Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:30 — 69.7MB)

DESCRIPTION: Jack discusses several ideas about what makes for good Bible study attitudes and techniques. It ends with a discussion of how having a high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is not necessary for good Bible study, where having a high RQ (Rationality Quotient) is.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:24 — 95.2MB)

DESCRIPTION: Throughout the history of humankind, there have been several distinct phases in how God has run things on the Earth. And every human is born into just one of these periods, and our lives rarely span across more than one or two of them at the most. But what if we don’t like what time it is? What if we would rather it be some other time? How docile are we in regard to all this? How open-minded?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:46 — 110.4MB)

DESCRIPTION: In this lengthy episode, Jack discusses the gradient of faith that exists between mere mental assent to the statement that “Jesus is Lord”, and the opposite extreme at which someone is fully persuaded that the Image of God is good, and wholeheartedly invests him- or herself to living in that Image. He tells several stories about his own experience in the churches and his journey in trying to understand the Bible in a way that makes good sense—and that maps accurately onto what can be observed in the real world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:14 — 79.2MB)

DESCRIPTION: Jack begins the exploration of baptism, starting with John’s baptism. There seem to be four types of baptism discussed in the New Testament: John’s baptism, baptism into Jesus’ name, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the metaphorical use of “baptism” by Jesus to describe the ordeal he was to undergo.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:52 — 66.8MB)

DESCRIPTION: This is Part B of a 2-part episode. Jack continues the discussion of the “salvation” language in the New Testament, and in this part, gets into the “children of God” and “sons of God” passages, too.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:02 — 69.5MB)

DESCRIPTION: In this 2-part episode, Jack discusses how the New Testament writers and speakers didn’t only speak of salvation in the past tense, as so many of us today do, but also in the ongoing tense, and in the future tense. Taking all their language into account leads to some different conclusions that we might get if we simply focus in on the past tense, as so many seem to do when they say “I was saved when I was 17.” Jack demonstrates that while the NT authors and speakers did use the past tense, they were also quite clearly looking forward to a salvation event.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:52:33 — 115.9MB)

DESCRIPTION: Jack talks about how it’s hard to know a prophecy has been fulfilled when you’re not sure about the details of what was supposed to happen. He also approaches the problems we run into when trying to understand Bible topics in neat, little packages when the fact of the matter is that we are given more information about such things than we can conveniently keep track of.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:54 — 100.6MB)

DESCRIPTION: Jack sums up the Bible as the story of the many who didn’t listen to God, and of the few who did—some even after having started off as non-listeners. This is timely for the Easter week because Jesus was the one who had been telling humans all along what was right and just and true, and he was the one the non-listeners killed in order to silence him.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:32 — 57.7MB)

DESCRIPTION: Jack reads and discusses two related from his blog, concerning how we tend to size things up, both in our own minds, and as we describe them to others. The discussion contains many practical examples from real life, including religion and politics.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:30 — 78.3MB)

DESCRIPTION: Some say things like, “The goal of all good Bible study is application….”, but Jack takes a closer look at that idea, and gets into the nitty gritty of how consistently (or inconsistently) we apply (or don’t apply) various Bible verses. So this is a bit of a “get real” episode, in answer to how good we may think we are doing with the whole application business. Jack’s goal is to make you think it through, and to realize that good application is not always as easy as one might think.