Red Letter Episodes

As we leave Matthew 24, we leave with a warning. I'm multitasking right now in front of a YouTube video by John Barnett. If you're not familiar, he spends every waking moment in his online ministry discussing End Times. And he is REALLY GOOD at it though admittedly; I waver on dispensational theology and pretribulation rapture stuff. That said, that is is an interpretation no false prophecy and we as Christians should know the difference and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. John's teac...

There are a LOT of books written about Matthew Chapter 24. This podcast is NOT the last word on the subject. It is a perspective, and we think one worth noting. Look, the discussion of End Times sells books! It gets clicks. But the question to ask is how it will change your perspective today. I think the beauty of prophecy is in the not knowing. It draws you to the text. It is human nature to want to know. But if Jesus had said His return happens Easter Sunday in the year 2253 (or whatever, pick...

Today, we challenge traditional dispensational rapture theory. You've heard of or seen the rapture movies. There are five "Left Behind" movies. Here's a list: The Left Behind Franchise (All Versions): Both the original Kirk Cameron trilogy and the Nicolas Cage reboot are the most famous examples. They show the world immediately plunging into chaos as the Antichrist rises following the mass disappearance. The "A Thief in the Night Series": This classic series is a quintessential pre-tribulation d...

Everyone is always looking for the major everts in prophetic literature. We've talked about prophetic compression before - the concept of two prophetic events that are spread out over time but stated very close together in biblical prophecy. When looking far into the future, you can see the peaks of the mountains, but you can't necessarily tell how far apart they are. [there are several examples within the source to draw from]. Today, we wanted to address prophetic compression from a different p...

On our Red-Letter journey, we just stepped onto the ground of Matthew 24. This is where many modern wannabe prophets will hang their hat and create grandiose predictions about raptures and end times and date setting and all that. Spoiler alert, we are not trying to figure out when the end of the world will come. I think about this when people ask me why I don't want to go there. First, I can't deny that I have gone that. I have. But I think about this as a reason why I don't. I used to work in a...

Today's podcast was supposed to be easy. Discuss what Jesus calls the Birth pangs. But then I got into with the Berean filter. I was going to scrap this whole session. Instead, I decided, you know what, this is instructive. For those that think we go on an AI Chatbot, ask a question and post the answer, this is for you. This is like what it must have been like in a room with the Bereans who were insisting on their interpretative reasoning. The bottom line is not that we don't trust our own Berea...

After Jesus laments over Jerusalem, the disciples are marveling at the temple. We have two verses of scripture in Matthew 24 (verses 1-2) that somehow still find their way into prophecies yet to be fulfilled. The Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70AD is about as brutal as judgement gets and still this part of the Bible has been misinterpreted by many to be something yet to happen. We don't make that mistake. I don't think there's any question. The source presents the prophecy and the history and the ...

I have to admit; this study was a little convicting for me. When Jesus said to the Pharisees you tithe mint and dill and cumin, it blew right past me. I never gave it a second thought. I had this picture in my head of them counting out 10 percent of the leaves of their mint and dill and thought, that's almost comical... Then we notice the widow giving all she had, only 2 small copper coins into the treasury. And that made me think about how I give. I usually wait until the end of the month to se...

I think sometimes we overcomplicate eschatology (the study of end times). I'm certainly guilty of falling into that trap. My guess is that comes from years, centuries even of trying to wedge interpretive ideas into scripture rather than simply let scripture speak. Before we move away from the woes to the Pharisees, the indictments really, I want to zoom in on one line, that if you miss it, you lose clarity for what Jesus says next (in Matthew 24). “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me hencefo...

As we are studying the final woes, what is becoming clear is how much modern eschatological teaching has steered our understanding and worse has influenced wrong thinking! We are almost at the cross and Jesus is issuing indictments and verdicts. He is dealing with Israel here! The temple system is about to be gone, done away with! For those of you who think it must be rebuilt, I think you should revisit what is going on here. Israel can rebuild the temple if they want but it will be nothing but ...

We step off the track for a second. In our last podcast, we saw how the pharisees created loopholes in the law bypassing: the land sabbath debt forgiveness every 7 years Jubilee During that study we blew right past something that we need to back up on. I had always heard that "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" as being solely about sin... but the actual translation is actually real debt. It has a double meaning and if you skip over it, you lose the connection to Deuteronomy. You lo...

As we rolled into the 4th woe to the Pharisees, we started to pick up on a progression. So rather than stay isolated, this podcast recaps the relevant context leading up to this including the message to the audience and the disciples and a summary of the first three woes. Seeing the entire thing laid out helps give a much more wholistic view of the message. Notes For the Love of Money Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/for-the-love-of-money/

When I approached today's research I was prepared for a long length deep dive. What I encounter instead was a system so brazen in its affront to everything God commanded that I was not only stunned but found myself at a loss relative to going deeper. You don't need to go deep on this one. Sometimes, when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and calling out their hypocrisy, you have to dig a little to understand the nuances of what the Jews did with regards to all their rules. But most of the time, ...

Some feedback for last podcast prompted this. We don't want to move to the 3rd Woe until we address this. It seems that Jesus campaigned against Zealotry when the Jews reached out but then some of you made the point about Simon the Zealot. Good point! And we should address it directly! Edited Notes To Include Simon The Zealot Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/redeeming-simon-the-zealot/

Last time we said the woes were not going to get any easier. Jesus is just beginning. We are still on the temple court and only at the 2nd woe - the judgement on the Pharisees and the Scribes. By now, you the listener know that when we slow down, we go deeper. We ask the questions hopefully you want to ask. We dig up the scripture to answer the question. We never try to posit opinion over scripture. We learned some things about the Jews I did not realize in this deep dive. I didn't know that the...

Jesus is on the temple courts during Passover week. It's the last day of His public ministry. This is the most direct, scathing rebuke of the Jewish leaders in the entire New Testament. The temple court is filled with people. The Pharisees, the Scribes, the Herodians and the Sadducees have all tested Jesus and failed. Jesus has just warned the disciples and the crowd about the religious leadership and now he has turned his attention directly to the religious leaders. We are slowing down on the W...

We find ourselves in somewhat familiar territory. As we continue along with the Red-Letter journey, Jesus has just been tested by all of the religious elite. He then turns His attention to the crowd and certainly within earshot of those who just tested him and basically says - Don't Be Like Them! Listen to them but don't act like them. Honestly, because the message was so familiar, I found some diversions within the text that we had not address. Some personal, like is it OK to wear religious say...

Jesus is constantly being tested. We're in Passion week. They're looking for a defect in the Lamb. Today, something has changed. In our last podcast, we saw one of Scribes almost do a fist pump upon hearing Jesus response to the Sadducees regarding Resurrection. Why, because Jesus' answer was something that put the Sadducees back in their place. They were quieted... something the Pharisees had failed at for 100's of years. So for a brief moment, at least one of the scribes was siding with Jesus....

They continue to line up to confront Jesus. It's almost like whack a mole. The Sadducees pop up next and to some, it may seem that they have storyboarded a careful question that they believe represents a definitive argument against resurrection to trip Jesus up. It can seem like its a question out of a Sadduceeic think-tank for this very purpose. I think it's deeper. I think that this argument is core doctrine for the Sadducees. The question has not just arisen for this occasion; it sits at the ...

Ok, I certainly didn't think this is where the conversation was going. I'm an American! Money is a good thing right? Well, the more I dig, the more I discover. The more my eyes are open. I'll be the first to admit that this deep dive caught me off guard and I'm supposed to be the one producing the podcast! What we arrived probably takes 4 years of economics undergrad study and boils it down to a 30-minute indictment of money in the world. In our last deep dive, we saw Jesus completely dismantle ...

One of the most memorable and recited scriptures is Jesus' response to the religious leaders when they ask Him whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Well, we didn't gloss over it today just because it was familiar. We took on the whole concept of money. We get a masterclass in discernment and debate. We even use "My Cousin Vinny", one of my favorite movies, to help explain what is going on. (There's a clip at the end). Notes for The Tax Trap Episode Link: https://www.rabbitholesandmeditat...

We've heard the Parable of the Great Banquet or Wedding Banquet probably a lot in our bible studies. Both Matthew and Luke tell the story and both help ground the meaning. In our Red-Letter journey, we find this parable told by Jesus early on Tuesday morning in Passion Week. Luke's version is the same parable told at an earlier event.... which is one of the reasons we've seen this story before. I came into this passage reflecting on that wedding feast we are all going to attend after the return ...

It was early last night. I thought, I'm not getting anything productive done, I'll just turn in. So I did what I always do. I open my Bible - just where we left off on our Red-Letter journey. We are on the Temple court still early in Passion Week (most likely still Monday). A couple of Greeks ask a question that would keep me up for the next three hours. Not because of what they asked, but because of how Jesus responded...and how God responded. Notes for The Glory of Jesus is the Glory of God Ep...

We are on the temple courts during Jesus' last week. The Parable of the Evil Vine-Growers is perhaps the most scathing indictment that Jesus has ever given confronting the religious elite head on. No stone is left unturned (pun intended). It should be no secret that we use AI in our Bible study with strict guardrails to only use scripture and not external interpretations or commentary. That is what we have commonly referred to as our Berean Filter. We let the Bible speak for itself and we use AI...