Podcasts about german protestant

In the final episode of this season of searching for the seeds of Secular Christianity, we travel to the 20th century to learn from the German Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We explore his concept of religionless Christianity which developed as he sat imprisoned in Berlin by the Nazi regime for his resistance, and before his execution. McGrath continues to link back to Augustines idea of the invisible church and coins the term invisible Christianity. 

In the final episode of this season of searching for the seeds of Secular Christianity, we travel to the 20th century to learn from the German Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.We explore his concept of religionless Christianity which developed as he sat imprisoned in Berlin by the Nazi regime for his resistance, and before his execution. McGrath continues to link back to Augustines idea of the invisible church and coins the term invisible Christianity. 

Church of England revs with a difference Jamie Franklin and Tom Pelham sit down to talk about the biggest stories in church and state. This time:A major screw-up in the election campaign for Rishi Sunak as he leaves D-Day celebrations early and gets pilloried for it.Nigel Farage is attacked with rubble.An analysis of the Tory and Lib Dem manifestos.And we debate the biggest question of all (sort of): what are you going to do with your vote?All that, a bit on the vandalism of the King's portrait, President Bukele of El Salvador, the death of German Protestant theologian Jurgen Moltmann, and much much more!Please Support!Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/irreverend) or Buy Me a Coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/irreverend). Subscribe to Jamie's Blog here: https://jamiefranklin.substack.comLinks:D-Day screw-up: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/06/12/rishi-sunak-itv-interview-d-day-nigel-farage-sky-tv/ Are the Tories finished? https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/11/are-the-tories-finished/Jack Anderton summary video: https://x.com/JACKGUYANDERTON/status/1799495353017745764Christian Concern analysis of Lib Dem policies: https://x.com/CConcern/status/1800569508559757761Conservative Manifesto: https://public.conservatives.com/static/documents/GE2024/Conservative-Manifesto-GE2024.pdfKing Charles portrait “vandalised”: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/06/12/rishi-sunak-itv-interview-d-day-nigel-farage-sky-tv/ Carlson interview Nayib Bukele on how God helped him and his government to turn around El Salvador: https://tuckercarlson.com/bukeleDeath of Jurgen Moltmann: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/7-june/news/world/professor-juergen-moltmann-dies-aged-98Notices:Find me a church: https://irreverendpod.com/church-finder/Join our Irreverend Telegram group: https://t.me/irreverendpodFind links to our episodes, social media accounts and ways to support us at https://www.irreverendpod.com!Thursday Circles: http://thursdaycircle.comJamie's Good Things Substack: https://jamiefranklin.substack.comSupport the Show.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a famous twentieth century Christian, was a dynamic and occasionally controversial theologian who became a household name because of his character and courage. When it mattered the most, in a time when many of his fellow Germans—including pastors and priests—embraced Hitler and the Nationalist ideas of the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer stood with conviction.   After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the bulk of German Protestant groups submitted to the oversight of pro-Nazi leaders. These so-called “German Christians” compromised the eternal truths of God to a racist, statist, and eugenicist totalitarian regime. Because of their compromise, they were left free to practice their faith, as long they did not transgress Nazi doctrine.  Bonhoeffer, with others such as Martin Niemöller and Karl Barth, did transgress. They also stood against compromising churchmen. Bonhoeffer helped found the dissident Confessing Church and underground seminaries and was among those who published the defiant Barmen Declaration. Rejecting his earlier pacifism, he took on an active role in resistance to Hitler's tyranny, eventually joining the plot to assassinate the madman.  Though Bonhoeffer has been rightly praised for his faithfulness and courage in each of these activities, his most courageous act may have been simply going home. In the early years of the Nazi terror, Bonhoeffer went first to the United Kingdom and then the United States, taking up teaching positions in a free, safe part of the world.   His conscience, however, did not let him remain in safety while his nation was facing and committing such evil. In 1939, just weeks before the war began, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany. Writing to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, he explained, “I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.”  Despite his courage, Bonhoeffer wasn't perfect. His theology, at times, strays and is puzzling. In fact, one of his most important co-laborers, Karl Barth, had his own theological complications and moral failings. This is a theme that frequently emerges in Christian history. Figures as prominent as Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., though used by God in incredible ways, were flawed in behavior and belief.   This fits well with the heroes described in Holy Scripture. The author of Hebrews, in chapter 11, offers a list of champions for God that is rightly described as the Bible's Hall of Faith. Even the best of the list, men like Abraham and Moses, are as famous for their flaws as their victories. In the cases of some who are included, like Samson, Gideon, and Jephthah, it's difficult to understand how they are even heroes. Yet there they are included among the others.  The danger in refusing to honor the imperfect isn't just the temptation to whitewash others' sins while excusing our own. It's also the temptation to wait for an imaginary tomorrow when everything is just right rather than working today to oppose what's wrong. And it is here that we can learn another lesson from Bonhoeffer. In his book Ethics, he called on Christians to be faithful in the here and now, writing,  Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living.  For Bonhoeffer, the Christian faith must be lived in the time and place in which God places us. In that sense, courage and faith are inseparable. We must do the right thing, even if the cost is great and even if we feel inadequate for the task.  God has called you and me into this tempest of the living. As James instructs, Christianity is not merely believing the right things but doing them, empowered by the Spirit given to us in Christ Jesus. This will mean risk. It may mean failure. But it's through the imperfect faith of His people that God is at work renewing His world.  This Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org. 

Star Wars nerds have an argument about Han Solo, and whether he fired his gun first in the bar scene of “A New Hope.” There are t-shirts that say, “Han shot first.” I am here to tell you of a similar argument, one that has far greater importance and consequence for anyone that believes Jesus is God incarnate, also known as the Creator of the Universe. This one matters immensely because your spiritual life may depend on how you answer it, and the truth about this matters much in the founding of Christ's Church. This question is about which Gospel was written first, and I am here to tell you: Matthew shot first. Matthew wrote the first Gospel. He wrote it in Hebrew first before it was translated into Greek. He wrote it before the year 70 A.D. And it was Matthew the Apostle that wrote it, not some random Matthew from Accounting. Why does any of this matter? Because for two centuries, people have been spending incredible amounts of ink to disprove this Tradition, because it undermines the Church. According to Sacred Tradition, from Papias and Irenaeus, to Ignatius of Antioch, all the way to St. Jerome and St. Augustine, Matthew was known to be the first Gospel. This is documented in various writings from the Church fathers. The whole tradition of the Church said so for nearly two millennia. For a terrific read on this, check out Brant Pitre's book The Case for Jesus which cuts through two hundred years of fog spewed from anti-Catholic scholarship and atheists. For anyone who attended college in the 1990s, brace yourself and be seated when reading this book. Much of what I learned in my freshman year of college turned out to be false, it's just unfortunate that I can't get a refund from Viterbo University for it. (Note: there's a video series on formed.org of Pitre's The Case for Jesus). Matthew happens to be the Gospel with the most pro-Catholic references. But that is not the reason I believe it is important to believe that Matthew shot first. Not at all. Rather, it is the overwhelming evidence of history and testimony of the early church that indicates that Matthew, the apostle, wrote a Hebrew or Aramaic gospel first, and no one batted an eye about this claim until 19th century scholars decided that Matthew a.) didn't write it all, and b.) wrote it much later, and c.) maybe didn't even exist. All of Christianity, for 1800 years, knew that the gospel of Matthew was written first, hence the ordering that we all learn as children: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Until the 19th century, in Germany's “culture war” (Kulturkampf) against the Catholic Church, Matthew shot first. Then, magically, by textual criticism, in mostly Lutheran academic circles, suddenly Mark became the first Gospel. You have to marvel at this sudden change, when you consider how much Catholics and other faithful talk about Jesus, and things related to Jesus, and anything that could possibly even relate to Jesus. People talk about Jesus and the Gospels like breathing air. But we are to assume that for 1800 years, no one had really thought about which Gospel was written first? And, stranger still, only when the Protestant era and Enlightenment humanism arrived did the topic finally come up? I find it difficult to imagine that the early Church members, from bishops downward to the lowliest lay person, didn't constantly discuss these things. Moreover, you have copies of Matthew scattered about the known world with “According to Matthew” written at the very top of the scrolls, indicating very clearly that the authorship was not in question. But suddenly in modern times, the question erupts: “Did Matthew really write Matthew?”There is literally no copy of Matthew that does not have his name written at the top. Zero. The only question of authorship comes from those who do not want it to be written by an apostle and an eyewitness of Jesus' life. Further, there is not a single argument in the writings of the early Church that dispute that Matthew was written first. When scripture first started being read in liturgy, the Church would still have been almost entirely oral tradition. In other words, spreading the word of Jesus was not done by handing someone a Gideon's Bible or leaving a pamphlet on the bathroom sink at the airport. No, the word, was all passed on by the spoken word, and through relationships. Anyone still remember relationships? This is hard to remember for us now, but relationships and human contact was a pre-Internet phenomenon when people got together and talked about things that really mattered to them instead of watching cat videos, sports, and porn by themselves. In the early church, there was no printing press, and most people were illiterate. So if you wanted to learn about Christ, you had to talk about Christ with others, listen, repeat, retell, and revisit. No podcasts were available, no wordy blogs like this one. Yet clearly the copyists and the Church fathers knew that Matthew existed, wrote the first Gospel, and wrote it first. This is what is called Tradition in the Catholic Church. It is beyond my ceiling of credibility to imagine that no one during the Apostolic era stopped to ask, or thought to discuss, or bent anyone's ear about which evangelist wrote first, or who wrote it. We are to believe that we had to wait some 1800 years for English and German Protestant scholars to come up with these questions. Now, I can watch just about any fantasy or science fiction movie and let my ceiling be raised to accommodate the director's or author's imagination, but I cannot imagine that no one said, “Hey guys, which Gospel was written first?” In addition, the one Apostle who most certainly knew how to write was the tax collector, Matthew, who worked in Jerusalem and would have obviously needed to know multiple languages to merely do his job. Yet, we plant this stamp of doubt upon it and ask, “Did Matthew really write Matthew?” as if no one ever asked that question. But there is good reason for enemies of the Church to argue that Mark shot first. There are extremely compelling reasons to take up this banner and fight against “Matthew shot first.”The motive to remove eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life is strong on the atheist side of the fence, because it increases doubt and alleviates their conscience for not believing. If you push Matthew out to 90 A.D., then a sixty year gap from Crucifixion to writing the Gospel makes it more of a legend than a biography. On the flip side, for Protestants, moving Matthew to a much later date elevates the argument against Peter as the first Pope. Matthew is full of references to Peter as the founder of Christ's Church, as well as the Sacraments of confession and marriage being defined exactly as the Church still teaches them in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In both cases, the Church is attacked. This is nothing new, and every heresy and battle the Catholic Church ever faced comes from the same places, going as far back as Marcion, Pelagius, Arius, Celsus, and every other would-be Pope-slayer. But here's one of the funny things about all of those historical heresies: not one of them, not a single one, ever challenged the idea that Matthew shot first. This only came up relatively recently, starting in countries with kings and politicians that hated the Church, who were either Protestant or unbelievers. But most interesting is that in both writing the author as Matthew and declaring the order with Matthew first, the early church had no motive or reason to lie about any of this, because neither the specter of atheism nor the idea of future Protestantism in the 16th century would have occurred to them. It's difficult, if not impossible, to imagine how every scribe in the world wrote “The Gospel according to Matthew” on top of the scroll, when as this thing was spread out it was like feathers flying out of a pillow from a rooftop. Yet, we are to believe that every scribe who caught a feather was somehow in on a conspiracy to mask the authorship of some random writer by tricking everyone into believing that the apostle Matthew wrote it. Perhaps more amazing is the minor, miniscule errors in copying that the scribes made as this document flew around the world. To follow this a bit more, we are to believe that those first Christians who were willing to preach in the streets and be martyred for proclaiming the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, had some kind of massive, Orwellian, bureaucratic memory-hole operation in place to bury any copy that could have unwound the conspiracy. This is beyond comprehension, because it assumes that rather than just trying to spread the word of Jesus, the apostles were master manipulators, like Machiavelli, or Iago from Othello, and somehow these fishermen cooked up a story so profound and so life-changing, that not only were they willing to tell it to everyone, but they were willing to be boiled, clubbed, beaten, stabbed, flayed, and crucified for it. The “synoptic problem” was not a problem until it was a problem for unbelievers and Protestants, especially kings who wanted to have their own form of religion and morality, like every mythological cult that ever got started. The problem with allowing kings and power into your religion is that in that very moment, that instant, you've lost your religion. This is, essentially, what paganism is. It's the hammering of God's law and natural law to fit the goals of the king or the State. And re-writing history to remove Matthew is one of those methods of “winning” that modern kings and governments and academics have attempted to use. But the motive of the Apostles motives was evangelism, as they were on fire with the Holy Spirit, literally, from Pentecost onward. Things were moving at a pace far too fast for creeping conspiracies, and the Word of God was spreading even without them, because as soon as they told someone, that person told the next, and the next, and the next. It's worth pointing out that the Apostles and early Church Fathers didn't have TV or YouTube, so they had immense amounts of time to ponder these things, and they knew the scriptures, not to mention Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, far better than anyone alive today. They lived far closer to the oral tradition and the texts themselves, and St. Jerome even wrote that he saw and read from the Hebrew version of Matthew in Alexandria. What scholars do with lines like that is find an error in the writing, unrelated to the claim, and then cast out the author as “unreliable.” Or they look to the motives and say, “This Church father was a propagandist for the Catholic Church.” This is classic hitman work, but if that is the case, then this cancel culture should be applied equally to modern scholarship, where if any error is ever made, the Ph.D. should be rescinded. As for who I would rather trust, I would take saints Jerome, Augustine, Papias, Irenaeus, Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, and Matthew himself over the 19th century anti-Catholics and 20th century atheists. After all, a lot of the Church Fathers and the Apostles died for their proclamations, and none of them, not one, cracked and cried out in the fires or at their beheadings, “You're right, I lied. We all lied! In the seven weeks between the Crucifixion and Pentecost, we came up with a grand conspiracy, and we would say that Matthew wrote in Hebrew first, and that he wrote it after the Temple was destroyed so that we could make it look prophetic, and actually Matthew didn't write it all, it was Matthew from Accounting - he wrote it! We hired a ghost writer, just please, please don't kill me!”No, they go to their deaths. They go boldly, without apostatizing or recanting. They die saying things much different than what I just imagined. "Eighty-six years have I have served him," Polycarp said on his way to the fire, "and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king and my savior?"Ignatius of Antioch, dragging his chains, spoke defiantly to the Roman emperor Trajan. He said, “You are in error, emperor, when you call the demons of your nation gods. For there is but one God who made heaven, earth, the sea and all that are in them. And one Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.” Church tradition even holds that Ignatius was the actual kid that Jesus held in the Gospel stories. (Mt 18:1-5) In other words, guys like Ignatius of Antioch were alive when Christ was alive. He met Jesus. So here's the dilemma, the choice: am I to believe a 19th or 20th century scholar who spent all of his time in a library reviewing fragments of paper and letting his imagination soar, or am I to believe the testimony of Matthew, Ignatius, Papias, Irenaeus, Jerome, Eusebius, Augustine, and all the others, who lived and died in the era when the Church was forming and when many were being slaughtered by kings and governors in professing that Jesus is the son of God? I choose the latter. Sorry, C.H. Weisse. Sorry, Bart Ehrman. It requires more faith to believe anything that Ehrman claims than it does to believe in the Resurrection of Christ. Here's the thing: these scholars have sacrificed nothing and only sown doubt, and led millions to the death of their faith. It is not difficult to destroy faith. It is difficult to be in the counter-culture and live a life of faith. Ehrman and the others may be searching for truth, but they are doing so in the darkness, willfully choosing to reject God, which is what God allows us to do. Each of us has the choice to turn toward or away from God, and the effort of scholars to spurn God requires that they reject hard historical written evidence in order to produce and uphold their faith in nothing. But then of course they must do this - when all you have is this world, and no spiritual life, it's imperative that you recruit others to your worldview, because we all need our cheerleaders, and standing alone in the abyss without God is a lonely place to be. We get to choose our own hell, but some of us like Ehrman want others to choose it as well. St. Thomas, the doubting apostle, was told, “Blessed are those who have not seen and believe.” (Jn. 20:29) This is, of course, the great test, the final test, the one we get to answer on our deathbed. It's the one that Ehrman and Dawkins have already answered, but could still change their mind. It's the kind of final exam you really don't need to study for, but you do need to prepare for it, because how you decide will crystallize your eternal state. Perhaps the most difficult thing for me to believe is that we have several different writings from Church Fathers which mention that Matthew first wrote a document in Hebrew, but because we cannot find that document today, we assume it doesn't exist. Here's a news flash for modern people: paper crumbles. Time decays paper. If you don't believe me, go find your grandmother's photo album and inspect it. There's this odd sense that if we don't dig up the original draft that it didn't exist, when we know full well that paper falls apart, and copyists had to copy and yes, even translate the texts. There is a reason scribes were called scribes, and that was to copy texts so they didn't disintegrate. Yet many deny a Hebrew writing by Matthew exists because we haven't found it. But this leads us to the best part, the most fantastic and ludicrous thing of all about 19th century German scholarship and 20th century atheist scholarship, which has even bled over into Catholic teaching at universities like the one I attended. You cannot make up the next part, except that they did make it up… Of all things that confound me, replacing this Hebrew version of Matthew, we have scholars who have invented a fictional document called “Q” for which there is no evidence, no scrap, not a letter of, but which is assumed to exist. So we have writings that mention Matthew's earlier writing in Hebrew, which is discarded for a hypothetical document that is not mentioned anywhere, has never existed, and will never exist, that takes its place. We even have St. Jerome saying that he saw a Hebrew version of Matthew in Alexandria. We have testimony of eyes on the Hebrew version of Matthew. However, this fairy Q document has nothing, but is treated as if it were the first Gospel. So the next time someone tells you that Matthew was written after 80 A.D., you should assume that they are referring to the Greek translation of Matthew, because there is clearly a Hebrew version of Matthew, of some kind, of some format, written long before that. Because if the scholars can “prove” that a Greek translation of Matthew was written after the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem, and that someone other than Matthew translated it, that's not a terribly big deal. The point of massive significance is that Matthew wrote first, that Matthew wrote a Gospel, and he wrote it first in Hebrew. He was the only apostle that certainly had to be literate because of his occupation as a tax collector, and even if he dictated it to a scribe, that's no different than any other author speaking to a secretary that types a memo. It should come as no surprise that copies and translations had to be made, and my New Testament college professor acted as if the Gospels had to a.) either fall from the sky, b.) or had to have the finger of God directing the hand motion on the paper, or c.) if neither of the above happened, then it was just a game of telephone that only academics and the Jesus Seminar unbelievers could decipher. To this day, I am stunned, really beyond stunned, that a Catholic University was teaching and guiding students to read the output of the Jesus Seminar from the 1990s. The same attack on Matthew has been done to the point of insanity on the books of Moses, with the same batch of motives, which is to reduce the sacred texts to “nation-building” lies, or worse, to deny the existence of Moses altogether. When things come up like this you have to look at the motives of the scholars. To quote the Dude in The Big Lebowski, who quotes Vladimir Lenin, before his stoner mind drifts off: “You look to the person who will benefit…and ah…”Walter Sobchak: The Dude: It's all a fake, man. It's like Lenin said: you look for the person who will benefit, and, uh, uh, you know... Donny: I am the walrus.Who benefits from this scholarship that removes Matthew as author, as the first author, and pushes his writing back to 90 A.D.? It's quite simple. Protestants and atheists benefit, and they benefit in different ways. The Church's authority is undermined, which is what Protestants wanted, but funny thing about that, in their zeal for undermining Catholic authority, they undermined scripture altogether, because as soon as they finished their sprint around the track, atheists took the baton and ran so that today people don't even believe that Jesus existed. Now, I can go on for days about this railroading of Matthew, and I probably will, because one of the greatest attacks on the Church, sustained now for two hundred years, is this effort to force Matthew down from it's chronological position as the first Gospel. The goal is multi-faceted. The attack has various prongs, but first of all, his writing clearly elevates the Catholic Church, and most of the scholars on this topic truly hated the Catholic Church. They still do. Second, removing Matthew as an eyewitness account of Christ makes the miracles seem fishy. Hence, you get unbelievers like Ehrman calling it all a “telephone game” rather than eyewitness accounts of God in the flesh. What's funny is that there is a telephone game happening, but it's among academics starting in the 1500s right up until today in 2023. Third, pushing Matthew's writing to beyond the year 70 A.D. after the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, makes the prophecy of Christ about the temple destruction seem more like a statement from Captain Obvious than the Son of God. Moving the goal posts on the chronology of the Gospel writers has a clear motive, which is to remove the eyewitness nature of the accounts and play up the “telephone game” nonsense. There's just one major problem with this, Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3:1:1)Peter and Paul were martyred before 70 A.D. So was this a vast conspiracy by Irenaeus and Papias and the various other writers to befuddle us all until we were blessed with Protestant German scholars and atheist academics? I think the QAnon people have a more plausible conspiracy theory than this one. So who are we to believe? Some random professor today? Or Irenaeus, who was taught by Polycarp, who knew the Apostle John, who stood at the Cross during the Crucifixion? Which of these two people are more likely to have known when and by whom the Gospels were written? Here's the pedigree of Irenaeus, who today's random professor has written off as unreliable:Polycarp was a bishop of the early church, a disciple of the apostle John, a contemporary of Ignatius, and the teacher of Irenaeus. According to Irenaeus, Polycarp “was instructed by the apostles, and was brought into contact with many who had seen Christ.” He lived from the latter half of the first century to the mid-second century. Polycarp was martyred by the Romans, and his death was influential, even among the pagans. (from gotquestions.org) I choose Irenaeus. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.whydidpetersink.com

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here.

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biblical-studies

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/van-leer-institute

The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton UP, 2010) documents the process, and relative ease, with which institutions of higher learning and the religious establishment, can be corrupted by political ideology and power. In Germany of the 1930's the thin cloak of religion covered and sanitized the murderous evil of Naziism. Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought. Renee Garfinkel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, writer, Middle East television commentator and host of The New Books Network's Van Leer Jerusalem Series on Ideas. Write her at reneeg@vanleer.org.il. She's on Twitter @embracingwisdom. She blogs here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies

Welcome to July 9th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today We celebrate a classic sugar rush and cars that make our hearts beat faster. It's believed that sugar cookies originated in the mid 1700s in Nazareth, Pennsylvania when German Protestant settlers created a round, crumbly butter cookie known as the Nazareth Cookie. During the Victorian era people thought that spices would overly excite children and thus tea cookies were made purposefully plain. They evolved into the perfect medium for shaping elaborate Christmas ornaments. But starting in the 1930s, baking soda and vanilla were added and sugar cookies disappeared before they could be hung. Today both young and old enjoy a good sugar rush, and the more ornate the better! On National Sugar Cookie Day, bake up a batch of the treats that make any day a holiday. The 1933 Chicago World's Fair was billed as a Century of Progress Exposition. And one car was put to the test in a gladiator arena to demonstrate its safety: the 1934 Chrysler Airflow. This classic beauty thrilled a live audience with a stage life and death challenge. The track was watered down to create hydroplane danger. A camera crew was positioned dead center, at the end of this hazard and with their cameras rolling, the whole world watched as the hydraulic brakes and Goodyear tires pit man against machine. And with true dramatic flair, this champion stopped mere inches from the humans. On Collector Car Appreciation Day, you can view these yesteryear champions in places like Dunton Motors on Route 66. I'm Anna Devere, and I'm Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, May 1st-8th, 2022 we remember Count Nicholas Von Zinzindorf, who was the founder of the German Protestant group known as the Moravians.  The Moravians were the group encountered by John Wesley on his voyage from England to the colony of Georgia to evangelize the Native Americans and African slaves.  Their dogma and doctrines led to the birth of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College's Eli Black professor of Jewish Studies, an award-winning author, and the daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel will present this lecture. Sponsored by The Kripke Center for the Study of Religion, Project Interfaith and the Institute for Holocaust Education. Presented at Creighton University on April 23, 2013 presented on this podcast with permission of Leonard J. Greenspoon, BA, PhD Theology Professor College of Arts and Sciences organizer of the presentation.

Have you ever wondered when Jesus went from a middle eastern person to a white Anglo-Saxon? No… it doesn't just stem from German Protestant racism. It was the Transfiguration! When God bleaches Jesus's clothes white and "transforms his face".

Today I am chatting with speaker and author Michelle Reyes. Michelle's ministry lives at the intersection of faith, culture, and justice. She is the Vice President and co-founder of the Asian-American Christian Collaborative, and she and her husband, Aaron, planted a church in East Austin, TX where she serves as the scholar in residence. Michelle and Aaron lead their church body to serve the vulnerable in their community  as the hands and feet of Jesus and share the hope of Christ wherever they go. Her book Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections Across Cultures is an incredible deep dive into the role of diversity in the Bible and how it was celebrated in the early church.  During our conversation today, Michelle unpacks for us what the 1st century Church looked like when Paul was addressing becoming all things to all people uniquely for who they are for the sake of the Gospel, but not to compromise the message of the Gospel, but to recognize and respect that no two people are the same no matter their ethnicity, cultural identity, and celebrate the unique design of each person made in the image of God. Michelle's voice is so valued in my life. She is always honest, always points to Jesus, and is always holding space for whoever has ears to hear to deep dive in scripture and to hear the stories in real life from other cultural perspectives. One thing she shares in this conversation that I think is so powerful is this: “Unity is not about conformity, unity is learning to make space for all of our differences and embrace them.” It's about removing divisions and hostilities between peoples, and that when we do that work, it's going to be uncomfortable because people are people, but “the pursuit of unity demands that we say ‘how much cultural discomfort am I willing to forbear for the sake of the Gospel?'” This is such an incredible conversation, friends. Come dive in deep with us! The Lord isn't finished with any of us, and He has so much more to show us when we celebrate the story He is telling in each unique representation of His creativity in creation. And that means you too. YOU matter, your neighbor matters, and your story matters.  Connecting with Michelle: Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC) Book Book on Audible (which is how I read it! So good.) Instagram Facebook Quick links to some of the resources she offers that were mentioned Twitter Website  Episode Sponsor: Hopefuel Facebook  Instagram Link to shop SIMPLY15 for 15% off your purchase References:  -Forced laborers who built the railroad in Uganda -Genocide in Uganda under President  -German/Protestant reformation and Martin Luther  -Hope Community Church  -Vida House  -Hidden Children of the Holocaust  -The internment camp in New York for Jewish refugees during WWII  -The Jewish peoples of the 1st century -Who are the Pharisees? -Gamaliel (Paul's mentor) -Who are the Sadducees? -Who were the Jewish Zealots? -Who are the Samaritans? (This stems from the division of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms and a very small portion of them still live in Israel today. See this recent article). -The Jewish Diaspora  -Eric Metaxas and white Jesus -”that” picture of Jesus, which is actually a painting by Warner Sallman called “Head of Christ” -An article about how Jesus began to be seen as white and European in art -A really great article about white privilege in the Church by Jemar Tisby -George Floyd's murder  -Murder of 6 Asian- American women in Atlanta -Upholding the orthodoxy Scripture References: Psalm 107:2 -Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story  1 Corinthians 9:19-23 1 Corinthians 9:20- To the Jews I became like a Jew  Genesis 1:27- We are all made in the image of God Galatians 3:26-29 - there is neither Jew nor Greek, etc.  Genesis 11:1-9- The tower of Babel Acts 2:1-31- Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 2- Paul would never distort the Gospel or appease people Matthew 8, Matthew 9:10-17,Mark 2:15-22,Luke 5:29-39, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; Luke 7:36–50; John 12:1–8, John 13- Jesus adapted Himself in so many situations, but didn't compromise the truth   1 Corinthians 6:12- I may be free to do anything, but I must not become a slave to anything Matthew 10:2-4-The general makeup of Jesus' disciples was culturally diverse   John 13:35 - they will know we are Christians by our love  James 1:19- be slow to speak, quick to listen  Connecting with Emily and Simply Stories Podcast:Instagram (Em life // Podcast Life)FacebookTwitterBlog  *Intro and Outro music is from audionautix.com

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a Dutch botanical illustrator, a writer from New Orleans, and a hymn writer - who wrote over 400 hymns. We'll hear an excerpt from Terri Irwin - just fabulous - wife of the late great Steve Irwin. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Living on the Land. A hot topic since 2020. And then we'll wrap things up with a touching story about Beatrix Potter.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.       Curated News TOP TREES FOR FALL COLOR | Garden Design | Mike MacCaskey Fall Foliage Prediction Map   Important Events October 12, 1817 Birth of Berthe Hoola van Nooten ("Bair-tah Hole-lah van NO-ten") Dutch botanical artist. Berthe's life story is incredibly moving. She was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands. She married a judge named Dirk Hoola van Nooten who secured a position in the Dutch colony of Suriname SurahNAM in South America. The couple frequently traveled between Jakarta and Suriname. Along the way, Berthe collected and drew plant specimens which she would send back home to the botanical gardens in the Netherlands. By the mid-1840's the couple moved to New Orleans to establish a Protestant school for girls on behalf of the Episcopal Church. But in the summer of 1847, New Orleans was ravaged by an epidemic of yellow fever that wiped out ten percent of the population. After the yellow fever claimed Dirk's life, Berthe was left to fend for herself and her five children at the age of thirty. She attempted to open another school in Galveston but was unable to pay her creditors. Eventually, Berthe joined her brother on a trip to Java. There she opened another school, but she also had a patron in Sophie Mathilde, the wife of William II (Netherlands). The result was her masterpiece - a collection of forty plates of her botanical art - called Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Choisis de l'Ile de Java or Selected Flowers, Fruits and Foliage from the Island of Java (1863-64). Berthe's work was dramatic, featuring rich colors and bold illustrations. Most Europeans had never seen such magnificent plants. In the introduction, aware of her station as a woman and penniless widow during the Victorian age, Berthe apologized for her daring attempt at creating such work, writing, You may not, like myself, have tasted the bitterness of exile… you may not, like myself, have experienced, even in the springtime of life, the sorrowful separation from home and country – the absence of the friendly greeting, on a foreign shore… Death may not have snatched away from you, the arm which was your sole support… bereavement may not have entered your dwelling, like mine, as with one sudden stroke to tear away the veil of sweet illusions, which, as yet, had hidden from your eyes the stern realities of life – to place you, with a lacerated heart, a shrinking spirit, and a feeble and suffering body, before an unpitying necessity, which presents no other alternative than labour. In 1892, Berthe died impoverished on the island of Jakarta. She was 77.   October 12, 1844 Birth of George Washington Cable, American writer, and critic. A son of New Orleans, he has been called the first modern southern writer. Despite being a German Protestant, instead of French Catholic, George understood Creole culture and is most remembered for his early fiction about his hometown, including Old Creole Days (1879), The Grandissimes "Gran-DE-seem" (1880), and Madame Delphine "Delphine" (1881). Today the George Washington Cable House is open to visitors. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962. Located at 1313 8th Street, in the Garden District of New Orleans, the home features gardens that George designed. In fact, The neighborhood is known for outstanding restaurants and beautiful gardens. The beauty of New Orleans inspired George, and he was especially fond of nature and gardens. In The Taxidermist, his story begins with these words, One day a hummingbird got caught in a cobweb in our greenhouse. It had no real need to seek that damp, artificial heat. We were in the very heart of that Creole summertime when bird-notes are many as the sunbeams. The flowers were in such multitude they seemed to follow one about, offering their honeys and perfumes and begging to be gathered. Our little boy saw the embodied joy fall, a joy no longer, seized it and, clasping it too tightly, brought it to me dead. He cried so over the loss that I promised to have the body stuffed. This is how I came to know Manouvrier “Man-vree-yay,” the Taxidermist in St. Peter Street. In My Own Acre, he wrote, A garden, we say, should never compel us to go back the way we came; but in truth, a garden should never compel us to do anything. Its don'ts should be laid solely on itself.  “Private grounds, no crossing”–take that away, please, wherever you can, and plant your margins so that there can be no crossing. Wire nettings hidden by shrubberies from all but the shameless trespasser you will find far more effective, more promotive to beauty, and more courteous. “Don't” make your garden a garden of don'ts. For no garden is quite a garden until it is “Joyous Gard.” Let not yours or mine be a garden for display. Then our rhododendrons and like splendors will not be at the front gate, and our grounds be less and less worth seeing the farther into them we go. Nor let yours or mine be a garden of pride.  And let us not have a garden of tiring care or a user up of precious time.  Neither let us have an old-trousers, sun-bonnet, black fingernails garden–especially if you are a woman. Finally, in The American Garden, he wrote, One of the happiest things about gardening is that when it is bad, you can always–you and time–you and year after next–make it good. It is very easy to think of the plants, beds, and paths of a garden as things which, being once placed, must stay where they are; but it is shortsighted, and it is fatal to effective gardening. We should look upon the arrangement of things in our garden very much as a housekeeper looks on the arrangement of the furniture in her house. Except buildings, pavements, and great trees–and not always excepting the trees–we should regard nothing in it as permanent architecture but only as furnishment and decoration. At favorable moments you will make whatever rearrangement may seem to you good.   October 12, 1895    Death of Cecil Frances Alexander, Anglo-Irish hymn writer, and poet. She wrote over 400 hymns. In addition to There Is a Green Hill Far Away and the Christmas carol Once in Royal David's City, she wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful. Here are the garden and nature-related verses, along with the refrain at the end. Each little flower that opens, Each little bird that sings, He made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings. The cold wind in the winter, The pleasant summer sun, The ripe fruits in the garden, He made them every one; The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows for our play, The rushes by the water, To gather every day; All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all.   Unearthed Words The name of the zoo was the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park. As I crossed the parking area, I prepared myself for disappointment. I am going to see a collection of snakes, lizards, and miserable creatures in jars, feel terribly sorry for them and leave. It was October 1991. I was Terri Raines, a twenty-seven-year-old Oregon girl in Australia on an unlikely quest to find homes for rescued American cougars. A reptile park wasn't going to be interested in a big cat. I headed through the pleasant spring heat toward the park, thinking pessimistic thoughts. This is going to be a big waste of time. But the prospect of seeing new species of wildlife drew me in. I walked through the modest entrance with some friends, only to be shocked at what I found on the other side: the most beautiful, immaculately kept gardens I had ever encountered. Peacocks strutted around, kangaroos and wallabies roamed freely, and palm trees lined all the walkways. It was like a little piece of Eden. ― Terri Irwin, Steve & Me   Grow That Garden Library Carving Out a Living on the Land by Emmet Van Driesche ("DRY-sh") This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is lessons in resourcefulness and craft from an unusual Christmas tree farm. Well, I have to confess that I'm a huge fan of Emmett's YouTube channel. He does everything that he's talking about in this book - Even carving his own spoons. But what I especially love about this book is learning about what it's like to be a Christmas tree farmer. I find this fascinating.  (And to me, this book is an excellent option for a Christmas gift. So keep that in mind as well.) Now what Emmett is writing about is simplicity - living a life that's in tune with nature,   A life that is away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the daily grind. Emmett is busy,  but he has plenty of time to do the things that matter - Even pursuing his favorite pastime of spoon carving. Now I have to confess that I discovered a very pleasant surprise when I started reading Emmett's book; he's an excellent writer. And I wanted to give you a little taste for his writing, a little sample.  Just by reading what he wrote in the introduction to his book. He wrote, The air is cold enough for my breath to show.  But I'm about to break a sweat.  I'm harvesting balsam branches, grabbing each with one hand and cutting them with the red clippers in the other. ...I work fast and don't stop until my arm is completely stacked with branches and sticking straight out, and I look like a kid with too many sweaters on under his jacket.  Pivoting on my heel.  I stride back to my central pile of balsam boughs and dump the armload on top, eyeballing it to gauge how much the pile weighs.  I decide I need more and head off in another direction into the grove.   The balsam fir grows from big wild stumps and thickets that can stretch 20 feet around, the trees crowded so closely together, in no apparent order or pattern, that their branches interlock. Instead of single trees, each stump has up to three small trees of different ages growing off of it. They are pruned as Christmas trees, and I am a Christmas tree farmer.   Isn't that fascinating? Well, this book is 288 pages of self-reliance and the Christmas spirit. You can get a copy of Carving Out a Living on the Land by Emmet Van Driesche and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $13.   Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart October 12, 1907 On this day, a 41-year-old Beatrix Potter wrote to Millie Warne, the sister of her publisher, friend, and former fiance Norman Warne (who died two years earlier - a month after their engagement - at the age of 37). Beatrix wore Norman's ring on the ring finger of her right hand until she died three days before Christmas in 1943 at the age of 77. My news is all gardening at present and supplies. I went to see an old lady at Windermere and impudently took a large basket and trowel with me. She had the most untidy garden I ever saw. I got nice things in handfuls without any shame, amongst others a bundle of lavender slips ...and another bunch of violet suckers. Incidentally, twenty years earlier on this day, in 1887, that a 21-year-old Beatrix drew her first fungus, the Verdigris Toadstool "Vir-dah-greez" (Stropharia aeruginosa).   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

news birthdays/events at what age did you finally get serious about your finances? what are some summer fun necessities news do names tell you about a person before you meet them...(all Debbie's are cute...all Steve's are smart) something most of us do to get our kids to sleep almost got one woman in trouble with the police game: general trivia news worst things you can do for your body can criminals help the world become a better place? (catch me if you can) game: before they were famous news feel good story of the day if there was one televised sport that you don't get/don't like...it's _______ goodbye/fun facts....national sugar cookie day...The sugar cookie is believed to have originated in the mid-1700s in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. German Protestant settlers created a round, crumbly and buttery cookie that came to be known as the Nazareth Cookie. the sugar cookie is so popular mainly because it's so versatile...Today, sugar cookie making and decorating has become an art form for kids and adults alike...you can frost it, put sprinkles on it, edible glitter...cut into just about any shape....but here's the trick to the perfect sugar cookie--A lot of cookie recipes will call for you to bake the cookies until they turn golden-brown. However, sugar cookies are an exception to this rule. They are overbaked if you have baked them until you have noticed the edges have turned to a golden hue

This Collectable Car May Be The Most Expensive In The World! Welcome to July 9th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a classic sugar rush and cars that make our hearts beat faster.  It's believed that sugar cookies originated in the mid 1700s in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. German Protestant settlers created a round, crumbly butter cookie that came to be known as the Nazareth Cookie. During the Victorian era people thought that spices would overly excite children and thus tea cookies were made purposefully plain.  They evolved into the perfect medium for shaping elaborate Christmas ornaments. But starting in the 1930s, baking soda and vanilla were added and sugar cookies disappeared before they could be hung.   Today both young and old enjoy a good sugar rush, and the more ornate the better! On National Sugar Cookie Day, bake up a batch of the treats that make any day a holiday. Jay Leno is best known as a TV host, appearing on Late Night for nearly 20 years. What some folks may not know is that Leno is also a car collector. One of the biggest in the world in fact! He owns around 180 classic cars and 160 motorcycles. The collection includes everything from a Model T to  race cars to Rolls Royce Phantoms. He even owns a few fire engines from the early 1900s. All in all, the collection is estimated to be worth over $52 million. But one car in the bunch accounts for over a quarter of that value: his McLaren F1, which is worth about $15 million! On Collector Car Appreciation Day, celebrate the lifestyles of the rich and famous or your own pride and joy that's still worth tinkering with. I'm Anna Devere and I'm Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

April 5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and theologian, who became the lead spokesperson for German Protestant resistance to the Nazis. Much of his resistance work was done undercover inside the Germany's Military Intelligence organization, but he also demanded that the Nazi's change the way they defined Jewish people. He insisted Christians with Jewish ancestry were […] The post Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Germany, Minister first appeared on 365 Christian Men.

Pennsylvania German religious culture existed within a vast, complex, fluid, and interconnected world of German-Protestant spirituality and text exchange. Perhaps no artifact better exemplifies this heritage than a Pennsylvania-printed Bible held at the Free Library of Philadelphia that was once captured by pirates on its voyage to Europe! Listen to this remarkable story—and learn what it has to teach us about early American religion and history of the book.

In recent decades, scholarship has turned to the role of gender in the Holocaust, but rarely has it critically investigated the experiences of men as gendered beings. Beyond the clear observation that most perpetrators of murder were male, men were also victims, survivors, bystanders, beneficiaries, accomplices, and enablers; they negotiated roles as fathers, spouses, community leaders, prisoners, soldiers, professionals, authority figures, resistors, chroniclers, or ideologues. The contributors to The Holocaust and Masculinities: Critical Inquiries into the Presence and Absence of Men (SUNY Press, 2020), edited by Björn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creangă, examine men’s experiences during the Holocaust. Chapters first focus on the years of genocide: Jewish victims of National Socialism, Nazi soldiers, Catholic priests enlisted in the Wehrmacht, Jewish doctors in the ghettos, men from the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and Muselmänner in the camps. The book then moves to the postwar context: German Protestant theologians, Jewish refugees, non-Jewish Austrian men, and Jewish masculinities in the United States. The contributors articulate the male experience in the Holocaust as something obvious (the everywhere of masculinities) and yet invisible (the nowhere of masculinities), lending a new perspective on one of modernity’s most infamous chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, scholarship has turned to the role of gender in the Holocaust, but rarely has it critically investigated the experiences of men as gendered beings. Beyond the clear observation that most perpetrators of murder were male, men were also victims, survivors, bystanders, beneficiaries, accomplices, and enablers; they negotiated roles as fathers, spouses, community leaders, prisoners, soldiers, professionals, authority figures, resistors, chroniclers, or ideologues. The contributors to The Holocaust and Masculinities: Critical Inquiries into the Presence and Absence of Men (SUNY Press, 2020), edited by Björn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creangă, examine men’s experiences during the Holocaust. Chapters first focus on the years of genocide: Jewish victims of National Socialism, Nazi soldiers, Catholic priests enlisted in the Wehrmacht, Jewish doctors in the ghettos, men from the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and Muselmänner in the camps. The book then moves to the postwar context: German Protestant theologians, Jewish refugees, non-Jewish Austrian men, and Jewish masculinities in the United States. The contributors articulate the male experience in the Holocaust as something obvious (the everywhere of masculinities) and yet invisible (the nowhere of masculinities), lending a new perspective on one of modernity’s most infamous chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, scholarship has turned to the role of gender in the Holocaust, but rarely has it critically investigated the experiences of men as gendered beings. Beyond the clear observation that most perpetrators of murder were male, men were also victims, survivors, bystanders, beneficiaries, accomplices, and enablers; they negotiated roles as fathers, spouses, community leaders, prisoners, soldiers, professionals, authority figures, resistors, chroniclers, or ideologues. The contributors to The Holocaust and Masculinities: Critical Inquiries into the Presence and Absence of Men (SUNY Press, 2020), edited by Björn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creangă, examine men’s experiences during the Holocaust. Chapters first focus on the years of genocide: Jewish victims of National Socialism, Nazi soldiers, Catholic priests enlisted in the Wehrmacht, Jewish doctors in the ghettos, men from the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and Muselmänner in the camps. The book then moves to the postwar context: German Protestant theologians, Jewish refugees, non-Jewish Austrian men, and Jewish masculinities in the United States. The contributors articulate the male experience in the Holocaust as something obvious (the everywhere of masculinities) and yet invisible (the nowhere of masculinities), lending a new perspective on one of modernity’s most infamous chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, scholarship has turned to the role of gender in the Holocaust, but rarely has it critically investigated the experiences of men as gendered beings. Beyond the clear observation that most perpetrators of murder were male, men were also victims, survivors, bystanders, beneficiaries, accomplices, and enablers; they negotiated roles as fathers, spouses, community leaders, prisoners, soldiers, professionals, authority figures, resistors, chroniclers, or ideologues. The contributors to The Holocaust and Masculinities: Critical Inquiries into the Presence and Absence of Men (SUNY Press, 2020), edited by Björn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creangă, examine men’s experiences during the Holocaust. Chapters first focus on the years of genocide: Jewish victims of National Socialism, Nazi soldiers, Catholic priests enlisted in the Wehrmacht, Jewish doctors in the ghettos, men from the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and Muselmänner in the camps. The book then moves to the postwar context: German Protestant theologians, Jewish refugees, non-Jewish Austrian men, and Jewish masculinities in the United States. The contributors articulate the male experience in the Holocaust as something obvious (the everywhere of masculinities) and yet invisible (the nowhere of masculinities), lending a new perspective on one of modernity’s most infamous chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, scholarship has turned to the role of gender in the Holocaust, but rarely has it critically investigated the experiences of men as gendered beings. Beyond the clear observation that most perpetrators of murder were male, men were also victims, survivors, bystanders, beneficiaries, accomplices, and enablers; they negotiated roles as fathers, spouses, community leaders, prisoners, soldiers, professionals, authority figures, resistors, chroniclers, or ideologues. The contributors to The Holocaust and Masculinities: Critical Inquiries into the Presence and Absence of Men (SUNY Press, 2020), edited by Björn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creangă, examine men’s experiences during the Holocaust. Chapters first focus on the years of genocide: Jewish victims of National Socialism, Nazi soldiers, Catholic priests enlisted in the Wehrmacht, Jewish doctors in the ghettos, men from the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and Muselmänner in the camps. The book then moves to the postwar context: German Protestant theologians, Jewish refugees, non-Jewish Austrian men, and Jewish masculinities in the United States. The contributors articulate the male experience in the Holocaust as something obvious (the everywhere of masculinities) and yet invisible (the nowhere of masculinities), lending a new perspective on one of modernity’s most infamous chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, scholarship has turned to the role of gender in the Holocaust, but rarely has it critically investigated the experiences of men as gendered beings. Beyond the clear observation that most perpetrators of murder were male, men were also victims, survivors, bystanders, beneficiaries, accomplices, and enablers; they negotiated roles as fathers, spouses, community leaders, prisoners, soldiers, professionals, authority figures, resistors, chroniclers, or ideologues. The contributors to The Holocaust and Masculinities: Critical Inquiries into the Presence and Absence of Men (SUNY Press, 2020), edited by Björn Krondorfer and Ovidiu Creangă, examine men’s experiences during the Holocaust. Chapters first focus on the years of genocide: Jewish victims of National Socialism, Nazi soldiers, Catholic priests enlisted in the Wehrmacht, Jewish doctors in the ghettos, men from the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and Muselmänner in the camps. The book then moves to the postwar context: German Protestant theologians, Jewish refugees, non-Jewish Austrian men, and Jewish masculinities in the United States. The contributors articulate the male experience in the Holocaust as something obvious (the everywhere of masculinities) and yet invisible (the nowhere of masculinities), lending a new perspective on one of modernity’s most infamous chapters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's theme is the intersection of idealism and religion. Block A: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Protestant minister who resisted the rise of Hitler and Nazism and paid for that with his life; Block B, The Big Interview: Zen Buddhist teacher Bussho Lahn, about the similarities between Idealism and Buddhism—both require an awakened heart; Block…

During their rule in Germany, the Nazis tried to provide religious justification for their anti-Semitic ideology. A large Christian population and tenets such as neighbourly love presented the Nazis with a potentially large hurdle. But due to the defeat in World War I and fears of social "corruption," Nazism had some Christian support. Some scholars even modified Scriptures to suit Adolf Hitler's agenda, creating a new "Nazi Christianity." Episode thumbnail courtesy of Das Bundesarchiv via Wikipedia, showing "Deutsche Christen" celebrating Luther Day in 1933.

  “…When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8b NET) Evidently, real, vibrant, Bible faith will be in comparatively short supply when Jesus returns. Will we have the genuine kind of faith He is looking for? (See 1st Peter 1:7 in the NKJV.) I pray that we do. That is the purpose of these articles, to examine our faith as Paul stated in 2nd Corinthians 13:5. I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 1:3 NET). We are contending earnestly for the faith once for all entrusted to the saints in these articles! Grandma, grandpa, your mother or father, or your denomination probably never taught faith quite like you will read in these articles. “Well, I was taught that faith is just believing God, and that is all there is to it.” Have you ever heard that? Many believe firmly that their particular Church doctrinal statements are their faith. Then, you have a multitude of people that ask, “What is your faith? To what faith do you subscribe?” Of course, they are asking you about the particular Christian group you associate with or belong to. Others take faith into the realms of believing and trusting, full persuasion of God’s promises, speaking the Word, or believing (trusting) that you receive your answer to prayer. There are sound Biblical truths to be studied in those areas, but faith is much broader in scope in Paul’s epistles and the rest of the New Testament than these definitions alone. Did you know that obedience is an intimate part of faith? How often do you hear from today’s pulpits that obedience is an integral part of faith? Paul connected them forever. Through Him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name… and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5, 16:26 NET). Did you know that there are teachers today that reject the idea that obedience to God and His Word are essential parts of your faith in Christ? Can they read? Paul began and finished his great epistle to the Romans with the principle of obedience of faith. Obeying the Lord is not an option in Scripture in the Old and New Testaments, that is, IF we want God and the Lord Jesus by His Spirit working in our lives (John 14:21-26; 1 John 2:3-6 NET). These articles will tear down some traditional interpretations, but they should not be construed as a denial of other areas of faith not covered in them. Faith is a BIG subject! For that very reason, I am adding audio messages to these articles that give you some other sides of Biblical faith. I hope you listened to the audio message, “Only Believe” with Part 1 of this series of articles. I suggest you listen to all the 37 audio messages in the series, “Removing Doubt from the Heart.” Only Believe was #28 from this series. Bible faith as Paul understood it, was solidly based on the Old Testament or the Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14-17). He also based his understanding of faith on the words and example of Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus was the Word of God made flesh, so He and the written Word must agree (John 1:1-3, 14). That must be included in any assessment of Paul’s view of faith. As we saw in the first article, Paul used the Scripture profusely in his epistles, either by direct quotations or by allusions. By allusions, I mean that he was constantly hinting at Scripture even though he was not necessarily quoting verses or naming the books where they were found. Here is an oft-quoted verse used to establish Paul’s teaching on faith. There is no guessing game here! For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17 NKJV) “The just shall live by faith” is a quotation of the second part of Habakkuk 2:4.[1]   Where did Paul’s definition of faith come from? Was it from some special revelation only given to him? Paul’s definition of faith was confirmed by his choice of a proof text from the Old Testament, written almost seven centuries before he wrote Romans 1:17. Paul almost exclusively used the Septuagint (LXX) Greek when quoting the Old Testament. The Septuagint was an ancient Jewish translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. The language was analyzed and the conclusion is that the Pentateuch was translated near the middle of the 3rd century B.C., and the rest of the Old Testament was translated in the 2nd century B. C.[2] The Greek of the New Testament reflects the Septuagint in hundreds of places.[3] Gustav A. Deissmann (1866–1937), the renowned German Protestant theologian, said it like this:   "A single hour lovingly devoted to the text of the Septuagint will further our exegetical knowledge of the Pauline Epistles more than a whole day spent over a commentary… Every reader of the Septuagint who knows his Greek (New) Testament will after a few days’ study come to see with astonishment what hundreds of threads there are uniting the Old and the New."[4] Follow me in this. I am not splitting hairs here. It’s information every single believer should have. Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 by using the Greek word for faith (pistis) as it came to him from the Septuagint, but that was not its origin. The Hebrew original text was standing behind the Greek Septuagint and Paul’s usage. Hebrew has to be the place to look for the original meaning. That makes perfect sense to me, yet many prefer to see only the Greek, and do their best to dismiss the Hebrew standing behind it. That, my friends, is a huge lack in judgment! Going back to the original Hebrew that stands behind the Greek is not only necessary, but it is doing an honest word study, whether you are a scholar, preacher, teacher, or a student of the Word. If one refuses to admit or rejects the Hebrew that stands behind all Greek Septuagint quotations (and word usage) in the New Testament, then one subscribes to a dishonest form of Biblical study. I don’t think any of us want to be accused of dishonesty. What is the Hebrew word translated faith in Habakkuk 2:4, quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17 and in Galatians 3:11? Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) is relevant today, even though newer dictionaries are in circulation. The Hebrew word that is generally translated faith in Habakkuk 2:4 is emunah, and BDB states that it means: firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, and steadiness. (See H530, 53b.) Those definitions are the ones found in the summarized version of the BDB on the Bible software on my cell phone. When looking at the definition of emunah (H530, 53b) in the full BDB, [5] we see that faithfulness and trust are added to the definition. On page 53, column b, under entry #530, around the center of the page, we come to the BDB translation of Habakkuk 2:4: “a righteous man by his faithfulness liveth.” Pay close attention to the code right after the translation: (>faith LUTH AV RV). The list of abbreviations at the front of the dictionary is the place to decode it. The parenthesis means that the preceding translation of emunah as faithfulness is preferred to how Luther, the Authorized KJV, and the Revised Version translated it as faith! Luther, the KJV and the AV (among others) did not translate emunah. They injected into Habakkuk 2:4 their translation from the Greek New Testament back into the Old. That is backwards! I am suggesting that we do the exact opposite, take the Hebrew definitions and inject them into the New! Faithfulness is not “by faith alone” or “believing alone”. Not even close! Oops! That is contrary to centuries of protestant theology that began with Luther emphasizing “by faith alone”, one perpetuated by the KJV, RV, and the majority of versions. Look back at these definitions of emunah. The words faith and believe are completely lacking in the Hebrew definition. “By faith alone” is missing in the BDB translation of Habakkuk 2:4. Look at the NKJV translation of Habakkuk 2:4, one basically in agreement with the KJV and RV: “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.” (NKJV) Translations like the NKJV are simply bringing into the Hebrew original text a translation of the verse according to the Greek New Testament that came from the Septuagint. They paid NO attention to the original Hebrew text! Now, watch what happens when you don’t take the Greek as the final word or inject it back into the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. The Hebrew original text of Habakkuk 2:4 gives us a completely different picture. “Look, the one whose desires are not upright will faint from exhaustion, but the person of integrity will live because of his faithfulness” (NET). A few other translations have the better word faithfulness: God’s Word, Good News Translation, Lexham English Bible, New International Revised Version, NIV, New Living Testament, Voice. Young’s Literal Translation has steadfastness. The Common English Bible has live honestly. The Complete Jewish Bible has trusting faithfulness. The Message has loyal and steady believing. All of these are much better than the word faith. The New English Translation in Habakkuk 2:4, under note 15 says about the traditional translation of emunah as faith that it “nowhere else refers to ‘belief’ as such.” “Honesty, integrity, reliability, faithfulness” define emunah when used in reference to human conduct and character, as in this verse.[6] Belief, faith, and believing are not even in the equation! Here’s where it really gets messy. Even though the NET gets it right in Habakkuk 2:4, they ignore the Hebrew background in Romans 1:17. They honestly believe it is the best scholarship to translate the text from the Greek and let it stay that way without elucidating the Hebrew behind it. They missed the point of Habakkuk 2:4 in Paul’s reference. Don’t misunderstand me. Translators are working with the texts in front of them to the best of their abilities. They translate a word, generally, looking for a word or words that convey the meaning clearly into their target language. I believe translators are doing an excellent job, as far as word-for-word translations go, especially in the newer translations like the New English Translation and others. The issue I am referring to is in the realm of looking at the original language behind the Greek when Old Testament verses and allusions are found in the New Testament. When the original emunah is translated from the Greek pistis as faith in the New Testament, without further explanation, it is misleading and woefully incomplete. It has to be elucidated based on Habakkuk 2:4, and other Old Testament verses we will get to. That is especially true if the verses are quoted in the New Testament! Translators could include a footnote next to the word faith (and many others) in the New Testament. There should be a fuller explanation and definition based on the Hebrew original, but these are nowhere to be found! It’s better to translate faith (and believe) as a phrase based on the Hebrew definition. My God! That would have enhanced richly our faith in Christ in so many ways, and kept the church out of many strange and unfruitful interpretations.  If I had known that Bible faith was, and is, correctly defined by faithfulness, steadfastness, loyalty, obedience, and trust, it would have made a huge difference in so many ways. Fidelity, firmness, and steadiness are not primarily (nor secondarily or even thirdly) your beliefs, but your Covenant relationship-fellowship with Him, your lifestyle, and actions according to His Word. Glory to God! I learned some powerful lessons in the realm of faith from 1974 until 1986 (and I am still learning), such as trusting in the promises of God, speaking to the mountain to be removed, speaking of things that are not as though they were, getting your words to agree with God's Word, and so on (Romans 4:17-22; Mark 11:22-26).  When I first learned some of the things I am sharing in these articles, sadly, I started to discard many of the things I learned earlier. I did not realize that what I was learning was not to take away from my faith, but to tweak and adjust me in it. God’s purpose was to take me further into the realm of faith than I had ever been. I threw out the baby with the bathwater! That was not a good idea!  Now in 2017, I can look back, grin, and laugh at how ignorant I was, but it was no laughing matter then. It was havoc and sheer hell! That is one story that I will spare you from. I stepped away from the Lord and His Word over my errors (and sins) from 1989-1999, but (PTL) I came back to Him through repentance and renewal in April of 1999. Looking back, since my initial commitment to Jesus in early 1974 (under the big tent of R. W. Schambach, Tampa Florida), I can truthfully say, that I am finally getting a clue! As I continue to study, finally, I am receiving from the Lord some understanding on how all these areas of faith complement each other and work together. They are not contrary to one another.   I trust that these messages will take you much further in Him, and in faith, than I have ever been. I also trust that it will happen for you in a whole lot less time.  Be mightily blessed!    NOTES: [1] Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 also repeat, “the just shall live by faith.” [2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Septuagint [3] An interesting question is, which Hebrew text stands behind the Septuagint (LXX)? According to the evidence of the Dead Scrolls, there were a few Hebrew manuscript traditions. One agreed more with the MT, one was like the LXX, and another like the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch. Then, there was the one that was different than those, like the one reflected in the great Isaiah Scroll, and there were more. This is important because scholars believed, until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and examined, that the LXX had many Christian additions. The DSS proved that assumption wrong because they were pre-Christian! They found clear evidence of a textual tradition similar to the Septuagint. See Ostling, Richard N., “Dead Sea Scrolls” yield “major questions” in Old Testament understanding, (University of Notre Dame; https://news.nd.edu/news/dead-sea-scrolls-yield-major-questions-in-old-testament-understanding/, accessed 10-26-17); Tov, Emanuel; Searching for the “Original” Bible, (https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/40/4/10, accessed 10-26-17), and Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 2nd Rev. Ed. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2001, 114-117; where he states that Qumran-specific texts were 20%, Proto-Masoretic texts – 35%, Proto-Samaritan texts – 5%, Proto-Septuagint texts – 5%, Non-Aligned texts – 35%.  [4] Deissmann, The Philology of the Greek Bible, its Present and Future, (1908, Hodder and Stoughton, London), pp. 12, 13. [5] The BDB Hebrew and English Lexicon, (Hendickson Publishers, Massachussetts, 1996) coded to Strong’s numbers. Reprinted from the 1906 ed. [6] The Lumina NET at Bible.org, translation note 15 in Habakkuk 2:4, https://lumina.bible.org/bible/Habakkuk+2 (accessed October 17, 2017)   ________________   The audio message that follows is #29 from the series, “Removing Doubt from the Heart.” The name of the message is: Light Burden vs. the Devil's Heavy Weights. Messages 1-28 are already published on our website.  

Pope Pius XII was the most controversial pope in modern times. Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 visit to the Middle East raised new interest in the attitude of the wartime pope toward the Jews. This becomes even more important in light of the possible advancement of his beatification. The issue remains highly problematic, the more so as the Vatican has not yet opened all its archives on Pius XII. A major reassessment of Pius XII's attitude toward the Shoah took place after his death in 1958. Initially various tributes had flowed to the Vatican, including from some Jews. Perhaps the most important event that damaged his image was the tendentious play The Deputy (Der Stellvertreter). It was written by the German Protestant playwright Rolf Hochhuth and staged -- from 1963 onwards -- all over the world. A judgment on Pius XII's attitude during and after the war should not be limited to his silence on the genocide of the Jews. The pope remained largely neutral about the German atrocities against the Polish people. Nor did he condemn the genocidal Catholic Croatian fascist state and its leader Ante Pavelić. This state massacred 350,000 non-Catholics, including thirty thousand Croatian Jews. There is compelling evidence that the Vatican was instrumental in permitting Pavelić to escape from Italy to Argentina in 1947. Pius XII was neither "Hitler's pope" nor a "righteous Gentile." The polished diplomat ultimately won out over the voice of conscience in facing the formidable trial of the Holocaust. The result has been to leave a dark cloud over Christian attitudes toward the Jews, Judaism, and Israel that it has taken decades of patient work to overcome.

Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, discusses the influence of Nazism on German Protestant theologians during the Third Reich.