What do you mean God speaks?

Send us Fan Mail Several times in Genesis, God pronounces judgement and punishment on humanity, and some of those punishments seem rather strange, and some of them seem to outweigh the wrongs that were done. What's going on when God judges people? And are the accounts in Genesis 1 ~ 11 mythical? The two questions are kind of related. (Genesis 1 ~ 11)  0:52  Questions about judgment and genre ...

Send us Fan Mail Hostile Partings - the Fall of Man What made humanity fall? What severed our relationship with God, with each other, and everything, and eventually led us into destruction? Genesis has a surprising answer; it was eating from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. But, why would something so seemingly trivial have such dire consequences?  (Genesis 3)  1:13   Humanity and the Tree...

Send us Fan Mail What would it have been like to be humanity before the Fall? What is the Garden of Eden, and what did it mean for the first humans to tend to this garden and eat its fruits?   (Genesis 2 ~ 3)                                                                                                                        1:50 Our God-given capabilities and responsibilities                6:52...

Send us Fan Mail What is the significance of humanity, according to Genesis? How Genesis describes humanity, or “Adam,” and our significance, is different from how we have sought to define our uniqueness.   (Genesis 1 ~ 2) 2:12 The universe was not created for our sake              9:07 Our uniqueness is not in our origin              16:58 Human existence according to Genesis              19:04 T...

Send us Fan Mail An extra episode, to cover the various topics that I wasn't able to in the main episodes in season two so far. Also: an announcement for the funding for this series.               -----------------------------------------   Support the show  ----------------------------------------           Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter...

Send us Fan Mail What is the meaning of it all? Why did God create the universe? Did God create the universe, so that humanity could exist? What does the Genesis creation narrative say about the purpose of everything? Its answer may surprise us.  (Genesis 1)                     - 01:40 -  A recurring problem: our idea of God is too small     . 08:40 -  Is the Universe designed so that Life can exi...

Send us Fan Mail The Creation narrative in Genesis, according to biblical scholars, is based on the ancient Middle Eastern cosmology held by the Hebrews when it was written.   Then, how is Genesis true for us living in the modern age? In this first part of exploring the opening creation narrative of Genesis, we will consider how Genesis presents significant ideas that were true for the ancient Heb...

Send us Fan Mail The narratives told in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, especially the account of God creating the world, form the framework in which the Christian Bible and its message is set. However, many of us today are at a loss as to what these narratives mean for us. So, we will begin our second season by exploring the primeval history in Genesis.   (Genesis 1 ~ 11)                      ...

Send us Fan Mail Trailer for the upcoming Season 2 of "What do you mean God speaks?"     Genesis               Music from: "Creation of Earth" by DeKibo - PremiumBeat.com ----------------------------------------   Support the show  ----------------------------------------           Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_Se...

Send us Fan Mail What was God doing before creating the Cosmos? This seemingly esoteric question reveals a key aspect of the idea of God. We can only know God who speaks . And God first speaks in Genesis.                             - 00:22 -  Returning to previous unanswered questions       . 05:24 -  Difficulty of thinking about God before Genesis        . 12:19 -  Transcendence and Ultimate Rea...

Send us Fan Mail There is something Jesus never taught his disciples how to do. And Christians tried it anyway, and when they did, they found themselves playing the wrong game.        00:39 - When our beliefs lead us to perpetrate evil       . 11:36 - What Jesus never taught his disciples how to do       . 17:11 - The kind of power rejected by Christ       . 25:00 - Christians playing the wrong ga...

Send us Fan Mail Is our success due to our merit or luck? We will explore how there is a larger perspective, centered around the idea of our responsibility before God, which will present a different answer to this question.  (edit June 29: added a short section on the ideas of "gifts" and "calling" for one's responsibility, as alternative to the idea of merit)   Also: belo...

Send us Fan Mail Twenty years ago, I took a course titled, "Maps of Meaning," taught by Jordan Peterson, who has since become a very influential public intellectual ( ... though I thought this would happen earlier).  In this extra episode, I present my preliminary thoughts on what seems to constitute his idea of God.        ----------------------------------------   Support the show  ---...

Send us Fan Mail In this extra episode, I read a couple of selections from my book, "God at the Crossroads of Worldviews."     You can find the description (and academic reviews) of the book in the University of Notre Dame Press website below.      https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268100599/god-at-the-crossroads-of-worldviews/     Also: I had an interesting conversation with the kind hosts of...

Send us Fan Mail Argue as if you're wrong! Especially if you believe in God. A post-season extra episode.   ----------------------------------------   Support the show  ----------------------------------------           Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_Seungoh My new book: https://wipfandstock.com/9798385244102/god-whats-that/ * Pl...

Send us Fan Mail The hidden season finale.  The history of the relationship between humanity and God can be described as humanity repeatedly silencing the voice of God.  Yet, God still speaks. That is the story of Easter.               ----------------------------------------   Support the show  ----------------------------------------           Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeango...

Send us Fan Mail The entire series is written as a whole, like a single book that is broken up into sequential episodes, with each building upon the previous ones. So, periodically, I release an extra episode that has a summary review for the previous episodes.  This episode will explain what the first season was aiming for, and what episodes 7 to 12 is about.                      0:00 Introductio...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to say that the Bible is the “word of God”?  For Christianity, the “Word of God,” refers to much more than just the Bible; literally everything that unfolds in History is God speaking, the Logos--the rational principle of the universe, is God speaking--every truth is God speaking, and Jesus Christ is the Word of God who became a human being. So, where does the Bi...

Send us Fan Mail a.k.a. How nightmare plagues every dream of God's Kingdom                                  -                        Many evils have been perpetrated in the name of Christianity; even now, there seems to be many individuals who justify their bigotry, hatred, or violence, by appealing to Christianity. The same, of course, happens with other religions, and even non-religious and...

Send us Fan Mail  “Who am I? One name you might have for me is The World. Or you might call me the Universe. Or, perhaps God. Or the Truth. I am All, and I am One. And this also means that I am you.”   Truth, from Full Metal Alchemist                                                                                             This is an extra episode that examines the question in episode 9 and epis...

Send us Fan Mail According to Christianity, every truth is God speaking. But, there is a difference between God speaking and God speaking to you.  God is Reality; but, for Christians Reality is Who, not a what. And Reality is Who, because this Reality speaks to them personally.  But, what is it like to experience God speaking to you? What would it have been like for those like Abraham, or Moses? 0...

Send us Fan Mail What do you mean God speaks? What is it like to "hear" God speak? What did figures like Abraham, Moses, the prophets, the apostles experience when God spoke to them? Before we can answer this, we must first understand what it means for God to speak in general. In this episode, we will explore what it means to say that "God speaks," and how every human being&quo...

Send us Fan Mail The Christian idea of sin and judgment is more than just an idea that our moral wrong will be punished by God. It points to something more basic, of that relentless question in our hearts why our world, and our lives, are not better than what they are now, and the part we've played in it. And whether we answer the question or ignore it, there will be a cost. That's why e...

Send us Fan Mail This extra episode addresses a few points that may have been raised in the seventh episode: Why "God" is not "god." 1) If ancient Israelites weren't "monotheists" as we understand them today, does that mean their oldest religious beliefs (or oldest beliefs in general) were polytheistic?  [ Short answer: Not really. ] 2) So, is the belief in &quot...

Send us Fan Mail It is common to nowadays for people to think that God of Christianity is just another god--even if a very popular one that's supposedly all-powerful and all-knowing. Some may even say that Christians insist on the capital "G," for their "God" because they just want their god to be unique among others. But, that's not quite right. Christians would in f...