Pillar Podcast

Should we keep the sabbath? To get at an answer to these questions, the guys look at some ancient Near Eastern material to explain why sabbath is tied to creation in the Old Testament, and also look at why it is tied to the exodus. 

Eric, Scott, and Dan answer a listener question: "Was there really one language before the Tower of Babel?"

Eric, Scott, and Dan look at what astrology meant in the ancient world, who did it, and why it appears in the birth story of Jesus.

In this episode, we look at the issue of the presence of God in the Book of Leviticus, then show how the New Testament applies that to the Gospel and the mission of the church. This discussion builds on the episodes "Our Anemic Gospel" and "Some Background on the Word Gospel."

This question comes to us from Kenya, but is a common question in America, too. Scott, Dan, and Eric look at passages that talk about "the sins of the father" and explain what's really going on.

James 5:14 talks of prayer and anointing with oil for healing. Pillar's Bible faculty take a look at the Bible and its context in effort to understand the passage. Scott looks at the Old Testament and the ancient Near East. Dan looks at the New Testament and its world. And Eric says things sometimes.

Eric, Dan, and Scott tackle the question of the Nephilim in Genesis 6 by looking at Old Testament, ancient Near Eastern, intertestamental, and New Testament texts. They also take a quick look at another interesting group, the Rephaim. 

From the desk of Pillar faculty: Each of the Bible faculty discuss current research projects they're working on and how it impacts the way we read the Bible. 

Pillar Seminary's own leadership guru Donnell Moore leads Eric and Dan in a discussion about making disciples. Donnell talks about why efforts in discipleship often fail to yield fruit, and offers a better way forward.

Eric and Scott talk about ancient Near Eastern land grant texts (and their hilariously worded curses). Parallels in the Book of Joshua are shown, followed by a demonstration of the importance of land in the Bible, using the story of Naboth's Vineyard as a test case.

Dan walks Eric and Scott through some Old Testament and Roman uses of the word "Gospel" to wind up at a better understanding of the word in the New Testament. 

Eric brings up a discussion he had with second year students on the meaning of the Book of Exodus. Also on the table is Pillar's unique approach to training church leaders in Bible.

This week the topic is a law about a mother bird and her nest (Deuteronomy 22:6-7). Eric, Scott, and Dan discuss the meaning of the law and how proper application of it can increase the longevity of church volunteers and pastors.

Eric, Scott, and Dan discuss the ancient Near Eastern approach to "the waters above the sky" found in Genesis, and address a view common in some Christian circles called "the canopy theory." 

In part 2 of our Book of Revelation series, Dan gets us closer to addressing questions of the millennium, tribulation, and rapture by laying out the historical interpretive grids for the book. Also, Eric and Scott really appreciate Dan's perspective.

Special guest Myron Pierce leads a discussion on diversity, including what can be done to move the church forward and practices that continue to hold us back. Eric and Scott then use a law about an Ox in Exodus as instruction for what our proper posture and response should be.

Scott walks Dan through an overview of the latest in paleoclimate research and talks a little about how this impacts how we read some of the Bible.

We got a question sent in about the Book of Revelation, the tribulation, and the rapture. In this episode, Dan begins his four-part answer by looking at what the Book of Revelation claims to be and how that impacts the way we approach it.

Eric, Scott, and Dan wrap up their discussion of numbers in Genesis by taking a look at the ages of the patriarchs in light of their culture and their story.

Eric, Scott, and Dan answer a listener's question about the super long life spans given in Genesis 5 by looking at the Sumerian King List.

Eric asks Scott how his research in ancient texts and archaeology impacts the local church, asking the practical question, "What do we do with Bible specials and documentaries that sometimes challenge and sometimes support a position we may hold?".

Eric, Scott, and Dan give data from both archaeology and Hebrew to show that we need to adjust how we view numbers in the Old Testament and its world.

Dan talks to Eric and Scott about how we got from the Old Testament adversary Satan to the New Testament super-bad-guy Satan. This episode goes a little longer, but it's good stuff.

In the first of a two-part series on Satan in the Bible, Eric, Scott and Dan take a look at Satan in the Old Testament.

If the Gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus, then why are the Gospels in the New Testament so long? Do we have it right? Eric and Scott jump in to the middle of Luke and discuss.