S3E8: Faith in Ambiguity - Miracles, Promise, and Time
09/07/22 • 35 min
What is faith? What is a miracle? And how are the themes of promise, time, and ambiguity related to all of that?
Has God truly been speaking with us? Is Reality personal? Christians believe God speaks to them and walks with them, but what we’ve explored so far still remains open to the question on whether this is merely one possible way to relate to reality, a subjective way to perceive what reality unfolds in our lives. It is only with the narratives of God’s promise and its fulfillment repeated throughout the Bible that the belief in the truly personal reality of God is established in Christianity. It is in this context, that miracles have any meaning in Christianity.
Thus, the narrative of God making a promise with people and how that promise unfolds is central to Christian account of humanity’s relationship with God. And that is the life-story of Abraham and Sarah.
This leads to the related question of faith. Faith has a dimension those of us today seldom notice, yet is probably the most important: time. Because promise implies waiting, and waiting implies time.
2:03 Ambiguity, not absence, of God that confronts us
9:40 God breaks through the ambiguity with a Promise to Abraham
16:48 What is a miracle? How people today misunderstand
24:28 Faith and personal trust
29:43 Why Time is essential to Miracles and Faith
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_Seungoh
website: https://whatdoyoumeangodspeaks.buzzsprout.com/
* Please review or rate this series on Apple Podcast and other platforms!
* You can financially support this show by clicking the "Support the Show" line above.
What is faith? What is a miracle? And how are the themes of promise, time, and ambiguity related to all of that?
Has God truly been speaking with us? Is Reality personal? Christians believe God speaks to them and walks with them, but what we’ve explored so far still remains open to the question on whether this is merely one possible way to relate to reality, a subjective way to perceive what reality unfolds in our lives. It is only with the narratives of God’s promise and its fulfillment repeated throughout the Bible that the belief in the truly personal reality of God is established in Christianity. It is in this context, that miracles have any meaning in Christianity.
Thus, the narrative of God making a promise with people and how that promise unfolds is central to Christian account of humanity’s relationship with God. And that is the life-story of Abraham and Sarah.
This leads to the related question of faith. Faith has a dimension those of us today seldom notice, yet is probably the most important: time. Because promise implies waiting, and waiting implies time.
2:03 Ambiguity, not absence, of God that confronts us
9:40 God breaks through the ambiguity with a Promise to Abraham
16:48 What is a miracle? How people today misunderstand
24:28 Faith and personal trust
29:43 Why Time is essential to Miracles and Faith
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_Seungoh
website: https://whatdoyoumeangodspeaks.buzzsprout.com/
* Please review or rate this series on Apple Podcast and other platforms!
* You can financially support this show by clicking the "Support the Show" line above.
Previous Episode
S3E7: Why do moral views change in the Bible?
Moral teachings in the Bible, especially in the Hebrew portion (the Christian Old Testament) pose a problem. There are rules and regulations that do not seem very important to us, while there are practices, such as slavery, God either seems to ignore, or even condone. And we're not even getting to the laws that God commands that seem too harsh or even barbaric by our standards today.
Then, to make this even more confusing, the New Testament portion of the Bible sometimes seem to present new moral teachings. God commands Abraham that the male members of God's people must be circumcised; apostle Paul writes that Christians who now belong to God do not need to be circumcised. People in the time of the Old Testament engaged themselves in terrifyingly savage wars; Jesus Christ teaches his disciples to love their enemies, and instead of condemning people for their sins, died for them.
Why do moral views change in the Bible?
Or, is it perhaps, the Bible is trying to teach something far more important regarding morality than any particular law or precept?
3:09 The problem of outdated morality in the Bible
8:24 Why God accommodates to our moral level
17:20 What the Bible is teaching about morality
23:58 Why Christians shouldn't follow some OT laws
27:15 What the Bible teaches is people
30:49 Where God seems to lead Abraham by conversing with him
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_Seungoh
website: https://whatdoyoumeangodspeaks.buzzsprout.com/
* Please review or rate this series on Apple Podcast and other platforms!
* You can financially support this show by clicking the "Support the Show" line above.
Next Episode
S3E9: Why God called Abraham to sacrifice his son
Why did God call Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering?
The story of the "Binding of Isaac," is not simply about a story of a man obeying God to the point that he will sacrifice his own son. It is about a call that everyone who speaks with God eventually hears. And we hear this call because all of humanity has been waging a one-sided Cold War with God, and to offer Isaac was to bet on peace.
2:22 Would you be at peace if God spoke to you?
7:57 Trouble with heirs - Ishmael and Isaac
14:48 Why what God spoke to Abraham is so perplexing
18:38 Humanity is waging a Cold War on God
26:07 Why Abraham needed to offer his son to God
33:05 Peace Child
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatdoyoumeangodspeaks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_Seungoh
website: https://whatdoyoumeangodspeaks.buzzsprout.com/
* Please review or rate this series on Apple Podcast and other platforms!
* You can financially support this show by clicking the "Support the Show" line above.
What do you mean God speaks? - S3E8: Faith in Ambiguity - Miracles, Promise, and Time
Transcript
[ pendulum - long ]
Time erodes things.
The memories of what once moved us, and the passion that once beat in our hearts, fade with age. Our childhood innocence, our youthful dreams and goals, that vigor and strength in the prime of our lives—they erode with the march of time.
So, what still moves us to take another step? [ pendulum stops ]
Christians call Abraham the father of fait
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