Does prophetic time have room for measurement uncertainty? The Adventist church has a deep penchant for timekeeping, most vividly on display in our 7th day Sabbath focus. The second most prominent example is an obsession with time periods in the prophetic visions of Daniel. It is fascinating to ponder Time as the Temple of God, especially in the light of eschatology. How should we live now in the light of expectation - how will the future shape your present?
May 05, 2023•43 min•Season 13Ep. 6
How "infinite, minute, exact, and detailed" really are the heavenly records of Judgement? This combination of adjectives is striking, and goes straight to the core of a traditional Adventist understanding of the final judgement. The lesson seems to squirm a little when trying to explain how this is good news, and we agree that there's often a tension here. Perhaps judgement makes more sense as good news when you're oppressed and exiled under evil earthly powers. We look at Revelation 14:6-7, and...
Apr 28, 2023•40 min•Season 13Ep. 5
What does it mean to "fear God" when so many angelic messages start with "do not be afraid"? The angel in Revelation 14 who shouts "fear God" is unique in the Bible, because no other angel is recorded with this message. In fact, the phrase "fear God" is not all that common in the Bible. However, plenty of angels come with the message "do not be afraid", and we turn to some of these examples to stimulate thought and conversation. We look at Hagar (Gen 21), Gideon (Judges 6), Balaam (Numbers 22), ...
Apr 21, 2023•44 min•Season 13Ep. 4
We finally reach the core "Three Angel's Messages"! This section of Revelation 14 has seemed fairly scary to many throughout history, but the Adventist Sabbath School lesson goes out of its way to argue for reading a narrative of grace. We discuss the text in the context of these two different approaches.
Apr 14, 2023•38 min•Season 13Ep. 3
How many angels are there in Revelation 14? While this passage is often referred to as the "Three Angels' Messages", we're looking at the second half of the chapter which only starts after those three messages have been described. Additional angels continue to feature, with further messages! It does seem strange to be working backwards through Revelation 14, but there's a valuable discussion about the "Son of Man" character in this part of the chapter. We also ponder the idea of harvest and bein...
Apr 07, 2023•36 min•Season 13Ep. 2
Messages from angels are not proof of superiority. This season will focus on the Angels Messages in Revelation 14, and we begin by acknowledging a few reservations about the way this topic has often been delivered. Revelation has so much poetic power to stimulate conversation and thought, but particular interpretations have occasionally been used as tests to declare people "in" or "out" of community. The story of Balaam reminds us that receiving angelic messages might not necessarily mean you're...
Mar 31, 2023•39 min•Season 13Ep. 1
Thinking about the "Rewards of Faithfulness" leads to an exploration of motivation. At first, "rewards" seems to be difficult to isolate from a merit-based picture of our relationship with God. In fact, the words of Jesus in Revelation 22:12 seem to exacerbate this conundrum! The key question here in the context of stewardship seems to be motivation, and we discuss a few ways to think about this topic. This is also an opportunity to reflect on some of the ideas that have developed this season....
Mar 24, 2023•36 min•Season 12Ep. 12
Tough times call us to seek our own survival, but also to lean on the Lord. We turn to the story of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem after the exile, which presents a fascinating case study of holding these two elements in combination. Nehemiah both prays to God for protection and arms the builders. The surprising observation is that we are also capable of this blurring, and health turns out to be a fruitful analogy.
Mar 17, 2023•39 min•Season 12Ep. 11
We can't take wealth with us after death, so where should it go? Yet again we find a tension between "responsible financial planning" (ie saving for retirement) and "good spiritual stewardship" (ie living generously without worry for tomorrow). In Luke 12 Jesus tells a parable about a rich fool, who stored up the proceeds of a fantastic harvest only to die before enjoying any benefits. In a society like Australia where superannuation (retirement savings) is required of every employer, hopefully ...
Mar 10, 2023•45 min•Season 12Ep. 10
Beware of covetousness - and watch out for genocide? Coveting is called out in the Ten Commandments, and certainly fits in the broader theme of stewardship for this season. We try to focus on a few biblical examples of covetousness, but they're invariably not very nice stories. It proves difficult for us to look past the culturally inaccessible punishments and consequences that arise from the covetous actions of Achan, Ahab, and Ananias. Perhaps one obvious take-away is that covetousness is inde...
Mar 03, 2023•46 min•Season 12Ep. 9
How does responsible financial planning fit with "building treasure in heaven"? A tension seems to exist between being a good and responsible steward of our resources (money, time) and being wholeheartedly generous and self-sacrificing. We launch from an interesting passage in 1 Timothy 5 that describes our first responsibility as being to care for family - in fact "those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith". A number of lived e...
Feb 24, 2023•40 min•Season 12Ep. 8
"Helping the poor is not just an option." We resonate with this sentence from the Sabbath School lesson, and explore the famous parable of sheep and goats. The Christian call to live generously towards the poor is easy to acknowledge in principle, but in practice there are a few ways it can get hard to optimise.
Feb 17, 2023•39 min•Season 12Ep. 7
How do we "lay up Treasure in Heaven"? There seem to be a variety of ways to think of this concept, and we notice a few that don't work so well for us. The contrast in Mark 8:36 is between gaining the whole world and losing our soul, so does this help clarify the heavenly treasure?
Feb 10, 2023•40 min•Season 12Ep. 6
Is debt more about stewardship or exploitation? The lesson this week makes some bold statements about the undesirability of debt, and even the Bible sounds similar in passages such as Deut 15: "You will lend money to many nations but will never need to borrow." Loans and finance are an almost inescapable part of contemporary society - are they actually all that similar to the way debt worked in Biblical times? Our conversation ranges to other non-monetary kinds of debt, and we suspect there's so...
Feb 03, 2023•38 min•Season 12Ep. 5
How can offerings fit into the habits of generosity? In Christian vocabulary, Offerings are regularly found close to tithe - but the words are not synonyms. We read from the passage about an offering being given to support needy Christians in Jerusalem, and it seems this idea is perhaps more prevalent in the New Testament than the simple formula of tithe. A great number of questions quickly arise about how to choose wise offering destinations and what amount of giving actually constitutes genero...
Jan 27, 2023•40 min•Season 12Ep. 4
How did tithe actually work, and can it be more creative? It is all very well to say that the Old Testament tithing system was to support the Levites, but what did they actually do? What was tithe used for, and how was it "paid"? We have many more questions than answers in this conversation! Exploring how the biblical system might map across to contemporary tithing ends up with us pondering what tithe could look like in the future.
Jan 20, 2023•43 min•Season 12Ep. 3
How does tithe relate to generosity? There are clear words on the page in Malachi 3 that suggest a tight relationship between tithe and blessing, and yet history has plenty of counter-examples. What can we do with this passage, and how does it connect to the idea of tithing as practice for generous living?
Jan 13, 2023•44 min•Season 12Ep. 2
Reflecting on what "God's Family" means. The Sabbath School lesson for this new season explores the theme of stewardship, and we are reluctant to jump in with all our most prominent thoughts because they'll invariably form themes for the coming episodes. We share some reflections on family that arise from the recent Christmas season, and anticipate a few key ideas that will surely come up in the next few weeks.
Jan 06, 2023•18 min•Season 12Ep. 1
Does believing in resurrection automatically lead to a good way of living? At the end of a season discussing beliefs about what happens after death, we finish things off by pondering just how much these beliefs impact the way we live. Through a variety of hypotheticals and a few unpleasant historical stories we identify a lack of direct logical connection between these things. In the end we can't do much better than accept the advice in Ecclesiastes 12 to "Fear God and obey his commands"....
Dec 30, 2022•31 min•Season 11Ep. 14
Is our doctrinal emphasis more biblical or cultural? Coming near the end of this season exploring death and the afterlife, we explore how beliefs on this topic fit into the bigger picture of living a Christian life. The Adventist church has a fairly strong focus on the "state of the dead", and what if someone agrees with the doctrine but not the emphasis? With a fascinating touch on the issue of gambling, we ponder whether there might be too many things that are right for all of us to focus on a...
Dec 23, 2022•32 min•Season 11Ep. 13
What if the Spirit guides us beyond our "Biblical" worldview? Being a Bible-valuing and Spirit-led follower of Christ can lead to tension - sometimes we need to be led beyond our existing interpretations and applications of scripture. This tension has existed since the earliest days of the Christian movement.
Dec 16, 2022•36 min•Season 11Ep. 12
How does the person of Christ fit with His teachings? We turn to the parable of the building on sand versus rock foundations in an attempt to discuss the role of doctrine, heading towards a conversation about "false teachings" about experiences after death. However, we end up substantially side-tracked by a rousing critique of phrasing in the Sabbath School lesson. Is there even a contrast to be made between the person and the teachings of Christ?
Dec 09, 2022•42 min•Season 11Ep. 11
There's a tension between discontinuous change and continuous transformation. The lesson explores the fires of hell and the theory of purgatory, and from an Adventist perspective it is easy to roundly dismiss both of these ideas. But does it really get much easier when we shift our focus to "the Kingdom of Heaven" itself? The parable of a wedding guest being thrown into outer darkness over a dress code violation poses more mysteries than we manage to resolve.
Dec 02, 2022•41 min•Season 11Ep. 10
What to do with the Rich Man and Lazarus? This season on death and resurrection would certainly be incomplete without a discussion of the parable Jesus tells about a rich man and a pauper named Lazarus. The story has seemingly preposterous geographical details about the afterlife. This takes us to a broader conversation about how we might work out what to interpret literally? What does a literal interpretation actually mean? Along the way we notice some satisfying similarities between this parab...
Nov 25, 2022•36 min•Season 11Ep. 9
It seems "soon" is ambiguous in God's vocabulary. We explore the fundamental conundrum of waiting 2000 years for the "soon" return of Christ. There are a variety of ways to make some sense of this dilemma, but it is not well served by simple or trite answers. As well as Bible passages in 2 Peter 3 and Psalm 90, we reach for "friends of the podcast" C S Lewis and George McDonald for some provoking insight.
Nov 18, 2022•38 min•Season 11Ep. 8
How did Jesus' disciples respond to his resurrection? The Bible contains a few fascinating anecdotes about how the disciples responded to the resurrection. We start with the road to Emmaus and then think about whether or not Thomas deserves his "doubting" title.
Nov 11, 2022•37 min•Season 11Ep. 7
What does Christ's death on the cross mean for us? It almost seems a silly question, but there's a surprising variety of aspects to unpack on this topic. We consider a question from the lesson about "adding to what Christ has already done for us", and briefly explore what kind of understanding of the death of Jesus is revealed in Gamaliel's wise counsel in Acts 5.
Nov 04, 2022•33 min•Season 11Ep. 6
Resurrections before the cross often involve children. We look at the story of Elijah saving a young boy's life twice - and the second time is after he's died. Like many of the Old Testament resurrections, this story is remarkably connected to people outside the explicit community of God.
Oct 28, 2022•34 min•Season 11Ep. 5
What is hoped-for in the Old Testament? Some OT passages seem to fit our picture of the resurrection, but there are others which seem to come from a different picture of hope for the future. We explore a few of these that represent the variety, and see what we find out about hope.
Oct 21, 2022•34 min•Season 11Ep. 4
What if the pondering the state-of-the-living is more valuable than the state-of-the-dead? This is a shorter episode because life seems particularly busy for us at the moment - and maybe it's the same for you! Ecclesiastes 12 has verses which sometimes contribute to discussions about what happens after death, but the passage seems much more focussed on how we live here before death.
Oct 14, 2022•23 min•Season 11Ep. 3
