Alignment Episodes

Jesus warns a crowd about covetousness. Then He tells a story where nothing is coveted. Read it again. No neighbor’s field. No brother’s portion. Nothing stolen. Nothing envied. The rich man deals entirely in what is lawfully his — my fruits, my barns, my goods. If covetousness means wanting what belongs to another man, this parable misses its own point. It doesn’t. You’ve been carrying the wrong definition. A man interrupts Jesus mid-sermon: Master, speak to my brother, that he divide ...

For three thousand years the prophets mocked the idols of the nations with a single taunt: "They have mouths, but they speak not... there is no breath at all in the midst of it" (Psalm 115:5; Habakkuk 2:19). Every idol in history was silent. Then Revelation 13 describes the day the silence ends — an image made by human hands, given breath, that speaks, deceives, and enforces worship. This podcast highlights a study that builds from the ground up, the way a Berean would. Four footings, poured ...

I won't lie, this gets heavy. I almost didn't publish this episode but decided that this podcast, as much as it is about Christianity and biblical truth, is also about a journey... mine obviously. So I hope it's provocative and mind-bending. For me, going through this was convicting. When I created the article (in the notes), I decided not to push that personal experience into the background. I think it's important to see a real person behind what is produced in this podcast. Let’s face it, we ...

A great sermon always leads to a good conversation after church. Then pizza : ). Then home to feed and let the dogs out. But the subject never left my brain. I took a motorcycle ride on which the sermon kept playing back in my head. So back home in quiet time I found myself pondering how the serpent deceived Eve so easily. There was something there nagging at me. That led to the article you have in the source material: “The Deception Spectrum”. Note to the Deception Spectrum Episode Link:

Some of the most challenging tests for the Berean Filter app come from religions that don’t negate Jesus but redefine Him. We saw this when we researched the Muslim challenges to Christianity. Today, we looked at the top 5 challenges a Jehovah's Witness would present and fed them into the Berean Search app to test the response. Armed with the response from the Berean Search app, we then turned it around and started asking questions that would make the average Jehovah’s Witness uncomfortable. Un...

I know the questions. I was a staunch atheist before I ever took the bible seriously. These will throw any Christian off his game: Where did the dinosaurs come from? Why aren’t pyramids ever mentioned in the bible? Our science dates the earth millions of years before Genesis… how does the Bible explain that? There are monolithic structures that not only pre-date the bible, they pre-date humanity if you consider the biblical timeline of 6000 years plus or minus. How was that possible? That’s...

Well, I started right where I should have in our journey tracing events in the bible where God has lived among men. The Israelites are about to construct the first human-built dwelling for God to live among them. I started today with Exodus 25 and didn’t get very far. I got to thinking about the last commandment (thou shalt not covet), about everything God is doing in this moment. I chased those thoughts. So today’s podcast isn’t not about the place where God lives … but then, as I think about i...

I just watched a lengthy interview on Danny Jones podcast of Chris and Emily Bledsoe. the Title is NASA’s Forbidden Alien Study Finds Proof of Spiritual Beings | Chris & Emily Bledsoe. These are two of the most credible people discussing alien encounters I’ve ever seen. The point here is not to debunk their experience. Quite the opposite, I think we should take it very seriously. Included in the source material is our original document “Signs, Spirits and Synthetic Minds and then a follow up art...

We begin a new series today in Season Five. We are going to walk with God through the bible. It’s a huge endeavor, but the goal is simple. To understand what God wants for mankind and how He actually accomplishes it. We’re not presenting systems or charts. We’re not inventing theology and secret returns to fit a narrative. We are listening and interpreting with the only thing we need, God’s word. You may recognize this as our Berean strategy. Welcome to season 5. It starts right where God start...

I happened to catch Pope Leo and the Catholic Church discussing concerns about AI. I thought this might be a good opportunity to weigh in as well. We’ve been very open about our use of AI on this podcast. Included in the source material is a recent Vatican discussion on AI and our response to it. I was particularly triggered by the idea that an institution heavily using AI is telling its members not to use AI. This is mentioned briefly in the paper. I think, ultimately, like with any technology...

You know, 10 years ago we would see the stories on the front page of the National Enquirer with headlines like: My Dad is an Alien. Now, the people who were once on the fringes of the News headlines are testifying to the US Congress. Americans are bracing themselves for disclosure. So far, there’s a lot of testimony, some pretty interesting videos, and random smartphone videos pepper the web. Whether real or not, it's common. I don’t think it will be long before we are presented real actual unde...

This podcast is responding a listener request about reincarnation. During the discussion, we learned a number of things. While addressing the issue of reincarnation, we also found out the following, and I have a feeling this is more common among professed Christians than you might think. These statements are telling. I find it really difficult to read the Bible; it’s just too hard to understand. I’m a good person. I think all people end up in heaven. Bad people come back reincarnated to lea...

I think we are on the cusp of a buzzword becoming reality. Ray Kurzweil predicted the singularity to happen around 2030. I think he was right about the substance; he was wrong about the when (but not by much). The (technological) singularity is a hypothetical point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, triggering rapid, self‑accelerating technological change that fundamentally transforms society and human life. The inspiration for this discussion came from a video by Wes R...

Yesterday we talked about: “The serpent we built.” This is the other side of the coin, now looking at the shepherd we follow. It derives from the exact same conversation we had with the Berean Teacher application about the Serpent We Built. We’ve entered an era in which we’re getting our guidance from AI - WAY BEYOND what to buy and what website we're looking for. You've heard people say this, I'm sure: “I absolutely know this is true! I saw it on the internet". Some say it tongue-in-cheek but m...

The Serpent We Built is an article developed for our Berean Teacher series. As you may have learned from recent episodes in this series: We used our Berean Teacher application and uploaded discussions and videos from a number of sources to get the Berean Teacher (an application confined to the scriptures) to weigh in on the recent news and topics submitted by our audience. The idea was to cover as much from all sides of the discussion as possible and then let the Berean Teacher respond with a co...

If you’re watching some of the biggest YouTube channels, or at least the biggest ones I watch - Chase Hughes, Steven Bartlett, Tom Bilyeu, the Why Files, and more, across the board, you are going to run into almost a universal consensus that we are living in a simulation. We decided to pit this theory against scripture using our Berean software. The Berean application was written to avoid the affirming nature of AI chats. The explicit instruction is that if I say something contrary to scripture...

There is a lot of rhetoric online about Israel and Iran. The US is clearly approaching a war with Iran if not already in one. So, things against that automatically get one marginalized by those who support the effort in Iran. And of course, relative to the Middle East, you're going to get people calling out "Zionists," people who support Israel, people who take a more discerning approach toward support for Israel, and everything in between. People that I’ve followed for quite some time now seem...

One might be inclined to indict Judas for his premeditated betrayal. I think we come at Judas and pre-judge. But I've often considered the idea that Judas's intentions might have been good. I think this because I can't see how a person can walk with Jesus for that long and not think otherwise. Whatever Judas is doing, in his own head, he thinks he's doing the right thing... until he realizes he was wrong. In any case, we can't separate the betrayal of Judas from the denial of Peter and say that ...

As usual, Google will put things in my path that it thinks I want to see. This was no different. 3.4 million views in three weeks. The good news is that people are very interested in this. The bad news is that people will use this as their resource for knowledge. We want to address this. The name of the YouTube video is Father Chad Ripperger - Signs of the Mark of the Beast & Rise of the Antichrist We are not criticizing Father Chad Ripperger per say. We are issuing a caution regarding how yo...

What is truth? Those three worlds have consumed me for years. Isn't that the endeavor of every philosophical pursuit? And yet, we read those three words uttered by Pilate to Jesus, and simply move on. Not so fast. Pilate had the luxury of standing before the only person, the only human that ever existed, who could have possibly answered that question. But Pilate himself had already dismissed the answer. We ask our audience - have you? Notes (and Essay) to What is Truth by Greg Newell Episode L...

How many times have you blown over the passage. Yeah, you marveled that Peter heard the rooster crow, which recalls what Jesus told Peter would happen when they were in the upper room. But let's really dig into this. There is so much we can learn from Peter in this moment and the subsequent restoration. Notes for Lovest Thou Me Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/lovest-thou-me-the-restoration-of-peter/

Sometimes we tend to think of the cross as the finish line. But Jesus chooses to look past it. I was tempted to call it a speed bump, but it's way more than that. I know we've already discussed Gethsemane so this podcast and the next two occurs out of sequence. It is likely that the prayer in John 17 is before they reach Gethsemane. John Chapter 17 stands alone and while it probably occurs before Jesus retreats to the deeper recesses of Gethsemane, the context reaches beyond Gethsemane, indeed...

The disciples finally leave the upper room, but this is the proverbial out of the frying pan into the fire. They retreat to Gethsemane, and this is where we pick up in today's podcast. Specifically, we are looking at Matthew 26:36-45, Mark 14:32-41, and Luke 22:39-46. Notes and Commentary: The Cost and the Cup Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/the-cost-and-the-cup/

All the buzz right now is about artificial intelligence, but amid all the hype, there is one thing that keeps AI from outpacing its creators. Namely, energy and autonomy. While we're all looking at this AI phenomenon, is it possible that we are focused on the wrong thing? Many believe that the quantum computing problem will be solved in the next 3-5 years. There is serious research into creating something close to the equivalent of the human brain, which requires first solving the scalability o...