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Episode 1: The Importance of Studying the Whole Bible with Landon MacDonald
439 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, we tackle the "Hot Take" on the importance of studying the whole Bible with special guest, Landon MacDonald. He is a pastor at Mission Community Church in Arizona, teaches multiple biblical courses at TheosU, and has a YouTube page covering many topics. Make sure to go give him a follow and check out his work.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the launch of Office Theology Podcast, or if you're an Office fan, the Lanch Party. With special guests, Landon McDonald, we are tackling the hot take on reading and studying the whole Bible. But we chatted a little bit before we started recording, but we need to bunk this long-term myth around this Instagram. You are not the admin of it.
00:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, I keep having people message me and I like the account and I don't, I think it's great. And I think the jokes you make are really funny. So A, well done. Thank you, sir. And they're also creative because there's kind of like, I would say kind of like, there's ways of making meme accounts that are like pretty obvious and that's totally fine, but that doesn't make me laugh and such like whatever. And so,
00:00:50
Speaker
Maybe it's because it's my sense of humor or something. I don't know. But I've had like a bunch of people message me and be like, hey, this is your account, right? And I'm like, I'm like, no, but I love that you think that I'm behind it. Yeah. Plot twist. He's on the first episode of the podcast, though. Exactly. Yeah. I'm interviewing myself. Yes, exactly how it works with AI.
Getting to Know Landon McDonald
00:01:13
Speaker
So so just a little intro about you. You're the lead teaching pastor right at Mission Community Church in Arizona.
00:01:20
Speaker
That's right, that's right. And then I actually got first introduced to you from TheosU, your course on Leviticus, which by the way is incredible. And I recommend to everybody, everybody says, I hate Leviticus. I'm like, you just haven't been taught it properly yet. And you also have a wonderful YouTube page, right, that covers tons of topics. So make sure you go check that out, get those subs to a million.
00:01:47
Speaker
Wow, that would be cool. Even though I have nowhere close to that in followers, so it's great. Is there anything else that people should know about you? No, thank you for having me. No, I mean, I think you covered it.
00:02:10
Speaker
honored to be here, massive, massive office fan. And my claim to fame with The Office is because I was a teenager and the show was coming out and I had some friends that were older that were cooler than me. They were telling me about the British office when The American Office didn't exist. And so I hadn't seen it, but when I saw that The American One was coming out, I was like, okay, I have to watch this. So I watched the first episode of The Office live on television.
00:02:38
Speaker
And that's like my, my story that I love to share because it was wasn't even really popular at that time. And I remember King like, Oh my gosh, I was like 15 or 16. Yeah, like show is amazing. Yeah. Little did you know you were watching the genesis of history.
00:02:53
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. And it seemed very slight. And you see that in season one, it seemed very, and I love I love season one, I think it's underrated, but it seemed very slight. And it grew into this thing that was just a monolith. I mean, by the time it was, by the time I was in college, there was watch parties in every dorm, like, Oh, yeah. Yep, I think we're I think we're roughly on the same age. So it's about the same for me as well.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, office is wonderful.
The Office and Biblical Memes
00:03:22
Speaker
What better thing to do than to merge the two? I started this account simply because I watched, and I'm probably at an over, I watched too much office and I love the Bible and I'm like watching the office. I'm like, this reminds me of this story. And then I looked on Instagram and I'm like, why has nobody really done this yet? Yes. Isaiah six moment, here I am Lord send me.
00:03:48
Speaker
You know, just a response. That's right. And the angels that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6, that's what you saw, but the angels were Kevin Malone and Oscar Martinez. That's right. Oscar Martinez.
00:04:06
Speaker
And with the senator. Oh, oh, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Well, yeah. So we're here to discuss if you have not been to my page or seen the hot takes that we do. These were kind of born out of the sense of like, I like
Why Read the Whole Bible?
00:04:23
Speaker
memes. I think they're funny. I like doing it. But honestly, it probably came a lot from I really care about people just being as pastor and Christian. But also I was really curious if people know why they believe what they do.
00:04:37
Speaker
That's just a really big question mark that I have. I was like, you know what? No one knows who I am. Might as well stir the pot a little bit and have people get mad at a random anonymous account. It's funny you're that way. Well done. 100%.
00:04:52
Speaker
And so I started asking these different questions, these big hot topics, and then kind of, as Kevin would say, everybody gets to know each other in the pot, undercook the onions. And so it started kind of turning to this and then people recommending stuff. And so you're coming in on one that you said you're really passionate about, and that is the reading and studying of the whole entire Bible, not just certain portions, right? That's right. That's right.
00:05:20
Speaker
Okay, so we're gonna jump into a few weeks ago, we did this hot take. And these are the polls and the numbers and the percentage breakdown of the questions I asked. First was, have you read through the whole Bible? 58% said yes, 42% said no, which I was a little surprised, honestly, if maybe a little pessimist to me, I thought those would be reversed a little bit.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But maybe just because I was about 3,000 people, so maybe if there was more people, we'd see more than that. But this one was interesting. Do you think it's important to read and study the whole Bible? I know 98% said yes, but the 2% that said no. Being the admin, you're able to see who it was. And two of the people go to the church I pastor at.
00:06:15
Speaker
They don't know I run the account either. It's a real response. Yeah, because now I'm like, do I awkwardly like
00:06:27
Speaker
Do I breach the, the, the, the, being anonymous and talk with these people or do I slowly just get it into my next sermon? How important it is to read the whole Bible? What do I do after the service? You're just like, the Lord is speaking to me and, uh, as important, uh, a hundred percent. I have a word for you. It's fine. Oh man. So that, I thought that was really funny. I told my wife that she goes, well,
00:06:55
Speaker
to disciple. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Third one was, do you find it difficult to understand the Bible as a whole? And I was trying to get at the macro story of the Bible. Yeah. Most said yes, but I'd say most of the people said some of it, which was to be expected. But this was kind of a leading into my last question is, are there some books you don't know why they're in the Bible? And so first, we'll go top five, five through one. The first is Ezekiel.
00:07:25
Speaker
That was like the fifth most voted book. Why do you think people would say Ezekiel? I'm actually teaching through Ezekiel right now on Thursday nights at my church.
00:07:39
Speaker
Um, we're, we're through about a quarter of the book. It's going to take maybe like 30 weeks. So I'm very, I think that's one of the reasons why I chose it because I think to answer your question, I think the reason why people wrote that is it has the least amount of it. So it's in the least read section of the Bible, which is the profit. Yeah. And it has of the major profits.
00:08:00
Speaker
Daniel has the stories that people like, and Isaiah and Jeremiah have the promises that people like. And so I think Ezekiel really does just get left out. From my perspective, it's easily the most interesting. It's one of the most interesting books in the whole Bible with all the performance art and everything. So I am pretty surprised to see it there, but mostly just because I thought that people who wouldn't know why it's in the Bible wouldn't even know that it was in the Bible.
00:08:27
Speaker
That's fair, that's fair. Usually people just know the Valley of Dry Bones story.
00:08:31
Speaker
totally, totally. And they're in like chapter four of condemnations on Egypt. And they're like, what is going on? Like, yeah, let me go back to genealogy. I'll just go back to that instead.
Relevance of Overlooked Books
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's interesting. That's cool that you're, uh, that's funny. So you're saying they're upgrading in their mind to genealogy. They're like, okay, let's go back to something that at least I understand why I don't. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. This is just seems odd. Uh, Jove is the fourth. Why do you think that is?
00:09:01
Speaker
That's very surprising to me. Very surprising to me. Yeah, I mean, it's really surprising to me. If you would have asked me what I thought, because thank you for sending me the show notes. I have those here. So I'm seeing this. I'm not hearing this for the first time, obviously for the listeners. But I would have thought that Job wouldn't be in there. I would have thought it would have been like,
00:09:27
Speaker
Jude and the minor prophets outside. That's what I would have thought. They probably don't know those are in there though. Yeah, exactly. So then it's like some sort of like question bias or something. Yeah, I mean, I think I do think Job is like,
00:09:47
Speaker
very tedious to read for the average person because they get pitched this idea that the first two chapters are the whole book. So then they read the first two chapters and they're like, that's amazing. That is wild, that story. Wow. And then it's like this stunning diatribe. I think it's brilliant. I think it's brilliant. I think it should be a play. I want to make it into a play.
00:10:08
Speaker
because it's all there, like it's all there. And if you had good actors doing that, you know, I mean, yeah, I was, I just to answer your question, I'm pretty, I'm pretty surprised that it was in there. Were you surprised to see it in there as a pastor? I was.
00:10:24
Speaker
I was. My guess would be people don't like the idea or wrestling with the conversation between Satan and God in the beginning or God allowing Satan. Like maybe they have, I would say some people have the moral dilemma of like, I don't know what to do with this book. And there's lots of suffering and there's lots of anguish and a little, and I bet a lot of people don't even know there's 42 chapters.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, totally. And Joe, there's not just two, like you were mentioning. But I think for me, I was really surprised, but I was trying to think, I'm like, people understand maybe the macro story of Joe, but don't really like to dig into the details of it. Yeah. It's got to be it. Yeah, it's totally it, nailed it. Third was Leviticus, which hopefully, which probably breaks your heart a little bit, or maybe gets you excited.
00:11:19
Speaker
Um, about having here your course plug. Once again, I already did that before, but I was going through the whole catalog of TheosU and I'm like Leviticus. I've only ever read it when it was in my like reading plan, right? But I'm like, I've never like, uh, not, not never, but like took time to break down Leviticus and the importance of it. So does that surprise you that Leviticus is on this list?
00:11:47
Speaker
No, it surprises me that it's not number one because it's like a pun. There's a lot of really funny jokes about it and good memes and stuff like that. No, it doesn't surprise me at all. I think, to me, that probably is the book that the most people don't understand why it's in the Bible. I love teaching it. I love seeing the light bulb go on. It's very, very satisfying and exciting as a person who loves to teach.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah, and it also seems like that's the book that people use to invalidate the Old Testament. Well, you don't follow XYZ, they say all these different laws, not knowing the different variations of them and the purpose of the book. You're so right. It is
Biblical Literacy and Worldview
00:12:33
Speaker
one of the most referenced by random politicians, atheists, people who are, I think, very correctly,
00:12:43
Speaker
poking holes in a certain segment of Christians and their addiction to acting like it's super obvious which parts of the Bible you're supposed to obey and then they just get, I think they get intellectually dunked on and I'm in favor of the people that I don't agree with because I think that the point they're making is correct, which is it isn't as simple as you're saying.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You're trying to use this. It's like, Hey, I'm going to hit you with this hammer. I'm going to hit you with a different hammer and you're not going to like know what to do with this. Yeah. Yeah. Second one was revelation. Um, does that one surprise you? It really surprises me. Yeah. I mean, I feel like that's like,
00:13:28
Speaker
I mean, you tell me in your context, I feel like people love revelation. They're obsessed with it. They want, they're obsessed with it. Like people are obsessed with true crime podcasts. And I mean that in the most positive way, like they're obsessed with hearing as many takes as possible. And, you know,
00:13:46
Speaker
Yeah, and I'd probably agree for the context I'm in as well. And I always have to remember the pool that I'm getting the temperature from, it's from all over the world. And so it's interesting to have that, but it's kind of like, I'm like, it's fascinating. But I guess to understand the questions, do you wonder why that's in there? Because it's prophetic, you know, it's what's to come. And that's why I'm like, this is where,
00:14:12
Speaker
probably Chris Palmer would come in with his dissertation and all this stuff and really expound upon this. But yeah, Revelation surprised me. The funniest one is number one is Song of Songs. Yes. Does that one surprise you? That is number one? Not at all. If people were taught
00:14:32
Speaker
hey, this book is about Jesus, which I was taught as a kid by some of my teachers at my Christian school. And I read Song of Solomon, and they're like, oh, it's about Jesus. And I'm like, good Lord, I hope not. You're like, I feel uncomfortable. Yeah. I mean, I thought I was sinning when I read that book as an 11-year-old.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's really interesting. I just listened to the preaching through the whole Bible with Chris and Nathan. And they just went through this. Have you heard that one yet? No, they did song of songs. Yeah, it was really funny because Nathan's like, Chris, you can't read this yet. You're not married.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yes, exactly. That's kind of like the view of it, right? Like, it's this awkward, really intimate book that you're not really sure what to do with, and it's talking about fruit in awkward ways. And, but I, when I saw that, I'm like, yeah, that makes perfect sense to me.
00:15:36
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a wild collection of content. And if you are if you do have like an overly puritanical view of sexuality, it will confront that viewpoint that you have, I think appropriately and in a good way. Someone's asked someone has been asking me to help them on their YouTube channel, and I was meeting with them yesterday. We're looking through the different content they had.
00:15:57
Speaker
And then there was a comparison channel. We're looking through the content they had. And the channel had this video about sexuality, about if a specific sex act was okay. And so I was like, I gotta watch what these people say about this. So I watched it and the wife was answering like in the affirmative, like this sex act is great. And the husband was just smiling, looking at her. And I was like, this is so funny. I love Christians sometimes. They're just like, yeah, this is the content we need to put out today. But I did think it was great.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yes, so what do you think about just some general reflections on the percentages, breakdowns of all those stats? What are your thoughts on that? I think I have a general take on reading through the whole Bible once, which is that Christianity is possibly, from the lens of fandom, Christianity is possibly the only thing, culture, subculture, whatever you want to call it, in the world
00:16:58
Speaker
that doesn't have a pre-written or unwritten expectation that people would at the very least have seen or read all the material.
00:17:11
Speaker
there isn't a Star Wars universe culture, subculture you could go to or the office. The office is how I was trying to make that point to people. If you went to like an office fan event and you hadn't seen it all, they wouldn't make fun of you. They would just be like, oh, dude, you got to watch it. Even after Michael leaves, there's still good stuff. It's like a common thing they would be like, just watch it.
00:17:37
Speaker
You know what I mean? And the fact that that expectation doesn't exist in Christianity is very confusing to me. I don't understand it. And I don't understand the mentality of, perhaps the mentality behind that is lowering expectations to allow more people to feel comfortable or something, even if it wouldn't be said that succinctly. And that doesn't make sense to me. Because it's like, dude, like this is,
00:18:07
Speaker
ancient Near Eastern Hebrew text, and it is insane. Like, just from the perspective of liking things, I love, I love liking things. I'm like, dude, like, let's dive in. This is wild content. Like, you like Lord of the Rings? Like, you like, you like Elvish? Like, let's do it, dude, because this is wacky stuff. So that would be kind of my general take on that. Yeah. Yeah. So your general take is like,
00:18:35
Speaker
You feel like there's not the same intensity as there is in like pop culture stuff? Is that what you're kind of referencing as well? I think typically it's presented to people as you should do this, okay? But I'm looking at it from the other angle. I'm looking at the why don't we expect that? Not like shaming people who haven't read the Bible, but why isn't there an expectation that you would have? Why does that not exist?
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that's absolutely spot on. And I think that's the piece. Oh, man, I'm on the spot trying to remember these statistics. So I'll use generalities, but it's like a Barna research talking about how many quote people that identify as Christians have a biblical worldview and it's like shockingly low.
00:19:24
Speaker
Like, but then even on top of that, and even on top of that, I'll have to find it and I'll send it to you. But as well as, then it went even deeper, talking about pastors that have a biblical worldview as low as well. And I'm like, how is that possible?
00:19:41
Speaker
Do they give the specifics on what were the indicators of a biblical worldview? Yes. And so, yeah, I'll send that to you, that link to you in a few moments, and I'll put it in the notes below and in the show notes as well. So whoever's listening, super interested. I'll make sure to put that down there. Interesting.
Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Texts
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah. And so I read that. One of the other pastors on staff was showing me that in reading. I was like, oh my gosh.
00:20:06
Speaker
There's an issue here, and it's not just biblical literacy, but it's a biblical worldview as well. And even that term, biblical worldview, can get very messy depending on what you deem to be biblically, quote, relevant now opposed to then. And so it's just a messy term even to use, because we know how much difference can come with those definitions, but that's very interesting.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with your point 100%. This is the thing that I love about Catholicism is, you know, if you went into a Catholic Church, and I'm not saying every Catholic Church is like this, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying in general,
00:20:46
Speaker
if you went into a Catholic church and said, I'm pro-abortion, like I'm pro-choice. The general response you would get is, that's not the viewpoint of this church. And the hyper-individualized American, or not American, but the hyper-individualization of modernity has created in people
00:21:08
Speaker
this weird ability to be like, yeah, I'm a part of this, but I don't agree with this part. And I'm not saying people shouldn't have differing viewpoints. Certainly on the end times and things, everyone should have differing viewpoints. We don't really know exactly what's going to happen. That being said, there are baseline understandings of what it means to have a Christian worldview. And I love that about Catholicism.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that at some level, there's an agreed upon what we're going to do and how we're going to operate. And this is interesting because this is a semi plug for the next episode. So I grew up very strict Mormon, like hardcore Mormon. And so my whole next episode is breaking down the differences between Mormonism and Christianity. And the same thing about... Oh, I'll watch that.
00:22:02
Speaker
The same thing about that though is, and I would be a fool to not at least give credit where credit is due in some areas. When someone says I'm a Mormon, no one says what type of Mormon.
00:22:15
Speaker
because there's not different factions. When someone says, well, what does the church believe as this? They're speaking on behalf of everybody. This is how we roll as a quote, religion. But anyways, and yeah, going into that, so being raised in that, it's really interesting when I, because I was a super strict Mormon, then I was like outright rejecting God for a long time. And then I found the true Jesus, which if you have issue with that statement, true Jesus, listen to the next episode.
00:22:44
Speaker
to finding
00:22:46
Speaker
who Jesus really is. I had a hard time dealing with a lot of people that said they were something, but they didn't really know why. They didn't really know what they believe. They didn't really have people to stand with. Does that make sense? It really does, and I love it. I'm a pastor in Arizona, I know you mentioned that, and there's a ton of Mormons out around here, a staggering amount of Mormons and Mormon churches.
00:23:16
Speaker
I'll have to check out that next episode because I agree with that. And there was a guy who converted to Christianity and I was talking with him and he said that same thing. He said, you know, it was not the same Jesus. That was my theological viewpoint. So I was really happy that he said that because that
00:23:35
Speaker
that that's my perception of it. And yeah, I'll have to check that out. That sounds interesting. Well, that even kind of goes into this biblical literacy conversation. And I'm kind of bleeding into this one, maybe teasing in a good way. But like, I think it was like, I think a lot of people vote on this around four to 5000 people, like 68% of professing Orthodox Christians that they would not be able to point out the different biblically, how they're different. And so I'm like,
00:24:05
Speaker
As a pastor, I'm like, I feel more overwhelmed now having this account, you know, but I have to kind of manage that and realize I have people here in my flock that I need to help shepherd and stuff like that. But anyways, so that kind of was like a little rabbit trail off of a biblical literacy and biblical view.
00:24:24
Speaker
These are some of the questions that people submitted about just studying the Bible as a whole. I saw a few times in there, how do I discern between descriptive and prescriptive reading of scripture?
God's Consistent Character
00:24:38
Speaker
What would you say to that person? I think just taking a whole step back and saying,
00:24:54
Speaker
the Bible is a story about God, start there, and the message and aim of the Bible is not that you would know the Bible, but that you would know the author of the Bible. And then after that, having a deep encounter with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit personally,
00:25:17
Speaker
then you build off of that. And there are so many people that are like the church in Acts 19. They love God, but they have not had a spiritual experience with God. And so they are building a mental kingdom of God through their brain and body, and it doesn't work.
00:25:37
Speaker
So that. Then, how do you choose between descriptive and prescriptive? You don't. You read the church fathers and you read the people that have gone before you and you don't have to figure it out. And you shouldn't feel the weight of that responsibility. I always laugh because
00:26:00
Speaker
I always laugh when people are like, we obey the whole Bible here. Because whenever they do that, I just like lean in for a kiss. The guy who says that, and the guy is like really weirded out. And I'm like, Oh, okay, sorry. It just I thought was my holy kiss. Come on. You said you obey the whole Bible. You meant also the part that says greet the brothers of the holy kiss. I'm sorry. Yeah. So I think that, um, yeah, maybe that maybe that viewpoint is helpful. Yeah, I think that's really good.
00:26:31
Speaker
what I will say, I feel like the most of the time I'm faced with this question is when someone wants to discredit, obeying God's word. And I feel like that's, that's kind of been the biggest piece that it comes up is like, Oh, well that was, that was a descriptive of the time, but not prescriptive for the church. Now I'm like, then I asked the question, I'm like, well, how'd you come to that conclusion? And it's usually self
00:27:00
Speaker
imposed authority over what is descriptive and prescriptive. So I love what you said is, I heard humility kind of threaded through your response, not just in allowing the Spirit of God to direct and lead you into all truth as he does, but that you don't have to figure this out and the world has not been struggling. The Christian faith has not been struggling to figure this out until you got here. Now you need to figure this out, but there are people
00:27:30
Speaker
rightfully so, a lot smarter and a lot more brilliant that have walked through this that are really helpful. Yes, yes and amen. These next two questions are kind of pretty similar, but how do I see grace in the Old Testament when God seems to deal with the Israelites so harshly? Yeah, I think that's a great question. He doesn't.
00:27:58
Speaker
He doesn't deal with them harshly. Amen. That's not true. Over the course of a thousand years, he gives them hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of chances. He rewards with grace individuals that have behaved well and does not, you know, Rahab, you know, a variety of people that receive so much grace from God. Yeah.
00:28:26
Speaker
In the book of Ezekiel, when God is justifiably condemning the people of Israel after a thousand years, A, he still treats Ezekiel with love, B, God has given the people of Israel an additional chance to avoid captivity. He's told them repeatedly that he is going to do that.
00:28:52
Speaker
And then after he does that, he prophesies to them in chapter 9 about the man dressed in linen putting crosses on people's heads. And then as a promise of redemption, it is so clear. It is so clear that commentators call it the gospel according to Ezekiel. And it is so clear that Jewish people who do not believe in Jesus
00:29:18
Speaker
before Jesus said that that passage was about the Messiah and after Jesus said that it wasn't because it was so obviously about Jesus that they had to figure out how to mold it into their their faith system and in chapter 11 he promises the Holy Spirit then people go into captivity and he gives Ezekiel a vision of heaven
00:29:43
Speaker
to bless the people that are justifiably in captivity, justifiably kicked out of their country. He gives them just a vision, just a glorious vision. So when I read stuff like that, and that's one of the most aggressive books in the whole Bible. So that's why I'm using that as an example. I'm also teaching it right now, like I mentioned. So I don't see it like that. I don't see it like that. And I don't see God behaving
00:30:11
Speaker
differently. That being said, God can do whatever he wants, so God doesn't have to answer to our current 2023 sense of justice. He doesn't have to answer to anything. Every single thing we hold up to God
00:30:26
Speaker
is some way that we perceive life in reality, and God doesn't have to fit into any of those things. And I do sometimes think that God has intentionally broken many of those boxes. I think it's very obvious that Jesus was so offensive to the religious people.
00:30:49
Speaker
perhaps the question is, why isn't the New Testament more offensive? Because I think it should be. And I think it's a good sign when it isn't, because I think that it isn't to wonderful, righteous Christians who love God, and they've chosen to reorient their entire life around the truth of the Bible, not around a modern or postmodern sensibility of right and wrong. And so I think
00:31:15
Speaker
So many Christians are so wonderfully unoffended by the New Testament and by God, the New Testament. I think that's brilliant. And I think that should be applied to the Old Testament as well. Yeah. And it's interesting because even when you're talking about how patient and gracious God is, and He gives ample warning over and over again, it would almost be like God not following through on His promise.
00:31:43
Speaker
to do what he said he would do. And to me, that's a character piece. And to be fair, I added the show notes after I sent them to you. I put harshly in quotes, because I agree with you. I don't think he is dealing with them harshly. I think he's dealing with them justly, and just like he said he would. I think a lot of people have trouble with how God works in the Old Testament,
00:32:14
Speaker
because a lot of people don't like coming face to face with the consequences of their choices and rebellion. Correct.
00:32:21
Speaker
Correct. And it's no different now. It's just that they were saved by faith in what was to come is what the New Testament teaches. And we are saved by grace through faith in the one who has come and is still here. Yeah. Additionally to that, I see memes making fun of Christians and I agree with some of them. Like I'll see a Christian say God doesn't believe in cancel culture because they're trying to make some cultural political point. A person below them will be like, God literally canceled the entire world in the flood.
00:32:52
Speaker
And I think that the person who's making fun of the Christian is correct. I think that people really oversimplify parts of the Bible to meet or match a current political point, and they're just creating anachronisms that don't benefit anyone and don't do anything.
00:33:14
Speaker
And it's funny. And when atheists are dunking on Christians, I do think it's funny. Yeah. And you allow this to put a spark in you to learn and to grow into... Yeah, absolutely. Next question, I feel like you kind of answered, but if there's any more that you have on it is, why does God seem so different in Old Testament versus the New?
00:33:37
Speaker
Yeah, he isn't. Jesus and the way that Jesus behaves
Understanding Cultural Context
00:33:44
Speaker
according to the wishes of the Father on the mission of the Father does seem different, but the Holy Spirit also performs a different role in the triune Godhead.
00:34:03
Speaker
let's flip the question on its head and say, okay, so does the role of God the Father in the Old Testament and God the Son seem different? Yes, because they are performing different portions of the eternal holy will of God. Does
00:34:26
Speaker
the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament perform different functions than God the Father in the New Testament. Yes, absolutely. So if people are only holding up kind of a 2D image of God the Father in the Old Testament and a 2D image of Christ in the New Testament,
00:34:48
Speaker
And then they're like, why is this not exactly the same? Sure, yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. And I think that a further, a deeper understanding of the narrative of Scripture and a deeper surrender to the fact that God chooses to act in different ways and different times. I'm not a dispensationalist, but I do believe in the covenants, obviously. And so hopefully that would help a little bit for somebody else. You know, it's a good question. It's a good question.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah. And something at some point we will have to wrestle through that question in your faith. You'll have to look at this and either God's an heir or I'm an heir. I usually like to lean on the second one. I need a better understanding. So good. So where do I find cultural context for the Bible if it doesn't give any?
00:35:42
Speaker
What would you say to that person? Trying to understand the cultural context and help bring clarity to what scripture says. It's a really good question. I love the question. So whoever asked it, thank you for asking that. It's a brilliant question. And it brings about one of the, let me take one step back. So it was a light bulb moment for me when I understood that the way Catholics view communion and the way Pentecostals view
00:36:09
Speaker
power and miracles and the way that a certain segment of conservative Christians view the Bible are all very similar. They are things that are taught very clearly in the Bible, and then perhaps if you're open to it, they elevate a thing maybe one half step above what the Bible says it is. Yeah.
00:36:36
Speaker
So that would be like the infallibility versus inerrancy conversation. I believe in inerrancy. So I'm not saying anything against that. I'm just saying.
00:36:46
Speaker
that. Okay, so then let's take that and then let's go back into the question, which is some people that really, really, really believe in inerrancy teach a doctrine called the perspicuity of Scripture, which is that you don't need anything other than the Bible to understand the Bible. And that is not a good doctrine. It is not a helpful doctrine, even though a lot of people that I love believe in it. Yeah.
00:37:16
Speaker
It is true as far as you don't need anything other than the Bible to come to a saving faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Of course. You don't even need the Bible for that. God can reveal himself to people in dreams. We've all heard these stunning stories from overseas. You don't need anything other than the Bible to become a Christian. But to understand the Bible, you of course need to understand things about culture. There's this part in the book of Acts
00:37:44
Speaker
where there's that girl who's prophesying and Paul is getting really irritated. And I love that message because I just love that he gets irritated with it because it just sounds like an irritating thing to have someone yelling in your ear. Relatable. Yeah, it's relatable. And so in English, it is translated, she had a spirit of divination.
Engaging with Scripture Like Fandoms
00:38:06
Speaker
It's not a good translation because that's not what it says in Greek. In Greek, it says she has the spirit of Python, which is a Greek, some sort of God from that time. And it's a bad translation. It kind of dumbs down the idea of the text. There's no chance that you can understand what that means without knowing things about culture.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, so what is that? What is Python? Like, so do you need to understand that to be saved? Of course not. But no, who are saved want to understand that. So all of that pretext. Thank you for the grace to share that pretext that is important to me.
00:38:48
Speaker
Where do you find the cultural context for the Bible in really good commentaries? And I would recommend reading commentaries both by people that you agree and don't agree with on various topics. So if you're a dispensationalist, don't only read dispensationalist commentaries. I am not a dispensationalist.
00:39:09
Speaker
I'm not a five-point Calvinist, but I read commentaries by those people. There's a lot of good content in those. Like I am not a cessationist, but I have a MacArthur study Bible. Like I learned a lot from it. I learned a lot from it. And there's wonderful content in a lot of those things. And so that is where you get that. And if you're just starting, get a really good study Bible, get a really good like ESV study Bible is great. And get like a really good
00:39:38
Speaker
I'm looking on my shelf right now. Get a really good mini Bible commentary.
00:39:45
Speaker
This one's great for a beginner. This is the Sailhammer NIV Compact Bible Commentary. It's fantastic. And it is really a miniature, full Bible commentary. And the guy's brilliant. So, you know, something like that. Yeah. And so this kind of goes back to your fandom comment. Like if, like you become like a fan of scripture and all around it and, um,
00:40:12
Speaker
And this is always my challenge. People are like, I just don't have the time. I'm like, bull, you do too. Because you do it in lots of other... You can't tell me you know that much about your fantasy football league and all the football teams and tell me you don't have the capacity to study at this level. You're so right. You're 100% right. Because we all make time for whatever we want to make time for.
00:40:34
Speaker
Yeah. If you don't have time for any hobbies, then let's rethink your life because you need to have hobbies to be a healthy person. 100%. That's good. I don't have time. The question should be, why is it
00:40:50
Speaker
that you are stating that you believe that God wrote this book and yet you don't make time for it because there is something missing there. There's something missing there and I don't think the missing piece is effort. It's always pitched as like effort, try harder. Like what if you were a Christian like an Olympian was an Olympian and I just don't believe that. I don't think that's a good way to put pressure on people. It's certainly not what you're saying. And so I'm like,
00:41:20
Speaker
What is it that you don't believe? Because if God wrote you a note on a piece of paper and slipped it under your door, you would do nothing before you read it. And if the Bible is saying that it is a collection of things like that, albeit less personal, where's the missing piece there? And I think that is the place for people to kind of chew on and think. Yeah.
00:41:47
Speaker
Let's do an altar call after that one. Sheesh. Yes, yes, come forward. We will pray for you. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand in the corner and... But don't look.
Genealogies and Covenant Fulfillment
00:42:00
Speaker
Yeah, everybody's... Haster jokes. Heads closed, eyes are bowed. Yeah, that's right. Don't look around. Nobody's looking around. Yeah. But you're definitely gonna live for Christ at your school, even though you're embarrassed to say you want to follow Christ at a church.
00:42:18
Speaker
Oh, the years and years of pastoring coming out right there. Yeah. Oh man. All right. Um, why are genealogies in the Bible?
00:42:31
Speaker
Because they are a part of the covenants, they're a part of fulfilling the information that's needed. You know, why are credits in a movie? Because it's a part of what's needed to express something. I don't read the credits in a movie and I don't read the genealogies. If I'm reading through the Bible, I just skip them.
00:42:53
Speaker
people are baffled by that. And I'm like, well, it's an informational text, you know, I don't like go take a cookbook off my shelf and read it and like a novel and be like, this is so boring. It isn't what it's there for. It isn't what it's for. So like, it's incredible. The whole point is God said generations ago that Jesus was coming through these lines, and he actually did. Here's the proof. Yep. Yeah. I preached on Table of Nations, Genesis 10.
00:43:21
Speaker
Oof. Oof, my guy. That's how you do it. And I was like... Let's go! And I was like... I was like... Lord.
00:43:32
Speaker
what is in here? What is in here? But it was cool because I think it allowed a dependency on the spirit like I've never had before because I'm like, there's 70 nations in here and maybe a sentence or two tops of outside of just names. But it was cool because it was kind of what you said. I feel like this is just recording the faithfulness of God fulfilling His covenant through His people and nations.
00:44:03
Speaker
That's why it matters. Absolutely. Take 1 Corinthians and show it to Job. He'd be like, what is this?
00:44:14
Speaker
What on earth is this? What is this? Take the book of Revelation to heaven. You're going to be like, we don't need this anymore. We're experiencing this. I don't mean that pejoratively about the Bible. I'm just trying to express a point. Yeah. Yeah. No, well said. This last question is when or do I read myself in quotes into the text?
Idolizing the Bible vs. Worshiping God
00:44:42
Speaker
Yeah. What a great question.
00:44:44
Speaker
Man, these are good questions. I know. I always start with, what does this say about God? And it should be satisfactory in a personal quiet time or devotional time or Bible reading time to have learned something about God. And that should, in our hearts and minds, be like, wow, that was great. We shouldn't have to learn a piece of information about ourselves.
00:45:12
Speaker
Sometimes people have offered me criticism of my sermons and said, but what am I supposed to do? The thing you're supposed to do is believe because that is the application of many, many, many chapters of scripture. There isn't always a different way to live my life. There are things that are about belief. That being said, I do think that there are personal applications
00:45:39
Speaker
all throughout scripture. And I think if you're first pursuing knowledge and intimacy with God, I think there's a lot of brilliant... I wouldn't really think about it like when do I or when do I not add myself into the text. I probably wouldn't think through it through that lens. I would just read it and learn about God and then I would
00:46:04
Speaker
a lot of passages in the Old Testament, the personal application is people are sinful. People are destructive. People don't do the things they say they're going to do. They walk away from God. And I do think that that is a good personal application in 2023 for anyone. And I hope that helps. I mean, if you are at like a more
00:46:29
Speaker
conservative Big B Bible Church. I love churches like that. I think they're brilliant. But if you're at a church like that, you're probably more around people that are like, you know, oh, really, you're going to quote Jeremiah 2911. So when was it that you were in the Babylonian exile?
00:46:46
Speaker
Which is fine. That being said, those same people, if you said, your righteousness is as filthy rags, they would immediately be very comfortable, typically being like, great, that applies to us right now. And so I would offer up the idea to that type of Christian. Why is it that positive promises in the Old Testament are often pitched as non-applicable?
00:47:13
Speaker
and negative condemnations are often pitched as completely applicable. What is disparity and why does that disparity exist? Because I think that that's a good thing for people to think about because either both of them apply or neither of them do. Yeah. Dude, absolutely. Yes, copy and paste. Copy and paste. This one is from a subscriber question. They wanted to ask you a specific question.
00:47:42
Speaker
Is there a pitfall in creating an idol of the Bible itself where we can worship a book more than the one it points to? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Look at the Pharisees. To become a Pharisee, you had to memorize the first five books of the Bible. They had Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy memorized. And Jesus roast them too. You know the Scriptures, but you don't realize they point to me.
00:48:08
Speaker
That's, my alarm's going off, sorry. That is exactly the point I was gonna make. I love that you saw it the same way as that. They had the books memorized and they couldn't see that God was standing right in front of them.
The Simplicity and Beauty of the Bible
00:48:21
Speaker
And there are absolutely people, I wrote on my Instagram one time, if you like the Bible more, if you love the Bible more than people, you're disobeying the Bible. And people lost their mind.
00:48:34
Speaker
There was a couple people that were really upset over that. And I was like, oh man, I love you. Like you're proving the point. You're proving the point. And there are people who every single time the Bible says word, they're like the Bible, but that isn't what it's saying. A lot of times when the Bible says word, the person received a word from the Lord. It's not talking about the Bible. It's talking about a direct connection with God. So all of that to say,
00:49:01
Speaker
Yes, I do not think most Christians are in danger of that at all. I think a small subset of Christians are in danger of that from my perspective and experience. I think the majority of Christians are in danger of something else, which is being unaware of the things that God is saying in a way that they can be tricked and duped by the devil. Yeah, absolutely. I think maybe a word of caution for maybe some people listening like
00:49:30
Speaker
The litmus is like what you said is your devotion to the word of God. Does that produce a transformed life in the way that you reach and interact with people as well? Is it transforming you in your mind and your family? Do people see that?
00:49:48
Speaker
So good. And I feel like sometimes I've heard it before, like, man, you like your Bible way too much. It can be a defense for the insecurity of the person saying it, though, too. Oh, you're so right. You're so right. I was in a pastor's hang one time, we were talking about theology, and somebody was like, my theology is I want people to get saved. And I'm like, okay, don't hit those two things against each other. It's not like you can only love your wife or your kids.
00:50:15
Speaker
That's ridiculous. Clearly, strongly desirable. You're making a choice between two things that don't need to be separate choices. It's a false dichotomy. It's ridiculous. Oh, man. Don't get me with those. I had a nice conversation with a Christian Universalist.
00:50:41
Speaker
That was just all they were doing is proposing false dichotomies to me. And I'm like, you're, you're leaving out option C anyways, dude, this dude, syncretists are wild, man. The amount of, the amount of intellectual judo you have to be comfortable with to get there.
00:51:04
Speaker
Come on. It's nuts. It's nuts. It makes me sad. It makes me sad. I can't wait for the hot take episode on hell and eternity. I don't know how I need to get for that one, but if you have any recommendations, let me know.
00:51:18
Speaker
It's crazy. I mean, I was just looking at a guy on Twitter yesterday who made a comic that said, a person saying to Jesus, I want to be like you. And Jesus was saying, you be like you, that's how you be like me. And I'm like, that isn't the teaching of Jesus. That isn't what Jesus said. That is ridiculous. But that's the Jesus people want in 2023.
00:51:41
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, that is an example of when Jesus said, many will come in my name. People are saying, yeah, they're putting the name of Jesus over top of something that is the opposite of what he taught. Yeah, man, it's going to pull a hamstring with that type of gymnastics. But
00:52:01
Speaker
Okay, so to kind of close this out, wanting to ask some questions, maybe more from a 30,000 foot view, like a pastoral lens, if you're listening to this, like, okay, that's all good, like deep dive on specific topics, but let's zoom out for a bit. So if you were to zoom out and give a 30,000 foot level answer to why is it important to read and study the whole Bible, what would it be?
00:52:27
Speaker
Yeah, because God took the time to inspire all of it and to inspire people to compile all of it.
00:52:38
Speaker
it's all there for a reason and for a purpose. It's all a part of the story. And mostly what people abandon is the negative parts and the gospel can't be as clear and stunning as it is unless we are as awful as we actually are. Yeah. Yeah. Well said. That was good. Um, the second question would be is, um,
00:53:09
Speaker
I don't know about you, but I'm, I'm like, uh, I'm a, I call it what it is. I'm a feeling based guy. Like I like emotions. Maybe that's why I'm at an AG church, you know, but, um,
00:53:24
Speaker
What is beautiful about reading the whole story of God? And I use the word beautiful on purpose. What about it to you is just beautiful about reading the whole story? Oh, because it's ancient and because people for thousands of years have been reading it and coming to the same conclusions that we are. And I had three pages of church father quotes on
00:53:50
Speaker
Ezekiel 11 in my Bible study last week and I was just so blown away. I was like, oh my gosh, like this guy was writing this 1700 years ago. Yeah. And he was like, the Holy Spirit is for everyone who follows Christ and blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, this is amazing. Like it's, we are a part of like an, an ancient chain and it's, it's so awesome. Yeah.
00:54:20
Speaker
Yeah, and I copy and paste that. I just think that the beauty of Scripture to me is that the deeper I dive into this, I feel like the simpler it gets in the sense of some people might like argue with me on that, but I'm not saying like
00:54:42
Speaker
You can wrestle through tough conversations. You can wrestle through tough theological stances. Yeah, you can go through all of that. But for me, the more I see scripture for what it is and read the entire story, I'm just like, man, I have overcomplicated this to the 10th degree. And I just get to read and just enjoy and just to be able to read the very, as you referenced earlier,
00:55:08
Speaker
this note that God gave to me, even though it may not be directly to and it is for and I just said my name. So we're going to bleep that out. So Oh, that'll be funny. Because God will be saying even though it isn't to bleep, it'll be office theology is what I'll say. But that's good. Is that an original thought? Because that's brilliant.
Advice for Struggling Readers
00:55:30
Speaker
I think so, but I have ingested a lot of content over my years of being a Christian. So it might have come out. And so for me, it's just like, man, it just comes back to the simple joy of that this is a lot less of a burden than I make it out to be.
00:55:52
Speaker
And I feel like sometimes that's where my soul can get sick is when I'm like, I don't want to engage with God's word because it feels burdensome and it's only burdensome because I've sinned nature still within me. And so I think that's the beauty of this story of God is it really removes
00:56:09
Speaker
me from the central figure of the Bible and I actually get to see it for who it is and the character of God and the love of God and the mercy of God and how that study of the Word leads us to the fullness that Christ promised. Amen. I see that hand. I see that hand. What would you say to the person listening that struggles with engaging with the Word?
00:56:35
Speaker
Um, I would just pick a, pick a discipline level. So like, I'm gonna read a chapter every day and I would, uh, pick a simpler book and read through it 10 or 20 times. Um, and then secondarily, I would find a verse by verse teacher that you really engage with and resonate with. And I would just really enjoy doing that. I really just enjoy listening to that person and, and, and hearing about it and, and learning.
00:57:02
Speaker
And I would write, I would take notes and write in your Bible. And I would think about if you're currently on a trajectory to have really studied through the whole Bible in your lifetime. And if the answer is no, then maybe it would be really exciting and fun to get on that trajectory. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. I think, uh,
00:57:25
Speaker
I think a lot of the mindset I would say to this individual is if it's shame driven, that's not going to last long. I should be engaging with the word. I should be doing this. I'm a Christian.
00:57:41
Speaker
Only thing I say that about is I should pay my bills. I need to pay my bills. So it's like, I should pay those. That's not very inspiring, but I would say, I know it's maybe a little gimmicky, but it's kind of going back to our last question, the beauty of reading the whole story of God. You get to know the character and the goodness and the faithfulness of God. Allow that to be the pole, allow that to be the draw to Scripture.
00:58:09
Speaker
And like you said, it hit the nail on the head. Um, so in terms of fitness, I'm going to work out two hours a day, eat super clean note, just stopping less dessert for a little bit. You know what I mean? Like just start where you're at and just take steps from there and watch how God honors and faithful is faithful to that. So good. Yeah.
00:58:31
Speaker
I mean, well, thank you. Um, that's all I got. Um, but I appreciate, appreciate you taking the time and your busy schedule and what you got going on in life. Uh, thanks for having time. Thanks for editing. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. And once again, Landon McDonald is not.
00:58:50
Speaker
is not office theology. But also make sure you go to TheosU and check out his course. You have a couple on there, Minor Prophets as well, shout out. And so what I will be doing as well is I'm going to be giving away a three month subscription to TheosU. Let's go. I will put some details in the comments or the description below as well as on social media. So make sure you enter that to win and to listen to more of Landon's beautiful calming voice.
00:59:22
Speaker
All right, man. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. Yeah. Appreciate it, bro.