Theology and Identity

In the final petition of the Lord's Prayer, should we pray ‘deliver us from evil’? Or is it ‘deliver us from the evil one’? In popular culture, there are generally 2 ways that evil is portrayed.  On the one hand, evil is presented as a faceless, disembodied power that floats all around us. Think about the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars. It’s out there. It mysteriously draws people in.  Bu...

Does God tempt people or doesn’t he? James 1:13 says, ‘Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.’ But then we have this very tricky petition in the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus taught his followers to pray: 'lead us not into temptation'. Why would Christians pray ‘don’t bring into temptation' if this is something...

Every major religion teaches on the importance of forgiving those who have sinned against us. But no other religion provides the same rationale for forgiveness that we find in the teachings of Jesus. What Jesus taught is unique in history. And as we look closely at what he had to say, we find that its very radical. The consequences for not forgiving others are catastrophic. The reward for forgivin...

As we continue in our series on the Lord's Prayer, we arrive at the petition 'give us this day our daily bread.' We here find that the followers of Jesus are taught not only pray for their own personal needs, but for the needs of their community. This prayer does not say ‘give me this day my daily bread,’ but rather 'give us today our daily bread.' In the Western, individualistic capitalistic mind...

As we continue our series on the Lord's Prayer, we arrive at the crucial phrase, 'on earth as it is in heaven' which only appears in Matthew. No other biblical author talks about Heaven more than Matthew. But what he has to say may come as a surprise.

We continue working our way through the Lord’s Prayer, line by line, to see if we can decode the meanings that are hidden in the original text. Jesus taught his followers to pray, 'let your kingdom come'. He didn’t come with the intention of setting the Jewish free from the rule of foreign oppressors. He didn’t come to re-establish the political independence of Israel and to rule from Jerusalem. H...

Has the meaning of the LP been deliberately hidden? Was the author of this text trying to limit the understanding of this prayer only to those who could decipher his secret symbols? My answer to these questions is No. However, the Lord's Prayer is full of hidden meanings. This was a prayer first formulated about 2000 years ago. We hear the words, and we can explain what they mean today. But that d...

Christian prayer begins with the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is 100% an early Jewish prayer.  And so it is that in order to understand the roots of Christian prayer, we need to look at prayer within early Judaism. In this episode, we explore how exactly ancient Judaic communities prayed, and how these prayers contributed to their sense of identity. Texts are taken from multiple biblical and e...

In the wake of the Temple’s destruction in 70 AD, Rabbi Issac would declare, ‘At this time we have neither prophet nor priest, neither sacrifice, nor Temple, nor altar — what is it that can make atonement for us, even though the Temple is destroyed? The only thing that we have left is prayer!’ Long before the Roman attack, a monumental shift had been taking place in Jewish faith and practice. For...

In this second season, we’re going to focusing on the topic of prayer. Specifically, I want to explore how prayer – with the Judaic and Christian traditions – has been essential to the formation of community identity. I am convinced that prayer  - even more than doctrine  - is what holds communities together.  It shapes their understanding of God. It tells them how to relate to one another. It def...

In the earliest traditions of the OT, it very much appears that the Hebrew people believed that death was the end.  Nowhere in the book of Genesis or the Law of Moses do we see any specific indications that there is life after death. As we read through the wisdom and poetic literature, in some places there are hints that there may be life after death, but in other places the authors seem to clearl...

There are different dimensions of OT messianic theology. One aspect of Messianic theology is eschatological. The Messiah comes in the last days to conquer evil, to reward the righteous, and to establish eternal peace on earth. Another aspect of Messianic theology is soteriological. Many passages talk about the Messiah as the one who makes atonement for the sins of Israel, and the sins of the natio...

The God of the Hebrew Scriptures is a God of pathos. His emotional world is very real. Unfortunately, many Christians read the Old Testament through a doctrinal lens that ultimately denies this idea.  In this episode, we engage with Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel to better understand God’s nature and character as presented by the Hebrew prophets.     

Ezekiel wrote a prophetic allegory which describes Israel’s betrayal of God in graphic and disturbing terms.  Generation after generation of faithlessness have left YHWH in a state of frustration and exhaustion. He’s verbally lashing out at the people of Israel because he’s angry, and above all, because his heart is broken.

From a literary perspective, the character of YHWH is presented as someone who does not exert absolute control over human affairs. He is not presented in the text as being a chess player who moves people as pawns on the board of human history. Time and time again we’ve seen how he set his hope on individuals and communities, and how he was let down. When the people that he was counting upon to acc...

There is no better example of  how someone could be so blessed, and yet become so evil – than the character of King Solomon. On one hand, he is presented as the wisest, richest, most internationally influential king that Israel ever had.  On the other hand, he worshipped idols, he practiced human sacrifice, he was a sex addict and he implemented a race-based system of enslavement in his kingdom. O...

Ancient Hebrew can be a very difficult language to translate. Sometimes, very important messages are lost in translation. In this episode we look at one of the greatest promises ever spoken to a human being, and consider how a fuller understanding of this promise may be affected by poor translation.

Ancient Near Eastern kings worshipped gods such as Amun, Marduk and Nabu becuase they expected to get something in return; things like wealth, power, and victory in battle. In contrast, for the Judaic people, worship wasn’t supposed to be a transactional, quid pro quo arrangement. The spirituality of the Hebrew Scriptures is not driven by what people can get from God. Rather, the texts assert that...

At this place in the OT narrative, being 'saved' wasn’t about going to heaven and it wasn’t about following certain steps for conversion. So what did it mean? Was the emphasis just on keeping the rules of the Torah, or was there something more? What we’ll discover is that there are beautiful nuances and subtleties in Hebrew religious thought.  And the story of Saul really provides some fas...

YHWH does not want the people of Israel to build their identity on their possessions, on their achievements, on their power, and especially he does not want to build their identity on their leaders. The role of leaders is simply to help the people of Israel fulfil the covenant that they had made with YHWH. Their identity and their purpose is to be grounded only in their relationship with YHWH, and...

Human sacrifice, gang rape, dismemberment, leaders sleeping with prostitutes: what is going on in the book of Judges? Is the explanation simply human depravity - or is the real problem more nuanced and complex? In this episode we explore Israel's crisis of identity was at the root of her spiritual confusion.

The essence of God’s plan is to make a covenant with the descendants of Abraham. The primary purpose of this covenant is relational: God lives in love relationship with the people of Israel, and he gives them commands to follow in order to maintain that relationship.  But the commandments also speak to Israel’s mission or purpose in the world. As Israel obeys this law they experience the abundant...

Think of the Old Testament as a connect the dots puzzle.  The problem that so many people face when reading the text is that they don’t know how the different people and events and writings all fit together.  What’s the relationship between Moses and Jeremiah, between Abraham and King Solomon, between David and Noah?  You can’t see the big picture of the Old Testament if you don’t know how to draw...

We begin with an brief exploration of the relationship between Theology – which is the study of God – and identity, which refers to the way we see ourselves both as individuals and communities. I then introduce the theme of the first series, which involves a narrative theological exploration of the Old Testament.