregation sponsored the Howells’ mission work in Mozambique—something we’ll hear more about later.

The article they wrote together is entitled “Apocalypse, Authority, and Allegiance: Interpreting Symbols and Revelation in Mozambique.” Doing missions in foreign countries involves interpreting social, cultural, and political symbols, much like the process of interpreting scripture.

I hope you enjoy the conversation I had with Alan and Garrett as we look at some real world examples of how even something as strange as Revelation can come alive in ways we didn’t expect.

Around 51:49, Alan mentions a song the Mozambican churches would sing. You can find an older clip of that song here: http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/2015/03/and-then-they-sang-proudly-jesus-is-our.html

Access to Alan’s and Garrett’s article can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02653788211005813?journalCode=trna

The Howells featured their blog here, which was last updated near the end of their tenure in Mozambique: http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com

The Howells were featured several years ago in these publications as well:

Harding University’s The Bison: https://thelink.harding.edu/the-bison/2015/09/10/visiting-from-mozambique/

The Christian Chronicle: https://christianchronicle.org/after-armed-home-invasion-missionaries-overwhelmed-with-support-from-african-community/

Today I sat down with John Mark Hicks, professor of theology at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN. I first encountered John Mark almost twenty years ago through his books, specifically his Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper published in 2002 by New Leaf Press. I was in high school at the time and had no idea I would later be required to read more of his works for graduate classes about ten years later.

John Mark is a deep thinker, an excellent communicator, and wonderful dialogue partner on social media—which brings us to our topic for today. A few weeks ago John Mark shared on his personal Facebook page 12 guidelines for positive social media interactions: what caught my attention was not just the wisdom of these guidelines, but also the fact that I have seen John Mark follow each of these with various people who agree and disagree with him a given topic. As I told Robby John in episode 14 of Faith in the Folds, if there were one person after whom I would model my social media interactions, it would be John Mark Hicks.

You can find links to John Mark's books, articles, and blog posts at his personal website, https://johnmarkhicks.com/.

When we study history, do we learn about others or ourselves? Maybe a little of both? Today’s interview is with John Young, a budding historian of the religious history of the South in general and the Churches of Christ in particular. We had a delightful conversation about the value of church history for spiritual formation as well as three main benefits of studying history.

John Young is assistant professor of church history in the Turner School of Theology, Amridge University. You can find John’s personal blog with links to the following here: https://johnyounghistorian.com

Check out John’s blog series entitled “Church of Christ Celebrities” here: https://churchofchristcelebrities.wordpress.com

John has authored and edited the following books:

Redrawing the Blueprints for the Early Church

https://www.hcu.edu/product/redrawing-the-blueprints-for-the-early-church-by-john-young-pre-order-available-june-15-2021/

Visions of Restoration: The History of Churches of Christ

https://www.amazon.com/Visions-Restoration-John-Young-ebook/dp/B08F2XCB7S/

Editor of Living and Active Word: A Symposium by the Faculty of the Turner School of Theology, Amridge University

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Active-Word-Daniel-Fletcher/dp/1616470216/

In today’s episode I sat down with friend and former student of mine Jared Mayes. Jared has been preaching for the Leominster Church of Christ in Leominster, Massachusetts for a few years now and still remains active with the Kerusso Experience, a camp for teenagers wanting to hone their preaching skills, hosted by Harding University where Jared and I are both alumni. In the course of our conversation, Jared shared with me his love for preaching, how he learned what preaching is really about, and the amazing power the church had for helping him endure his faith crisis. Jared is also probably the biggest Star Wars fan I know personally. Earlier in 2021 he, another friend from his church, and I started a Star Wars and theology podcast called “Hyperspace Theology,” where we explore theological themes found in everyone’s favorite galaxy far, far away. But even if you’re like Freddie Mercury and you don’t like Star Wars, I know you’ll be blessed by what Jared has to say.

Today’s episode is part two of my interview with Dr. Dale Manor, professor emeritus of Bible and archaeology of Harding University. In the first half of our interview, which debuted about two weeks ago, we talked about Dr. Manor’s involvement in archaeology and what archaeology can and cannot tell us about the Bible. I also posed the question to Dr. Manor, “What’s one thing you wish every Christian knew about the Old Testament?” He and I talked about the nature of God—that the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God in the New Testament. We even dived into the murky waters of what God cannot do; taking our cue from James chapter 1, God cannot be tempted by evil. On this basis Dr. Manor and I talked about the necessity of Jesus’s incarnation for saving humanity.

You can find more information about Dr. Manor’s hands-on archaeology “classroom,” Tel Achzib, here: https://www.harding.edu/honors/archeologicalphotos

For a helpful article on the Linda Byrd Smith Museum of Biblical Archaeology housed at Harding Unversity: https://wordpress.harding.edu/harding/2017/11/02/museum-showcases-biblical-artifacts/

To reach out to Dr. Manor for lectures and other information, you can contact him through his personal website: http://www.dalewmanor.net/

Faith in the Folds is a podcast for ministry, biblical studies, and Christian living. You can find full videos on Facebook or YouTube, and audio versions on Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, and iHeartRadio podcasts, as well as rsscom/podcasts/faithinthefolds/. You can also follow us on Instagram @faithinthefolds.

Today I had the great honor of interviewing Dr. Dale Manor, Professor Emeritus of Bible and archaeology of Harding University. I first met Dr. Manor my freshman year as I took him for an Old Testament survey class. Even though the Old Testament isn’t where my own studies would eventually focus, Dr. Manor ranks among my all-time favorite professors. In addition to Dr. Manor’s teaching and preaching background, he also serves as the field director for excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh in Israel, partnering with two professors from Tel-Aviv University, Zvi Lederman and the late Shlomo Bunimovitz. Given Dr. Manor’s expertise in both the Old Testament text and the archaeology of Old Testament sites, I wanted to ask him what archaeology can tell us about the Bible, and what is one thing he would want every Christian to know about the Old Testament. Our conversation was so enthralling that we ended up having enough material for two episodes. Thanks for tuning in to part one of two.

Today I sat down with Smith Hopkins. Smith and I first met in 2010 at Harding School of Theology in Memphis. He was and is a serious Bible student and I have always appreciated how he presents his ideas and handles himself even when faced with disagreement. Early in 2021 Smith stepped away from his preaching position at a suburban church in Memphis in order to begin the challenging but necessary work of planing a church closer to the heart of urban Memphis. I caught up with Smith to ask him about his upcoming church plant, and Smith’s excitement and passion for planting healthy churches was infectious. I hope you enjoy the conversation and find yourself inspired to step out in faith where God may be calling you.

Smith mentioned research by church planter Stan Granberg, which you can find here: https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/gcrj/vol10/iss1/17/ (Stan E. Granberg, “A Case Study of Growth and Decline: The Churches of Christ, 2006-2016” Great Commission Research Journal [2018] 10.1: 90-113).

If you’re interested in learning about the church plant Smith is leading or if you would like to partner with them or pray for them, you can find more information here: https://www.oikosmemphis.org

Today I sat down with my friend Garrett Best. Garrett is the preaching Minister for the Oliver Creek Church of Christ in the greater Memphis area, and he recently defended his doctoral dissertation on the book of Revelation. Had you asked Garrett a couple of years ago if he thought he would become a budding scholar on the last book of the Bible, he certainly would have told you “No way.” It was a treat hearing his reflections on this unexpected turn of events.

In today’s episode Garrett and I talk about some of the recurring questions people have about the book of Revelation. I hope our conversation will help demystify the last book of the Bible for you.

Garrett Best is the Minister for the Oliver Creek Church of Christ in the greater Memphis area: https://www.olivercreek.org/

Two of Garrett’s blog posts on Revelation can be found here:

https://ministryofstudy.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/amazon-headquarters-the-imperial-cult-and-the-book-of-revelation/

https://ministryofstudy.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/elvis-presley-nero-and-the-book-of-revelation/