Orthodocs.faith

This is the second episode where John and Ron explore the interplay between grace -- what God does for us -- and free will -- what we decide for ourselves.

In this episode, they delve into numerous excerpts from scripture that inform this topic, but it includes passages that also raise as many questions as they answer.  As always, though, they look to all of scripture, the Old and New Testaments alike, and they discover a key in the Old Testament perspective that clearly illuminates New Testament language about predestination.

Join John and Ron as they take this next step exploring a question that subsequently consumed the ancient world: if we are utterly dependent on God's grace to restore our relationship, what do our own decisions have to do with it?

Ron and John begin discussing a longstanding tension in Christian theology in this first episode of the series, "Grace and Free Will." They set the stage to examine the theological question of human choice. How do free will and what many call "predestination" interact? What are the extremes in this discussion, and are these ideas meant to be pitted against each other?

After feeding more than 5,000 people, Jesus sent the disciples ahead of him in a boat while he stayed behind. But when they ran into trouble, Jesus walked out to them on the water. Mark tells us that Jesus went to "pass by" them, but that probably means much more than you realize. John and Ron look at this and other surprises in the dramatic and well-known story from Mark 6.

Ron and John conclude their short series on the temptation of Jesus. They examine closely the exchange between the devil and Jesus because it is packed with allusions, parallels, and direct references to the history of the ancient nation of Israel.

There are fascinating connections between the Old Testament and the New in the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. In this episode, Ron and John look closely at this scene in the gospels. They look for what’s going on with each of the offers that the devil makes, the background to Jesus’ responses from scripture, and how that informs our reading.

This is the final episode in the series that covers the first three chapters of Genesis.  Guided by a close reading in the original context, John and Ron look back and ask: What is essential from this story?  What is not?

The story of the fall in Genesis 3 may be one of the most widely recognized sections of scripture.  John and Ron push past millennia of interpretation, reinterpretation -- and outright misinterpretation! -- to consider just what original readers of Genesis might have perceived in the story.

In this third episode on Genesis, John and Ron move into the creation story told in chapter 2.  If chapter 1, is the "God's-eye view," chapter 2 might be called the "view from the ground."

In this second episode of their series on Genesis 1-3, John and Ron begin looking directly at the text . . . in the beginning. They start with Genesis 1 and the first of the creation stories in these three chapters.

John and Ron open their fourth season of Orthodocs.faith with a new series on the first three chapters of Genesis.  The stories told there are crucial to the way Christians describe God's work in the world -- just not always the way we expect!  John and Ron open with an orientation to these foundational three chapters, and they discuss how important it is to read them in context.