Truth Be Told

Barna Group (Savannah Kimberlin) Interview: The State of Faith in America and What We Can Do About It

What is the state of faith in America? Why are young people leaving the church? Can we, as individuals, make any kind of difference in our churches? How do we help the church in its mission to expand through the preaching of the Gospel, and maintain through the care of the people when we don't influence the organizational level?

These are all questions I discuss with Director of Research Analytics, Savannah Kimberlin of the Barna Group to help equip us to deal with the problems facing followers of Jesus Christ.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Barna Website: https://www.barna.com/ 

Does God Hate Animals?

Does God's placement of animals below humans in His creation, and His command for animal sacrifice in the Old Testament mean that God doesn't care about animals? In today's episode I respond to an animal rights activist's frustration at these thoughts on Christianity shared by many who believe Christian values don't include animal life. 

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Apologetics For the Feast of Tabernacles

The Feast of Tabernacles is a celebration commanded by God in Leviticus 23. Some may have never heard of it, some may know a lot about the historicity of the days but not see them as personally relevant, and some may actively keep the Feast of Tabernacles (along with God's other commanded observances). In this episode I will make the case, from scripture, that the Feast of Tabernacles is not something "done away with," and is an observance that we should still keep today. The points I will use are as follows:

 

1. The Feast of Tabernacles is a command of God and should, therefore, be looked at closely to see who the command goes out to.
2. The Feast of Tabernacles was a time planned out from the beginning of creation.
3. The Feast of Tabernacles is not strictly a Jewish holiday, despite the Jews being included in the original command.
4. The Feast of Tabernacles was kept by Jesus Christ and the Apostles (which only adds to the seriousness with which we should consider whether or not we should do it).
5. The Feast of Tabernacles was continued to be observed by Christians after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
6. The Feast of Tabernacles will one day be celebrated by all nations.

I'm really excited about the thoroughness of this episode and I hope that, if you don't keep the Feast, this has, at the very least given you something interesting to think about and might even convince you that it's something worth looking into more. If you already keep the Feast of Tabernacles, I hope this offers you a resource to, not only solidify this for yourself, but also explain it to others when they ask. Enjoy!

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Study of Love: Love Is Not Proud

Paul follows "love does not boast" with the phrase, "love is not proud." Just like Jesus Christ in His ministry, the Apostle Paul shows us an elevation idea. Not only do we have to be careful in our outward actions, but also in our inward thoughts and feelings as, boasting is the external expression of pride.

Pride leaves no room for love of others, love of God, or appropriate love of self, so Paul leaves no room for the love of pride in his description of the type of love a Christian is called to.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

The Current, Former Things

The Christian life is full of duality as we struggle to live like we are more and more a part of the life we are looking forward to in God's Kingdom, while still currently living as human beings in this world with all of its pressures and stresses and commitments. How do we reconcile this split reality? 

In this episode we look at how Christ dealt with the things listed in Revelation 21:4 that will be "former things" in God's Kingdom. Christ was fully Man and fully God in His walk on Earth and He was able to live a perfect life without feeling torn between the two realities He was a part of. Let's hope we can do the same!

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

The Enemy‘s Playbook

Every single person called by God needs to wake up to the fact that we are called into the middle of spiritual warfare. Those who have gone before us realized this truth, understood that they were what was being fought over, and comprehended that they were called to take an active part in fighting against the spiritual forces against them. 

Satan the devil and all those who fight with him are a malicious and organized system designed for our destruction and they have perfected their style of warfare over the thousands of years of human history. 

Fortunately for us, they have continued to attack humankind in the same way time and time again because it has continued to work for them. While we have to be careful to guard against these attacks, record of these attempts on humanity have been recorded in the Bible for us so that we can learn the enemy's movements, know where they'll attack, and fight against them more efficiently. 

Today we look inside the enemy's playbook to see the three places, that also happen to be human weaknesses, where Satan and his army will continue to attack so we can become better members of the army of the Living God, and fight on until death or the Kingdom comes.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rocks Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Faithful Thomas

In this episode we look into the life of the Apostle Thomas and attempt to go through a process of:

1. Not accepting something just because someone says it or says it often

2. Reading the text for ourselves

3. Applying context (cultural, historical, literary) to the scripture we look at

 

that can be used to dispel all kinds of presuppositions we have about the Bible so that we can study more effectively and begin to think more critically about the text of scripture. Even if you already know all of the information I present here about the Apostle Thomas (unfairly named Doubting Thomas, from my perspective), the structure presented should be something you can take with you throughout all studies of the biblical text and all statements made by others that you'd like the Bible to weigh in on.

Hapax Legomena

Often, speakers at churches, conferences, or just in conversation will give expositions about certain words found within the Bible. A common tactic, is to do a brief word study and, to add credence to the fact that their topic is important, announce the number of times the word they've chosen as their topic appears in the Bible. The inference, if speakers and listeners are not careful, that can be taken away from this, is that the more often a word appears in the text of scripture, the more important it is to the section of scripture, to the Bible as a whole, or to your very life.

There is, however, a term used by literary analysts, borrowed from the Greek called Hapax Legomena that literally means "used only once." This can be once in a section, once in a collection of works, or once across all of literature depending on the context. The Bible has 1,086 true Hapax Legomena, meaning words that are only found once in the entirety of the Bible. Are these words less important than all the rest? Can we ignore them? Or, is all scripture God-breathed? 

While the usage of word count can be interesting and not intended to cause harm, it might lead us to unintentionally be cavalier in what we deem important or non-important, strictly based on quantity of times. Today we'll look at why frequency of use does not always equate to level of importance and some oversights we all might be guilty of in our speaking, hearing, and study, examples of Hapax Legomena, and a call to caution as we all go forward in our studies.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

O King, Live Forever

When Daniel says the words, "O King, live forever," to king Darius of the Persian empire, it should cause us to ask ourselves some questions. Why would Daniel say this to a national enemy? Was it just a phrase or a nicety meant to pacify a ruler, or did Daniel mean what he said?

With the geopolitical landscape being a hotbed of disagreement and fuming frustration, and the world itself becoming increasingly more divided along various lines that sometimes even overlap, we could look at nearly anyone on Earth as an enemy to us in something if we desired to. We may find ourselves angry with world leaders, angry with people who support them, angry with certain stances taken by people we believed to be friends - but do we hold fast to a true and real love that we're supposed to have for all men, including our worst enemies? On the flip side, do we love everyone as the world understands love by accepting all evil that comes along with individual rulers or people we come in contact with? 

 

What can we learn from Daniel's example when he looks his oppressors and would-be killers dead in the eyes, asks them to repent of their sins, speaks truth to his own disadvantage and harm, and unashamedly continues doing right even when it defies them to their faces, but then simultaneously sees them with real, Godly love and says the words, "O King, live forever."? 

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Have You Ever Used This Bible Verse Out of Context?

This episode is a verse by verse study of Psalm 46 culminating in an evaluation of Psalm 46:10, which is a so commonly used out of context. Odds are you have heard or seen someone use this verse out of context or you have even used it out of context yourself! Join us as we take a brief look at what this Psalmist is saying throughout this Psalm, what context we SHOULD read verse 10 in, why it's important to not take sections of scripture out of context, and why we might be tempted to. 

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Music: Pop-Rock Beautiful By Twisterium

Logo: Matt Hernandez