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Bible Bard podcast BB-165 Believing Christians and Sin. Some Christians think that once they believe the Gospel, all of their sins – past, present, and future - are forgiven and they can stop worrying about punishment from God. When those who have believed the Gospel make a choice to disobey God and defiantly sin, even though God forgives their sin, He still will punish them for their willful diso...

BB-164 Acknowledging God. The word “acknowledge” means to simply recognize someone’s presence. But in the Bible, the word “acknowledge” means integrating the person of God into every aspect of our lives. Support the Bible Bard podcast. Go to www. BibleBard.org/Donate and make a contribution. You can also click the PDF link and get a transcript. Send the Bible Bard any questions or remarks you care...

Bible Bard podcast BB-163 Hope and Disappointment in the Bible. Hope is a something Elon Musk views as a future-oriented vision that motivates present action to preserve the human species by making it capable of surviving and flourishing beyond Earth. Musk's hope is actually despair because he says, "“[If] we could not be a multi-planet species, then I would find it incredibly depressing..." Bible...

Bible Bard podcast episode BB-162 How to Live According to Animal Sacrifice. The Bible is literature; therefore, sometimes it does not directly tell readers what God wants, it shows them! God outlines to Moses three (3) animal sacrifices that are to be made in sequence by a priestly class for the benefit of themselves and the people. Modern readers often find the idea of animal sacrifice repugnant...

Bible Bard podcast episode BB-161_Spiritual Guidance in the Bible. As a human being, how do you decide what you are going to do not only today, but for the rest of your life? You make choices, but modern psychologists suggest that emotional responses help guide decision-making, so feelings are one source of information people access by thinking. Biblical writers recognize six (6) sources for human...

The Bible does more than discuss slavery as an ancient social practice, the Bible also uses servitude, bondage, and slavery as metaphors for the human spiritual condition. In today’s episode we want to look at that metaphor. Jesus presents humanity as a servant standing between two possible masters. Service is not a neutral transactional activity. It is allegiance. if one master is loved the other...

The Bible describes the components of a failed, human culture in 2 Kings 23. The contrast in the text is between what was present in the local culture of that day and what was written in the Law of Moses that it should be. The expression usually attributed to Marshall McLuhan, states: “One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable...

Bible Bard podcast BB-158 God’s Experiment on Human Being. We speak of God’s view of humanity as an experiment. Here are the texts that provide God’s intention toward humanity: God wants to dwell among and with human beings! Support the Bible Bard podcast on Patreon at BibleBardUSA. As little as $1/week or $5/month helps to cover the costs of the podcast. You can also give at GoFundMe or at the we...

Bible Bard podcast BB-157 Public and Private Human Events in the Bible. The literature of the Bible is filled with great, public events, wonderful dramas. But there are quieter stories also. Stories where private thoughts change secret ideas, where unspoken questions are answered by whispers, people make changes that are unnoticed by others, what is interior in the heart remains undisclosed and un...

Bible Bard podcast BB-156 (There Are) Unhappy People in Heaven. Most people associate the word “heaven” with a future, post-death place of conscious happiness in the presence of God. The Bible actually says that is not true for everyone who gets into heaven: some people in heaven are seen crying, ashamed, waiting impatiently, or suffering a tremendous sense of loss and failure. Support the Bible B...

Bible Bard podcast BB-155 Why the Number Three Keeps Reappearing in the Bible. Biblical literature was practicing this motif of the rule of three before most other literary traditions. This episode looks at numerology inside and beyond the Biblical text. Support the Bible Bard podcast on Patreon at BibleBardUSA. Give at GoFundMe or at the website www. BibleBard.org/Donate tab. Send the Bible Bard...

The story of Judas Iscariot in the New Testament is the unique story of a man who is one of twelve disciples chosen by Jesus. This man is a witness to all that Jesus does during his brief three (3) year ministry just like the other 11 disciples. Yet, he does not claim absolute fealty to Jesus as do the eleven. Instead, he betrays Jesus to his enemies for a little money and then, when his plan or p...

Bible Bard podcast BB-154 Important Word Pairings in the Bible. Because we look at the biblical text as literature, we notice the pairings of people like Jacob and Esau or Moses and Aaron. There are also pairings of physical objects like heaven and earth, land and sea, flesh and spirit. And pairings of concepts, whether metaphors like light and dark or sweet and sour, or spiritual ideas like bless...

Bible Bard podcast BB-153 Theophanies (Appearances of God) in the Bible. God visibly appears in the Biblical narrative. When this happens in the story it is is called “a theophany”. In the Bible, God is not a theoretical supposition, He is personally present. He is not a clockmaker setting the universe into motion and then disappearing from the story into some god-place we cannot go. Instead, God...

Bible Bard podcast BB-152_Character Development in the Bible, Part 2, Samuel. In the last episode, BB-150, Part 1, Samuel’s mother, Hannah presents the 3–4-year-old boy Samuel to Eli the priest. Samuel has no part in the decision. In this story he did not decide to be born, he did not determine who his parents would be, their circumstances, or how his presence would fit into their lives. What happ...

Bible Bard podcast BB-151_Character Development in Bible Stories. There are great characters in the Bible, but today I want to look at just a few from a particular story from the book of 1 Samuel Chapter 1. Here we have a man named, Elkanah and he has two wives. One of them is named Peninnah and the other is Hannah. The most important character in this story is not the man but is the second wife H...

Bible Bard podcast BB-150 Getting to the Truth. The Bible can be divided into six (6) kinds of literature: Law, History, Poetry Prophets, Gospel, and Church. Today we look at how these divisions help us get to biblical truth. Go to www. BibleBard.org to download a transcript, listen to another episode from the Archive, or get links to other materials and information. Remember, the Bible Bard Engli...

Bible Bard podcast BB-149_Amazing Dreams in the Bible, Part 2. In BB-148_Amazing Dreams in the Bible, Part 1, we looked at few dreams recorded in the Bible. In Part 2, today, I want to provide the interpretation the Bible gives for each of the dreams we looked at last time. Go to www. BibleBard.org to download a transcript, listen to another episode from the Archive, or get links to other material...

Bible Bard podcast BB-148_Amazing Dreams in the Bible, Part 1. Human beings dream while sleeping. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore says, “For in dreams, we enter a world that’s entirely our own.” While this statement feels poetically true, in the Bible certain dreams become dimensions in which we can meet God and He can communicate with us using imagery that often requires a...

Bible Bard podcast BB-147_What the Bible Says about Eternal Life. There is an idea expressed in the Bible about something called “eternal” or “everlasting life”. English speakers look at this expression as life of endless duration, the quality of life as immortality. But as we can see from the next texts, eternal life appears to be about more than just life that never ends. Go to www. BibleBard.or...

Bible Bard podcast B-146_About the Image of God-He is Alien. In Genesis 1:27 the text reads: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (NIV) We’ve seen from other texts that God is not human, but is a spirit being, so the remark: “his own image” is not some visible attribute humankind was given at creation. Here is the conundru...

Bible Bard podcast BB-145_The Return of the King Motif. Those of us read the Bible as literature notice the reappearance of various literary motifs in the text. Today we look at one of those using as our primary source 2 Samuel 19. A favored person is rejected. Later he returns as a divinely appointed figure. Those who greet his return have different responses to his return depending on both their...

Here is the place we are at today. In YouTube , BB-140 Faith and Reason in Abraham (in Apple ) we looked at how faith transcends belief and becomes knowledge in Abraham’s relationship with God. Regarding faith the text says God speaks to Abraham and says in Genesis 15:5, “‘Look up at the sky and count the stars … so shall your offspring be.’ Abraham believed the Lord, and he (God) credited it to h...

Bible Bard podcast episode BB-143 About God's Creativity. In today’s episode, before the biblical narrative begins, God already exists as a creative being. Today we focus on His ongoing activity within creation. The key question is this: What does the text say about God’s continual creative involvement with His creation, the earth, and all life on it – His ongoing activity? Get a transcript on www...

Bible Bard podcast episode BB-142_A Moral Pagan vs. a Fearful Prophet. As we saw in BB_Lesson_140_Faith and Reason in Abraham , God has made an unconditional covenant with Abraham to give him heirs (although he is childless at this point) and to give him a homeland (although he is a wandering Bedouin at this point). Now, in Genesis Chapter 20, Abraham, the covenant bearer, meets a pagan king. But...