22: The risk of believing differently

Update: 2018-05-09

Description

Is it worth losing the certainty you once had to pursue a better picture of God? What if God becomes harder to believe in? Tim and Nate talk about doing better and deeper theology and how that might make for a harder story to believe.

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Hosts: Nate Hanson / Tim Ritter

Music: Cale Haugen

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In Channel

The Bible’s cosmology can be weird and hard to believe. What is there for us if we can’t get excited about ruling over angels? Nate and Tim wrestle with this question, discussing the profound and practical strategy that Paul and the early Christians took from all this craziness, which is the ethic of relinquishing power.

62: The Heaven Ethic (Heaven Part 4)

2019-04-2400:37:49

This is where things start to get weird. Nate and Tim look at the Bible’s strange hope that humanity would one day come to rule not only on earth but over the gods in the heavens. And to Paul, for that to happen, we’ll need bodies fit for inhabiting both heaven and earth simultaneously. This one got so nutty and went so long that it had to be split into two parts, so look out for the second half in the next episode.

61: Bodies for Both Worlds (Heaven Part 3)

2019-04-1700:45:52

God will one day lead a revolution to overturn the power structures of the world. The biblical writers call this "heaven." Those at the bottom will be put at the top and vice versa, and it may have nothing to do with how good or righteous we are. The conversation leads to more questions and even some concerns, which Nate and Tim begin to address.

60: Heaven as a Revolution (Heaven Part 2)

2019-04-0301:03:121

Did you used to picture flying away to be in heaven? Or, maybe you've thought of new creation as what heaven is. After spending 3 episodes talking about hell, Nate & Tim work to complicate the conception of heaven, in keeping with the biblical writers.

59: I'll fly away, old glory (Heaven Part 1)

2019-03-2700:59:07

What if Matthew and Luke imagine life after death differently? And why don’t Paul or John ever mention anything like Hell? And lastly, if there is no consensus on a singular notion of Hell, then how the hell ought we to think and feel about all this? In Part 3, Nate and Tim further examine the complexity and inconsistency in the so-called “Biblical worldview” on Hell.

58: Who the hell knows (Hell Part 3)

2019-03-2001:10:40

Where did "hell" come from? What is Sheol? Hades? Gehenna? And who goes to these places (or are they are even places?) In Part 2, Nate and Tim look at several passages in the scriptures to begin analyzing how various authors conceived of what we’ve come to call Hell. We’ll see how our idea of Hell is actually an amalgam of various concepts related to multiple different questions.

57: To hell with hell (Hell Part 2)

2019-03-1301:00:592

Many of us are terrified of Hell, but should we be? Is Christianity supposed to ease our anxieties around death or exasperate them? And is Hell really about torture? In this first conversation in a series on Hell, Nate and Tim ditch the Bible and traditional ideas for a bit to try to imagine the theoretical possibilities for some sort of future judgment.

56: Scared to Death (Hell Part 1)

2019-03-0601:14:121

Tim interviews Wade Mullen, a professor who researches the ways evangelical churches and organizations try to cover up abuse and protect their image. In a conversation that hits a little close to home, Tim and Wade discuss why both abuse and the cover-up of abuse are so prevalent in evangelical churches and how to know if your church and its leaders are lying to you.

55: Wade Mullen - Church abuse and cover-up

2019-02-2701:29:591

“It took me ten years of following Jesus as a Black woman to realize that my theology was whiter than a North Dakota snowstorm.” Nate and Tim talk with writer and minister Brandi Miller about pursuing racial justice within evangelicalism, what the gospel really is, how American Christianity trains people to be controlled, and much more.

54: Brandi Miller - Farewell white theology

2019-02-0601:01:41

John Piper, Desiring God and The Gospel Coalition say things like "Marry the Bible". Have we made an idol out of the Bible? In the third segment of question and response, Nate and Tim discuss whether the story of the Exodus ought to be taken literally, whether Christianity has made an idol out of the Bible, and more.

53: So... marry the Bible? (Questions Part 3)

2019-01-3000:42:381

Is it your responsibility to call out your racist uncle? Does God heal people and is it helpful to believe that? Are the women heroes in the Bible messiah figures? Nate and Tim continue responding to your questions.

52: So… divine healing. (Questions Part 2)

2019-01-2300:36:12

Should we try to get as many people to be Christians as possible? This week we respond to listener questions about evangelism and the great commission. Also, what churches did they work for? And beyond penal substitution, what are more positive ways to share the gospel?

51: So… evangelism. (Questions Part 1)

2019-01-1600:47:012

In 2018, we launched the podcast and recorded 49 episodes. Nate and Tim reflect on what they've learned.

50: 1 year in

2019-01-0901:08:501

Have you ever thought about Hezekiah as one of the main characters in the Old Testament? And what if we told you that the child named Immanuel spoken of in Isaiah referred not to Jesus but to Hezekiah (at least at first)? Nate and Tim look again at the literary technique of “snowballing” and discuss how biblical characters and even biblical texts are presented as disappointing failures that will have to be recycled and repurposed in the future.

49: Making Hezekiah Great Again (How The Bible Works)

2018-12-1900:27:25

Ever notice how all the “good guys” in the Old Testament turn out to be jerks? Tim and Nate talk about a narrative technique Tim calls “snowballing”, where the Biblical authors intentionally try to get us excited about each new hero figure, only to let us down in the end. It is this pattern that allowed Jesus to look back and say all these stories pointed to him.

48: Old Testament jerks (How The Bible Works)

2018-12-1200:36:12

Dr. Timothy Mackie (The Bible Project) continues talking with Nate and Tim about the Bible and ethics. Does the Bible end conversations about ethics or start them?

47: Tim Mackie - A conversation starter (Part 2)

2018-12-0500:57:37

Dr. Timothy Mackie (The Bible Project) talks with Tim and Nate about the often missed literary designs in the Bible. What kind of patterns and repetitions do we often overlook? And what does it mean that the Bible contains riddles and texts with multiple meanings?

46: Tim Mackie - Riddles in the Bible (Part 1)

2018-11-2801:02:29

All the talk about stitching and literary complexity got Nate and Tim talking about why this stuff even matters. What does thinking of the Bible as a literary mosaic change? How does paying attention to redaction and arrangement affect our views of Christianity and how we relate to one another?

45: Why Seams & Stitching Matter (How The Bible Works)

2018-11-0100:25:16

Ancient scroll technology led to literary binding techniques evident in the Bible. Collections of texts were stitched together through canonical seams and enclosed within literary introductions and conclusions. This seam work is how we got a Bible.

44: Scrolls & Seams (How The Bible Works)

2018-10-3000:30:28

Collectively, the Bible consists of complex literary layers stacked atop one another. Stories and motifs are recycled and re-used. When we read any individual story, we must read it as a single layer of a greater whole. The strange story of Ananias and Sapphira, for example, is written in conversation with a series of Old Testament stories as well as at least one other Ananias story in the Book of Acts. We aren’t reading it well unless we learn to read it as a literary layer.

43: Literary Layers & Ananias and Sapphira (How The Bible Works)

2018-10-2400:30:27

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22: The risk of believing differently

#box-pro-ellipsis-155615143071319{-webkit-line-clamp:2;-webkit-box-orient: vertical;}22: The risk of believing differently

22: The risk of believing differently

Tim Ritter & Nate Hanson

22: The risk of believing differently