In this conversation, Dr. Tim Geddert (biblical scholar and longtime professor) shares why reading the Bible as a storychanges everything—from how we handle ethics, history, and “hard texts,” to how we understand discipleship and the role of the Old Testament. We talk about why people today are often persuaded by experiencing Scripture rather than “solving” objections, why “story” doesn’t mean “fiction,” how Jesus both affirms and re-reads the Old Testament, and why the church should never draw a straight line from Israel’s national wars to modern nationalism. Along the way, we explore Scripture as a drama we’re invited to participate in—improvising faithfully as we follow Jesus in the middle of God’s big plot: creation, Jesus, new creation.

Key themes

• Why biblical engagement shifted from apologetics to lived, communal plausibility
• What it means to say “the Bible tells a story” (without flattening genres)
• The dangers of “spiritual nuggets” and reading characters as moral heroes
• Creation → Jesus → New Creation as the non-negotiable story spine
• Story vs. drama: we’re in the last act, and our choices matter
• Why the Old Testament is our story (and how Jesus reads it)
• Violence texts, judgment, and the honest tension of a Jesus-shaped God-image
• Covenant people vs. nation-state: a direct challenge to Christian nationalism
• Images of God (portrait gallery) vs. abstract doctrines (Plato problem)
• Walter Brueggemann, Texts Under Negotiation
• Gospel references: Matthew 5; Mark 2; Acts 15
• Themes referenced: “creation / new creation”; “God’s will on earth as in heaven”; Christian nationalism critiques

About the guest

Dr. Tim Geddert is a biblical scholar (known especially for work on Mark and reading the Old Testament as story) and a longtime teacher of pastors and church leaders.