Real Bible Rob
I am a Presbyterian USA minister who interprets the Bible in all of its messy and varied voices. I teach and preach spiritual growth to people who want an open and affirming Christianity. My social media tagline is "People say lots of things about the Bible that aren't really there."
My full-length sermons and live stream are available on YouTube: @robchrist8999 and @edmondspresbyterian132
Contact me at: epc-pcusa.org, pastorepc@frontier.com
Episodes
62 episodes
Why is Galatians about Freedom? With Rev. Adina Meyer
My New Testament professor Dr. Nijay Gupta has written much about Galatians and is endlessly fascinated by Paul's letter. I didn't exactly understand why this angry letter was so important. Like many Christians, I usually favored Ephesians and ...
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Season 1
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Episode 62
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44:48
Exposing Harmful Fundamentalists, The Case for Optimism
Something’s seriously wrong with America and we all know it. What was the long path toward equality of men and women, of the races in civil rights, of religious people integrating progress into theology has faced ever-increasing headwinds. In m...
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Season 1
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Episode 61
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32:35
The Truth about King James and Protestantism
Let's talk about 17th century England. Why? Because so much about American Protestant beliefs and culture come from it. The King James Bible was a political stake in the ground. The Westminster Confession was an Act of Parliament during the Eng...
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Season 1
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Episode 60
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43:58
Is God warm hearted or cold hearted? Jeremiah 42:10 and Isaiah 40:1
Does God express emotions? This is a more central question than it seems. It’s a significant clue to how you see the sovereignty of God, whether God changes, and whether God is affected by prayer. If God shows the emotion of regret, does that m...
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Season 1
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Episode 59
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21:03
Great Approach to Bible Reading with @LiterallyTheBible Elle
Today I am excited to welcome Elle, who goes by @LiterallyTheBible on TikTok and YouTube. She is reading the Bible from cover to cover as a non-religious gal. Her approach to Bible reading chapter by chapter is so insightful and refreshing. I'v...
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Season 1
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Episode 58
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57:54
Revelation Queerness with Professor Lynn Huber
I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Lynn Huber, Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University and an expert on the Book of Revelation. I have been following her on TikTok, and I was intrigued by her commentary about queer perspectives on Revelatio...
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Season 1
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Episode 57
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52:01
The Harm of Replacement Theology, Hebrews 8:6-13
Christians love Replacement. Replacing Judaism with the New Covenant. Replacing the Jewish people as the Chosen people of God. Replacing Islam in the Holy Land during the Crusades. In America, replacing indigenous people with white Christian pe...
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Season 1
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Episode 56
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44:01
Striving to be saved? Matthew 7:13-14, Luke 13:24
People use the narrow gate metaphor that Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount to feed their persecution complex and to exclude others. I frequently come across egregious misrepresentations of these passages. Often spoken with cult-like intenti...
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Season 1
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Episode 55
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27:21
Physical Digital Church, Interview with Skeptic Pastor Jeremy Steele
I am delighted to welcome Jeremy Steele to the podcast today. I love his content on TikTok so much. He reached out to creators with podcasts. I jumped at the chance to interview him, and he graciously agreed!Church attendance statistics...
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Season 1
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Episode 54
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52:02
War on Empathy, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, Psalm 103:13
How can you justify cruelty as a Christian? It has a very long tradition, from the Crusades to Slavery and Jim Crow to Mass Deportations today. These were all and are still perpetuated and justified by Bible believing Christians. This justifica...
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Season 1
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Episode 53
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37:15
Always Reforming is Now! The Church must reform again
The Church is in desperate need of Reform. Which direction should we go? Rediscovering doctrines of the past? Reforming our doctrines for a new era? There is a lot of disagreement about what is needed. I argue that we must do both.
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Season 1
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Episode 52
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35:51
Does God Change?, Exodus 32:14, Jeremiah 18:8-10
Whenever you ask whether God changes or that God learns, It is usually met with a resounding "No!" But then you must ask, what is the point of prayer? When you look at scripture, it says explicitly many times that God changes. "But God knows ev...
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Season 1
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Episode 51
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30:00
Reject Abusive Father Theology: Romans 8 is Freedom Not Slavery
For many Romans 8 is the essential chapter for understanding God’s purpose in the Gospel message. While I don’t think that was necessarily Paul’s purpose to be all-encompassing, it can be a great guide for us. N.T. Wright has said, that if he h...
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Season 1
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Episode 50
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39:08
When in Romans: Freedom or Shackles?
The book of Romans carries so much theological weight that it’s hard to see Paul’s reasoning and technique through it. Fortunately, there’s been a wealth of new scholarship and research on it that it’s freeing the text from its Lutheran and Cal...
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Season 1
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Episode 49
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49:55
Is Esther the most Romantic Book of the Bible?
Today I have a special guest Maria Hearing. Maria is a dear friend, classmate, teacher, Hebrew reading partner, and leader. Maria has done deep research on the book of Esther, and she has written scholarly papers on the narrative and genres of ...
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Season 1
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Episode 48
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50:42
Phony Originalism in Christianity: History or Myth
Do you have an image of a traditional past that was better? Kids respected their parents. People had manners. They respected the law. Neighbors watched out for each other. Not like these wicked times, so the reasoning goes. It seems harkening t...
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Season 1
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Episode 47
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38:23
Slavery is still with us, Leviticus 25:42-46 & Colossians 3:22-4:1
Slavery drives Christian thought far more than you realize. It has never left us. Imagine for a moment being on a plantation as a child. Slavery requires the crushing of empathy. Much of what we’ve seen in the last 400 years in the west was the...
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Season 1
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Episode 46
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38:51
Penal Substitution is not the Gospel, Romans 3:9-26
Asking "What is the gospel?" is surprisingly controversial in some quarters. Most people believe the gospel is the radical love of God in the person, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But that’s not enough for many others. They insist that Pena...
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Season 1
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Episode 45
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45:28
The King You Didn't Know, Jeremiah 1:1-19 & 2 Chronicles 35:20-25
"If you know Jeremiah, you know the Old Testament" is something I like to say. Because it is the most political book of the Bible. It is the backdrop of King Josiah's huge political blunder in fighting against Pharaoh Neco in 2 Chronicles 35 th...
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Season 1
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Episode 44
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23:56
Apologetics Can't Prove God Exists, 1 Peter 3:14-16
I said "Apologetics is Circular Reasoning" in a video last year. It garnered a lot of hate, cheers, and hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram. The response was fascinating because what should have been a philosophical argument turned into...
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Season 1
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Episode 43
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44:41
Jezebel Spirit and diminishing women, 2 Kings 9:30-37, Esther 1:10-20
There is no more painful label for women than being called a Jezebel. It contains all the condemning, cursing, and slut shaming you can imagine. "Jezebel Spirit" is a frequently used racial slur in some churches. Jezebel was a foreign woman, li...
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Season 1
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Episode 42
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34:16
Was Jesus Capitalist or Communist? Acts 2:44-45, Leviticus 25
The answer is neither. Economics is all over the Bible, but modern labels have so much historical and cultural meaning that it is dishonest to label anyone in scripture as capitalist or socialist or communist. Instead, we must talk about commer...
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Season 1
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Episode 41
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52:17
Eating the Big Fish of Resistance, John 21:1-17
Many people, especially in America, are waking up to the fact that our freedom is on the line. While this has been the norm for most people in most of history, it is a surprising development for many privileged white people. Our views often mas...
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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31:19
Martha, Mary & Audacious Women, Luke 10:38-42 & John 12:1-8
If you are a woman, you have likely heard the story of Martha and Mary. Martha is hurried and busy in the kitchen at the big party she threw for Jesus. But Mary sits down at Jesus's feet, anointing him with ointment. Martha complains to Jesus, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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23:42
Going to the wall with Hosannas
Have you been puzzled by the dissonance of Palm Sunday? How can people seem so happy at the start of the worst week of Jesus's life? Why do we think Hosanna is offering praise? What made the people throw their cloaks down and wave branches? The...
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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29:28