Bible Bard - English

The word spirit has more than one application in English. Sometimes we mean by spirit a quality of courage or enthusiasm. However, when the word is applied to a being, a spirit is an incorporeal, invisible, and intelligent personality; but it doesn't have a body, and in its natural state, it has no form. A spirit being is, more like God, than like a human being. The Bible provides many description...

In today's podcast episode we come to something difficult. What does it mean that God is holy? Previous podcasts looked at Bible texts that were virtually self-defining: that is, the words in the context of the sentence were easy to understand. The meaning of the text was unambiguous and clear. But when we come to the idea of the holiness of God we run into a little difficulty; that is because the...

Holiness is difficult concept. The Bible Bard has presented what the Bible says about it. Today’s podcast discusses something even more difficult than the idea of God's holiness and that is what is the opposite of holiness. The opposite of holiness is the difficult concept called “sin”. It’s not that sin is hard to understand, it’s just that we don’t like what it means. Sin is the opposite of holi...

The Bible compares God in his essence and actions to humanity. We see that God is all powerful, all knowing, and exists everywhere at the same time; but we also see that he is emotional. God has feelings. He responds to events as a whole person. The biblical text we look at in this episode reveals something very unique about the God of the Bible - that love is the center of his moral and emotional...

In this podcast we look at God’s attribute of faithfulness. We examine a few simple biblical statements about God and His attribute of faithfulness. According to the Bible, what does it mean to be faithful? As the statement from a sample text from Deuteronomy suggests, those who are faithful keep their word, they fulfil their agreements. In the biblical text, God’s faithfulness is part of the idea...

Today's podcast is a review of the first 14 episodes during which the Bible Bard has done an inductive search of what the Bible says about who is God. We’ve quoted statements from the Bible that describe God, and we've accumulated them so that we can draw some conclusions. . These conclusions come from the texts themselves and are in sharp contrast to the way God has been described, mostly by peop...

The Bible is clear about who God is and what are his attributes, his emotions, and personality. In the first lessons we looked at what the Bible says about God. But the identity and attributes of humanity, which begin in the creation story, are a bit more complicated. This podcast turns to a new topic looking at what the Bible teaches about humanity. The goal of these podcasts is to present the ac...

In our last podcast (BB-16) we began the discussion about humanity in the Bible. We examined what the Bible says about human origins. In today’s reading we hear what the Bible says about spirituality. We examine how the Bible describes the spiritual, beginning with the most spiritual Being - God. People often have trouble with the idea of spirit. They think that spirit means intellect, emotions, f...

In a previous podcast (BB-16) we began the discussion of humanity, its origins, current state, and its future according to the Bible. In our last podcast (BB-17) we looked at Spirituality in the Bible. In today’s lesson we try and understand more deeply the origins of humanity’s current condition. We do this using the techniques of literary criticism and considering what the Bible says in its stor...

In our last podcast we looked at humanity’s first disaster. It’s a remarkable story with a plot far more sophisticated than often credited. From this first disaster, what appears to be a minor disobedience of humanity to a single command of God, events of enormous significance flow. In this literature, the Bible simply tells the story and leaves it to the reader to realize what these events mean -...

In today's podcast we look at how humanity should express their love to God. What does the Bible say we should do? As Lesson BB-02 taught, God is not human. He is a spirit. You cannot give a spirit a hug. The verses listed here make it clear, you love God by obeying him and keeping his commands; and his commands have two benefits: they are for our good and they are not burdensome. We have a choice...

Today’s podcast we look at the use of the term Holy Spirit in the Bible. Other monotheists, like those in Judaism and Islam, think of the term Holy Spirit as a synonym for God. Their God is indivisibly one. The monotheism of most Christians is more complicated. Their God is three distinct persons who are indivisibly one being! This is a very bizarre idea and couldn’t possibly be true unless it was...

In our episode today, we ask what the Bible teaches about how to live our lives? We look at a few things Jesus said about living the good life. The literature of the Bible can be divided by style or topic into six groups: Law (beginning of world to Moses), History (of Jews), Poetry, Prophets, Gospel, and Church. Therefore, when you read the Bible, you need to know where you are in these categories...

In previous podcasts we’ve talked about the Bible teaching about God and the Holy Spirit. Now the Bible Bard turns our attention to Jesus. The first teaching about Jesus in this literature is that in his humanity, Jesus is subordinate to the Father. This means that while living on earth, Jesus lived under the authority and willing control of God. This is important because the texts describe Jesus...

In our last podcast (BB-23) we looked at the humanity of Jesus. In today’s discussion we investigate his deity. It is true that the Bible claims both deity and humanity for Jesus at the same time. The sample texts presented today, which we read inductively, present factual statements that proclaim the deity of Christ Jesus. It’s difficult to imagine how any sincere person could assert that Jesus i...

In our last couple of podcasts, we looked at the humanity of Jesus, then we examined the deity of Jesus, now we come to the Bible’s message about Jesus. That message is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is more than one Gospel in the New Testament. In this episode we look at the special gospel around Jesus, also called the Gospel of Grace.

In this episode we discuss the use of symbolism in the Bible. Remember, a major premise of ours is that the Bible is literature and as such can be analyzed using the tools of literary criticism. Sometimes, in reading the Bible, this can be a bit tricky; that happens, because the Bible is also a religious text and people have many ideas about how a religious text should be approached. Biblical symb...

In this episode we examine the use of poetic language, simile, and metaphor in the Bible. Remember, a major premise of the Bible Bard is that the Bible is literature and as such can be analyzed using the tools of literary criticism. Sometimes, in reading the Bible, this can be a bit tricky; that happens, because the Bible is also a religious text and people have many ideas about how a religious te...

There are many religions in the world, but only three basic monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each of these has various internal denominations and sects. The major difference between these internal divisions is based upon how they read and understand their own sacred scriptures. In this episode, we look into these three (3) religions, to understand how to become a member of...

For people who disbelieve the supernatural, the healings the New Testament described that Jesus performed are just mistaken conclusions of witnesses to events or at worst, simply lies in a conspiracy to elevate Jesus politically and religiously. This episode provides some of the actual text of the many healings Jesus performed. In these verses we see that categories of illness healed included ever...

The recent ideas of physics, like string theory, bosonic, superstring, and M-theory promote the idea that there are more dimensions in the universe than the four (4) we are used to. In this episode we discuss from the Hebrew Scriptures God the fact that angels appear and disappear from our four (4) dimensions. In the New Testament we have descriptions of a New Heaven and New Earth. Both parts of t...

When Jesus Christ speaks of peace , what does he mean? In this episode we perform an analysis of just two (2) verses spoken by Jesus to see what he says about peace. The text is John 14:24-25. There’s a lot in these two verses to discuss. We can experience the peace God gives, have peace in our relationships with others, and have peace with ourselves - something people with a conscience have a har...

In this episode we discuss some sample verses that describe the Bible’s goal for humanity. Ancient texts often describe a view of humanity and divinity. The Bible describes humanity as it sees it. It also describes goals of God for humanity and then provides the means to achieve that goal. A lot of nonsense is described under the topic of spirituality. What is spiritual is usually confusing. But t...

There are several ways to approach the topic of prayer in the Bible. In this episode let's see how Jesus prayed. The prayers of Jesus were rational communications to God. In this episode we discuss his posture in prayer, the places he prayed, the topics he prayed about.

The Bible is a compilation of 66 individual books written by over 40 authors over a period of about 1,600 years beginning about 1,500 BC – about 100 AD. In the 39 books that form the content for the Old Testament different persons, people groups, nations, and empires, different religions and philosophies all march past the reader. The content for the Old Testament was composed during the rise and...