Ezra-Nehemiah: The Remnant Returns
Ben is joined by Christopher Hurtado for a discussion about the Kirtland Temple dedication. How did the early Saints view the temple and what does the Lord invite us to by way of the symbolism of the temple itself? Does God need a building or is the structure a mode by which we manifest our intention as a people? Prayer is often perceived as a way to inform or persuade God, but if God’s knowledge and will are perfect, prayer can only be a mode of changing us and our perceptions to align with God’s. How does Joseph Smith’s dedicatory prayer show us a pattern of worship and prayer? What can contradictions and inconsistencies teach us about the purpose of prayer? What is the veil that covers our minds and how are we to understand the purpose of the appearance of Jesus and other prophets in the Kirtland temple? ...
Shiloh joins with guest co-host Christopher Hurtado to discuss and question the nature of God. Is God as wrathful, vengeful, and angry as the scriptures say that God is? Why is God angry with and ready to destroy people in one area for one type of sin but seemingly more lax or merciful with others committing far more grievous errors? We know that we are only responsible for the truth and commandments that we know, but does this really explain the complexities of a God that is still so seemingly inconsistent? Is there room in these scriptures for us to learn to see God differently? Is there enough space for us to consider that perhaps God’s wrath, vengeance, and anger have more to do with our own perception(s) about God than it actually has to do with God’s true and eternal nature? Is God as transactional and as quid pro quo as scripture often makes God seem, or is God’s transactional nature more about a projection of the way that we already view ourselves? What do our views of God tell us about ourselves? Rather than seeing and experiencing a purely transactional God, what if we see and experience a universally transformational and unconditionally loving God that is not wrathful, vengeful, and angry in the way that we generally attribute to God in scripture, then what does that say about how we also are learning to see ourselves? ...
Can we properly understand the Old Testament if we skip reading some of its chapters? In this longer-than-usual episode, Ben and Christopher tackle Exodus 35-40 and the entire book of Leviticus. This intimidating section of scripture was difficult to approach, but with some help from the great Rob Bell, much of the seemingly irrelevant and bizarre has taken on relevance and profound meaning. In this Priestly manual, the sons of Aaron are invited to participate in the tending of the sacred space created in the Tabernacle as part of a new creation extending beyond it. Israel is called to be this new creation because the LORD has delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Their new system and society respond to the injustices of their captivity, establishing the weekly, seventh-year, and 50th-year (Jubilee) Sabbaths as signs of Israel’s covenant relationship with the LORD. All of this in about an hour and a half. As a bonus, Ben and Christopher spend about half an hour more responding to the above question, first raised by Christopher’s daughter (though already on Christopher and Ben’s minds) by delving deeper into what scripture is, and what to do with it in our own covenant relationship with the LORD. ...
