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

  • Always Reforming is Now! The Church must reform again

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    The Church is in desperate need of Reform. Which direction should we go? Rediscovering doctrines of the past? Reforming our doctrines for a new era? There is a lot of disagreement about what is needed. I argue that we must do both.  

    The motto of the Presbyterian Church USA is "Ecclesia Reformata Semper Reformanda" which is Latin for "The Church reformed, always reforming." Which has been quoted in different forms and cherished by Reformed Christians since the Dutch theologian Jodocus van Lodenstein wrote it in the 1670s. Swiss theologian Karl Barth revived and popularized the term in 1947 harkening back to St. Augustine. But that's where the agreement ends. 

    Conservative Presbyterians see it as reexamining and seeking doctrinal purity, confirming the long-held myth that the Reformation was primarily about recapturing a long-lost purity in the church that  Catholics had corrupted. 

    Conversely, most PCUSA people see it as a natural part of the ongoing revelation of the church and that God brings us to new understandings of the Gospel. This is most clearly exhibited in the nearly 300-year gap between the Westminster Standards of 1649 and the 20th-century confessions. I ask what happened in that 300 years? And why were attempts for a new confession rejected? I describe why this is particularly important now. The last century from the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the wholehearted evangelical Christian embrace of right-wing nationalism in our era shows that the church is in desperate need of reform again. 

    #refomed #reformation #semperreformanda #karlbarth #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    36 min
  • Does God Change?, Exodus 32:14, Jeremiah 18:8-10

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    Whenever you ask whether God changes or that God learns, It is usually met with a resounding "No!" But then you must ask, what is the point of prayer? When you look at scripture, it says explicitly many times that God changes. "But God knows everything" goes the reasoning. So most people have to do logical backflips to make omniscience work with free will and change. So did God make a giant mistake? Why does God keep making new agreements, Covenants with His people? There a several schools of thought on this and we must wade through millennia of dogma to have this make sense. We have already determined that God can't predetermine the future. So then, does God know all possible outcomes? I offer several ways to think about it differently. As Richard Rohr says, Creation is ongoing. God is never done creating. Creation is change and relationship is with Creation is God's main goal in scripture. So yes, it is irrefutable that God changes.

    Reference: "The Universal Christ" by Richard Rohr

    #omniscience #godchanged #jeremiah #exodus #immutability #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    30 min
  • Reject Abusive Father Theology: Romans 8 is Freedom Not Slavery

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    For many Romans 8 is the essential chapter for understanding God’s purpose in the Gospel message. While I don’t think that was necessarily Paul’s purpose to be all-encompassing, it can be a great guide for us. N.T. Wright has said, that if he had only one chapter of the New Testament to take with him, it would be Romans 8. Unfortunately, it is also used for great harm. One commenter said that she rejects the “suffering kink” that many evangelicals lay on scripture. It’s part of a pattern in translations like the ESV and NIV that reveal the projection of dominance and trauma on our images of God. Dr. Beverly Gaventa says that the slave responds with fear while the heir responds with mutuality. I think this is the direction we need to move in Christianity. 

    Beverly Roberts Gaventa “Romans: A Commentary” 2024.

    #evangelical #theology #romans #esv #niv #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    40 min
  • When in Romans: Freedom or Shackles?

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    The book of Romans carries so much theological weight that it’s hard to see Paul’s reasoning and technique through it. Fortunately, there’s been a wealth of new scholarship and research on it that it’s freeing the text from its Lutheran and Calvinist shackles. You can spend a lifetime diving into details but I will focus on three areas that highlight the new research:  the contrast and purpose of Chapters 1&2 and why they must always be read together, Chapter 3 and atonement theory, and Chapters 12, 14, and 16 which hint at why Chapters 1-3 are probably not about systematic theology like we think. 

    Notes: hilasterion (ἱλαστήριον) also refers to the Seat of Mercy as well as the covering or place of forgiveness. Jews celebrate Yom Kippur as the Day of Atonement. This is followed by "through" or "by" faith (διὰ τῆς πίστεως) in the genitive, instead of "because of" faith in the accusative. 

    References:
    Beverly Roberts Gaventa “Romans: A Commentary” 2024.
    Nijay K. Gupta & John K. Goodrich, Eds, “The Beginning of Paul’s Gospel: Theological Explorations in Romans 1-4” 2023. 

    #romans #atonement #theology #freedom #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    50 min
  • Is Esther the most Romantic Book of the Bible? With Scholar Maria Hearing

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    Today I have a special guest Maria Hearing. Maria is a dear friend, classmate, teacher, Hebrew reading partner, and leader. Maria has done deep research on the book of Esther, and she has written scholarly papers on the narrative and genres of the story. The story is foundational to the myth of the Jewish nation, but it also tells us so much about patriarchy and the strength of ancient women in unexpected ways. Is Esther a comedy or a horror story? Is the relationship of the King and Esther about romance or rape? Maria shows us how we react so differently depending on our vantage points.

    Esther as horror reference: Dr. Erika Dunbar, https://bibleandcriticaltheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Ericka-Dunbar-FINAL.pdf

    #esther #vashti #biblicalstudies #trafficking #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa 

    51 min
  • Phony Originalism in Christianity: History or Myth

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    Do you have an image of a traditional past that was better? Kids respected their parents. People had manners. They respected the law. Neighbors watched out for each other. Not like these wicked times, so the reasoning goes. It seems harkening to a mythical part is an innate part of being human. Since religious people strongly tend toward being traditionalists, this myth is especially true in Christianity. But it’s not true that times were better, just different, and it often hampers progress. I discuss the theory that the main division in ancient Israel was between settled farmers and mobile herders, and this defined their religions. I describe the central challenge in today’s mainline church and its inability to integrate younger people into the church. Finally, I mention why I think it is valuable to read the Gospel of John before embarking on reading the whole Bible, starting with Genesis. 

    #originalism #biblicalhistory #ancientisrael #ancientjudah #gospelofjohn #genesis #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    Urbanization. Farmers vs shepherds. Dr. Jason Price UCLA PhD 2020 in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. 

    39 min
  • Slavery is still with us, Leviticus 25:42-46 & Colossians 3:22-4:1

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    Slavery drives Christian thought far more than you realize. It has never left us. Imagine for a moment being on a plantation as a child. Slavery requires the crushing of empathy. Much of what we’ve seen in the last 400 years in the west was the use of theology to excuse the massive brutality and hypocrisy of colonialism. Presbyterian history and the divergence of the PCUSA and PCA illustrates This messy history. So tangled, can we ever unwind it? Woke is an indicator. If you want to keep things separate, you label it and push it away. Social consensus is the enemy of Christian Nationalism. The recent story about Nottoway plantation is very telling. It was a resort and a party wedding venue. Yet it was a site of rape, murder, and torture of 155 slaves in its sugar plantation. Deconstructing the myth of white evangelical Christianity and its complicity in covering up cruelty is a necessity to move forward. The bullying must stop before we can be the church of Jesus Christ again. 

    References:
    “Divided by Faith: Evangelical Faith and the Problem of Race in America” by Christian Smith and Michael O. Emerson
    “The Color of Compromise” by Jemar Tisby

    #Slavery #christianity #empathy #pca #christiannationalism #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    39 min
  • Penal Substitution is not the Gospel, Romans 3:9-26

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    Asking "What is the gospel?" is surprisingly controversial in some quarters. Most people believe the gospel is the radical love of God in the person, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But that’s not enough for many others. They insist that Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory defines the Gospel. This was not true for the majority of Christians for the majority of history, but it is vigorously defended, especially by Calvinist Christians. PSA is a Western Enlightenment concept that comes out of colonialist cultures. It’s so strongly ingrained that many people think it’s just what Christianity is. I believe this assumption is very harmful and the main roadblock that prevents us from having a theology that includes all humanity. I define what an Atonement Theory is and describe how PSA is just one of them. Then I describe why PSA is so vigorously defended and why it is such a barrier to bringing new people into the faith. 

    https://www.sdmorrison.org/7-theories-of-the-atonement-summarized/
    David Bentley Hart, "That All Shall Be Saved."

    #penalsubstitution #atonement #salvation #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    46 min
  • The King You Didn't Know, Jeremiah 1:1-19 & 2 Chronicles 35:20-25

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    "If you know Jeremiah, you know the Old Testament" is something I like to say. Because it is the most political book of the Bible. It is the backdrop of King Josiah's huge political blunder in fighting against Pharaoh Neco in 2 Chronicles 35 that shows us why. King Josiah was the beginning of the distinctively Jewish state. The Deuteronomists come from this period, and everything we see from before the exile, Genesis through 2nd Kings, comes through the lens of them. I discuss the shifting of the Overton Window in Jeremiah's time and how he fought the powerful to stay true. I also describe how this shifting looks very similar to America's political leaders' choices. I ask whether our response to threats and changes should be Realpolitik like the cynical Henry Kissinger or the diplomacy of George C. Marshall or later George H. W. Bush. All of these approaches had their successes and failures. It was very hard to discern truth and faithfulness in Jeremiah's day as well. I will speak more about Jeremiah in future episodes. I am convinced that the better we know this, the better we can be faithful to God's promise for us. 

    Correction: King Amon ruled for only 2 years. King Josiah ruled for 31 years. Sorry for the error.

    Reference: "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann, especially chapter 3

    #Jeremiah #josiah #prophesy #realpolitick #overtonwindow #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    24 min
  • Apologetics Can't Prove God Exists, 1 Peter 3:14-16

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    I said "Apologetics is Circular Reasoning" in a video last year. It garnered a lot of hate, cheers, and hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram. The response was fascinating because what should have been a philosophical argument turned into a test of faithfulness. Modern Apologetics, meaning the use of the scientific method to prove the existence and sovereignty of God is fallacious. Apologetics historically had a purpose, and when it is applied as a defense of one's beliefs as in the New Testament, it is perfectly reasonable, but today it is an evangelistic technique and not a valid field of study. I explain the difference between apologia in the Bible and modern apologetics. I refer to respected apologists like William Lane Craig and his techniques and how they differ from many less respected apologists like James White and the historical use of apologia. This reveals a culture of theological control and bullying clothed in intellectual garments. 

    Reference: "Sin of Certainty" by Peter Enns, pp. 114-5

    #apologetics #evangelism #Bible #apologia #edmonds #edmondspres #pcusa

    45 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…