As we gear up for a special episode on the difficult topic of Hell, we first bring you this Undeceptions Rewind looking at what the Bible says about Heaven. This rewind is from episode 64 'Kingdom Come'

Is Christianity an offshoot of an ancient fertility cult? Why do the Gospels only talk about Jesus' genealogy in connection to Joseph? Is there a place for Christian patriotism?

John answers all these and more in our Season XIII Q&A!

• (00:00) - - Intro

The Acts of the Apostles is the epic sequel to Luke's Gospel. 

It follows the dramatic events immediately after the resurrection of Jesus, and follows how the first Christians - led by perhaps the most unlikely person - took the news of the Messiah to the edges of the Roman Empire - and beyond. 

• (00:10) - - A Biblical sequel

If we’re talking only about liquids you drink—because the water in the Bible is washed in, crossed over, and even walked on once—wine is no.1.

Wine appears more than 200 times in the Bible. And almost all of them are positive references—not critiques. 

Christianity has a long, rich history with wine. But oftentimes, we’ve made it much more complicated and, at times, harmful.

• (00:00) - Chapter 1

There's just something about the Virgin Mary. 

She stirs up big feelings - she has for millennia. 

Some have perhaps given her more prominence than she would feel comfortable with.

Others have hacked down her statues in reforming zeal. 

Others never think about her, except when they come across a nativity scene in a shopping mall (and even that’s becoming a rarity).

So, it’s time we met Mary properly this Christmas. 

• (06:10) - - Mary in the New Testament

In the 3rd century, in the Ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, a group of Christians composed a song of praise set to the pagan music of the time. 

Now, 1800 years later, John Dickson is working with two of the world's best songwriters to bring this lost song - this First Hymn - back to life. 

Along the way, they make some incredible discoveries about early church music, shedding light on what the earliest Christians believed. 

This is the first in a three-part podcast series on The First Hymn Project - taking its name from the forthcoming Undeceptions documentary, to be released at Easter 2025. 

• (00:10) - - Singing the First Hymn

With 66 different books composed across literally thousands of years, it's fair to say the Bible is a complex read. But it doesn't have to be. The key to understanding the Bible is understanding the different literary genres. 

The great project of the Enlightenment was to bring reason to the forefront. 

No more would humans be held back by superstitions: the power of the mind was all that was needed for advancement. 

Three centuries on though, and some people are beginning to think the pendulum has swung too far.

Celebrated journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant joined John onstage in Sydney for a live recording of Undeceptions to discuss this new disenchanted age.

• (02:19) - - Introduction: Everything we wished for is here, and that's a problem

A new movie has been released this week about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was killed by the Nazis for his involvement in a plot to kill Hitler. 

Bonhoeffer's fame has ballooned into a kind of mythology that has seen people of all stripes "claim" him as their own. But our guest for this episode says that if we only think of him as a “hero” for our cause, we may miss important pieces of Bonhoeffer’s complex life and thinking. 

So, who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer and why does he still matter?

• (04:47) - - Bonhoeffer's Germany

Sam Allberry was involved in environmental activism when he became a Christian - a development that his activist friends saw as bad news. 

After all, why would a follower of a religion that looks forward to the coming of a new Earth be concerned with the state of the current world? 

For Sam though, becoming a Christian led him to a very different conclusion.