Following the Fire

Following the Fire

By Following The FireReligion & SpiritualityChristianity
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Following the Fire episodes

  • 37: Hidden Gems: How deconstruction can help us find deeper meaning

    Hidden Gems: How deconstruction can help us find deeper meaning

    For most churches these days, the Old Testament is a collection of exciting and shocking stories for kids’ Bible class. When we’re older, we assume we’ve learned what the stories have to teach us and we hardly ever revisit them from an adult perspective. An unexpected upside of deconstruction can be that, when we DO re-think these OT stories, there are layers upon layers of meaning.

    Intro

    • Steve (somehow) falls asleep in the MRI
    • Pandora
    • Iron & Wine
    • Parkinson's disease
    • United Church of Christ
    • Plymouth Congregational church
    • Nathan’s renovating in the dark

      • Story of Uzzah

      • Uzzah - 2 Samuel 6:3–8

        • Why Uzzah?

        • Responsibilities of Levi’s sons - Numbers 3
        • “…curtain of the temple was torn in two…” - Matthew 27:50-51
        • Hebrews 9
        • “Approach God with confidence” - Hebrews 4:16
        • “if the ministry that brought death…ministry of the spirit bring life” - 2 Corinthians 3

          • Why tear things down?

          • Cardboard building blocks
          • Nathan’s house has secret, magical rooms
          • Jewish Mysticism
          • Nadab & Abihu offering strange fire - Leviticus 10
          • Achan’s story - Joshua 7
          • Noah’s story - Genesis 6-9
          • Lot’s story - Genesis 19
          • Podcast: the Bible for Normal People
          • Book: “How the Bible Actually Works” by Peter Enns
          • Book: “Faith After Doubt” by Brian McLaren
          • “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” - Matthew 11:28-30

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            1 hr 18 min
          • 36: Breaking the Belief Box: How the protective walls we’ve built can hurt more than help

            Breaking the Belief Box: How the protective walls we’ve built can hurt more than help

            • Nathan’s face is naked
            • Nathan’s family is disagreeable
            • Nathan plans to wear high-waisted sweatpants when he’s old
            • Agreeableness
            • Podcast: “Revisionist History” re: Agreeableness
            • German bluntness
            • Article: “The Devil’s in the Details of Deconstruction”
            • Book: “The Liturgy of the Ordinary” by Tish Harrison Warren
            • Book: “Heavy Burdens” by Bridgette Eileen Rivera
            • Podcast: “The Bible for Normal People”
            • Episode 34: Who Wrote It?: Digging into false claims of authorship in the Bible with Trevor Thompson
            • “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” - Philippians 2:5-11
            • “What makes you pure is not what goes in to you, it’s what comes out” - Matthew 15:10-20
            • “Be in the world but not of the world” - John 17:14-16
            • “Don’t conform to the pattern of the world” - Romans 12:2
            • “You are the salt of the earth” - Matthew 5:13-16
            • Amish Rumspringa
            • Film: “The Village”
            • “Do not taste, do not touch, do not handle” - Colossians 2:21-23
            • “Do not be afraid”
            • Author: Skye Jethani
            • “Go with them more than one mile” - Matthew 5:41
            • Uzzah was struck dead for touching the ark
            • “I have not come to destroy the law” - Matthew 5:17
            • The Beatitudes
            • “Be salt and light” - Matthew 5:13-16
            • “Love your enemies” - Matthew 5:44
            • “I will spit you out of my mouth” - Revelation 3:16
            • “Religion that is pure and undefiled” - James 1:27-2:2
            • Film: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

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              1 hr 21 min
            • 35: Sermons We Hear: What are American Christians hearing from the pulpit?

              Sermons We Hear: What are American Christians hearing from the pulpit?

              We discuss a recent study about the content, length, and focus of sermons preached in American churches these days. Which churches talk about what? What does that say about them? What can we learn from the various types of sermon?

              • Book: Faith After Doubt by Brian McLaren
              • Article: Mask mandates work
              • Biden’s executive order
              • Article: Facebook algorithm promotes anger
              • Article: What Christians Hear at Church
              • Pew Research Center study about sermons
              • Skye Jethani
              • Article: The Wasting of The Evangelical Mind
              • United Church of Christ
              • Film: “American Tale”
              • Song: “There Are No Cats in America”
              • St. Francis
              • Liturgical Calendar
              • Anglican Book of Common Prayer
              • “I have come to preach good things to the poor” Luke 4:18

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                1 hr 12 min
              • 34: Who Wrote It?: Digging into false claims of authorship in the Bible with Trevor Thompson

                Who Wrote It?: Digging into false claims of authorship in the Bible with Trevor Thompson

                New Testament scholar Trevor Thompson joins us to discuss pseudepigraphic texts in the Bible. We talk about what they are, how they're determined, and we talk a lot about what that means for our faith in scripture and in God.

                • Trevor Thompson’s Academia.org page
                • Willam B. Eerdman’s Publishing
                • Oklahoma Christian University
                • Harding University
                • University of Chicago
                • Pseudepigrapha
                • Trevor’s Twitter
                • Galen (ancient physician)
                • Commodus
                • Book: “On My Own Books” by Galen
                • Thomas Jefferson’s Bible
                • Codex Sinaiticus
                • P46 (collection of Paul’s letters)
                • “…as though from us” 2 Thessalonians 2:2
                • 3rd Corinthians
                • Correspondence of Paul & Seneca
                • Correspondence of Jesus & King Abgar
                • Eusebius
                • New Testament Apocrypha
                • Hippocrates
                • 2 Peter authenticity
                • Shibboleth
                • Book of Revelation
                • Dionysius of Alexandria
                • Gospel of John
                • Society of Biblical Literature
                • Pauline Authorship
                • Origen
                • Mark from the 1st century forgery
                • Gospel of Jesus’ wife forgery
                • TNIV Bible translation
                • Deutero-Pauline meaning
                • Author: Bart Ehrman
                • Article: “Why so many Americans think they have Native American blood”
                • New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books
                • Book: “The Bible: An Introduction” Jerry Sumney

                  • Special Guest: Trevor Thompson.

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                  1 hr 11 min
                • 33: Multiple Heresies: Exploring some challenges to biblical inerrancy

                  Yay – Nathan is back! In this episode we follow up with some explanation behind the claims Steve made in the previous episode about how the Bible is not as “inerrant” as we think, although we just scratch the surface. Unfortunately, Steve breaks the rule of only one heresy per episode.

                  • Nathan’s wife is home! She completed the Pacific Coast Trail!
                  • Her Instagram
                  • Book club coming up - Faith After Doubt by Brian McLaren
                  • Steve’s TikTok- @heystevemartin
                  • James Dobson
                  • Book: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes Du Mez
                  • Podcast: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill
                  • Episode 32: Dissonance
                  • Biblical Inerrancy

                    • Some sources on Steve’s crazy claims: (There are many more than these, but these are all a good start/summary of the topic. Also, there are obviously many opinions on these things, so please search out and read multiple sides of the arguments)

                    • “1 & 2 Timothy and Titus not written by Paul” - link
                    • “The God of the Israelites was initially named “El” and it became “Jahweh” later in history” - link
                    • “The Bible never tells us that homosexual relationships are wrong” - start with this book
                    • “The book of Revelation almost didn’t make it into the Bible at all” - link
                    • “Job was not a real person” - Book
                    • “Isaiah was written by multiple authors in different eras” - link
                    • “The Bible is so ancient in some places that we have no idea how to translate it” - link
                    • “It’s doubtful that Abraham was a real person” - link
                    • “Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch” - link

                    • “John was not written by John” - link

                    • Textual Criticism

                    • Chiasmus

                    • Pseudepigrapha

                    • Parable of the Good Samaritan - Luke 10:25-37

                    • Parable of the Prodigal Son - Luke 15:11-32

                    • Parable of Lazarus - Luke 16:19-31

                    • Henotheism

                    • Canaanite god “El”

                    • JHWH

                    • Deuteronomy 32:8-9

                    • “The truth shall set you free” - John 8:31-32

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                      1 hr 27 min
                    • 32: Dissonance: How "biblical inerrancy" led to Trump & conspiracy theories

                      Steve goes solo this week for his hot take on how the American Evangelical / Fundamentalist belief in biblical inerrancy (a relatively new concept, actually) has led to the era of Trump and conspiracy theories ruling the church

                      • Biblical Inerrancy
                      • The Reformation
                      • The Age of Enlightenment
                      • Brad Risley’s tweet
                      • Insular Cortex

                        • Some sources on Steve’s crazy claims: (There are many more than these, but these are all a good start/summary of the topic. Also, there are obviously many opinions on these things, so please search out and read multiple sides of the arguments)

                        • “1 & 2 Timothy and Titus not written by Paul” - link
                        • “The God of the Israelites was initially named “El” and it became “Jahweh” later in history” - link
                        • “The Bible never tells us that homosexual relationships are wrong” - start with this book
                        • “The book of Revelation almost didn’t make it into the Bible at all” - link
                        • “Job was not a real person” - Book
                        • “Isaiah was written by multiple authors in different eras” - link
                        • “The Bible is so ancient in some places that we have no idea how to translate it” - link
                        • “It’s doubtful that Abraham was a real person” - link
                        • “Moses didn’t write the Pentateuch” - link
                        • “John was not written by John” - link

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                          23 min
                        • 31: Doppelgänger: The faith journey of ANOTHER Steve Martin

                          Doppelgänger: The faith journey of ANOTHER Steve Martin

                          Steve couldn’t believe it when he came across ANOTHER guy named Steven D. Martin who is ALSO a podcaster, a pastor, is passionate about social justice, and the similarities keep going. We just had to have him on the show to tell his faith story. It starts in small town Tennessee, goes through his time as a pastor, how he ended up at the Charlottesville race protests, and now running an institute for training churches to deal with our new reality.

                          • Special Guest: Steven D. Martin
                          • The Greatest Command - Matthew 22:36-40
                          • United Methodist Church
                          • Apostles’ Creed
                          • Nicene Creed
                          • “Unite the Right” rally - Charlottesville, VA in 2017
                          • Book of Jonah
                          • Heather Heyer - killed at the rally
                          • Lisa Sharon Harper
                          • Lakelands Institute
                          • Podcast: Mainline

                            • Special Guest: Steven D. Martin.

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                            1 hr 5 min
                          • 30: Book Club: “The Making of Biblical Womanhood” by Beth Allison Barr

                            Book Club: “The Making of Biblical Womanhood” by Beth Allison Barr

                            • Oklahoma Christian University
                            • Reformed Theology
                            • Calvinism
                            • Presbyterianism
                            • Book: “The Second Sex” by Simone De Beauvoir
                            • Book: “Feminine Mystique” by Betty Frieden
                            • Author: bell hooks
                            • PCUSA - Presbyterian Church of The USA
                            • PCA - Presbyterian Church in America

                            • Book: “Co-Laborers and Co-Heirs” by Alison Buxton and others

                            • Book: “The Making of Biblical Womanhood” by Beth Allison Barr

                            • TV Show: “How It’s Made”

                            • Video: Sesame Street - how saxophones are made

                            • Complementarianism

                            • Patriarchy

                            • Egalitarianism

                            • Video: “Man Cold”

                            • Book: “Shameless” by Nadia Bolz-Weber

                            • ESV translation of the Bible

                            • KJV translation

                            • NIV translation

                            • Junia Project

                            • Phoebe

                            • Deacon

                            • Transliteration

                            • 1 Corinthians 14

                            • Author: Kate Bowler

                            • Epic of Gilgamesh

                            • Book: “The Last Battle” by CS Lewis

                            • Article: “Church of Christ Practice Harms Girls Long-Term, Suggests 2018 Study”

                            • “Jesus…did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…” - Philippians 2:5-11

                            • “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” - Galatians 3:27-29

                            • Book: “Feminism is for Everybody” bell hooks

                            • Romans 16

                            • Video: “Stop It” - Bob Newhart

                            • Author: Rachel Held Evans

                            • Feminism

                            • Video: “Constitutional Peasant” by Monty Python

                              • Special Guest: Alison Buxton.

                              Support Following the Fire

                              1 hr 12 min

                            About Following the Fire

                            From the publisher's feed

                            Like many others, we (Steve & Nathan) are on a spiritual journey of deconstruction and reconstruction to find what God truly wants of us. Just like Israel followed the pillar of fire in the desert, we want to follow God wherever we are led. And just like Israel, we get lost a lot, we get it wrong a lot, but we're trying our best to follow and have a relationship with the Father. Join us on the journey!