Bible Feed

Laurence introduces Stephen Blake for a new 3 part series on aspects of church history.  For this episode they look at the Christian practice of baptism from the early church, through the Middle Ages and beyond.  How and why does it change over time, and does it matter?  Listen in and tell us what you think!

Ever wondered what it was like to be part of one of the earliest Christian communities in the 1st century?  Follow along with Laurence and Paul's thought experiment as they attempt to place a 21st century consciousness into the body of a 1st century Christian!  They explore the where, when, what and how of a Christian gathering around 65AD and think about what we might recognise and what would fee...

Dan and Paul discuss the biggest of big questions!  While some song lyrics spring to mind in the discussion, they find something more authoritative in the Bible, specifically in the little book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament.  At first reading the author of this book seems to be concluding that life is meaningless, but by exploring the key Hebrew word 'hevel' which is repeated over and over...

For our first episode in 2022, Paul and Dan close out our series on Revelation.  They discuss the final sequence of seven bowls and tie them in to the previous groups of seven seals and trumpets.  They then tackle the question of how God will intervene in human history - will it really be as warlike as the language sounds in Revelation?  Finally they close the series by exploring the wonderful ima...

Laurence and Dan focus in on just one phrase: Jesus' statement that "I and the Father are one" in John 10v30.  They explore the context and the debate that Jesus was having with the people of his day. From this it becomes clear that the phrase shouldn't be a theological battleground but is part of an intensely profound and practical theme for the lives of believers in Jesus which weaves through al...

This episode continues our exploration of the book of Revelation. Paul and Dan consider the middle section - chapters 12-14 - the section with the weird and wonderful beasts!  By focusing on the characteristics of 3 symbolic creatures; the dragon, the beast of the sea and the beast of the earth, they uncover a subversive message for Christians in the 1st century but also relevant for any age of hi...

Laurence welcomes a new guest, Jeremy Pearce, for this episode to talk about practical ways of getting to know Jesus. Using the apostle Paul's experience as a template they discuss how to see Jesus as a real person even though we only have written accounts in the Gospels to work with.  But, just as we change when we know and love someone really well, knowing Jesus should change us too. Enjoy this...

Paul and Dan get back to looking at the book of Revelation.  This is the fourth in the series now and they dive into the 7 seals and the 7 trumpets to unpick the pattern and try to imagine what messages the early Christians would have taken from it.  They find that the way the sequences of images are communicated continue to confound the expectations of the hearer.  But as they unfold, two powerfu...

We're always encouraging people to read their Bibles and we often suggest starting with the Gospels.  Josh and Paul discuss what you're likely to come across if you're a new reader of the Bible, coming to the Gospels for the first time. What's the historical basis behind it all? How do you deal with all the miracles?  They consider ways to think about both what Jesus said and what he did, and what...

Paul and Dan spend some time in this episode talking about hell. No doubt all sorts of terrifying images come to mind with that word!  By building it up gradually from the Biblical words Sheol, Hades and Gehenna they arrive at what seems to be a coherent picture. But it's also a hopeful picture which makes sense in the light of a moral God who has shown himself in the face of Jesus as full of grac...

This episode is something of a concept study - what or where is heaven?  From the musings of a small boy on a football pitch, through Genesis to Revelation with a couple of stops in between, Laurence and Paul explore what "heaven" meant to the Biblical writers.  The ideas that emerge seem much less about a physical location and much more about the presence of God and a relationship that ordinary p...

There's no denying that most of us are affected by stress and anxiety at some point. In this episode Dan chats with Professor Anna Whittaker who studies the interaction between psychological factors, stress, and physical health in her research. They talk about the times Jesus touched on anxiety in his teaching and how he invites everyone to come to him to find rest and peace of mind. He knows from...

We invited Tom Gaston back onto the show to answer your questions on Unitarianism and the Trinity.  The writer and editor of ‘One God, the Father, a defence of Biblical Monotheism’ gives us his thoughts on the opening of John 1, the influence of Justin Martyr, the virgin birth and why any of this should matter to Christians.  Listen and enjoy!

Paul and Dan move on from scribbling diagrams of the structure of the whole book and get into some of the detail of the first few chapters.  They find that, right from the start, the word-pictures that John presents come straight from the Old Testament.  As they move into chapters 2 and 3 they discover the difficulties facing some of the early church communities and it all seems quite familiar and...

Laurence and Dan wrap up our series on the Gospel of Matthew.  There's so much that could be said about the record of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, but they focus the discussion on just one phrase that Jesus said on the cross: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  It's a heart wrenching moment, but what we think he meant is guided by who we think Jesus is.  Join Dan and Laurence on t...

For this second episode on the book of Revelation, Paul and Dan get their paper and pencils out and attempt to draw a diagram on a single sheet of paper that represents the whole book!  They pick out the markers in the text that open and close the main sections, the sort of audio cues that an original audience might have picked up on.  They then start to explore how the structure could be drawing...

Dan and Laurence get to the heart of the matter in episode 5 of our series on Matthew's Gospel.  They set out to answer the question: "Who is Jesus?" by focusing on Matthew 16, where the disciple Peter declares what he thinks.  In the space of just a few verses, four different phrases to describe Jesus emerge and they explore the meaning of each of them in turn.  Join Dan and Laurence as they put...

Our first anniversary seems like a good time to start a new series!  Paul and Dan are tackling the Book of Revelation together.  It's mysterious and confusing, but Paul and Dan start by putting it in its place in the Biblical story - right at the transition from the Apostles to the next generation who are taking the early churches forward into ... whatever comes next!  They lay the foundations by...

A bit of a change of focus for this episode as Josh talks to Kat about an aspect of faith in the modern world, faith in real life situations, in the here and now. They reflect on what it means to be a believer as part of a community, and specifically, their experience of how believing communities adapted to the pandemic and what they may have learned as we head into a 'new normal'.   

Laurence and Dan pick up where they left off in Matthew's Gospel by exploring why Matthew uses the phrase: "the Kingdom of Heaven" so often.  When Jesus says "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"  what kind of kingdom is he talking about? Is heaven a location or something else?  Dan and Laurence discover that the kingdom concept is deeply rooted in the message of Israel's ancient prophets while also...

What is a soul?  Can it be destroyed?  Where does it come from and where does it go?  In this episode Laurence and Paul get underneath the biblical meaning of 'soul' and they find that the Hebrew and Greek words for soul reveal something quite unexpected.  Oh and there may be a few musical references...

Paul and Dan take another look into how the Bible narrative and the prophets intersect with history, this time focusing on the city of Tyre.  Starting with a historical source that every Bible student should be familiar with, Asterix the Gaul, they take a deeper look at a short passage about the island fortress from the prophet Ezekiel.  By exploring what actually happened to Tyre, Dan and Paul te...

Here we are in Easter 2021 and Christians are still talking about the resurrection!  What's the deal?!  Josh and our guest for this episode, Nathan Sutcliffe, discuss the origin of this astonishing claim and highlight the historical phenomena that simply refuse to be explained by anything else other than Jesus actually rising from the dead.  We'd love to hear your thoughts on this world-changing f...

Laurence and Dan continue their exploration of the Gospel of Matthew.  This time they take a journey into the wilderness and, through the text of Matthew 4, they witness a strange encounter between the newly baptised Jesus and "the devil", the tempter, or satan.  Who or what is this character? Is it a person or a being of some sort?  As they explore the text they discover a number of 'flags' which...

Our guest, Sam Walton explains his thoughts on this question to Josh and Jon.  The legacy of Jesus of Nazareth is felt today in all kinds of ways, in religion, in culture, music and art. But what about the question that Christians and others have been asking and debating for centuries - Did Jesus pre-exist? Was he alive in some sense before being born into a quiet small town in Israel about 2000 y...