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dailyaudiobible · 4 years

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10/22/2020 DAB Transcript

Jeremiah 39:1-41:18, 2 Timothy 1:1-18, Psalms 90:1-91:16, Proverbs 26:1-2

Today is the 22nd day of October welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today like every day. It's always, always a joy to be here with you as we take the next step forward and that next step forward….well…that will continue our journey in Jeremiah but when we get the New Testament we’re moving into the middle pastoral epistle known as second Timothy, and we’ll talk about that when we get there but let's…let's dive into Jeremiah. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Jeremiah 39, 40 and 41 today.

Introduction to second Timothy:

Okay. As we said at the beginning, we are moving into another of the pastoral epistles. These are letters that are personal in the Bible, not like circular letters written to entire churches to be read and performed before a congregation and then past to another church. They are personal letters. They are attributed to the apostle Paul although as we talked about, these pastoral epistles are highly disputed and have been for centuries. And there are, you know, very few biblical scholars these days who would say the pastoral letters were actually written by the apostle Paul. That mostly comes because historians, church historians, who have watched like the development of church structure have been able to kind of observe that these pastoral epistles, they seem to have developments within church structures that came after the apostle Paul's life. Nevertheless, the letters are like Pauline in…in nature and are…are written to be from the apostle Paul to these two pastors Timothy and Titus as personal letters that contain a lot of church structure instructions, yeah, that still provide controversies in certain sections and segments of the church today. But this letter, second Timothy is written in the name of Paul, may have been written by Paul, and would be the final of the pastoral epistles. And as its later, like a late letter, if the apostle Paul did write this letter than this is the last known writing of the apostle Paul's life. And if Paul didn't write it then somebody familiar, somebody of the Pauline school, somebody who’s theologically under Paul or under one of these pastors of the churches was…was indeed kind of counting the last days of Paul. And, so, Timothy who this letter is written to, like the last one that we read was the pastor the church in Ephesus. And this is a church that Paul spent a lot of time in. So, these people knew Paul and they know Pastor Timothy pretty well. And Paul at the time is in prison in Rome. He had appealed to Caesar. He’s waiting to find out whether he’s gonna live or die and as it turns out he's…he's gonna die. And Paul's imprisonment is also a matter of scholarly debate, not whether it happened or not, but it…it seems like laying out the timeline of Paul's journeys that he may have been released for a time, and had freedom again for a time. So, when he first came under arrest when he was first imprisoned in Rome, he kinda had some freedoms. We see that written in the Scriptures. It was kind of more of a house arrest. He was under guard, but he had some freedoms. Like he wasn’t just in dungeon and then as the timeline kinda lays out it seems like he was released from custody and then he traveled again for a period of time, and then it would be during those, that small time of freedom that he wrote first Timothy and Titus, which we’ll read next. And then Paul was incarcerated again, and this would be A.D. 66. And not to get to technical, but this is some of the reasons like dating Paul's life, you can't date right down to the days on things, but you can get pretty close in when his wife would've been. And then looking at church structures etc. etc. knowing like some of these things came to be later that's why a scholar would think about these letters being later than Paul's life. But around 66 A.D. Paul then was arrested again, and this was under Emperor Nero who just was …was a savage to Christians and persecuting them and executing them and denigrating them. It was a…a bad time. And, so, when Paul was arrested again, he didn’t have the kind of freedoms that he had before. He was then at that point in a cold dungeon waiting to die pretty much. That’s the…the writing was on the wall. So, the idea then is that from this imprisonment, and we’ll see in the letter, that it’s full of melancholy, like it's full of the type of hopeful language we would expect from a letter like this, but also just sobering realities of the circumstances and the likely outcome being martyrdom. This is the tone of second Timothy. And, so, we can take second Timothy as the last things we would hear from this apostle, sort of like the…the period at the end of the sentence, the last things that get said. So, I mean, the marginalization that was happening among the church, people would identify as Christians being completely set aside and really, really pressed in on and persecuted, most everybody had deserted Paul. Like people were waiting for Jesus to come back. He wasn’t coming back. Paul, the guy that had showed them this way, is imprisoned. The Empire has got a vendetta against people of this faith. So, there just like, “yeah. That’s not gonna work for me” and just went back into the wall work and back to whatever they were doing before. And, so, Paul is alone. Only Luke the physician who we believe to be the author of the gospel of Luke as well as is the book of Acts stayed in Rome with Paul. Paul knew that he was probably gonna die. From the tone of this letter he was hoping to see Timothy just one more time, like one more time in this life face-to-face and that he had some final counsel just in case that face-to-face couldn't happen, some final words of encouragement, some final words of instruction. And given the backdrop that I just, you know, that I just said for us, that's why we find famous verses in this letter, like “I have fought the good fight of faith. I have finished the race.” And, so, we begin. Second Timothy chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We are so, so grateful for Your word and Your direction and Your counsel and Your comfort in these days. And I…I'm sure the generations before us trailing back to the very day that these words were penned, that those who read them felt this way. Thank You, thank You, thank You for being here for us when things are confusing. Thank You for taking us back into this melancholy territory in the early formation of the church as we are reading a letter that…that gives us language for the end of the apostle Paul's life and the convictions that were held intact, even as he faced…even as he faced like…like that his head was going to be severed from his body. That's a pretty stark thing to think about. And, so, Holy Spirit, as we continue our journey through the New Testament, as we continue our journey through…through the books of prophecy. Come, lead us into all truth. Lead us in the way that we should go. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. Lead us deeper into our relationship with the Savior. And we ask in His name, the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello my fellow DABylonians this is Kevin in California checking in and real quick just want to ask that you would continue to pray for my three sons - Levi, Moses and Tekoa - that God would give them peace and wisdom and courage. But my main call is I wanted to call Chris in Florida. Wow man. That’s…that’s some heavy stuff. Thank you so much for calling in and reaching out. I’d be honored to pray for you and your 12-year-old daughter. So, let’s pray Familia. Holy Father, Son and Spirit thank You for this man Chris. He’s calling in for his…his beloved daughter and the mourning and grief and healing that she will have to go through with such a difficult thing as losing a mom. And I just pray God that Your Holy Spirit would fill this man Chris with great love and courage and wisdom to love and guide and comfort his daughter through this time of grief. May he and his daughter grieve well together. And I pray God that You’d give him great opportunities to let the tears flow Father. Give them places and opportunities to feel their grief and let it flow and heal through that God. Thank You, Father for what You’re going to do in this man Chris’s life and his 12-year-old daughter. Thank You, God that You have a plan and those plans are for good. Thank You, God that this lady is now with You Lord and I…

This is from junk to treasure. I’m calling because I heard Joel Maddox reach out for help. He was the first caller on Monday, October 19th’s broadcast. Joel I just…you said you can’t stand to look at yourself in the mirror and you’ve lost everything and you’re ready to give up and you don’t know what to do. This is when you look at yourself in the mirror as a child of God and you start from where you are. You call upon the Holy Spirit and you ask for help and direction and you start by setting small goals each day of what you can do until you can get back on your feet and regain. I don’t know whether you lost possessions or what it is you lost but we just pray over you and we ask the Holy Spirit to circle around you and uplift you and we praise God that you called out for help because it’s not too late when you ask for help and just pray that God will hold on to you in a mighty strong way so that you can get your eyes set back on the right path. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Shantay calling from Metro Detroit and I wanted to call and share some good news with you all. I just received a call from a company that I’ve been interviewing with and I hadn’t heard from them in a good while. And, so, I thought they just forgot about me. But anyway, I found out today they offered me a job in Florida. And, so, I am like so…so many emotions. I’m so grateful and thankful to God for just working everything out. I’ve been furloughed since April. It is now October and I have a job offer and I’m…I’m just…I’m so amazed and it’s just…ahh…thank you to each and every one of you that have prayed for me over all these years. This month, October marks my 10th year of listening to the Daily Audio Bible and you all have seen me through so many ups, so many downs, so many back up’s, like just…you guys have been praying for me since the beginning and I just…I thank you all and I love you all so much. I’m so grateful for each and every one of you, for Brian and Jill I’m so grateful for you too…you…you have just blessed my life, your saying yes to doing the Daily Audio Bible and…and reading the Scripture in and out, day in and out, rain or shine has just blessed my life and so many others and I’m just…I…I’m so very thankful, so very thankful. So, I just want to call in with that praise report to everyone. Thank you for your prayers. I love each and every one of you. And, yeah, okay I know I’ve been cut off so I’m just gonna stop now. But if anyone else is still listening, I love you all so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do…

Hi, it’s Sherry from Kansas. I would like to ask you to continue praying for Jennifer. She’s the 13-year-old girl I told you about that her dad is super morbidly obese and her mom has mental issues and is very abusive. The dad can’t even get out of a chair or anything. And Jennifer started cutting herself and lying and doing a little stealing as well. But Jennifer’s mom told Jennifer that if she wasn’t dead before her 18th birthday then Jennifer’s mom said she would kill herself, which is a horrible thing to say to a child. But this is the kind of things that Jennifer’s mom says. Anyway, CFS, child and family services has gotten involved and I’m just really praying for them for wisdom and for something to happen, but I don’t know what at this point. So, I just want to ask you to continue praying for her because Jennifer is really a wonderful girl and she’s acting out and doing the things she’s doing because of the abuse that she’s suffering. Anyway, thank you all for praying and God bless you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible audience I’m calling on October 17th I’m a listener in Maryland and I’m calling for two people who call this week. One was a lady and I’m sorry I don’t remember your name, but she was very upset because she was alone, and she desperately wanted to be married and she had no children and she was 62. It spoke to me because it was near my birthday and I turned 64. I too have never been married and I have no children; however, I don’t feel alone in that I do know that the Holy Spirit watches out for me and makes it possible to for me to move through this journey. The other person whose name is James, he had sort of the same problem except he was a young man and he had been in foster care and he was alone, and he was going through rehab. James, your strong, I could tell it in your voice and you’re a good person. You were asking for prayer and hoping that your parents were still alive and well. You also have the Holy Spirit that is taking care of you. So, both of you, make it…you will make it to through the loneliness. You just have to get it in your heart and in your mind and in your spirit. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jackie and I’m asking prayer for my brother Sonny who’s in the hospital with chest pain and stomach pain possibly due to stress. He has lost his job and battling with some financial __. Also for my sister, she’s a single mom, she’s not working, she has a college aged son in need of a financial blessing, in need of scholarships she’d applied for but due to COVID-19 everything is closed down. I’m also asking prayers for my son who’s single, hasn’t been married, has no kids, and is __ and lonely. And I’m asking God to cease the loneliness and I’m also worried sometimes, worried about my future, what’s gonna happen. I feel stuck __ that God would just relieve my stress, relieve the loneliness. __ pray for my DAB family I greatly appreciate it community. I love you all. I love you Brian and Jill and there are so many I keep praying for you. I thank God for this community. Have a blessed day.

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steveezekiel · 3 years

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YOUR EXPERIENCE IN GOD IS YOUR MESSAGE

14. “Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.

15. FOR YOU WILL BE HIS WITNESS TO ALL MEN OF WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN AND HEARD.”

Acts 22:14,15(NKJV)

• Ministry is about sharing what you have seen and heard from the Lord Jesus.

- You must have had an encounter with the Lord, before you claim you have a call of God on your life (1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8).

- Your encounter with the Lord may not be as spectacular as that of Paul, but you must have seen Him and heard Him all the same (Acts 4:20).

- Seeing the Lord may not be in a vision form, as in one of the spectacular ways: angelic visitation, trance, audible voice, open visions and so on– but seeing Him through the written Word, and heard Him by the leading of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you (Acts 26:16; 2 Peter 1:16).

14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

Romans 8:14(NKJV)

• The ministry work is about sharing or teaching what you know about Christ and God the Father (1John 1:1,3)

- If you do not have a good communion, fellowship with God, through the person of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you– you may not have any message to share with the people you are assigned to (Jeremiah 1:9,10,17).

- Paul, Peter, and John reiterated it in all their epistles that they were sharing what they saw and heard, their experiences about Christ (Galatians 1:11,12; 2Peter 1:16; 1John 1:1,3).

"THAT WHICH WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD WE DECLARE TO YOU, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ."

1John 1:3(NKJV)

• What have you learned of Jesus?

- If you have not met, had an encounter, with the Lord Jesus, you have nothing to share about Him.

- You have to know Jesus first, be intimate with Him, before you talk about Him. Remember, you want to tell people in general what you know about Christ; that is called ministry (2 Peter 1:16-18)

• Note the following:

- To have revelation of God, you need to walk in the light of His Word–study His Word, meditate in the Word, and practice it (Joshua 1:8; 1Timothy 4:13).

- Pray the Pauline prayers written in the Book of Ephesians and Colossians consistently (Ephesians 1:15-21; 3:14-21; Colossians 1:9-12).

- Also, pray more in the language of the Spirit (I Corinthians 14:2; Jude 20)

• If you practice what we have shared in this piece, and you walk in the light of God's Word that you know– you will have revelation in the knowledge of Him and know what to tell those who come to hear you.

“Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”

1Timothy 4:16(NKJV)

- A minister, leader, who want to be fruitful in his assignment should not have time for frivolity, vain things. He must be diligent in study that he may have a good success in his assignment (Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 11:12).

15. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

16. BUT SHUN PROFANE AND IDLE BABBLINGS, for they will increase to more ungodliness.”

2Timothy 2:15,16(NKJV)

- If you desire success in that assignment God has given to you, then you must pay attention to your fellowship with Him– stay in the Word to have revelation knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17-19).

• Paul in his last epistles written to Timothy said Timothy should bring his books and the parchments he left at Troas (2 Timothy 4:13). Meanwhile, in that same chapter, he had already told Timothy that he had finished his race, that the time of his departure was at hand (2 Timothy 4:6,7)–yet he said Timothy should bring his books and the parchments. 'Does he still want to prepare sermons?'

'Does he want to prepare for a talk?'

- If a man who knew he was about to die was asking for his books and parchments– then you who know you still have more years in ministry should not fold your hands and read not.

- Study the Word of God daily, spend considerable amount of time in the Word daily– If you desire success in ministry work, that is, in your assignment.

2. “Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “IT IS NOT DESIRABLE THAT WE SHOULD LEAVE THE WORD OF GOD AND SERVE TABLES.

3. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;

4. BUT WE WILL GIVE OURSELVES CONTINUALLY TO PRAYER AND TO THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD.”

Acts 6:2-4(NKJV)

• Appoint men to see to the business affairs of the ministry, but you pay attention to the Word and Prayer (Deuteronomy 1:15-18; 2Timothy 2:2).

- You may need to receive the reports of the work they do, from those you appointed, but your own foremost and primary assignment is the Word of God and Prayer (Exodus 18:22; Acts 6;4; Titus 1:5).

- Stay in communion and fellowship with God, that you may be relevant in your assignment (Exodus 18:17-19).

- To have impactful ministry, that is, to be at the leading edge or cutting edge through out your ministry life– your fellowship with God must be cordial.

“O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.”

1Timothy 6:20(NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus' name.

Peace!

#christianity #christian living #christian blog #gospel #jesus #the bible #devotion

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confrontingbabble-on · 6 years

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“Mixed messages, repetition, bad fact checking, awkward constructions, inconsistent voice, weak character development, boring tangents, contradictions, passages where nobody can tell what the heck the writer meant to convey. This doesn’t sound like a book that was dictated by a deity.

A well-written book should be clear and concise, with all factual statements accurate and characters neither two-dimensional nor plagued with multiple personality disorder—unless they actually are. A book written by a god should be some of the best writing ever produced. It should beat Shakespeare on enduring relevance, Stephen Hawking on scientific accuracy, Pablo Neruda on poetry, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on ethical coherence, and Maya Angelou on sheer lucid beauty—just to name a few.

Why does the Bible so fail to meet this mark? One obvious answer, of course, is that neither the Bible—nor any derivative work like the Quran or Book of Mormon—was actually dictated by the Christian god or other celestial messengers. We humans may yearn for advice that is “god-breathed” but in reality, our sacred texts were written by fallible human beings who, try as they might, fell short of perfection in the ways that we all do.

But why is the Bible so badly written? Falling short of perfection is one thing, but the Bible has been the subject of literally thousands of follow-on books by people who were genuinely trying to figure out what it means. Despite best efforts, their conclusions don’t converge, which is one reason Christianity has fragmented into over 40,000 denominations and non-denominations.

Here are just a few of the reasons for this tangled web of disagreements and the generally terrible quality of much biblical writing (with some notable exceptions) by literary standards.

Too Many Cooks... Far from being a single unified whole, the Bible is actually a collection of texts or text fragments from many authors. We don’t know the number of writers precisely, and—despite the ancient traditions that assigned authorship to famous people such as Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—we don’t know who most of them were. We do know that the men who inscribed the biblical texts had widely different language skills, cultural and technological surroundings, worldviews and supernatural beliefs—along with varying objectives.

Scholars estimate that the earliest of the Bible’s writers lived and wrote about 800 years before the Christian era, and the most recent lived and wrote around 100 CE. They ranged from tribal nomads to subjects of the Roman Empire. To make matters more complicated, some of them borrowed fragments of even earlier stories and songs that had been handed down via oral tradition from Sumerian cultures and religions. For example, flood myths that predate the Noah story can be found across Mesopotamia, with a boat-building hero named Gilgamesh or Ziusudra or Atrahasis.

Bible writers adapted earlier stories and laws to their own cultural and religious context, but they couldn’t always reconcile differences among handed-down texts, and often may not have known that alternative versions existed. Later, variants got bundled together. This is why the Bible contains two different creation myths, three sets of Ten Commandments, and four contradictory versions of the Easter story.

Forgery and Counter-forgery... Best-selling Bible scholar Bart Ehrman has written a whole book about forgery in the New Testament, texts written under the names of famous men to make the writings more credible. This practice was so common among early Christians that nearly half of the books of the New Testament make false authorship claims, while others were assigned famous names after the fact. When books claiming to be written by one person were actually written by several, each seeking to elevate his own point of view, we shouldn’t be surprised if the writing styles clash or they espouse contradictory attitudes.

Histories, Poetries, None-of-These... Christians may treat the Bible as a unified book of divine guidance, but in reality it is a mix of different genres: ancient myths, songs of worship, rule books, poetry, propaganda, gospels (yes, this was a common literary genre), coded political commentary, and mysticism, to name just a few. Translators and church leaders down through the centuries haven’t always known which of these they were reading. Modern comedians sometimes make a living by deliberately garbling genres—for example, by taking statements literally when they are meant figuratively—or distorting things someone else has written or said. Whether they realize it or not, biblical literalists in the pulpit sometimes make a living doing the same thing.

Lost in Translation... The books of the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, though not in the modern versions of these languages. (Think of trying to read Chaucer’s Old English.) When Roman Catholic Christianity ascended, church leaders embraced the Hebrew Bible and translated it into then-modern Latin, calling it the Old Testament. They also translated texts from early Jesus-worshipers and voted on which to include in their canon of scripture. These became the New Testament. Ironically, some New Testament writers themselves had already quoted bad translations of Old Testament scriptures. These multi-layered imperfect translations inspired key doctrines of the Christian faith, the most famous being the Virgin Birth.

Most English versions of the Bible have been translated directly from the earliest available manuscripts, but translators have their own biases, some of which were shaped by those early Latin translations and some of which are shaped by more recent theological considerations or cultural trends. After American Protestants pivoted away from supporting abortion in the 1980s, some actually re-translated a troublesome Bible verse that treated the death of a fetus differently from the death of a person. The meaning of the Bible passage changed.

But even when scholars scrupulously try to avoid biases, an enormous amount of information is simply lost in translation. One challenge is that the meanings of a story, or even a single word, depend on what preceded it in the culture at large or a specific conversation, or both. Imagine that a teenager has asked his mom for a specific amount of money for a special night out, and Mom says, “You can have $50.” She is communicating something very different if the kid asked for $20 (Mom is saying splurge a bit) versus if the kid had asked for $100 (Mom is saying rein yourself in).

As the mother opens her wallet, the son scrolls through restaurant options on Yelp and exclaims, “Sick!” Mom blinks, then mentally translates into the slang of her own generation which, her son’s perceptions aside, doesn’t come close to translating across 2000 years of history.

Inside baseball... A lot changes in 2000 years. As we read the Bible through modern eyes, it helps to remember that we’re getting a glimpse, however imperfectly translated, of the urgent concerns of our Iron Age ancestors. Back then, writing anything was tremendously labor intensive, so we know that information that may seem irrelevant now (because it is) was of acute importance to the men who first carved those words into clay, or inked them on animal skins or papyrus.

Long lists of begats in the Gospels; greetings to this person and that in the Pauline epistles; instructions on how to sacrifice a dove in Leviticus or purify a virgin war captive in Numbers; ‘chosen people’ genealogies; prohibitions against eating creatures that don’t exist; pages of threats against enemies of Israel; coded rants against the Roman Empire. . . As a modern person reading the Bible, one can’t help but think about how the pages might have been better filled. Could none of this have been pared away? Couldn’t the writers have made room instead for a few short sentences that might have changed history Wash your hands after you poop. Don’t have sex with someone who doesn’t want to. Witchcraft isn’t real. Slavery is forbidden. We are all God’s chosen people. Answer: No, they couldn’t have fit these in, even without the begats. Of course there was physical space on papyrus and parchment. But the minds of the writers were fully occupied with other concerns. In their world, who begat who mattered(!) while challenging prevailing Iron Age views of illness or women and children or slaves was simply inconceivable.

It’s Not About You... The Gospel According to Matthew (not actually authored by Matthew) was written for an audience of Jews. He was a recruiter for the ancient equivalent of Jews for Jesus. That is why, in the Matthew account, the Last Supper is timed as a Passover meal. By contrast, the Gospel According to John was written to persuade pagan Roman prospects, so the author timed the events differently. This is just one of many explicit contradictions between the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’s death and resurrection.The contradictions in the Gospel stories—and many other parts of the Bible, are not there because the writers were confused. Quite the opposite. Each writer knew his own goals and audience, and adapted hand-me-down stories or texts to fit, sometimes changing the meaning in the process. The folks who are confused are those who treat the book as if they were the audience, as if each verse was a timeless and perfect message sent to them by God. Their yearning for a set of clean answers to life’s messy questions has created a mess.

A good culling might do a lot to improve things. Imagine a version of the Bible containing only that which has enduring beauty or usefulness. Unfortunately, the collection in the Bible has been bound together for so long that Christian authorities (with a few exceptions) don’t trust themselves to unbind it. Maybe the thought of deciding what goes and stays feels overwhelming or even dangerous. Or maybe, deep down, Bible-believing Evangelicals and other fundamentalists suspect that if they started culling, there wouldn’t be a whole lot left. So, they keep it all, in the process binding themselves to the worldview and very human imperfections of our Iron Age ancestors.And that’s what makes the Good Book so bad.”

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington.

https://valerietarico.com/2018/01/28/why-is-the-bible-so-badly-written/

#atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity #Bible

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bimboficationblues · 7 years

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I'm a Christian socialist as well (and left leaning in most of my political views) but I have to deal with some pro-capitalism right leaning people in my life who are like "socialism is bad cuz God doesn't want people to be forced to give to the poor and God loves capitalism" so I was wondering how you knew exegetically why socialism makes more sense to you as a Christian? All I can think of is that capitalism as a system rewards greed and impoverishes people but it's not scripture-based

Yeah, I had to deal with that sort of “God loves money” perspective for the last couple months. Honestly, I don’t think it’s a position that has any sort of coherence with Scripture for the most part. I think the best that apologists for capitalism can actually muster is go the route that many Christian thinkers have, which is to be mildly critical of the current social arrangement but suggest that it is not God’s will [which is a concept I outright reject in the first place] or a part of Christian practice to try to change anything, and to merely wait for the eternal kingdom rather than fret about the temporal one. There is textual support for that position, even if I think the textual support for my position far outweighs it.

So the starting point for my position, based on Exodus, the prophetic tradition, a subversive reading of the book of Job, the sermons and actions of Christ himself, and most of the Pauline corpus as well as the Epistle of James, is that the God of the Abrahamic traditions is a God of the Oppressed - which I think is clear from the mere fact of the incarnation of Jesus as a Jew in an occupied territory, who is made to suffer in a brutal way when he threatens the domination system.

Lots of smarter people than I have explored this, including James Cone (from an African-American perspective), Marcella Althaus-Reid (from a Latinx and qu**r feminist perspective), Hamid Dabashi (from a Muslim perspective rather than a Christian one), Erich Fromm (from a Jewish and explicitly Marxist POV), and Gustavo Gutierrez, who is generally considered the “founder” of the liberation theology tradition.

To take it further, I’m a student of history as well as a historical materialist, so my approach to exegesis is to ask what were the material circumstances of Roman-occupied Palestine at the beginning of the first century, and how would Jesus and his predecessors/descendants be understood at the time? And to keep it brief without getting too deep into the details, the early faith is deeply hostile to empire and the militarist Roman state, extremely critical of the materialism (in the non-Marxist sense) that is a product of the social arrangement of the time, highly attractive to women and slaves (for somewhat problematic reasons - the idea of a future or eternal deliverance from bondage rather than a temporal salvation) and a troubling political threat to the Roman state structure by undermining the premises of its authority.

I don’t have my notes with me atm to provide detailed quotes and deeper analysis, but even without a deep dive into the historiography: “The Sheep and the Goats” sermon, the two most important commandments according to Jesus (love God and love your neighbor), the Beatitudes (particularly Luke’s telling), “nobody can serve two masters,” the bringing of the sword rather than peace, the turning of the tables in the temple (esp. in John), the repeated return to the idea of equality before God throughout the New Testament, the exorcism of “Legion,” the Epistle of James, the anti-Roman content of Revelations.

There’s lots more historical and textual examples of why I think this is the most reasonable position, but this is already getting fairly long. I would say that for every textual example that promotes Christian passivity or apolitical perspective, there are far more calling us to build a better social order, and based on the commandment of “loving one’s neighbor,” I know where I stand.

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09/29/2021 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 57:15-59:21, Philippians 1:1-26, Psalms 71:1-24, Proverbs 24:9-10

Today is the 29th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it's wonderful to be here with you today as we come together and take the next step forward. Today we’ll be continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we are moving into some new territory, the letter to the Philippians. And we’ll talk about that when we get there. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Isaiah chapter 57 verse 15 through 59 verse 21.

Introduction to the letter to the Philippians:

Okay. As…as I mentioned at the beginning, we’re moving into some new territory here in the New Testament, Paul's letter to the Philippians. And this is one of the letters among biblical scholars and historians that Paul's authorship, just about no one debates about this, holds it as an authentic letter of Paul, not just a letter of…of Pauline school or Pauline theology or thought, but from Paul. And there's little disagreement that he was incarcerated when he wrote this letter. And, so, that would likely date this letter somewhere around 61, the year 61 A.D. and written from Rome while he's awaiting a trial before the Emperor. And, so, we realize reading up prison epistle, a letter written while Paul was in prison, but it's also very early Christian text. So, this letter was written before the Gospels were written – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was written before the book of Acts was written. So, we have a really early letter here written to the Philippians, those at the church in the city called Philippi, which was a colony of the Roman Empire in the region of Macedonia, which is now the northern part of Greece. And Philippi was a prosperous enough city, but it…it appears that the church was not particularly wealthy. They were…they were poor, but rich in love and rich in their allegiance to Paul. And, so, part of this letter is just gratitude, thank…thanks for that. The church in Philippi knew Paul was in prison so they sent somebody to check on him, someone named Epaphroditus who was a part of the congregation there, went to Rome to find out how Paul was doing, bring him a gift from the congregation to support him to lift his spirits. And you can imagine Paul being in prison in Rome on a capital…like a life-or-death case, would find encouragement and comfort in…in this gesture and in any way he could. And Epaphroditus stayed with Paul. And, so, helped Paul during his incarceration, but he eventually got really sick and just about died. And, so, when Epaphroditus got well enough again Paul wanted to send him back to Philippi along with this letter to the Philippians which talks of his circumstances. And, so, in part just the well-being of Paul, like a missionary update. But there's so much more. Paul's in prison writing language of the joy of our salvation more than is expressed in any of his other letters and perseverance. And this is something that we’re gonna keep seeing all the way to the end of the year, more and more. Perseverance and endurance become such an increasing pervasive disruptive theme because perseverance is the last thing we necessarily want to sign up for. But endurance is critical to the life of faith and actually the human experience. And, so, Paul encourages perseverance, and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, which kinda…I mean the last couple years…I mean I could say even longer than that, but we all know what 2020 was like and very different kind of experience of a year. And we’re trying to move back into whatever normal might be, whatever this new normal is, get back to how things were. But Philippians really speaks to us where we are if we’re looking for it. And, so, we begin. Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 through 26.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this new letter to the Philippians that we are just getting into, and we invite You to speak to us from days gone by, into the heart of the matter that is happening even today, which is what Your word does. It reveals to us plenty of things over time, and it always lands where we are. And, so, come Holy Spirit and plant the Scriptures in our lives and our hearts pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it’s where you find out what's going on around the Global Campfire. So, be sure to check it out.

Whether you are on the web or using the app, you can find…well…the Daily Audio Bible Shop, for example. And within the Shop are a number of resources, whether that be reading resources, listening resources, writing resources, or just fun resources. They are resources for the journey that we find ourselves on moving our way through this month and…wow…I guess it’s just sitting me…it won't be but a couple of days and we will be entering the final quarter of the year. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if being around this Global Campfire together every day is life-giving then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that is it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey everybody this is Jonathan from Denver. Speaking in the terms of the story of the prodigal son, this past week I have really been off in the far country. I…I really walked away from God, and I fell into my own desires and my own vices, and I was incredibly selfish and just been kind of digging myself deeper into a hole. Today I woke up and kind of just realized how miserable I am. So, I am trying to get back. I fell behind. I wasn't…I wasn't listening to DAB so now I'm catching up. But I just need prayer, that I would fall back into the arms of Christ and let Him fill me and satisfy me instead of trying to satisfy myself with all the selfish desires. So, if you could all just please be praying I would really appreciate that. I hope you’re doing great day and I love you. Bye.

Hey DAB family I'm a first-time caller. I've been listening to the Daily Audio Bible since January 1st and shout out to Jamie in Illinois for encouraging me to check it out because it has definitely changed my life. To the gentleman who mentioned yesterday that he had prayed and asked God to give him a name, that a lot of people use, handle on here, not his word but my word, anyway that they use that to identify themselves instead of their real names. And, so, thank you for that. I can introduce myself as His Crown of Daisies and I have a prayer request. I have a broken, shattered relationship with my father and stepmother, and they have agreed to see me sometime next month to sit down and talk about the things that happened, the drama that happened, all the things that shattered the relationship and to possibly begin the process of restoring those relationships. I have two sons and they don't know their grandfather, or their step grandmother and I really feel like that needs to be rectified. Boys need a grandpa. The girls do too, I'm not saying they don't. But those…this girl needs her daddy. I don't care how old you get; you still need your dad and I would appreciate your prayers for that. Thank you.

Hi DAB family this is Angie from Eugene OR and today I am calling for prayer request for my daughter Savannah. She has stress related IBS and colitis and terrible stomach problems. But more…worse than that she has anxiety. She's in college. She's 20 years old, she's had a pretty rough time. She lost her dad to pancreatic cancer a year ago. She was very very close to him. She lost me, her mom, to drug addiction from the age of 12 to the age of 20. So, I am now sober two years and have been in contact with her for two years by phone. I moved to the state to be by her once I was able to and things are going great now between us. We are rebuilding our relationship but because of the abandonment from me and then the death of her father this little girl has had to be extra strong, and she has suffered immensely to no fault of her own. However, she is resilient, and she just is an amazingly strong girl. So, she faces a lot of challenges at school and in college. She goes to the University of Idaho, and she has to deal with the peer pressure, the drinking, which she confines in me about. But God has brought me out of addiction and he has restored a relationship with me and her which I never believed was even impossible. I never even believed I could be where I am today. So, anyways I’m praying for her stress, I’m praying for her anxiety, I'm praying for her stomach pain. I'm about to run out of time. I love you guys. Thank you, Brian and God bless everybody. Amen. Thank…

Good morning this is Longing to be God's Delight in Pennsylvania. I'm calling in this morning for Maggie Mae who I heard a few days ago in utter despair over the illness of…it sounded like all of her family, there were children and grandchildren, and her voice was just so…so torn and with pain and…and fear and not knowing where to turn. It just broke my heart. I'm also praying for Lazarus who called in this morning. I’ve been praying for him for who was in desperate need of shoulder surgery and extreme financial straits, about to lose his apartment and in terrible pain. Lord, we just don't know where to turn. So, his advice is wise, to turn to Jesus. I want to pray from Psalm 103. Lord, we bless You, we bless You from the depths of our souls and inner being. Help us Lord not to forget Your benefits, to remember that You do forgive us. You have…have died, You sent Jesus to die for us and You do heal our diseases and redeem us from the pit. You crown us with love and mercy and satisfy us with good. I pray for Maggie Mae and her attire family and for Lazarus and for all of us that You would lift them up…lift us up, heal us, renew our Youth like the eagles. Work righteousness in us. Help us Holy Spirit to keep in Your loving arms. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi DAB this is Renee __ AKA a Kathleen in Illinois and I'm listening on the 27th today on September 27th and I heard Lazarus call in and about being in constant pain and he talked about having to take Percocet every day. That's what I…my mom had had to take that every day because of just chronic pain that she had. And…and I know it's an incredibly strong drug. And I was thinking…and you were saying you're still having pain even despite that. And, so, I just wanted you to know that I'm lifting you up in prayer. In fact, let's just pray Lord right now. Lord Jesus, I wanna lift up Lazarus to you in this chronic pain that he is experiencing and has been experiencing for quite some time. And I pray that…I just pray for healing. I pray for healing for him, just complete healing. I pray that his entire physical body would be renewed, would be raised from the…the death that it is now in, the sickness, the death, that it would be raised just like his namesake Lazarus. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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dailyaudiobible · 6 years

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10/16/2018 DAB Transcript

Jeremiah 28:1-29:32, 1 Timothy 1:1-20, Psalms 86:1-17, Proverbs 25:17

Today is the 16th day of October. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it's great to be here with you today as we prepare our hearts to take the next step forward in our journey together this year all the way through the Bible. And we're nearer the end than we were at the beginning because here we are in the middle of another month. And our step forward today will take us back to the book of Jeremiah and then when we get to the New Testament, we'll be beginning another one of Paul's letters, this one known as 1 Timothy. But we'll talk about that when we get there. First, Jeremiah 28:1-29:32. And we're reading from the New International Version this week.

Introduction to 1 Timothy:

Okay. Like I mentioned at the beginning, we will be beginning now in our New Testament reading 1 Timothy, which of course is a letter from the Apostle Paul, but it's a part of a collection of three letters from Paul known as the pastoral epistles. So, biblical scholars began debating about whether Paul wrote these letters himself or if they were letters that were written in his name beginning centuries ago. And that debate continues until today. Those favoring the view that Paul did not write these letters do so by observing church structures in the letters that were possibly developed after Paul's lifetime. And there's also a difference in language from the epistles that are unquestioned. Those favoring the traditional view that Paul wrote these letters do so because they authenticate themselves as Pauline, right? I mean, Paul identifies himself as the author and early church fathers made use of these letters. So, following the traditional view, the language differences then would be due to the fact that these are personal letters, right? So, they would have a different tone. And they were intended to be read aloud and passed around, which brings up why these letters are called the pastoral epistles. These letters are personal correspondences to two pastors - Timothy and Titus, who were directly caring for churches that were established by Paul. And these churches needed a strong leader who understood the teachings of Paul regarding the Christian life and community worship. So, we'll talk about Titus when we get to the letter that was written to him. But the first pastoral letter was written to Timothy, who was a young man who literally grew up in the shadow of the apostle Paul. We first met him in the book of Acts. His mother's name was Eunice and his grandmother's name was Lois. And they were early believers from the city of Lystra, which is now within the borders of modern-day Turkey. Paul introduced the faith to Timothy and Timothy became a loyal follower and companion of Paul. In fact, Paul called him his spiritual son and directly mentored him in the faith and into church leadership. And of course, being a protege, Timothy traveled all the time with Paul. He's mentioned by name in six of Paul's other letters. And when Paul was unable to travel for whatever reason, Timothy was his first choice to go as his representative. And thus, Timothy was often sent to serve and assist the churches. So, when this letter was written, the apostle Paul was nearing the end of his own ministry and even the end of his own life. And Timothy had become the pastor of the church in Ephesus. And it's a personal letter. It was written from a spiritual father to his son in the faith in order to offer guidance and counsel in the task that he had been assigned to. And the letters full of love. It's full of hope. And after a life fully dedicated to the service of Christ, it gives clues as to what the apostle Paul thought was most important as he’s nearing the end of his own life to transfer to the coming generation. It's the letter that is famous for teaching us to fight the good fight of faith. And so, with that, we begin. 1 Timothy chapter 1.

Commentary:

Alright. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Those words are so comforting, and they bring comfort into almost every situation that confuses us or is perplexing. So, it's not any stretch to understand why this is one of the most popular verses in the world. However, if we've ever quoted this verse to ourselves or to others and do not understand the context from which it comes, it can be surprising. I mean, Jeremiah 29:11 is indeed an affirmation of God's good plan for a future and a hope. But the whole story is far more intriguing and far more compelling for our lives than we might realize. And we read the whole story in its context today. Jerusalem had been conquered, the inhabitants were in the process of being deported to a foreign land they had never known. The Judean Hebrews had endured the crushing destruction of everything they ever knew as their life only to be uprooted and then relocated where nothing was familiar. Families had been torn apart. Many were lost in battle. And they longed for home and restoration. So, Jeremiah is in Jerusalem, right? So, the place that is being evacuated by force. And he wrote to those who were already at their destination in Babylon. And contained within the letter is where we find Jeremiah 29:11. So, had the letter been just a note, right? Just containing those two sentences found in that verse, then that's all there would be to say about it. But this was a letter and Jeremiah didn't break it up into verses and this one verse was not the complete contents of the letter. And the letter's instructions were quite disruptive. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, then you too will prosper. And the letter went on to tell the exiles that the prophets who were foretelling quick resolution to the issue were misleading them. So, Jeremiah continued. This is what the Lord says: when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. So, even though those who had been exiled longed for some sort of miracle, miraculous resolution, one that would have them back in Jerusalem rebuilding, God told them that it was going to take some time. Seventy years to be specific. So, rather than being obstinate and bitter during the next seventy years they were to establish roots. Rather than isolating and resisting, they were to thrive where they were until God brought them back. So, I hear Jeremiah 29:11 quoted all of the time. You probably do too. Because it assures us that God is in control and that his plan is for us to experience good hope for the future. However, the full context of Jeremiah's letter isn't about the immediate accomplishment of an objective or the quick resolution of a difficult season. Instead, the message is that we must thrive where we are while we wait, which is essentially the backdrop of life on earth as we know it. As we live with the expectation of the fullness of God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. So, if you're feeling like you're living a life in exile right now and maybe you've been reciting Jeremiah 29:11 to keep you going, that's great. God's promise of hope and a future are a solid foundation. However, rather than longing for the season to end…like, that's the expectation so that life can begin again, perhaps you're being given permission to thrive where you are while you wait. If we're gonna apply Jeremiah 29:11 in its context, then the context was marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. So, let's invite the Holy Spirit to reveal what that might mean in each of our lives. God certainly has plans for you. They are indeed plans for good and not disaster. We don't need just Jeremiah 29:11 to tell us that. It's, like, throughout the entire Bible. And, yes, they are plans to give us a future and a hope. It just simply might look different than we were expecting. But if we set aside our expectations and put all of our hope- which is our word for this year- if we put all of our hope and trust fully in the goodness of God, then there's not something out there that we don't feel that we don't have. So, when we appreciate with gratitude what God is giving us and will continue to give us as we move forward, then we can thrive wherever we are for as long as it takes.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. Patience is a difficult thing, especially when it's been a very long time, especially when there's no end in sight. These kinds of seasons, they just grind us down until we feel like we've been ground into powder. It's very, very difficult as You understand and as You know. But as all of the edges get rubbed away over these seasons, we do begin to realize there is no other hope but You and that You actually are sustaining us. But we overlaid a lot of expectations on top of what that's supposed to look like. And a lot of that has to do with our own personal comfort. We may hate our lot in life. We may hate our job and forget to be grateful for the fact that You have given us this way to provide for our lives. I mean, we can apply this to just about everything in our lives. And so, we're setting aside our expectations. We're reaching our arms to You as a child, reaching up like a toddler asking You to pick us up, carry us, wrap us in Your arms, pat us on the back, tell us what we need to hear. I've got You. Everything is going to be okay. And we rest in that, Father. And we will thrive where we are because thriving from within is a choice. No one can take that from us. We can just give it away. We can thrive where we are and as we wait. Come Holy Spirit. Help us to realize this and to implement this into today and every day. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Of course, I say that every day, so check in. Stay connected.

Pray for your brothers and sisters at the prayer wall. Just stay dialed in as we continue our journey forward and push into the latter part of the year. Before you know it, we'll be staring at the very end of the year. It just happens that quickly. So, stay connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. You can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174. And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi there, this is Judith from Reading in the United Kingdom. It’s the 12th of October. I’m calling with a few things I’ve thought of but I haven’t called in to say. Firstly, Bobby or Bonnie, I’m not sure which it was, from Pennsylvania a while ago called in to say she finished her job and had decided to stay home with her son. And just wanted to call to say I stay at home too with my 13 month old son and I was really encouraged to hear that that’s what you are doing too and trusting that God’s blessing you in that and I wanted you to know that I think that’s a great thing and I think that really honors God, what you’ve chosen to do. And also, been really blessed to hear a couple other people calling from the United Kingdom, really love to hear that. There was a girl, a long time ago now, I think a few months ago, ringing about a keloid scar that you had. And I’ve been thinking of you too and I’ll keep praying for you and really trusting that the Lord would give you we give you new perspective on that and this would be a time when He really changes your attitude and understanding of what’s beautiful to Him and how you can overcome these things that distract us and that you would find a new confidence that comes from Him and not just from the way you look, which I know is really hard. So, trusting that He’s with you in that. And thank you for calling. And been really blessed just to hear the way people…some of the women who call in about your husbands, you’re speaking about your husband’s with such respect and I really find that a blessing and an encouragement and trusting that God honors you in that because that’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing, praying for your husband’s. So, yeah, really loving hearing you guys. I never used to listen to the prayer requests but I’m really…

Hi, it’s Markoma, calling from down under down under, which is Hobart Tasmania. I’ve been a listener for two years and I have really enjoyed the program. It has really enriched my life. I listen every single day. I’ve worked for the last 4 ½ years in the prison service, as a correctional officer and recently have changed into probation and parole. There’s about one men and women on my caseload. I also am a mother of two sons and both are kind of haphazardly attending church without really making a commitment. So, prayers for them would be great. I enjoy hearing your calls and I do pray for you and thank you so much Brian and your family for the sacrifice with this amazing program. Okay. See ya.

Yes, hi Daily Audio Bible. I just wish to come to you in prayer and pray for my friend Matthew who lives in New Zealand. And Lord I just like to thank You for him Lord and ask Your blessing upon him. Lord I just pray Lord that You just __ Lord and just really…just touch his heart Lord. And Lord but wherever he goes Lord and as he’s working Lord in the Bakery place Lord, I just pray Lord that You just help him to be…be an angel to You Lord and be an angel to Your light Lord. And Lord I just thank You Lord that You just fill him up today Lord and Lord I just really thank You Lord that…for him Lord and just ask Your blessing upon him now in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. You know, it’s really great to just be here with you and talk to you guys in prayer __. This is Matthew from Australia. And it’s now the 13th of the 10th and it’s 12:04 PM. So, I’d just like to thank Brian and all the family for being here and organizing this Daily Audio Bible podcast. You know __, I got my friend Matthew into reading…ya…listening to the Audio Bible here and he’s loved it ever since. It’s really, really great too…that you guys are still doing this ministry. Keep up the good work. I’ll call again soon. Thank you, bye-bye.

Hi Audio Bible family, my name is Kenisha out of Atlanta. I’m new…fairly new…to the Audio Bible. It has done my heart such pleasure to, you know, here all those words of encouragement from the prayer line and everything with you guys. And I just wanted to let you know that I do pray for a lot of you. I can’t remember the names of the people, but a lot of the…I do pray for each and every last one of you. I’m calling today for prayer for me and by daughter. I’m not sure what’s going on. She’s lost her way and I just can’t reach her. She’s 23 and her name is Alexis. And I don’t know. She went to school and she came back this different child or this different person. I’m just not used to her and I can’t reach her. And my heart is breaking right now because I just…I don’t know how to help her anymore. I just don’t and I’m at my breaking point with her. She’s just so disrespectful and so rude. I tried to teach her and told her to read the book of Proverbs and I just don’t know anymore. Could you just please pray for me and my family? Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Bye.

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