Exploring My Strange Bible Podcast

In the book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher shows how most of our daily time and energy is spent on meaningless things. The core metaphor he uses to make this point is smoke or vapor, which in Hebrew is the word hevel. So why is such a bleak book in the Bible? Tim unpacks Ecclesiastes’ introduction, its authorship, and how the book as a whole seeks to motivate humility, integrity, and enjoyment of the simple things in life. Tim gave this message at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Ore., on January 6, 2013.

The manuscript history of the New Testament is very different from that of the Old Testament. The number of manuscripts, the amount of time they cover, the history of manuscript discoveries—it’s all very complex and fascinating! Then there is the separate history of how the New Testament has been translated and regarded by the Church over the centuries. In this third and final lecture of the series, Tim explores this manuscript and its translation history, as well as the process and dynamics of how these books were collected into an official canon of Scripture. Tim gave these lectures in February 2012 at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin.

In this series of lectures, we’re building the foundation for understanding where the Bible came from. When looking at Scripture through this lens, we discover that the texts themselves offer clues about how they came into existence and why they were written. Rather than casting doubt on the Bible, this work actually helps us gain a deeper sense of what the Bible is and what we’re supposed to do with it. In this second lecture of a three-part series, Tim explores the manuscript history of the Old Testament, as well as the composition and writing of the books of the New Testament. Tim gave these lectures in February 2012 at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin.

Many people who view the Bible as God’s word believe it must have come into existence with little or no human agency. But this idea is foreign to the biblical authors and to Scripture’s very traceable history. It was not written in secret! The authors of these texts were, of course, human. However, they also claimed God was speaking to his people through these human words. In this first lecture of a three-part series, Tim explores the making of the books of the Old Testament and what we can know from the Bible itself about how it came into existence. Tim gave this series of lectures in February 2012 at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin.

The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy tell the story about God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai—and make up two-thirds of the entire Torah! God gives Israel 613 laws, interspersed with stories that offer commentary on them. Tragically, the Israelites demonstrate their inability to truly love and obey God and follow the laws. This unresolved tension creates a future hope announced by Moses himself: God will one day transform the people’s hearts and minds so they can be loving and faithful covenant partners. In this message, Tim explores Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, showing how they develop the storyline that Jesus fulfilled. Tim taught this series in the early 2010s at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.

Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the night of Passover were the foundational stories for ancient Israelites, and they’re also crucial for understanding Jesus and his mission. For example, Jesus timed his arrival into Jerusalem with the Passover feast, and at the Last Supper, he used the symbols of Passover to explain the meaning of his coming death. Exodus also contains the covenant agreement between God and Israel, including the Ten Commandments, which Jesus picked up and developed in his own teaching. In this message, Tim explores all of these Exodus narratives and their influence on the Bible’s story. This series was taught in the early 2010s at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.

For many modern readers, the first five books of the Bible—known as the Torah—can feel strange, overwhelming, or confusing. But when we look at these five books as a single narrative, we can begin to see how it sets up a larger story of God’s rescue plan for humanity that is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. In this episode, we’ll start with Genesis. From creation and humanity’s calling as God’s image-bearers to God’s surprising promise to bless all people through one man and his family, Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. In this episode, Tim traces the structure and themes of the book, revealing how God’s purpose to bring good out of human evil shapes the entire biblical story. This series was taught in the early 2010s at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.

In modern Western culture, we have two very different narratives swirling around the first two pages of the Bible. In the first narrative, the creation story in Genesis 1-2 represents a literal seven days, and this all happened only a few thousand years ago. In the second narrative, earth and its inhabitants took billions of years to evolve into their present form—and therefore, Bible-believing Christians are fools. What if both these narratives miss the main point of what Genesis 1-2 is all about? In this lecture, Tim explores the Bible’s creation story alongside other ancient creation stories, revealing a very different narrative about the origin of life, our purpose and identity as humans, and what all of this tells us about the God of the Bible.

Tim taught this lecture in January 2016 at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon.

Many people view science and religious faith as bitter enemies with conflicting views of the universe, especially when you consider the scientific explanation for the universe’s origin versus the biblical account. But is this tension real, or is it based on a deep misunderstanding of what the Bible is and how it communicates? Genesis 1-2—written thousands of years ago—says many surprising things about the origins of the universe. But these chapters also leave most of our modern scientific questions unaddressed. So what do we make of this? In this 2011 lecture from a science and faith conference at Blackhawk Church in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim asks what it means to read the first two pages of the Bible as ancient Hebrew texts and considers how they might interact with modern scientific claims.

We’ve come to the final episode of a five-part series on the book of Jonah. And this last part of the book is one of the most puzzling. After Jonah preaches his strange, five-word sermon, the people of Nineveh surprisingly repent. And when God forgives them, Jonah fumes with anger and berates God for being too gracious. In this episode, Tim closes out the story of Jonah, connecting it to Jesus’ challenging words to love and forgive our enemies. This message was given on September 1, 2013, at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.