For Christians, the Bible is a book inspired by God. But it has been received by different cultures and language groups in (sometimes) radically different ways. Following Jesus’s departing instruction to go out into the world, the Bible has been a...
Sep 24
The Roman Emperor Who Spread Christianity Most Was Arguably Augustus (Even Though He Died in 14 AD)
Rome seemed fundamentally opposed to Christianity in the first century. After all, the empire fed Christians to lions, taxed their communities, and crucified their followers, making Rome look like the natural enemy of everything the new faith stood for. Christians returned the ho ... Show More
52m 8s
Sep 22
5,000 Years of Punctuation: Why It Terrified Roman Scholars and Started a Russian Revolution
The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Flash forward 1200 years, and in 1905, Moscow's typesetters went on s ... Show More
51m 9s
Sep 17
Charlemagne Dreamed of a Sword With Four Words on It and They Predicted Exactly How His Dynasty Would Fall
Late at night in his palace at Aachen, Charlemagne had a dream. A mysterious figure approached him carrying a sword engraved with four Germanic words: raht, radoleiba, nasg, and enti. The meaning seemed immediately clear to the emperor, who fancied himself a philosopher as well a ... Show More
1h 6m
Feb 2024
The Apollo 8 Crew’s Message from the Moon... Heard by 1 Billion People: 100 Bible Verses That Made America
On this episode of Our American Stories, if you want to know about the history of America, it is imperative that you know the role that the Bible played in shaping our country. Our Founding Fathers—both Christian and non-Christian—were heavily influenced by the Bible. Here to sha ... Show More
7m 59s
Nov 2021
The Bible Wasn’t Written in English – Paradigm E9
<p>What makes the biblical languages so important? Because the Bible was written in another time and culture, we need to honor its ancient historical context and original languages as we read and study it. In this week’s podcast episode, Tim, Jon, and Carissa explore why an aware ... Show More
58m 38s
Jan 2024
Misunderstood Passages About Culture
When it comes to cultural concerns of our day, Bible passages are often used by pastors, politicians, or concerned family members to calm or stoke anxiety and fear in others. In this episode, Michael Horton, Walter Strickland, and Bob Hiller situate these passages in their origin ... Show More
41m 46s