I BELIEVE Brian Doak & Leah Payne

This week, we talk about why learning about the Bible is just the starting point for understanding the depth and breadth of Christianity. WHY we should study the history of Christianity and why we should think about big theological ideas? And what sorts of things were some of the earliest Christians in Syria thinking about in the first century? Listen here to find out!

Just google “Christian sandwich board” and you’ll see a lot of pictures of Christians standing with giant signs proclaiming a version of the Christian message. But should they? Most Christians agree that getting the good news out to the world is important. How should evangelism be done? Public preaching like in the book of Acts? Or should we let our actions speak first? Dr. Doak and Dr. Payne take up the question of getting the news about Jesus out in the world - one way or another!

This week we are learning about how Christians worshipped in the Middle Ages, and the important role that the church played in the daily lives regular people. This week, Drs. Doak and Payne talk about their favorite sacraments, how Christians read the Bible in the Middle Ages, and the writings, art, and theological visions of Hildegard von Bingen!

For this first in the series of “I Need to Know More” weekly podcasts, your four teaching professors all get together to kick things off! We discuss this week’s main video lecture by Dr. Brian Doak on the BIBLE. What is the text, physically? How does it get presented to us? How do Christians uphold their view that the text is sacred and holy? Dr. Doak gives another shot at going deeper on some concepts around canon and translation. These “I Need to Know More” podcasts are predicated on listeners have already watched the corresponding main lecture video for the week! Here is the YouTube playlist with all of those videos: https://bit.ly/2CpgYEI.

Welcome to our end-of-week teaching and podcast element! We’re calling it the “THEO POP-CULTURE SMACKDOWN.” Each week, we’ll debate a different topic at the intersection of (a) our week’s topic, (b) pop culture, and (c) the Bible and faith. This week: it’s Dr. Payne vs. Dr. Doak on the question: Are “specialty Bibles” good or bad for faith? Here are some examples of the “speciality Bibles” we’re talking about:
New Everyday Life Bible
The Athlete’s Bible
Tim Lahaye’s Prophecy Study Bible
Faith Girlz

Dr. Doak and Dr. Payne follow up on this week’s lecture, which covers Genesis chs. 1-11. In particular, they read Genesis ch 3, verses 1-7, in search of knowledge about the snake, gender, and who is at fault for humanity’s first sin.