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In Jonah 1:4, God sends a storm upon Jonah and the ship that carries him to Tarshish. Is this how God normally behaves? It’s a practical question that all of us face in life from time to time.

My wife and I are experiencing some difficulties in life right now. Quite often, it feels like we are in a storm, being buffeted by wind and waves. We sometimes have trouble keeping our heads above water.

My wife mentioned our struggles to someone this week, and they sent an email to her saying that the reason we are facing this storm is because we are sinning. The person who wrote the email said that God sent these troubles upon us because our views about church and about the LGBT community were sinful. We have been deceived by Satan, the email said, and so this is why God is punishing us with the storms of life.

People read in the Bible that Jonah disobeys God and so God sends a storm. Then when people see others facing storms in life, they says, “Oh, well, it must be because you are disobeying God.”

Is that really how God works? Does God send storms into our lives to punish us? If you sin, will God send disasters into your life to punish you? Does God send sickness, disease, famines, floods, earthquakes, or the loss of jobs, income, health, or even the death of a family member? Is this what God does?

Well, lots of people think so, and it is because of verses in the Bible like Jonah 1:4 that they think so. This is the verse we are looking at today, and by doing so we will hope to answer some of these questions.

The Text of Jonah 1:4

But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.

In this discussion of Jonah 1:4 we look at:

The description of the great storm in Jonah 1:4
Why some people think God sends storms upon sinners
Why Jesus reveals that God does not send storms to punish sinners
If God does not punish sin with storms of destruction, then what is going on in Jonah 1;4?
A brief preview and overview of the message in the book of Jonah

Resources:

While you wait for my book on the violence of God to come out, below are some additional resources that I have found helpful, and you might too…

Redeeming God Discipleship Area
Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes
Is God to Blame? by Greg Boyd
The Crucifixion of the Warrior God by Greg Boyd
Is God a Moral Monster? by Paul Copan
God’s Word in Human Words by Kenton Sparks
The Bible Made Impossible by Christian Smith
Disturbing Divine Behavior by Eric Seibert
The Human Faces of God by Thom Stark
Reading the Bible Again For the First Time by Markus Borg

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

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Do you like learning about the Bible online?

Do you like learning about Scripture and theology through my podcast? If so, then you will also love my online courses. They all have MP3 audio downloads, PDF transcripts, quizzes, and a comment section for questions and interaction with other students.

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Outrageous Scandalous Grace – the only kind there is

By Jeremy Myers

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Grace is the key to everything.

And I am not referring to the week-kneed, limp, powerless, feeble grace that you find in most Christian theology today, but the shocking, outrageous, scandalous, indiscriminate, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite grace which Jesus exhibited during His life.

The only people who really object to this kind of grace are the religious people who think that their behavior merits them some sort of special privilege or position with God and are offended that the so-called “sinners” are put on equal footing with them before God. But that is exactly what God’s grace does.

By grace, God loves all, forgives all, and accepts all, with no conditions, no strings attached, no fine print, no qualifications, no limits, and no ongoing requirements.

The grace of God is so outlandish and foreign to every human way of thinking and living, I believe that it is absolutely impossible for any human being to place too much emphasis on grace.

But what is grace?

Grace is often defined as God’s unmerited favor, or, in everyday terminology, God giving us something good that we do not deserve.

Grace is different from mercy, which could be defined as God not giving us something bad that we do deserve.

I do not think that there is too much disagreement in many Christian circles on the definition of grace, and so I do not want to spend too much time trying to defend a specific definition of grace.

What we do see, however, is that certain groups try to limit, restrict, or modify grace so that it is not as shocking or scandalous as it first appears.

The Crucifixion was not a Condition of Grace

One way that many use to limit the extent and effectiveness of grace is to connect it with the crucifixion of Jesus. It is not uncommon to hear sermons or read books where it is claimed that it is only because Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world that God can now show grace toward people.

If Jesus had not died, we are told, then God could not have extended His grace toward sinners.

But once again, such an idea strips grace of all its meaning and power.

Grace, by definition, is unmerited.

There is nothing that can be done (or not done) to earn or merit or deserve grace. If God could not extend grace unless someone died (whether it was us or Jesus), then God’s grace is not grace at all, but is a transaction.

The extension of God’s grace toward humanity was not preconditioned upon the death of Jesus on the cross. Grace does not demand payment in any way, shape, or form. Grace is not the act of God paying the debt of sin by sacrificing His own Son on the cross as our substitute. Grace has always been extended by God simply on the basis of His love.

Grace would still be extended even if Jesus never died on the cross.

The death of Jesus on the cross was because of God’s grace; not the grounds for it.

It is this fundamental flaw in modern theology’s understanding of grace that has caused so much trouble in many other areas of theology as well. But once we see that God gives grace for no other reason than because God is gracious, it is only then that we begin to understand the true nature of grace.

So don’t limit God’s grace by thinking that God could only extend it by sacrificing Jesus to pay the debt of our sin. That’s not grace.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Jonah 1:3 –Slapping God in the Face

By Jeremy Myers

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I published a post this week on the blog about how a true understanding of grace allows you to just go sin all you want. If that is really what you want.

I am going to write more about that in the coming weeks, but I received several emails from readers who wanted to know if I meant intentional sin as well.

If a person intentionally and knowingly sins, will God still love them, forgive them, accept them, and keep them in His family?

The answer is yes. There is no sin, intentional or unintentional, which will cause God to stop loving you and forgiving you. This is a big theme in a lot of my writings and teachings. I teach a lot more about this in my course, The Gospel According to Scripture, but I’m bringing it up now because in the verse we are looking at today from Jonah, we see Jonah commit a pretty big sin. And he does it intentionally.

Jonah pretty much slaps God in the face. He spits in God’s face. To put it more crudely, Jonah gives God the finger. You can’t get much worse or much more intentional than that. And we will see in future episodes how God responds. If you feel like you have sinned pretty badly, then make sure you keep listening to the podcast because you will be both challenged and encouraged.

Speaking of which, are you enjoying this podcast? If so, do me a favor. Can you invite someone else to listen to it? Send them an email. Tweet about it. Put a post on Facebook. If you have a blog, write a blog post about it. You can use the sharing buttons above to help with this.

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I very often wonder if publishing these podcasts is worth it. They take a lot of time to prepare, record, edit, and publish, and since I have a full time job, a wife, three kids, and am trying to write books, prepare courses, and run my blog in there as well, I sometimes wonder if this Podcast is worth the effort. So if you think it is, help me increase the number of people who listen to it by inviting others to listen to it as well. So if you enjoy this podcast and want me to keep them coming, invite other people through email, Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or just word of mouth to subscribe as well. Thanks!

The Text of Jonah 1:3

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

In this discussion of Jonah 1:3 we look at:

What it means for Jonah to flee to Tarshish instead of go to Nineveh
The significance of the term “the presence of the Lord”
What the story is telling us by the repeated use of the word “down”

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

God’s Offer of Eternal Life is not Easy to Believe

By Jeremy Myers

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God’s offer of eternal life is simple … but it is not easy to believe.

The simple offer of eternal life in the Gospel is that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Simple, right?

But not easy to believe.

It is not easy to believe that God’s free gift of eternal life is by grace from first to last.

True grace is something completely foreign to the way life works or to the way most people think. Humans are unaccustomed to grace. We are told almost from birth that nothing is ever free, that there is always a hidden catch, and that we should always read the fine print.

So when the gospel is presented to us and we are told that eternal life is the absolutely free gift of God to anyone who receives it by faith in Jesus, and that there is nothing we need to do or even can do to earn it or keep it, most people start a get a little suspicious.

They start to look for the fine print.

They start to search for the catch.

The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

So we go looking for the fine print, the footnotes, or the hidden conditions.

Sadly, there are far too many Christians who are more than willing to provide the fine print and explain the catch.

“Oh yes,” they say. “Eternal life is free, but you have to love God in return and obey what He says in Scripture in order to prove you have it.”

Others say, “Well, you need to understand, if you truly are a Christian, your life will have the good works to back up your claim. If you don’t have the good works, then this means you are not truly a Christian.”

Then there is this argument: “Eternal life is free, but before you can receive it, you have to fix up your life, seek after God, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, prepare your heart for faith, and pray the sinner’s prayer.”

To all these sorts of teachings, and countless similar ideas, the gospel in Scripture says “No! Eternal life is a free gift of God.”

Eternal life is by God’s grace from first to last.

There are no works needed to gain eternal life, keep eternal life, or prove you have eternal life.

Eternal life does not require you to reform your life, repent of your sin, submit to the Lordship of Jesus, get baptized, seek God, or pray a prayer.

Just receive eternal life as a free gift from God by believing in Jesus for it. That’s it!

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

This is why the free offer of eternal life is a problem for most people.

It sounds too good to be true.

It sounds too radical.

It sounds like it’s taking grace too far.

Since the gospel of grace is opposite to the way the rest of life works, many people have great trouble accepting it.

So almost without fail, when people first begin to grasp the implications of the freeness of God’s grace in the offer of eternal life—that God gives eternal life to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it—they begin to ask questions.

One of the most frequent questions is this: “So if eternal life is free and all I have to do is believe in Jesus to get it, does this mean I can go sin all I want?”

A man recently posed the question to me this way, “Are you saying that I can believe in Jesus for eternal life, but I can still sleep around, and steal from people, and even murder anyone I want to, but I still get to go to heaven when I die? I don’t have to stop sinning? I don’t have to read the Bible? I don’t have to go to church?”

While many Christians would answer “No” to these questions, my answer is always, “Yes!”

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Without qualification.

Absent of all fine print, footnotes, or hidden conditions.

Yes, I know.

If I say that grace allows you to go sin all you want, you now are beginning to wonder if I am a false teacher who promotes licentious living.

You have probably heard rumors that teachers like me exist, but have rarely (if ever) encountered one in public.

Pastors often preach against “those grace teachers,” but few people have ever really met one.

This is because most so-called “grace teachers” still include a lot of “ifs, ands, or buts” in their teachings about grace. So the true “grace teacher” is viewed as a bit of a legend, sort like leprechauns and elves.

But I have now exposed myself as one of those mythical monsters that people are warned about by their pastors. Even still, you might be thinking I do not mean what I say.

But I do.

Since grace is free, you can go sin all you want.

I will explain this idea more in future blog posts, but if you absolutely must know NOW what I mean, take my course on the gospel. It explains all this (and more) in great detail.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

How to read and teach the Apocalyptic Literature of the Bible

By Jeremy Myers

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Have you ever tried to study or teach the books of Daniel and Revelation?

If so, you know how challenging they can be. This is partly because these books are two of the “Apocalyptic” books in the Bible. The apocalyptic books of the Bible are some of the hardest to read, study, understand, and teach.

I recently read an excellent book on how to study and teach these apocalyptic sections of the Bible. It is the book Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature by Richard Taylor.

In this book, Taylor provides an excellent summary of what Apocalyptic Literature is and why it is so difficult for modern readers to understand. He then moves on to provide numerous suggestions and guidelines for studying Apocalyptic Literature and teaching it to others (e.g., p 118f). Taylor also includes several warnings about the pitfalls that many ancient and modern Christians have fallen into when they study and teach these difficult portions of the Bible (p. 130f).

I found this book to be one of the best introductory books I have read on Apocalyptic Literature in the Bible, and highly recommend it for anybody who wants to study, teach, or preach through any of the Apocalyptic books or sections of the Bible. This is especially true if you plan on teaching the book of Daniel. I say this because the Taylor uses the book of Daniel to provide practical examples of how to read and teach Apocalyptic Literature. As such, this book almost serves as a good mini commentary on Daniel.

Of course, if you are studying Revelation, this book by Taylor will be helpful too, but there are not nearly as many tips or suggestions on Revelation as there are on Daniel. This is probably the only downfall to Taylor’s book, since Revelation tends to be more difficult to read and understand than Daniel. But I have previously provided some tips on reading Revelation, and there is another book in the series which focuses specifically on Revelation.

So, do you want to study and teach Daniel and other apocalyptic books of the Bible? Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature by Richard Taylor will lead you in the right direction.

How much does a person need to know to receive eternal life?

By Jeremy Myers

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How much does a person need to know to receive eternal life? The answer is that it depends on the person! Yes, there is a minimum, but no one will ever believe in Jesus for eternal life if all they know is the minimum. So how much should you share? How much must a person believe? When you present the gospel, what do you need to say?

One of the greatest problems in presenting the gospel today is that people confuse “Preparation” gospel truths with “Purification” gospel truths. Then they confuse all these various truths with the one, simple “Presentation” truth of the gospel. With all this confusion, the gospel gets pretty muddied.

Let me provide you with some suggestions for clarifying your gospel presentation… I go into great detail on all of this in my course on the Gospel, but let me briefly explain for you here.

The 1 Gospel Presentation Truth

The one, central gospel truth this:

Jesus gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it.

That’s it.

I wrote more about this truth in this post: The Gospel Invitation

The problem with this one presentation truth, however, is that if this is all a person hears about the Gospel, they are unlikely to believe in Jesus. If they know nothing about God, Jesus, their own separation from God, or anything else, why would they believe in Jesus for eternal life?

This is where the gospel preparation truths come in.

7 Gospel Preparation Truths

There are likely hundreds (maybe thousands) of truths in the gospel which help prepare a person to believe in Jesus for eternal life. A person needs not know all of these in order to believe in Jesus for eternal life, but most people will need to know at least a few of them before they are ready to believe in Jesus.

I covered 7 of the more popular and persuasive gospel preparation truths in a previous post: 7 Gospel Preparation Truths.

But what happens after a person believes? Well, most Christians don’t realize this, but the gospel has more to say to a person after they believe than before. This is where the Gospel Purification Truths come into play.

7 Gospel Purification Truths

Again, much like the preparation truths, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of truths in the gospel which help Christians grow into maturity and become more like Jesus Christ.

And yes, all these truths are part of the biblical gospel.

The gospel has more to say to believers than it does to non-believers.

So here are 7 of the more helpful categories of gospel truths that a new believer might need to know in order to be sanctified and grow into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ:

Unconditional Love and Grace of God
The Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ
Repentance from Dead Works and Religion
The Indwelling Work of the Holy Spirit
The Future Resurrection and Judgments
The Bible and Other Believers
Christian Apologetics

I know that a simple list like that might not be super helpful, but again, this is partly why I created my online course on the gospel. By taking this course, you can learn more about the entire line of thought I have presented in this post, as well as more details about the 7 Categories of Purification Truths presented in the list above.

These 7 types of gospels truths will give Christians a firm foundation on which to purify their lives and become more like Jesus every day. This process is not automatic and is not guaranteed, but growing in the knowledge of these gospel truths will help a person build their lives on Jesus Christ.

But notice what happens…

When we Confuse the Gospel Truths

If you confuse purification gospel truths with the presentation truth, then you might think it is necessary for a person to repent of their sin or believe in the future judgments in order to receive eternal life. (But the Bible never teaches this.)

The same goes for a commitment to other believers, or various works of the Holy Spirit, or even having all their questions answered about the Trinity, the authority of Scripture, or the origin of the universe. But again, all these sorts of things can be discussed and studied after a person believers. They are still gospel truths, but they are purification truths, not presentation truths.

When you keep your preparation gospel truths and purification gospel truths separate from the one presentation truth, you will then be able to share the gospel clearly with others.

Want to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

Jonah 1:2 – God Calls Jonah

By Jeremy Myers

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Do you have an enemy? Maybe it was President Obama. Maybe now it is President Trump. Or maybe it’s the Islamic terrorists in Iran. Or the religious nut jobs here in the United States.

Maybe it is someone you don’t necessarily think of as an enemy, but you just can’t stand to be around them. Maybe a family member, a coworker, or a neighbor?

Anyway, imagine what you would do if God showed up in your living room later today, and said, “Hey! You know that person you just can’t stand? Well, I can’t stand them either, and I have a message of judgment I want you to tell them.”

If that happened to you, what would you do?

Well, that is exactly what happened to Jonah.

In Jonah 1:2, God calls Jonah to go preach against Nineveh. This podcast episode looks at why God said this, and concludes with a brief look at Jonah’s Jonah’s surprising response.

The Text of Jonah 1:1-3

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.”

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish …

In this discussion of Jonah 1:2 we look at:

A reminder that Jonah was a popular prophet
A bit about how evil Nineveh was
Why God wanted Jonah to preach against Nineveh
Jonah’s surprising response to God’s instructions

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Jonah 1:1 – Who Was Jonah?

By Jeremy Myers

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Do you think God would ever allow the country of Iran or Iraq to invade the United States and win? There are many people in the United States who claim that such a thing could never happen.

But what if it did? What would you think about God and how He is running the world? What would you think about the claims that some people make today about the United States being the best nation on earth and under the protection and blessing of God?

Well, surprisingly, it is exactly these sorts of questions that the book of Jonah helps answer. This is what we are discuss in this episode of the One Verse Podcast when we look at Jonah 1:1.

It is critically important as we begin our study of the book of Jonah to understand some of the historical background to the book. If you do not understand the background, you will not understand the point of this story either. Once we understand this background information and what was going on in the days of Jonah, we will see that the message of the book of Jonah is quite appropriate for us today as well.

The Text of Jonah 1:1

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

In this discussion of Jonah 1:1 we look at:

When the events in the book of Jonah take place
When the book of Jonah was written
Who wrote the book of Jonah
Why the book of Jonah was written
The background story of Jonah

Resources:

Downloadable Podcast Resources

Those who are part of my online discipleship group may download the MP3 audio file for this podcast and view the podcast transcript below.

You must join a discipleship group or login to download the MP3 and view the transcript.

Thanks for visiting this page ... but this page is for Discipleship Group members.

If you are already part of a Faith, Hope, or Love Discipleship Group,
Login here.

If you are part of the free "Grace" Discipleship group, you will need to
Upgrade your Membership to one of the paid groups.

If you are not part of any group, you may learn about the various groups and their benefits here:
Join Us Today.

Do you like learning about the Bible online?

If you want to deepen your relationship with God and better understand Scripture, take one (or all) of these courses. They are great for personal study or for a small group Bible study.

You can see the list of available courses here, and if you join the Discipleship group, you can take all the courses at no additional cost. Go here to learn more and join now.

Is Genesis History?

By Jeremy Myers

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I was given access to preview the documentary, Is Genesis History? It is a movie which provides positive, evidence-based arguments for the reliability of the Bible as history. It is showing on February 23 in select theaters, and you can learn more here.

No matter what you believe about the Bible or about account of Creation and the Flood, this is a great movie for you to watch. If you believe that much of the Bible is fiction, this documentary will challenge you to consider some facts you might not have encountered before. If you believe the Bible is historically accurate, then this movie will provide you with further evidence to support your view.

Is the Bible True? Of course!

As for myself, I believe the Bible is 100% accurate and true, but (if you have read my blog or listened to my podcast for a while), I have a somewhat different approach to this belief than is commonly taught. For example, in my One Verse Podcast episodes on Genesis 1, I go to great length to show how this creation account was not written to provide a scientifically accurate account of how the world began, and so it is a mistake to read it that way. But this doesn’t mean Genesis 1 is in error. Far from it! Instead, when we understand the point that the author is making, Genesis 1 becomes “more true” than ever before! The critical truths that Genesis 1 is actually teaching are way more important than just to provide an historical account of how the world began.

Is Genesis History?

Anyway … this is not really the point of the documentary, “Is Genesis History?” The point of this documentary is more focused on events in the Bible like the flood account of Genesis 6-8. And on this event, I agree that what we have in the Bible is historically accurate.

Now, personally, I don’t care too much if someone reads Genesis as literal history or as literal theology. It is true either way.

What does bother me, however, is when someone rejects the historic reliability of Genesis based on “scientific evidence.” As much as I love and value science, I sometimes find that scientific evidence is based on cherry-picking scientific facts to prove a pre-determined scientific conclusion.

What about the Flood?

The flood is the perfect example. Many reject the historicity of a worldwide flood based on questionable scientific presuppositions. For example, the idea that there is not enough water on earth to cover all the mountains of the earth ignores the possibility that maybe not all the mountains of the earth were always as high as they are now, nor the oceans as deep. Scientists have pointed out that if all the mountains were thrown into the sea so that all “land” was of equal altitude, the water of the earth would cover all land by a distance of 1.7 miles. Therefore, we don’t need water high enough to cover Mount Everest, we just need some geological plate shifting so that mountains rise up and ocean floors drop.

Similar arguments can be made about where all the water came from (and where it sent), how Noah and the animals fit in the ark, and other related questions. Places like the Grand Canyon also receive a much simpler explanation than the theory (which is rapidly losing favor) that the Grand Canyon was formed over millions of years by a small trickle of water. Is that what happened? Maybe. Maybe not. But the fact that the Mount Saint Helens canyon, which is hundreds of feet deep, formed over the period of a few weeks in 1980 makes thinking people wonder about the formation of the Grand Canyon. Yes, the Grand Canyon is much deeper and larger, but the water and sediment from a worldwide flood is also much deeper with higher volume.

Look, I am not a scientist, and I don’t claim to be one. I am a theologian. In theological studies, however, I frequently encounter people who read a text of Scripture that seems difficult to them and their preconceived ideas of what should be in the Bible, and when they read these troublesome texts, they jump straight to the conclusion that best fits their current theological system. They say, “It’s an error! This is an error in the text. The Bible is wrong.”

I have found, however, the most valuable of jewels lie under the hardest of rocks. With some hard work and creative thinking, I have found reasonable explanations for nearly every troublesome text in the Bible. And some of these explanations have led me into new insights and deeper understandings of God, Scripture, Jesus, sin, salvation, and humanity, that I never would have found if I had simply gone with the flow and said, “Oh! An error!”

In Scripture and theological pursuit, those who resort too quickly to “Error in the text” often miss the deepest truths of Scripture.

So also with science. I am not “anti-scientific.” Nor am I a fundamentalist Christian. I want all people to consider all the evidence with an open mind.

Many people have been taught the theory of evolution as the method by which we got the world as we now see it. If that’s you, consider some other lines of evidence as well. Watch “Is Genesis History?” and see what you can learn.

In this documentary, Dr. Del Tackett talks to experts in geology, biology, astronomy, archaeology, the Bible and more—seeking answers to centuries-long questions surrounding the book of Genesis:

Was the universe created in six literal days?
Did humans evolve?
Were Adam and Eve real?
Was there a global flood?
What happened to the dinosaurs?

“Is Genesis History?” presents a positive, evidenced-based case for the Bible’s historical reliability.

Below is the trailer for you to get an idea of what is in this great documentary. After you watch the trailer, you can learn more about the movie and get tickets here: Is Genesis History: The Movie.

Jonah Introduction – What is God Like?

By Jeremy Myers

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This podcast episode begins a study of the Book of Jonah.

If you think you know the story of Jonah, stick around anyway. I predict you will learn some things from Jonah that you have never seen in this story before.

In this discussion of Jonah we look at:

Why you don’t know the story of Jonah
How the “big issues” of Jonah are non-issues when the story is really understood
Since Jonah is an excellent story … it must be read as a story
One central question in the book is “What is God like?”

Resources:

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The Text of Jonah 1:4

In this discussion of Jonah 1:4 we look at:

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But what is grace?

The Crucifixion was not a Condition of Grace

The Text of Jonah 1:3

In this discussion of Jonah 1:3 we look at:

Resources:

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The free offer of eternal life seems too good to be true.

It’s that simple … but it’s not easy to believe

The 1 Gospel Presentation Truth

7 Gospel Preparation Truths

7 Gospel Purification Truths

When we Confuse the Gospel Truths

The Text of Jonah 1:1-3

In this discussion of Jonah 1:2 we look at:

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The Text of Jonah 1:1

In this discussion of Jonah 1:1 we look at:

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Is the Bible True? Of course!

Is Genesis History?

What about the Flood?

In this discussion of Jonah we look at:

Resources:

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