In this interview, Pesach and I discuss some of the unhelpful ways that certain people of faith have responded to the pandemic gripping our world. How does God want us to respond? Can we know what God is saying to us through these difficult tim

BC 2.15 The Bible and the Coronavirus (or "How a few folks at DWU are living out their faith")

Mar 21st, 2020 39m 2s

This episode seeks to engage in the terrible virus sweeping our country asking, “What biblical themes should we be thinking about? Where is God speaking to us? What lessons can we learn?" I talked with Todd Mueller, an (associate professor of b

BC 2.14 A Conversation with Betty Oldenkamp on the Bible, Refugees and the Refugee Resettlement

Mar 17th, 2020 36m 49s

Betty Oldenkamp is the Executive Director of Lutheran Social Services in Sioux Falls and Director of their "Center for New Americans" which helps refugees resettle into South Dakota. In this episode, Betty and I discussed the striking way in wh

REL 141 Belief in God and Pascal’s Wager

Mar 13th, 2020 35m 23s

This episode is for students in my REL 141 course which is going online until Mar 30. I discuss Pascal’s Wager for those struggling to believe in God.

BC 2.13 The story of Thomas Madut: From Lost Boy of Sudan to Marathon Runner Extraordinaire

Mar 9th, 2020 48m 46s

This is my second episode on the Bible and Immigration and is an interview with my friend and colleague Thomas Madut. Thomas was one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" who fled from the Janjaweed fighters who wrecked devastation throughout south Sudan

BC 2.12 The Curious Case of SD HB 1212: Where the 1st Amendment and the Welfare of Children Collide

Mar 3rd, 2020 37m 5s

This podcast examines a recent experience I had advocating for South Dakota HB 1212 which would have added clergy to the list of mandatory reporters of suspected cases of child neglect and abuse. 45 states already mandate that clergy report sus

BC 2.11 The Bible and Our Environment: A Biblical Conversation with David Hollis

Feb 18th, 2020 1h 9m

We now know that January 2020 was the hottest January since temperatures have been tracked. Let’s talk climate. What does the Bible say about our environment? How should we think biblically about the multiple human impacts on the created world?

BC 2.10 The Bible and Immigration: Part Two A conversation with Vicky Vetter and Karl Kroger

Feb 11th, 2020 27m 44s

This is the second half of the conversation I had recently with Vicky Vetter and Karl Kroger. Vicky is the Director of Student Ministries at Legacy United Methodist Church in Bismarck ND. She's very involved in helping resettle and educate immi

BC 2.9 The Bible and the Immigrant: Conversation with Vicky Vetter and Karl Kroger

Feb 3rd, 2020 45m 11s

What attitude should we take toward people who have entered this nation illegally? Should mercy and benevolence triumph over justice and the law? What about those who immigrate here lawfully or those who seek asylum? Vicky, Karl and I waded int

BC 2.8 Abortion: A New Way Forward? A discussion with Alisha Vincent and Jeff Pospisil

Jan 21st, 2020 1h 1m

This is the first episode in Biblical Conversations on a “social issues” topic. We’re going to jump in deep. Let's talk about abortion. We can say with some confidence that this is the issue that got Trump elected - evangelicals loved his promi

BC 2.7 The Josiah Enigma and the Art of Changing your Mind

Jan 14th, 2020 37m 43s

This episode explores the biblical story of King Josiah (2 Kings 22-23). There are two powerful puzzles related to this story. 1) Why was the prophetess Huldah so negative and depressingly unhopeful? Jeremiah was prophesying great hope and salv

BC 2.6 Three Christmas Surprises

Jan 6th, 2020 27m 57s

This episode is a sermon I put together for the Christmas Season this year. Of course, the Christmas Season actually begins on Christmas and continues on for the 12 days of Christmas to January 6 when this episode should appear. I’ll discuss th

BC 2.5 Messiah Prophecies in Isaiah 11 and 60

Dec 30th, 2019 44m 25s

In this episode, Drs. Belanger and Redder, colleagues of mine here at Dakota Wesleyan University, discuss the prophecies of Isaiah 11 and 60. Also, Jeff Pospicil and I discussed Isaiah 60 - the second part of a previous conversation.

BC 2.4 Advent Study: Prophecies of the Messiah

Dec 23rd, 2019 57m 41s

In this episode, I'll have two discussions with Eric Van Meter, Jeff Pospisil. Eric and I discuss the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 7:10-17, and Jeff and I will discuss Isaiah 9:1-7. We discuss the fact that all these "prophetic" passages had ve

BC 2.3 Advent Study: Yahweh’s Kingship in the Psalms

Dec 16th, 2019 1h 5m

This episode explores the meaning of the book of Psalms as it relates to kingship. Turns out, the very structure of the book (divided into five sub-books with Royal Psalms at the seams) tells the story of the shifting understanding of Yahweh’s

BC 2.2 An Advent Study: Yahweh and the King: From Gideon to Golgotha Episode 2 in the series

Dec 9th, 2019 53m 14s

In this episode, we examine various attitudes about kingship in ancient Israel starting with the book of Judges (the theme mentioned four times toward the end that “In those days, there was no king in Israel” - clearly indicating that Israel ne

BC 2.1 An Advent Study: Yahweh and the King: From Gideon to Golgotha

Dec 2nd, 2019 48m 29s

This episode analyzes the developing understanding of kingship in ancient Israel - from Gideon’s rejection of kingship altogether (Yahweh is our King! We don’t need another!) to Christ our Messianic King, we survey biblical kingship and the com

BC Bonus: Ecclesiastes and Edgy Spirituality

Nov 22nd, 2019 18m 45s

I read an introduction to Ecclesiastes the other day that described Ecclesiastes as purveying an “edgy spirituality” that was challenging in the moment but in the end served to encourage faith and discipleship. That got me thinking about BC as

BC1: Biblical Conversations: The New Deal

Nov 20th, 2019 23m 5s

I’ve made some alterations to my first episode and I’m republishing it in this downtime before Season 2 begins (Dec. 4). I’ve added a new opening segment which I recently recorded to say again what I want in this podcast. Let me know what you t

BC 19 The Rabbi and the Bible (on Godliness and the Good life)

Nov 19th, 2019 55m 42s

Rabbi Wolicki - our guest on Biblical Conversations! In this episode, Rabbi Wolicki and I discuss rabbinic understandings of the relationship between godliness and the good life, whether the retribution system functioned at the individual level

BC 22 “As the Deer” or “Exercise for Soul Strength”

Oct 30th, 2019 42m 41s

We are living in a day an age of skyrocketing mental health challenges. Anxiety and depression seem to be at all-time highs. This episode explores Psalm 42 (the famous “As the Deer” Psalm) for lessons and exhortation as to how we can do the wor

BC 21: The Question of Wisdom: Interview with Brandon Vetter

Oct 23rd, 2019 26m 2s

Brandon and I discussed the issues surrounding the reception of wisdom traditions in the ancient and modern worlds. Brandon referred to a book exploring how the NT understands Jesus to be the embodiment of wisdom. Its by Ben Witherington III. T

BC 20 The Rabbi and the Bible: Part 2

Oct 16th, 2019 43m 51s

Rabbi Wolicki describes a rabbinic biblical legend of a conversation between Moses and God during a key episode in scripture. Moses asks about the question we’ve been discussing: Why is there a righteous man suffering and a righteous man prospe

BC 18: Odds and Ends (for those willing to brave the deeps)

Oct 1st, 2019 25m 47s

This episode is called “Odds and Ends” because I go a little deeper on two topics. First, I discuss the divine name more thoroughly and examine the possibility of its being based on a causative verb (hiphil in Hebrew) rather than the regular ve

BC 17 David Hollis on Satan and Scripture

Sep 24th, 2019 49m 15s

David and I discuss the notion of Satan and demons and how important it is to believe in these as real entities of existence. We also discussed how we understand biblical inspiration to work and how the scriptures function as God’s authoritativ