Hollywood Heroes with Frank Turek

Millions of people around the world are captivated by fantasy and superhero films. What explains their popularity? According to our guest, apologist Frank Turek, it’s because we long for “another world” that we were really made for, and we are enchanted by someone who will bring us there—someone who will fight evil and transport us safely to a world where there is no pain, suffering, or struggle.  In this episode of the podcast we meet Frank Turek and get introduced to both his ministry (CrossExamined.org) and his latest book, co-authored with his son Zach, entitled Hollywood Heroes: How Your Favorite Movies Reveal God. Join us for some worthwhile apologetics discussion!

Dr. Heiser answers your questions.

Dr. Heiser answers your questions.

The World Turned Upside Down - Mike's book will be $5 (free shipping) through the end of June. The coupon code is STRANGER5 or the discount is applied automatically if you click the link. The book and video bundle will be $10 (no discount code needed).

Dr. Heiser answers your questions.

Dr. Heiser answers your questions.

Dr. Heiser answers your questions.

The Queen of Heaven with Dr. Peter Goeman

The “queen of heaven” is an enigmatic deity figure that appears in Scripture in a handful of verses (Jer 7:18; 44:17-19, 25). Who was the queen of heaven to whom the people of Judah were offering idolatrous sacrifice? What can be known of her? Can she be identified with a named ancient Near Eastern goddess? This episode of the podcast entertains these and other questions with our guest, Dr. Peter Goeman.

In the preceding episodes, we’ve seen how Paul reconfigures Old Testament faith, faithfulness, Torah keeping, and Israel’s election in light of the work of Jesus and his own encounter with the risen Christ. In this final episode of our series on Paul’s use of the Old Testament in Romans, we look at how Paul’s reconfiguring of these doctrinal elements factors into Romans 12-16, the epistle’s section on practical Christian living. Paul’s theological outlook does indeed influence how he articulates what life in the believing Jew-Gentile community of Jesus followers should look like.

In the preceding episodes, we’ve seen how Paul reconfigures Old Testament faith, faithfulness, and Torah keeping in light of  the work of Jesus and his own encounter with the risen Christ. In this episode we look at how Paul recontextualized Israel’s election in light of Christ as the risen messiah. Specifically, we’ll look at Paul’s use of Hosea in Romans 9, and how Paul sees Hosea’s words describing God’s election of Israel as including Gentiles, thus reconfiguring the concept of election.

In the preceding episode, we saw how Israel’s elective vocation was reconfigured by Paul to focus on the work of Christ and the resurrection. The focus was Romans 1-3 and how Paul understands faith/faithfulness and Torah keeping. In this episode the template of the faithfulness of Jesus, the faith of the individual believer, and the matter of works (specifically circumcision) are articulated by Paul using the story of Abraham in Romans 4. Again, Paul contextualizes the Old Testament in light of the work of Jesus and his own encounter with the risen Christ.