How do we keep our awe and attention on the Love of God as the story ends? The Adventist church has various more-or-less clear pictures it regularly tells about the closing stages of the Great Controversy. It is certainly not unique in its fascination with the apocalypse and transition to a restored resurrected eternity. We discuss a few details which seem not to mesh all that well with the loving revelation of God in the life and ministry of Jesus, and conclude with a resounding endorsement of ...
Jun 28, 2024•43 min•Season 17Ep. 13
In the great controversy, what is Truth opposing? The lesson this week states it is a battle between "truth and error", but quotes from John 8 where Satan is called the "father of lies". It doesn't seem that error means exactly the same thing as lies, and so we explore this passage in John to see what might be the opposite of Truth. We strongly suspect the issue at hand might go deeper than erroneous intellectual ideas.
Jun 21, 2024•43 min•Season 17Ep. 12
We look honestly at the world in light of "the upcoming conflict" between God and Satan. The lesson this week takes a deliberate focus on the Catholic church and the pope, but we can't help looking broader for the Beastly powers mentioned in Revelation's description of end times. Our lived social experience no longer resounds to the great dichotomy between catholic and protestant - indeed there's a variety of societal divides which seem far more entrenched. Illicit drugs and family violence are ...
Jun 14, 2024•41 min•Season 17Ep. 11
Deception is a key theme when discussing spiritual conflict and controversy. The topic for this week is satanic deception, which the Adventist lesson guide identifies quite specifically with spiritualism. 2 Thessalonians 2 has a lot to say about a "man of lawlessness" instigating grand deceptions, but we find some of the details are not straightforward to understand. We are drawn to a question from the lesson that has broader relevance beyond its context: "what kind of deceptions will people fac...
Jun 07, 2024•36 min•Season 17Ep. 10
How does God's law reveal His character? We explore how God's Law (and the Sabbath) impact our picture of who God is. Are they the only way (or even a good way) of understanding God's character?
May 31, 2024•44 min•Season 17Ep. 9
Imagery from the Old Testament sanctuary pervades the Bible. A listener comment points us towards Zechariah 4, which mirrors many elements from Rev 11 that we discussed recently. It also speaks of the sanctuary both literally (foundations being laid) and figuratively (lampstand metaphor). The New Testament seems to take this temple idea and radically apply it to the community of Christ.
May 24, 2024•49 min•Season 17Ep. 8
Hope is an incredibly powerful motivator. Prophets are fascinating and unsettling in an incredible variety of ways throughout the Bible, but one consistent theme is anticipation of the future. We look at Joseph's teenage dreams and explore how things don't turn out the way he probably expected. It seems one important role of prophecy is to remind us of hope.
May 17, 2024•23 min•Season 17Ep. 7
There's definitely controversy described in Revelation 11, and there could also be about this chapter! The lesson this week makes quite a strong statement about this chapter pointing to the French Revolution. We discuss a few cautions about confirmation bias, and don't see this connection particularly vividly in the text itself. Rather than try to reach a definitive interpretation, we explore some details in this passage and meditate on the power of God despite the observation of suffering and o...
May 10, 2024•46 min•Season 17Ep. 6
Reformers exhibit faith against all odds, but we recognise this more easily in hindsight. The bible has numerous accounts of "reformations", where followers of God either re-found truths of old or expanded into new truth. We mention a few examples before looking a bit more closely at Ezra. There is much to admire in this reformation story, but some details are troubling. Reformation seems to be needed in an ongoing or repeating manner, and it is challenging to consider the idea that we could be ...
May 03, 2024•36 min•Season 17Ep. 5
Standing for the Truth is vital, but what if our "truth" needs tweaking? History is full of people who passionately defended what they felt was true, but which seems more questionable to us in retrospect. This problem is not new - exactly the same thing occurred in Biblical times. Throughout the Gospels people struggle to accept the Truth in Jesus because of their passion for defending truth they inherited or developed. John 9 tells a fascinating story all about knowledge, which highlights the w...
Apr 26, 2024•44 min•Season 17Ep. 4
Why is it so hard to accept an incarnational nature of scripture? Christians take that name because of their belief in Jesus as God incarnate - the whole point is that He had to become human in order for us to better understand who God is (and what we mean to Him). It seems reasonable to encounter the Bible in the same way: inspiration but through genuinely human authors.
Apr 19, 2024•44 min•Season 17Ep. 3
"Love or selfishness" forms an interesting axis. It might seem strange not to contrast love with hate, but the book of 1 John spends a lot of time on the relationship between love and a focus on what is best for others. It is quite a stimulating perspective on love and its role in the revelation of God. We realise that love can have many "opposites", each of which represents a somewhat "great controversy" that we each must navigate in the particulars of life.
Apr 12, 2024•42 min•Season 17Ep. 2
This new season will explore "the Great Controversy", and so we start with some of the biggest questions about good and evil. It is easy to get tied up in knots with this sort of thing, ending up squeezed into a rhetorical corner that sounds like God is responsible for bad things in the world. In a way that's the whole point of this theme and exploration - searching for a way to express a deep conviction that God is good and just even while we acknowledge pain and suffering. We definitely have m...
Apr 05, 2024•39 min•Season 17Ep. 1
It is tricky to summarise the Psalms, or even the things we've learnt from them this season. One helpful thought is that things are never "just symbols" - human societies are too much dominated by story-telling for that to work as a dismissive statement. Symbols matter, and feelings matter, and we find that validated by the Psalms.
Mar 29, 2024•40 min•Season 16Ep. 13
"Worship that never ends" speaks to more than just time. Psalm 134 is extremely brief but packs in a number of interesting thoughts. There's a suggestion that worship is valid at all times and all places, and we are invited to explore what it means to bless someone.
Mar 22, 2024•37 min•Season 16Ep. 12
Many Psalms speak joyfully or longingly about specific places, so how do we read them in a culture not much concerned about location? The idea of pilgrimage has been central to much of religious history, and yet is largely absent from protestant Christianity. Are we missing anything of importance? How might the idea apply to our own experience?
Mar 15, 2024•37 min•Season 16Ep. 11
"Lessons from the past" are important, but not always easy to transmit. This Psalm is dominated by an overview of Israelite history, with a remarkable focus on where they failed to stay faithful to God. It seems the main point is that "God cared for them" even though "the people kept sinning". It is interesting to reflect on how well lessons from the past are handed between generations in our own society, and indeed which lessons are most important to pass on.
Mar 08, 2024•36 min•Season 16Ep. 10
Messianic elements in the Psalms can be tricky to handle. Some psalms obviously (to our eyes) foreshadow aspects of the earthly life and ministry of Jesus. Psalm 22 and 23 contain perhaps the most prominent examples, which we enjoyed in the first season of Sabbath School from Home. Psalm 2 makes mention of "submitting to God's royal son", but there's some cultural and linguistic context worth exploring. We ponder the challenges of prophecy, inspiration, and messianic interpretations....
Mar 01, 2024•42 min•Season 16Ep. 9
The Sabbath School topic this week is "wisdom for righteous living", and Psalm 141 serves us a good dose! It is clear that controlling what we say is a core step towards wisdom, and this psalm also contains a vivid reminder of how important it is to be open to correction. These are both harder than they initially appear, and we explore the themes and challenges within these few verses.
Feb 26, 2024•31 min•Season 16Ep. 8
Mercy seems to be one of God's most prominent characteristics. Psalm 57 is a beautiful celebration of God's mercy, but this concept keeps popping up all over the Bible. It is clearly an emphasis worth dwelling on.
Feb 16, 2024•32 min•Season 16Ep. 7
The theme of being kind to the poor is well-trodden on this podcast, but we turn to Psalm 41 for new insight. The Sabbath School lesson falls into a fascinating trap by using fairly heavy "us" and "them" language to describe the poor and needy. We don't claim to be in this category, but it is likely that some readers of the lesson will be. Psalm 41 actually addresses this in a subtle way by switching from 3rd- to 1st-person part way through!
Feb 09, 2024•37 min•Season 16Ep. 6
Thinking about "singing the Lord's song in a strange land" makes us wonder what feels normal and what feels strange. Exile in a foreign land is a substantial theme for many biblical authors, and the lesson this week applies the idea to our sin-bound world. This resonates with our calling to enter God's Kingdom, but it seems possible to get too carried away with this analogy. Is sin becoming more prominent in society, or less? Is the world becoming more of a strange land, or more of the homely Ki...
Feb 02, 2024•37 min•Season 16Ep. 5
Any discussion of how the Lord hears and delivers has to consider the times when he doesn't. This well-loved Psalm strongly endorses God's protection, and we find the passage to be uplifting and helpful. But it is certainly easy to find counter examples provided by people who weren't kept from all harm, and we discuss how this all holds together.
Jan 26, 2024•38 min•Season 16Ep. 4
The Lord "reigning" is a somewhat antiquated metaphor in our contemporary social and political context. What does it tell us about God, and is there any helpful alternative imagery? We dwell on Psalm 100 to ponder the greatness and goodness of God.
Jan 19, 2024•34 min•Season 16Ep. 3
The Psalms have plenty to teach us about how to pray. Perhaps the most striking thing about Psalm 44 is the rawness of complaint and accusation against God. Clearly a person of faith must be "allowed" to express their feelings - both in contentment and in anguish. We usually gravitate towards praise and worship, but it is OK to be honest. In fact, we realise that complaint and lamentation can be an expression of faith.
Jan 12, 2024•49 min•Season 16Ep. 2
This season we return to the Psalms, and it is good to start by exploring how we can read them. Our initially general discussion of Inspiration leads to the reasonably profound idea of transferring a thought between two people. There are some interesting insights from mathematics, but some thoughts are not so easy to transfer to another person in high fidelity. The Psalms seem to be the result of many repeated attempts all building on each other and combining to provide a richer picture. We conc...
Jan 05, 2024•42 min•Season 16Ep. 1
We attempt to wrap up this season on "God's mission", but it seems there's more to learn and understand. The lesson poses a question about what the end of God's mission might be, and it is a difficult thing to qualify with thresholds. The metaphors in 1 Peter chapter 2 seem to suggest that God's mission is always ongoing, as He attempts to build His creation into a better temple.
Dec 30, 2023•36 min•Season 15Ep. 13
Esther is a complicated story in any context, let alone the theme of God's mission. This complication arises from the implicit role of God in numerous surprising coincidences, and yet the complete absence of explicit mention of God. It is also difficult to find much helpful contemporary mission relevance for the bloodthirsty conclusion to the story. Fear seems to be a substantial element of the "mission activity" described in this story, and we ponder a few responses to the challenging aspects o...
Dec 22, 2023•35 min•Season 15Ep. 12
What might it mean to participate in God's mission to the "reached"? As anticipated, we follow on from last week's topic of "the unreached" by considering what it could mean to be reached. This passage in Jeremiah 7 is one of many that make it quite clear that many who self-identify as "reached" by God still have glaring deficiencies in understanding.
Dec 15, 2023•34 min•Season 15Ep. 11
The "unreached" might need mission, but it is not such an easy category! We look at the well-known story of Paul in Athens using a statue to an unknown god to launch a conversation about Jesus. The trouble is that the analogy worked because these people were perhaps "partly reached" more than "unreached". In fact, it might be a useful challenge to ponder how reached we are ourselves rather than feel smug in our current state of knowledge and belief.
Dec 08, 2023•37 min•Season 15Ep. 10
