Gospel Conversations podcast

This talk builds the foundation for the rest of Iain's talks in this series. In it, Iain describes the critical paradigm shifts that separated the ‘Jerusalem’ story from the rest of the great philosophies of the ancient world—from Greece to Egypt to China. Despite all of their differences, these philosophies came from a common worldview—the cosmos is eternal, the cosmos is built for the gods and humans being are an afterthought who survive by serving the needs of the gods. Moses smashed this view and laid the foundation for enterprise and human rights with a ‘blue sky’ conceptual structure that was not a gradual development of these views, but a radical innovative alternative.

As always Iain shines in this important and extended question and answer session. As one participant observed to me about Iain’s ability to answer questions—‘He has the gift of understanding what the questioner was really trying to say and what lay behind the question—even if the asker could not articulate it well themselves.

This talk is a fitting climax to the grand sweep of this series. Iain finishes with ‘hope’ or the vision of the future that Jerusalem gave the world. Importantly he begins by demolishing the Greek notion of the intrinsic immortality of the soul, and he explains that this is not the vision of hope here. He grounds God’s promises of the future in the great covenants of the Bible and their increasing scope until they climax in the incarnation where God became human in order that humans might become like God forever.

This is a talk lots of us have been waiting for—what kind of position should believers take in politics? Iain confronts the fear that many people hold – ie involving faith and politics will result in a kind of ‘Christian Taliban’. Many Christians feel caught in a no-man’s land between the hard choice of involvement and detachment. We want our faith to be involved in politics and society but fear becoming hardcore fundamentalists—the ‘Christian Taliban’ comment. But we also fear to retreat into a totally private world of faith. Iain’s talk charts a brilliant third way and as such is one of the most important talks you will ever hear.

Having diagnosed the deep roots of modern thinking Iain moves on to the consequences. What are the practical implications of living within the ‘Jerusalem’ mindset? This talk is simple and profound: living with the Jerusalem legacy means building our lives around three archetypal relationships:

1. Our relationship with God and the creational vision of cosmic reality


2. Our relationship with our neighbours—where we find we ARE our brother’s keepers


3. Our relationship with the creation

The first talk from Iain Provan's series titled Seriously Dangerous Religion.

The eminent historian, Edwin Judge, takes us back to the mind of the Roman Empire as they faced the burgeoning growth of Christianity. Furthermore, he recreates the self-identity and characteristics that defined early Christianity—including that this new thing was not a 'religion' in the minds of either the Christians or the Romans. This jewel of a talk/interview merits a couple of hearings as it is packed with the depths and profundity of Edwin's lifelong journey.

Almost no doctrine is more controversial than 'original sin'. It has branded the Gospel as a dark message in the minds of many people—but most Christians just have a foggy notion of what it might mean. In this important talk, Tony challenges the mental models behind 'original sin' and then gives us a much richer model for sin—its beginnings and its imputation. Tony uses Romans 5 and the 'two Adams' to shine a better light on the topic, and then leaves us with suggestions as to how we might frame the Gospel differently in the light of these insights.

One of the great stumbling blocks to evangelism and faith is the doctrine of predestination. Calvin was the most vociferous advocate of it, and he built it around his belief in total depravity. But was he right. In this talk, Tony explains where Calvin went wrong because his frame was limited. Tony turns to Ephesians 1 and builds a much grander picture of what predestination means.