patrolwagon

On 7/5/2021 at 11:49 AM, PaulS said:

Another excellent video, mate.

A lot more of this information from biblical scholarship and history is starting to get out into the public arena these days.  Previously much of this was already known in scholarly circles, but not shared with the general public and laity because it's either been held back by religious authorities perhaps out of 'fear' it will rock their religion, or it simply hasn't been presented by such scholars in an easy to digest manner.  Your videos go a long way to sharing this with ordinary people.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks, and that's the aim. There's such a huge gap between what scholars are writing > what is taught and seminary > what is preached from the pews.

37 minutes ago, romansh said:

Just curious ... how do your videos go down on more Evangelical fora?

Good question, the "messed up bible stories" series is generally received pretty well.
My take on Noah's Ark (and its relation to other flood stories like Gilgamesh and Atrahasis) got a lot of criticism from Biblical literalists. 
Similarly, the Mark of the Beast video gets a lot of hate comments from what I can only imagine is the evangelical dispensationalists. 

So we'll call it mixed reviews, erring slightly to positive. 
 

This video explores how "Satan" as most people understand him (i.e. an evil bad guy) is non existent in the conceptual world of the Hebrew scriptures. 
 

In the Hebrew Bible "the satan" was more like a heavenly servant of God who was just doing their job. So the devil didn't make anyone do anything in the Old Testament.
 

On 5/28/2021 at 3:53 PM, PaulS said:

I thought it was really interesting.  Thanks for sharing.

Glad you liked it!

John 3:16 wasn't always the most popular Bible passage. But from 1800's revival sermons to the famous "Rainbow Man" in the 70's - this is the story of why John 3:16 is the most popular Bible verse.



Let me know what you think.

12 hours ago, romansh said:

My question is, what are the reasons I should care? It's not as though the Bible is some oracle I need to decipher?

Well I mean that's kinda the point of the video, that Revelation had an ancient context and was not an Oracle for specific events in the future.

So I made a video explaining the Mark of the Beast in its ancient context of Rome and persecution etc.
Would love to know what you think about these topics.

This video looks at contradictions in the Bible from an approach that doesn't seek to harmonize disaparate accounts but regonises their differing perspectives. Focusing on the ancient reasoning behind the differences.
 

I saw this video recently, explaining how there are older flood stories than Noah's Ark. 
I won't spoil it, but its basically like Noah's ark is deliberately referencing other flood myths. 

Which got me wondering, do you think it matters for Christianity if the flood didn't happen? Because a lot of my conservative friends think you might not be a christian if you don't believe Noah's ark happened (that's a slight exaggeration). 

VIDEO (5 mins long, entertaining)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fXTxOOIVE6k