Gospel Conversations

Breakfast with Jesus - #16 - Ezekiel and the angry God

Ezekiel chapter 6 - Ezekiel and the ‘angry God’ of the OT.  In this BWJ episode Tony confronts the question of the so-called ‘angry God’ or ‘just God’ of the Old Testament and whether this picture contradicts the loving and ‘broken’ God revealed in Jesus.

Breakfast with Jesus - #15 - Ezekiel, Introduction

Introduction; 

Breakfast with Jesus kicks off again after a short break with a series of meditations on Ezekiel.  Tony begins with a big picture introduction in which he compares Jeremiah and Ezekiel, their overlapping lives, and the way Ezekiel pioneers apocalyptic thinking and the hope of resurrection.

Cross and Creation part 3 - Dominion

In this episode, Andrew and Tony explore a radical alternative view of the Fall – as ‘lost dominion’.  To do this they go back to the creation account and expand the concept of our being made in the image of God, and the implications of God calling humanity to have ‘dominion’.

The Cross and Creation - Part 2 - What are the challenges in creation?

This is the second conversation with Andrew Baartz in our series on the increasingly controversial doctrine of ‘penal substitution’.

The title of our series is ‘The Cross and Creation; can atonement combine both?’

This week Tony and Andrew explore the question - ‘What are the challenges in creation for which the cross was the solution?’ 

Breakfast with Jesus - #14 - Allegory; were the Patristics right or badly wrong?

In this latest BwJ talk of Jeremiah Tony investigates ‘allegory’ as a way to read the OT in particular. Is it an outdated, and fanciful method – or were the Patristics really onto something in their attraction to allegory as a legitimate way to read the OT stories and prophets?

The Cross and Creation - Part 1 - What are the questions?

This is the first conversation with Andrew Baartz in our series on the increasingly controversial doctrine of ‘penal subsititution’.

The title of our series is ‘The Cross and Creation; can atonement combine both?’

True to our approach at GC, we want to explore the topic rather than wading into the blow by blow debate. Our guest is Andrew Baartz. Andrew and Tony talk about the big picture – what are the questions for which atonement is the answer? And what are the assumptions behind those questions? The discussion stretches our conceptual landscape to allow for some broader perspectives. True to our theme at GC, we will position this topic within the horizon of the ‘creation gospel’.

The conversation will continue next month.

Breakfast with Jesus - #13 - Bad ways (and better ways) to read Jeremiah

Jeremiah 17:9 is often taken as a proof text for ‘original sin’ and “total depravity”.  But is that a correct reading and is the human heart indeed ‘desperately wicked’?

In this talk Tony explores this question and along the way uses the text – and its typical mishandling – as a starting point to explore smarter and more authentic ways to read Jeremiah – and indeed the Old Testament.  This is pretty important as it unlocks the text from its cage of assumptions and lets it speak for itself – and so challenge and transform us.

Breakfast with Jesus - #12 - Jesus, Jeremiah and Gehenna

Tony takes an extensive look at the way Jeremiah uses the image of the ‘Valley of Hinnom’ (or Gehenna) in his prophecies about Jerusalem and its impending doom.  He then looks at how the gospels, Matthew in particular, deliberately position Jesus as the modern ‘Jeremiah’ or ‘prophet’.  This positioning shines a new light on what Jesus may have meant by his use of the metaphor of ‘Gehenna’ (the Aramaic for ‘Valley of Hinnom’).  Finally Tony looks at the neglected high point of the new covenant in Jeremiah – which is the apparent redemption of the Valley of Hinnom as ‘sacred to the Lord’…. All of this leaves us with a different view of ‘hell’ (Gehenna) that is much more grounded in the Biblical text.

Matt Clarke and Disrupting Mercy

Tony Golsby-Smith interviews, Matt Clarke, on the subject of slavery in the 21st century – and how the normal Christian model of retribution and justice can get in the way of innovative solutions. Matt has worked in this field for years and became frustrated at the short sighted interventions of many Not-for-profits in this space. He has just written a great book, called ‘Disrupting Mercy’ about the topic which argues that we don’t just need a more holistic approach – we need a new paradigm of mercy. This interview is a prelude to our upcoming series on ‘The Cross and Creation’ where we will be examining the pros and cons of the controversial doctrine of ‘penal substitution’.

Breakfast with Jesus - #11 - Jeremiah Buys a Field, part two

This is Tony’s follow up talk on Jeremiah 32 – the story of Jeremiah buying a field. In this talk he dives into the analogy and explores just what insight it offers us as to how to live in the present through the lens of hope. He argues that the lens of ‘self denial’ is not what the analogy really is teaching us about the way our hope for the future influences our lives in the present.