Postmodern Realities Episode 119 - The Historicity of Moses

04/11/19 • 32 min

The biblical depiction of Moses as an ancient leader par excellence, albeit a somewhat reluctant one, is wholly believable despite scholarly claims to the contrary. Some recent interpretations anachronistically analyze the historicity and leadership of Moses with little concern for comparative ancient data or context. One example compares him to George Washington, as a jack of all trades leader, who is essentially too good to be true. For many scholars, Moses is a mythic figure whose life accounts are not historically reliable. They are quick to point out a perceived lack of substantiating archaeological evidence. As a result, they believe the search for the historical Moses to be futile. This demonstrates two larger problems regarding scholarly treatments of Moses: 1 the failure to seek external, independent data from the ancient Near East and 2 a misunderstanding of the capabilities of archaeological data. While the Hebrew Bible remains the primary source for Mosess life, comparisons to relevant ancient texts reveal that Moses, while extraordinary in many ways, was in fact a typical ancient leader. Close examination of the biblical accounts of Mosess life reveals parallels from both Egypt and the broader ancient Near East. Such ancient data provides the only suitable and useful comparisons. From his allegedly legendary birth to his upbringing in Pharaohs palace, Moses was well suited to the role Yahweh assigned to him. The covenant Moses helped establish between his people and Yahweh has parallels from other ancient civilizations. He was an ancient leader through and through attempts to reinvent him to fit modern conceptions reveal modern mentalities, not the historical Moses. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Mark D. Janzen about his Volume 42, No. 1 feature article, Making a Case for the Historicity of Moses. To read his article about Moses, please subscribe to the JOURNAL

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Postmodern Realities Episode 117 - Unplanned: An Imperfect but Brave Film

Trigger Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of various types of abortions. Therefore, this content might be disturbing and traumatizing and not suitable for some listeners. During the fall of 2018, a public and brutal Supreme Court nomination battle saw Judge Brett Kavanaugh assume the seat left vacant by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the highest courts perennial swing vote, establishing an assumed conservative majority. Those who defend abortion as a fundamental right fear that the permissive legal environment created through Roe v Wade hangs in the balance. States are declaring sides in the abortion battle with New York, Virginia, Illinois, and others shoring up permissive abortion laws similar to the national Roe environment while Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky and others seek to restrict the practice of abortion. Actress Alyssa Milano recently headed a list of celebrities threatening to boycott the state of Georgias film industry in response to their Fetal Heartbeat Bill as heated Twitter wars erupted daily. The film Unplanned was released in March 2019 in the midst of all of this division surrounding abortion with accompanying high expectations about how it could impact this landscape. The film tells the real life story of Abby Johnson the former Bryan, Texas Planned Parenthood clinic director as she goes from college student and Planned Parenthood volunteer to clinic director and finally to prolife advocate. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Jay Watts about his online exclusive CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL film review Unplanned: An Imperfect but Brave film.

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Postmodern Realities Episode 120 - Emergent Christians and the New Social Justice

Christians concerns for social justice have a rich history, rooted in the Lords commands and compassion revealed in Scripture. Biblically, justice is grounded ultimately in Gods character, who is just and calls us to be just because we are made in His image. Thus, the standard for justice is universal it is Gods communicable attribute, which is immaterial.
While Christians agree that people should be just, much depends on how we answer two major questions. First, what kind of things are justice and dignity, and even humans? Christians have offered many different views about the nature of morals yet, not every interpretive framework will preserve these biblical positions and these core morals.
Second, how do we know these things? The biblical authors seem to presuppose that we simply can know some things directly, such as that racism is unjust, even though we are finite and fallen. Yet, this presupposition has been denied by many today, both nonChristians and Christians. However, that means we cannot access Gods intended meaning itself in a given passage of Scripture we simply work with our interpretations.
Today, many, including some Christians, are advocating a new form of social justice, new in the sense that is grounded not in the universal, shared standard of Gods character and His Word but on different bases formed on answers to these questions. The question will be, Can these new bases for social justice preserve justice, human dignity, and equality? Or will they undermine them? I will identify some of the key Christians (such as Brian McLaren) who are embracing these new bases for social justice. Then, I will assess briefly these bases. I will show that moral qualities such as justice cannot be sustained on them. Finally, I will extend these findings for an implication to the gospel itself.This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author R. Scott Smith about his online exclusive feature article Emergent Christians and the New Social Justice.