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Jonah 2:7-8 – Is your theology idolatry?

By Jeremy Myers
4 Comments

Jonah 2:7-8 – Is your theology idolatry?
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/327076228-redeeminggod-79-jonah-27-8-is-your-theology-idolatry.mp3

Do you think that theology can be an idol?

That is, do you think that we sometimes allow our study of God, or even what we think we know about God, to get in the way of actually worshiping and obeying God? In other words, do you think we Christians ever make our theology of God more important than God Himself?

Is it possible for our theology to become idolatry?

That is what we will discuss today as we look at Jonah 2:7-8.

Jonah 2:7-8 Idolatry

The Text of Jonah 2:7-8

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy.

In this discussion of Jonah 2:7-8 we look at:

  • Why Jonah 2:7 repeats the central thought from Jonah 2:4
  • Why Jonah 2:8 is a reference to the sailors from Jonah 1
  • Why the best translation of Jonah 2:8b is “neglect their shame”
  • If everything Jonah says about the sailors is wrong, and instead points to himself, what about the first line of Jonah 2:8? Is that also a statement about Jonah? Does Jonah worship vain idols?

Resources:

  • Redeeming God Discipleship Area
  • Do Christians Worship a False God? (Facebook post)
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

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.

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Do you like learning about the Bible online?

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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 is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: honor, honor and shame, idol worship, idolatry, Jonah 2:7-8, One Verse Podcast, theology

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Jonah 1:10-12 – Jonah Teaches Terrible Theology

By Jeremy Myers
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Jonah 1:10-12 – Jonah Teaches Terrible Theology
http://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/314492829-redeeminggod-71-jonah-110-12-jonah-teaches-terrible-theology.mp3

Jonah 1:10-12Have you ever taught anyone some bad theology? I have. Sometimes I go back to look through the sermons I preached when I was a pastor fifteen years ago, and I cringe at some of the things I said back then. Sometimes I wonder if fifteen years from now I will cringe at some of the stuff I teach today…

But I never purposefully taught anything wrong. I think most Bible teachers try their hardest to accurately present the truth of Scripture to others.

But in Jonah 1:10-12, we see that in response to some questions from the sailors, Jonah teaches them some very bad theology about God. Furthermore, I am convinced that Jonah knew for a fact that what he was teaching them was wrong.

So that raises the question … “Why would Jonah teach such terrible theology?” This is what we will see in Jonah 1:10-12. We will see what Jonah taught that was so wrong, and we also begin to develop a theory about why Jonah taught such terrible theology, even though he knew it was wrong.

We will also see that we might be teaching the same sort of terrible theology today. Listen to the episode to find out!

The Text of Jonah 1:10-12

Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.

And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

In this discussion of Jonah 1:10-12 we look at:

  • The additional questions from the sailors
  • The additional answers from Jonah
  • Why Jonah’s answer in 1:12 is terrible theology
  • Why we Christians often give the exact same answer to the world today

Resources:

  • Redeeming God Discipleship Area
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

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.

Membership-become-a-member

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.

Membership-become-a-member


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.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture Bible & Theology Topics: death of Jesus, Easter, human sacrifice, Jonah 1:10-12, sin, theology

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Theology is Boring?

By Jeremy Myers
19 Comments

Theology is Boring?

One of the greatest tragedies in the church today is that so many people think theology is boring.

I have even encountered people who think that “theology” is a Christian curse word. They seem to think that one can either have Christian love or Christian theology, but not both.

What they fail to realize is that this idea itself is a theological belief, and a sadly mistaken one at that. It’s just poor theology to think that Christian love and Christian theology cannot co-exist. I am convinced that true Christian theology, when rightly taught and understood, will lead to Christian love.

The foundation of Christian love IS Christian theology.

If someone wants to reject Christian theology as dry, dusty, boring, and irrelevant for modern life, they should at least make some effort to learn what it is they are rejecting before they reject it. I find that most people who reject theology as irrelevant have never really taken the time to learn any real theology.

The emphasis there is on “real.”

boring theologyLots of people think they know what Christian theology is, when in reality, they only know some popularized, week-kneed, insipid form of theology that does not reflect real Christianity at all. Of course they’re bored, if this is what they think real theology is!

One of my favorite theologians is Dorothy Sayers, and in her book Letters to a Diminished Church, she perfectly summarizes this popularized (but completely false) version of Christian theology as follows:

Q: What does the church think of God the Father?
A: He is omnipotent and holy. He created the world and imposed on man conditions impossible of fulfillment; he is very angry if these are not carried out. He sometimes interferes by means of arbitrary judgments and miracles, distributed with a good deal of favoritism. He likes to be truckled to and is always ready to pounce on anyone who trips up over a difficulty in the law or is having a bit of fun. He is rather like a dictator, only larger and more arbitrary.

Q: What does the Church think of God the Son?
A: He is in some way to be identified with Jesus of Nazareth. It was not His fault that the world was made like this, and, unlike God the Father, He is friendly to man and did His best to reconcile man to God (see Atonement). He has a good deal of influence with God, and if you want anything done, it is best to apply to Him.

Q: What does the Church think of God the Holy Ghost?
A: I don’t know exactly. He was never seen or heard of till [Pentecost]. There is a sin against Him which damns you forever, but nobody knows what it is.

Q: What is the doctrine of the Trinity?
A: The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible. Something put in by theologians to make it more difficult—nothing to do with daily life or ethics.

Q: What was Jesus Christ like in real life?
A: He was a good man—so good as to be called the Son of God. He is to be identified in some way with God the Son (q.v.). He was meek and mild and preached a simple religion of love and pacifism. He had no sense of humor. Anything in the Bible that suggests another side to His character must be an interpolation, or a paradox invented by G. K. Chesterton. If we try to live like Him, God the Father will let us off being damned hereafter and only have us tortured in this life instead.

Q: What is meant by the Atonement?
A: God wanted to damn everybody, but His vindictive sadism was sated by the crucifixion of His own Son, who was quite innocent, and therefore a particularly attractive victim. He now only damns people who don’t follow Christ or who never heard of Him.

Q: What does the Church think of sex?
A: God made it necessary to the machinery of the world, and tolerates it, provided the parties (a) are married, and (b) get no pleasure out of it.

Q: What does the Church call Sin?
A: Sex (otherwise than as excepted above); getting drunk; saying “damn”; murder, and cruelty to dumb animals; not going to church; most kinds of amusement. “Original sin” means that anything we enjoy doing is wrong.

Q: What is faith?
A: Resolutely shutting your eyes to scientific fact.

Q: What is the human intellect?
A: A barrier to faith.

Q: What are the seven Christian virtues?
A: Respectability; childishness; mental timidity; dullness; sentimentality; censoriousness; and depression of spirits.

Q: Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?
A: No fear!

As I teach and write about Scripture and theology, I have discovered that the above descriptions perfectly represent the theology of many Christians.

When I teach about Genesis 1–2 and science, people get upset that I am seeking to understand these passages in a way other than the one endorsed by the Creation Science Institute (which really isn’t science at all…)

When I write in my book The Atonement of God that God was not angry about sin, and did not need Jesus to die so that we could be forgiven, people get upset that I am presenting a God who looks and acts just like Jesus Christ instead of like a Hitlerian Zeus.

When I write about sexual innuendos in the Bible, I get nasty emails from people about how I have succumbed to the sexualized culture of modern America. Don’t I know that sex if of the devil except in the case of procreation?

Anyway … one of the early goals of my writing and blogging was to “Bring Scripture and Theology to Life.” This had a double meaning: I not only seek to teach Scripture and Theology in a lively way, but also so that people learned how Scripture and Theology affected their lives today.

I hope I am accomplishing this through my blogging, my books, and my podcast. Very soon I will be adding some theology courses on my blog as well … Stay tuned for more details!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, love, theology

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2015 in Review (and a look forward to 2016)

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

2015 in Review (and a look forward to 2016)

Thank you for joining with me in this past year on RedeemingGod.com. It has been quite a year, and you helped make it happen.

I am sharing the following post, not to boast about what I have accomplished this past year, but to boast about you and how thankful I am for how you read my blog, buy my books, and listen to my podcasts.

You have been a huge blessing and encouragement to me this past year. Thank you!
2015 in Review

2015 in Review

The year began with the publication of two books, Dying to Religion and Empire (how we can break free from the shackles of religion and politics), and The Re-Justification of God (a study on Romans 9). That second book was one of my best-selling books in 2015.

This past year also saw the conclusion of my previous blog and the launching of this one. My previous website was at TillHeComes.org, and had been my website for about 15 years. But I wanted to rebrand and relaunch my blog with a title that better explained what my writing was about. So in mid-March, I launched RedeemingGod.com. Since that time, my new blog has received over 1.6 million page views and has been read by people in almost every country of the world.

In 2015, I also wrote my 2000th post, and received my 25,000th comment. So thank you for reading and commenting! Though I can no longer respond to every comment the way I used to, I do read them all.

As part of the relaunch of my blog, I started some email courses which people can take for free. I intended to get nine up and running this past year, but as of now, only four have been completed. These are emails that get sent once or twice a week for a couple months on a particular topic. Right now, the available email courses are: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Getting to Know Your Neighbors, How to help homeless people, and a study on the Unpardonable Sin.

PodcastingThen in the fall of 2015 I decided to launch two podcasts. The first is the One Verse podcast. This is a weekly 30-minute study of Scripture from a non-religious perspective. Yesterday’s episode, for example, looked at Genesis 1:28-31 in which we saw that the very first instruction God gave to us is that we have sex. You have probably never heard that taught from a pulpit before! Over 300 people listen to this podcast every week.

The Theology.fm podcast is a bi-weekly podcast in which I share with you some of the Bible teachers, pastors, and podcasters that have influenced me and my thinking about Scripture and theology. Eventually I want to include some interviews in this podcast as well.

Near the end of the year, I sent out a private email to people who subscribe to my newsletter and asked them to participate in a short 7-question survey about the future of my blog. If you missed out on taking that survey, it was sent out to all newsletter subscribers, so if you are a subscriber, go check your email from December 14. If you are not an email subscriber … WHAT? You’re not an email subscriber? Well, you missed out on the survey, but you can make sure you don’t miss out on such things in the future. Go take care of that now.

The results of that survey will be shared in the early part of 2016. So far, the responses have been encouraging, and will help guide what I do in 2016.

A Look Ahead to 2016

2016 goalsPeople want me to continue writing the blog, and a large number of people have asked for me to teach some online courses. So this is one of my major goals in 2016. I plan on beginning with a course on the gospel, with a special emphasis on the relationship between faith and works. So look for this course to begin sometime (hopefully) in January.

I will also be continuing my Podcasts. With the One Verse podcast, I plan to teach through Genesis 5 and then move up to John 1 and John 20, before looking at Revelation 5 and Revelation 20–22. The reason for this strange series of chapters is because these 10 chapters provide the big picture overview of the entire Bible. And don’t worry. Though it took me 21 episodes to teach through Genesis 1, I believe that I will be going quicker through these other 9 chapters. But … we’ll see.

I also plan to publish several books in 2016. First, I want to republish my book on the Unpardonable Sin. This was one of the first books I ever wrote, and my thinking on sin and forgiveness have changed quite a bit since that book was published. So I want to incorporate my new ideas into that book so that people can gain a greater understanding of sin, forgiveness, and the infinite love of God.

publish booksThen I plan on publishing 4 more books in 2016 as well. If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry… all four are already written. They just need to compiled, edited, typeset, and published. As a preview, these books will be on (1) Church and pastoral Leadership, (2) How your church can incorporate Kingdom principles in the new millennium, (3) A study on Genesis 1 (based on my podcasts), and (4) A new look at the atonement.

One other thing I will continue to do in 2016 is asking people to partner with me in ministry. There are various ways you can do this, and you can read more about them here.

One key way that you can partner with me is with helping cover the costs of running my website and podcast and publishing my books. I first asked for this in November, and enough people participated that all my November costs were covered. If you donated, thank you very much! Be looking for a personal thank you email from me in the near future. As of today, 52% of my December costs have been covered. If you want to help out, you can do so below.

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So that is 2015 in review and a short preview of what I hope to accomplish in 2016. Thanks for joining with me on this ride, and I hope you stick around for 2016, as (by all appearances) it will be the most exciting year yet!

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming Scripture, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study Podcast, Books by Jeremy Myers, theology

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[#16] Genesis 1:24-25 – The Theology of Evolution

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

[#16] Genesis 1:24-25 – The Theology of Evolution
https://media.blubrry.com/one_verse/traffic.libsyn.com/redeeminggod/16_Genesis_1_24-25.mp3

While I do not believe that Genesis 1 speaks directly against the theory of evolution, I do believe that the theology behind the theory of evolution has been around a lot longer than the theory itself.

In fact, the theology behind the theory of evolution has been around since the very beginning.

The verses we will look at today, Genesis 1:24-25, speak directly against these theological ideas. Listen to this episode to learn how.

genesis 1:24-25 humans animals evolution

The Text of Genesis 1:24-25

Genesis 1:24-25. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

In this discussion of Genesis 1:24-25 we look at:

  • The first part of the sixth day of creation is the creation of the animals.
  • How the creation of the animals is different than the creation of the plants.
  • The three categories of animals that were created.
  • Similarities of Genesis 1:24-25 with other creation accounts, and how the Genesis account is polemical against them.
  • How Genesis 1:24-25 refutes the theology of evolution, even if it doesn’t speak to evolution itself.

Resources:

  • Become a Patron of the Podcast
  • Collins, Genesis 1-4 – Amazon or CBD
  • Hamilton, Genesis 1–17 – Amazon or CBD
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • Morris, The Genesis Record – Amazon or CBD
  • Ross, H. The Genesis Question – Amazon
  • Sailhamer, EBC: Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • Sailhamer, Genesis Unbound – Amazon
  • Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds – Amazon or CBD
  • Walton, Lost World of Genesis One, Amazon or CBD
  • Wenham, Genesis – Amazon or CBD
  • Babylonian Account of the Creation of the Beasts of the Field
  • fm – Helping you and your Theology Look Like Jesus
  • Subscribe and Leave a Review on iTunes

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.

Membership-become-a-member

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.

Membership-become-a-member


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.

God is Redeeming God, Redeeming Scripture, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: creationism, evolution, Genesis 1:24-25, One Verse Podcast, podcast, theology

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