Real Bible Rob: Affirming Christianity Podcast Real Bible Rob - Inclusive Christianity Discussions Real Bible Rob | PCUSA Ministry Insights

Real Bible Rob: Affirming Christianity Podcast Real Bible Rob - Inclusive Christianity Discussions Real Bible Rob | PCUSA Ministry Insights

By Rob Christ | Inclusive ChristianityReligion & SpiritualityChristianitySpiritualityReligion
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Real Bible Rob: Affirming Christianity Podcast Real Bible Rob - Inclusive Christianity Discussions Real Bible Rob | PCUSA Ministry Insights episodes

  • Why is Galatians about Freedom? With Rev. Adina Meyer

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    My New Testament professor Dr. Nijay Gupta has written much about Galatians and is endlessly fascinated by Paul's letter. I didn't exactly understand why this angry letter was so important. Like many Christians, I usually favored Ephesians and Philippians, maybe Timothy, but Galatians? Why? It is pivotal as an early window into the first major crisis in the early church in which Paul had to intervene: the relationship between Jewish and Gentile Christians. My friend Rev. Adina Meyer just finished a series of sermons on Galatians, so she is the perfect person to discuss our changing views of the letter and why it is so important.

    References: 
    Nijay K. Gupta, "Galatians - The Story of God Commentary", 2023.
    Scot McKnight, "James and Galatians - New Testament Everyday Bible Study", 2022.
    Brigette Kahl,  "Galatians Re-Imagined", 2010
    J Louis Martyn, "Galatians - The Anchor Bible series", 1997

    45 min
  • Exposing Harmful Fundamentalists, The Case for Optimism

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    Something’s seriously wrong with America and we all know it. What was the long path toward equality of men and women, of the races in civil rights, of religious people integrating progress into theology has faced ever-increasing headwinds. In many ways we can rejoice especially when we remember how women and minorities were treated in the 1960s and 1970s. I’ve spoken about the rise of the religious right during the late 70s and on into the Reagan era. Much of that was overt but they were operating on two levels and the groundwork was quietly being laid for the backlash we see now. It’s really coming out now in all the talk about James Dobson and John MacArthur, who recently passed away. But the dark under-belly of Doug Wilson and John Piper haven't yet received enough attention. The war on women’s rights and the subversive war on history especially the retelling of slavery and genocide have yet to be told enough. The “war on woke” and DEI are really about wrestling Christianity back to the dark-ages. The church must oppose it if it is to survive. As a favorite tiktoker of mine @ohmellyeah says “the only way is through, not around.” This is a cause for optimism. 

    * Pamela Brown inverviewed Douglas Wilson on CNN in which he said “Women are people who people come out of.”

    #jamesdobson #douglaswilson #johnmacarthur #johnpiper #paulwasher #fundamentalism #slavery #christiannationalism #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    33 min
  • The Truth about King James and Protestantism

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    Let's talk about 17th century England. Why? Because so much about American Protestant beliefs and culture come from it. The King James Bible was a political stake in the ground. The Westminster Confession was an Act of Parliament during the English Civil War. It was a compromise between Anglicans and Presbyterians to oppose radical Puritans and Catholics. The 1689 Second London Confession legitimized the Baptists as a result of the Act of Toleration passed by Parliament as part of the Glorious Revolution. The creation of these documents was incredibly political. It harkens back to the creation of the Nicene Creed, the Council of Chalcedon, and the formation of the biblical canon in the early church. I discuss why people still look at these periods with rose-colored glasses, and how the propaganda of those times still deeply affects us today. I won't call it a sham, but there's lots of power politics and chicanery in Christian history. It was always there, and it is still here. There was never a purer period in the history of the church than today. 

    I made an error about the Three Forms of Unity: They are the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Belgic Confession (1561), and the Canons of Dort (1618-1619). These are the basic documents for the Dutch Reformed Church. These informed the creation of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-1649).

    #christianhistory #KingJamesBible #KJV #WesterminsterConfession #WestminsterStandards #EnglishCivilWar #1689Confession #GloriousRevolution #Theology #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    44 min
  • Is God warm hearted or cold hearted? Jeremiah 42:10 and Isaiah 40:1

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    Does God express emotions? This is a more central question than it seems. It’s a significant clue to how you see the sovereignty of God, whether God changes, and whether God is affected by prayer. If God shows the emotion of regret, does that mean God is weak? To illustrate these differences, I do a deep dive into two verses that feature the Hebrew word Neecham. The theological bias of Bible translations are revealed in what words are used for Neecham: repent, relent, regret, feel sorrow, grieve, have compassion or comfort. I review the implications of these in two different passages. 

    #ESV #NRSV #bible #calvinism #hebrew #edmondspres #pcusa

    Jeremiah 42:10
    ESV If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

    NRSVue If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you and not pluck you up, for I am sorry for the disaster that I have brought upon you.

    RSV If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil which I did to you.

    22 min
  • Great Approach to Bible Reading with @LiterallyTheBible Elle

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    Today I am excited to welcome Elle, who goes by @LiterallyTheBible on TikTok and YouTube. She is reading the Bible from cover to cover as a non-religious gal. Her approach to Bible reading chapter by chapter is so insightful and refreshing. I've been really impressed with her analysis, her questions, and her response to comments. I think it is a great example for how we can approach Bible reading. Now that she has made it through the 50 chapters of Genesis and now into Exodus, I will ask her about her impressions and about the feedback she has been getting.

    58 min
  • Revelation Queerness with Professor Lynn Huber

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    I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Lynn Huber, Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University and an expert on the Book of Revelation. I have been following her on TikTok, and I was intrigued by her commentary about queer perspectives on Revelation. She brings a sense of excitement and love for the book, which many people approach with a sense of fear and retribution. I don't shy away from Revelation like many Presbyterians do, and I have preached several times about the many ways to interpret it. So, I was excited to hear about Dr. Huber's work and really wanted to interview her. 

    References: 
    "Revelation: Wisdom Commentary" by Lynn Huber and Gail R. O'Day
    Robyn Whitaker, "Revelation for Normal People"
    Greg Carey, "Rereading Revelation"
    Barbara Rossing, "Rapture Exposed"

    We also spoke about these biblical scholars: Candida Moss, Sandra Glahn, Lynn Cohick, Luke Timothy Johnson, Sarah Emanuel, Mitzi Smith, Steve Gregg, Eric Thomas, Yii-Jan Lin

    #revelation #rapture #queer #lgbtq #queerchristian #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    53 min
  • The Harm of Replacement Theology, Hebrews 8:6-13

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    Christians love Replacement. Replacing Judaism with the New Covenant. Replacing the Jewish people as the Chosen people of God. Replacing Islam in the Holy Land during the Crusades. In America, replacing indigenous people with white Christian people. Replacing native religions around the world with missionaries. Lately, replacing the words of Jesus with nationalism and political tribalism. It has a long history, when the Roman Empire subsumed Christianity into the empire. Later, the Gospel of Jesus was replaced with theologies like Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory as a singular theology of Protestants. Hebrews 8:10-13 explicitly replaces the Old Covenant with the New Covenant by quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34 verbatim. Old Testament scholars Walter Brueggemann and John Goldingay warn that we should be careful to not engage in supersessionism, or replacement theology. I define supersessionism and offer a balanced approach that honors both the Hebrew Scriptures and their integration into Christian theology. 

    #newcovenant #supersessionist #replacementtheology #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    45 min
  • Striving to be saved? Matthew 7:13-14, Luke 13:24

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    People use the narrow gate metaphor that Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount to feed their persecution complex and to exclude others. I frequently come across egregious misrepresentations of these passages. Often spoken with cult-like intentions, it is always meant to instill fear. Was this Jesus's intent? Was he using fear to encourage people to follow him instead of the religious leaders of his time? That was certainly part of it, but it also gave comfort to an oppressed people by offering them an alternative to the strict application of the law or just going along with the bullies. These passages are hard to consider because these verses are some of the clearest examples of where audience and context matter. It is why simplistic interpretations are so easily weaponized by people today. Nuance and context are hard for many Christians. I discuss these verses and compare it to the seemingly contradictory when Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light," in Matthew 11:30. 

    #salvation #narrowgate #widepath #yokeiseasy #jesussaves #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    28 min
  • Physical Digital Church, Interview with Skeptic Pastor Jeremy Steele

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    I am delighted to welcome Jeremy Steele to the podcast today. I love his content on TikTok so much. He reached out to creators with podcasts. I jumped at the chance to interview him, and he graciously agreed!

    Church attendance statistics are notoriously difficult to decipher, but people latch onto the latest reports as signs of a turnaround or that their favorite segment is gaining new interest. Recently, Churchtrac showed an increase in Millennial attendance led by men. A slight uptick in fundamentalist evangelical churches engagement appears to be responsible for this. Is it a continuation of the young restless reformed movement?

    In my public-facing ministry and my work within the Presbyterian Church USA, I'm regularly told that my church is dying because it is "woke." Young men say they've left my church for more fundamentalist churches. It is always about LGBTQ affirmation and women in ministry, and not really about Jesus. For every one of them, however, I hear from at least ten others who say they will never go to church again because the church is hateful and hypocritical. So I ask, why then aren't fundie churches growing by leaps and bounds, rather than just attracting people who left mainline churches? Where will people turned off by the church go? 

     See Jeremy's links at https://jeremy-steele.com/ , including his podcasts, TikTok and other resources. 
    You can join Jeremy's community at https://www.patreon.com/skepticpastor 

    #jeremysteele #digitalchurch #liturgicalworship #emergingchurch #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    53 min
  • War on Empathy, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, Psalm 103:13

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    How can you justify cruelty as a Christian? It has a very long tradition, from the Crusades to Slavery and Jim Crow to Mass Deportations today. These were all and are still perpetuated and justified by Bible believing Christians. This justification and hypocrisy is the main critique of Christianity. How can a religion that exhorts love and kindness be so unloving and unkind? Simple, just redefine what love and kindness are, and voila, you can justify anything. This is exactly what is happening with the current discussions about "Empathy is Sin." I have spoken frequently about hyper-Calvinists like John Piper, who do this redefinition by saying that empathy is not in scripture. In this episode, I discuss the origins of the word empathy and why it is considered invalid by some people. Then I describe the reason we needed to adopt the word empathy in English. Next, I explore the Hebrew word "rachamim" and the Greek word "parakaleo," discussing how they are often used to describe something closer to empathy than just mercy or compassion. 

    #rachamim #parakaleo #empathy #compassion #mercy #empathyissin #charliekirk #tpusa #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    38 min

About Real Bible Rob: Affirming Christianity Podcast Real Bible Rob - Inclusive Christianity Discussions Real Bible Rob | PCUSA Ministry Insights

From the publisher's feed

Exploring Bible interpretation and modern Christian faith, I am a Presbyterian USA minister who interprets the Bible in all of its messy and varied voices. I teach and preach spiritual growth to…