Undeceptions with John Dickson

It's our first season in the run down to Season 6 of Undeceptions, and John Dickson asks friend of the show Laurel Moffatt to share some uncommon wisdom earned from teaching her daughter music during the COVID lockdown.Laurell tells us how listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations - the way they chop and change but still stay the same - has given her a new way of viewing life during a pandemic.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this final episode of the Bullies And Saints super-series, John Dickson reflects on Jesus' instruction to His disciples to look at the log in their own eyes before reflecting on others' shortcomings and asks whether this might equally apply to those outside the churchClick here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this episode, John up-ends a four-hundred-year-old fallacy that has been promoted since the Enlightenment: the Christian faith is a brake on scientific and literary progress. The Dark Ages - were they really that dark?Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this edition, John Dickson introduces us to two characters that display all that’s been good and bad about the followers of Jesus - Ebolus the crossbowman and Bernard of Clairvaux.Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this edition, John investigates the accusation that Christianity is a faith that was propagated by the sword rather than peace. Are Christians guilty of their own jihad?Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this episode, John Dickson gives us an insight into the invention of charity, and just how revolutionary the Christian call to love one another proved for the ancient world.Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this edition, John uncovers the character of the earliest Christians, how it contrasted with the world around them, and how ‘in tune’ it was with the beautiful melody that Jesus set them to sing.Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.In this episode, John Dickson takes us to the Crusades and introduces one of the most infamous crusaders of all: Peter the Hermit, a fire and brimstone Christian if ever there was one.Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.

This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book Ethics Beyond Rules, by Keith D Stanglin. Visit the undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.Follow the show on Twitter and InstagramEmail the show with your comments / feedback: [email protected] is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band. Hosted by John DicksonProduced by Kaley Payne Directed by Mark Hadley Audio Editing by Richard HamwiCopyright Undeceptions Ltd 2021

This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book ‘Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth’ by Thaddeus J Williams.Visit undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.Follow the show on Twitter and InstagramEmail the show with your comments / feedback: [email protected] is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band. Hosted by John DicksonProduced by Kaley Payne Directed by Mark Hadley Audio Editing by Richard HamwiCopyright Undeceptions Ltd 2021

Dr. Chris Forbes brings his expertise in the Greco-Roman world to bear on why historians believe the story of the three magi and the star over a stable might actually be based in fact.Join John Dickson as these two historical boffins discuss astrological formations, ancient king-makers and a reasonable explanation for an interstellar night light in Bethlehem.

This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Urban Apologetics by Eric Mason. Visit the undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.Follow the show on Twitter and InstagramEmail the show with your comments / feedback: [email protected] is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band. Hosted by John DicksonProduced by Kaley Payne Directed by Mark Hadley Audio Editing by Richard HamwiCopyright Undeceptions Ltd 2021

The cliche is: ‘faith’ is the antithesis of knowledge … of wisdom. And therefore “Christian philosophy” is an oxymoron, right?Our guests today, though are professional philosophers and they reckon that, while Christians could do with a healthy dose of philosophy, so could sceptics. We all need to think deeply about what we believe, and why we believe it.And if you think – as atheists like Sam Harris and many others do – that scepticism or atheism doesn’t involve any mere ‘beliefs’, well, you probably especially need to think this stuff through. This episode is sponsored by Zondervan’s 10th Anniversary edition of Seven Days that Divide the World by John Lennox.For the full show notes, go to undeceptions.com.

This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Believing Philosophy by Dolores G. Morris.OUR GUESTSDouglas J. Moo is a New Testament scholar who, after teaching for more than twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, has served as Blanchard Professor of New Testament at the Wheaton College Graduate School since 2000. His latest book is A Theology of Paul and His Letters. Lynn H. Cohick is an American New Testament scholar and author. Since January 2021 she has been Provost, Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary.For the full (and often rather extensive) show notes, head to Undeceptions.com.

This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book Person of Interest: Why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible by J. Warner Wallace.Meet Our GuestsNigel Biggar: Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology, and Director of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, & Public Life, University of Oxford.Andrew Hastie: Australian Federal Member for Canning and Assistant Minister for Defence. Former Officer, Australian Defence Force.Mike Bird was one of our 'phone a friend' guests for this episode. He wrote The Story of God commentary for the Book of Romans for Zondervan and is a lecturer at Ridley College.Jarrod McKenna was another of our lovely 'phone a friend' guests for this episode. He is an advocate for non-violence direct action.For our full show notes and links to everything we mention in this episode, go to undeceptions.com.

This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book Why is there suffering? by Bethany Sollereder.Download the transcript for this episode here.Meet our GuestThe Rev Dr George AthasGeorge is Director of Research and Lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew at Moore Theological College in Sydney.Featured MusicMichael Levyis a composer for the lyre. His music is a blend of some original ancient melodies and some of his own creations. His arrangements for solo lyre are based on reconstructions of some of the incredibly rare, actual surviving written music of antiquity. We played two of these reconstructions in our episode, with permission: Ma Tovu and Kandel's Hora. You can find out more about Michael's work, and listen to more of his music at ancientlyre.com.Yamma Ensemble is an Israeli world music group who have a beautiful love of the Hebrew language and ancient instruments. We played parts of their live recordings of Psalm 104 (see below) and also a track featuring the ancient Shofar, based on the Mi'mekomcha, a Jewish prayer. All music used with permission. For our full show notes and links to everything we mention in this episode, go to undeceptions.com.

Some would say that an ancient faith like Christianity won’t survive outer space -- especially as we explore further than we ever have before. This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book 'The Theology of Paul and His Letters' by Douglas J Moo. For the full show notes, with links to everything we mention in this episode, go to undeceptions.com.

Download the transcript for this episode here.COMPETITION!We’re celebrating our 500,000th download this month - half a million! And so, with the help of our major sponsor, Zondervan, we are giving away a book pack of five of Zondervan’s newest titles. We’ll throw in a copy of my new book Bullies and Saints AND an Undeceptions T-Shirt.To WIN, all you have to do is leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (what used to be called iTunes), take a pic of the review and send it to us. Producer Kaley will pick the best-written review on October 25 (and I mean ‘best-written’ not necessarily most glowing). So be quick, you’ve got two weeks! LINKSMeet our guests: Sam Allberry, author and pastor.Ronald Sharp, author of Norton Book of FriendshipRead Sam Allberry's book Seven Myths about Singleness and find his other books here.Here are the links to all the studies we referenced in this episode: Death of a close friend: Short and long-term impacts on physical, psychological and social well-being, PLoS ONEFriendship enriches your life and improves your health: Mayo ClinicThe State of American Friendship, 2021 American Perspectives SurveyMore on Plutarch.Read the Tu Fu poem, To Wei Pa, A Retired Scholar, translated by Kenneth RexrothLearn more about the Book of Proverbs, and read it for yourself.Read more about the debate over anti-semitism in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, in this article from the Smithsonian Magazine.Read about David and Jonathan's close friendship from the book of 1 Samuel.Read more about Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep from Ancient Egypt in this New York Times article.Further Evidence that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were Twins, Journal of Ancient ArchaeologyLearn more about the friendship between King Richard I and King Philip II.Here's The Guardian's article about whether Jesus was gay. Read Ronald Sharp's article, Mateship, Friendship and National Identity for the Australian Book Review.Never seen Crocodile Dundee? It's probably about time...Learn more about CS Lewis' 'four loves'.Listen to previous episodes of Undeceptions with John and his best mate, Ben Shaw (who died in June 2021 after a battle with cancer).

Download the transcript for this episode here.COMPETITION!We’re celebrating our 500,000th download this month - half a million! And so, with the help of our major sponsor, Zondervan, we are giving away a book pack of five of Zondervan’s newest titles. We’ll throw in a copy of my new book Bullies and Saints AND an Undeceptions T-Shirt.To WIN, all you have to do is leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (what used to be called iTunes), take a pic of the review and send it to us. Producer Kaley will pick the best-written review on October 25 (and I mean ‘best-written’ not necessarily most glowing). So be quick, you’ve got two weeks! LINKSGet to know our guest, Professor Xi Lian. Read Professor Lian's book, Blood Letters: The untold story of Lin Zhao, a martyr in Mao's China.You might also like to seek out Professor Lian's other relevant books Redeemed by Fire: The rise of popular Christianity in modern China and also The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American Protestant Missions in China, 1907–1932.Meet our other guest I'Ching Thomas. Read I'Ching Thomas' book, Jesus The Path to Human Flourishing : The Gospel for the Cultural ChineseRead more about Daoism (or Taoism).Get a broader background on Chinese religion from National Geographic. More on the All Souls celebrations around China.Dig deeper into the idea of 'Actionless Action' or 'Wu Wei' here.Read the Analects of Confucius.Find out more about Christianity in communist China in this article from The Gospel Coalition.Winfried Corduan's book Neighbouring Faiths is referenced by I'Ching Thomas about polytheism vs monotheism (amongst other things).Read more about Christianity in China from this article from 2020 in The Economist. And this from Time about the imprisonment of a pastor Wang Yi (who led one of China's most well-known underground churches).Here's more about the 'sinicization of religion' in China from the Lausanne Movement.Read this article from the New York Times about China's 12 core socialist values.Christianity's growth in China is hard to predict, but Professor Fenggang Yang from Purdue University has given it a crack, estimating that China will become the largest Christian country in the world by 2030.

COMPETITION!We’re celebrating our 500,000th download this month - half a million! And so, with the help of our major sponsor, Zondervan, we are giving away a book pack of five of Zondervan’s newest titles. We’ll throw in a copy of my new book Bullies and Saints AND an Undeceptions T-Shirt. To WIN, all you have to do is leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (what used to be called iTunes), take a pic of the review and send it to Producer Kaley at [email protected]. We'll pick the best-written review on October 25 (and I mean ‘best-written’ not necessarily most glowing). So be quick, you’ve got two weeks! LINKSRead the CNN report about the happiest country in the world for 2021.Watch the full report from VICE News on whether Finland is actually that happy. This one's from 2019 - Finland has been the happiest country in the world for four years running.Read a little more from 20th Century philosopher Bertrand Russell on the conquest of happiness from Brain Pickings (one of those websites you'll get lost in ... see you next Tuesday).Meet our guest, Miroslav Volf.Read more about one his courses at Yale, 'Christ and the Good Life' here.And check out the centre he helped set up, the Yale Centre of Faith and CultureWatch this video chat between Volf and his teacher, Jürgen Moltmann (who John calls "one of the great theologians of the 20th Century)Read Flourishing by Miroslav Volf.Read this New York Times article, 'The other side of languishing is flourishing. Here's how to get there.'Languishing, by the way, is the emotion that the NYT reckons may just be the dominant emotion of 2021. Good thing you've listened to this episode, then.If you want to read more about Asceticism, go here.Other Undeceptions episodes mentioned in this ep are: Everyday Sacred (Ep 47), where we talk to Andrew Wilson and Tish Harrison Warren about finding God in "stuff". Guilty Conscience (Ep 39), where we speak to Tyler VanderWeele towards the end about the health benefits of forgiveness.Mental Health (Ep 38), where we speak to Tyler VanderWeele on the impact of religious communities on mental health.Social Capital (Ep 5), where we to Andrew Leigh about the benefits of religious communities not just on individuals but society more generally.More on Francis of Assisi here. Or read his writings for yourself, here.The Michel Onfray quote, "Religions' glorification of a fictional beyond prevents full enjoyment of the real here below. They establish death on earth for the sake of eternity in heaven and seek to promote self hatred to the detriment of the body" is from The Atheist Manifesto. More on Dionysus, here.Meet our next guest, Tyler VanderWeele.Tyler heads up Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program.His latest book was published in 2021, called Measuring Well-BeingYou can find most of Tyler's research on religion, health and flourishing here.For an introduction on Aristotle, the Oxford Very Short Introduction series is good.Read (or re-read) Jesus's Sermon on the Mount.

This Henry Lawson poem, though written in the Australian outback in the 19th Century, still captures what a lot of people see as wrong with Christianity and what they wish it was like.

Shabnam Safa was just 15 years old when she arrived in Australia as a refugee. As a young child, her family had fled war-torn Afghanistan to a refugee camp on the border of Pakistan where she grew up listening to stories of the terror of life under the Taliban. She spoke to John Dickson about her distress about the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan and her fears for her home country. As so many of us watch from our lounge rooms, is there anything we can actually do to help those fleeing danger?

Author and highly sought-after speaker Sam Allberry talks us through 'intersectionality' and ponders the wisdom and boundaries of this way of bestowing moral authority. "Just as those who stand at an intersection can see in more directions than those who don't, so too - according to this thinking - those at the intersection of multiple minority and victim groups have more insight to bring to society."

Today is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist strikes in the US that killed almost 3000 people and changed the world forever. Our guest for this single, Hans Kunnen, was one of several Australians in New York that day and has told his story many times over the last 20 years. But what struck us about his story was not how close he was to the action, or how he described the flames, the smoke, the hurtling bodies.It is how he talks about the kindness of a stranger - the hope amidst the chaos of what was the most traumatic day of his life.

On the anniversary of the France's Reign of Terror, John asks where we got the idea that three centuries of the Spanish Inquisition represented the height of human cruelty.In any objective history of human violence it would hardly rate a mention, especially when it stands alongside the terrors of the French Revolution.

** We’re talking about abortion in this episode, and occasionally we mention sexual abuse and violence. Nothing graphic, we promise. But some listeners may find what follows distressing. Be safe. **We're weighing up the arguments of the Pro Choice and Pro Life movements. Perhaps we can convince you that the case against abortion - the pro-life case - isn’t as dumb and mean as it's often portrayed to be, and nor does it depend on religious dogma.This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book The Global Church: The First Eight Centuries by Donald Fairbairn.LINKSRead Judith Jarvis Johnson's groundbreaking article about abortion, where she offered the violinist thought experiment as a way to illustrate bodily autonomy: A Defense of Abortion by Judith Jarvis Thomson, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 1. (Autumn, 1971), pp 47-66. Get to know our guest, Professor Margaret Somerville.Read Somerville's book that first introduced her to John, The Ethical Canary: Science, Society, and the Human SpiritSay hi to our guest, Dr Emma Wood.Here's some more info on Professor Michael Tooley, Emma mentions as we speak with her. He wrote a very influential book called Abortion and Infanticide in the 1980s, where he argues that an entity can't possess a right to life unless it has the capacity to desire its continued existence. Here's the article called 'Reasons why women have induced abortions: a synthesis of findings from 14 countries', published in the journal, Contraception, in 2017.And here are the statistics on numbers of abortions worldwide, from the Guttmacher InstituteHere's some more on Professor Peter Singer's argument in favour of abortion: "When a woman has an abortion, the fetus is alive, and it is undoubtedly human – in the sense that it is a member of the species homo sapiens. It isn't a dog or a chimpanzee ... But mere membership of our species doesn't settle the moral issue of whether it is wrong to end a life. As long as the abortion is carried out at less than 20 weeks of gestation – as almost all abortions are – the brain of the fetus has not developed to the point of making consciousness possible." He goes on: "Admittedly, birth is in some ways an arbitrary place to draw the line at which killing the developing human life ceases to be permissible, and instead becomes murder ... A prematurely born infant may be less developed than a late-term fetus. But the criminal law needs clear dividing lines and, in normal circumstances, birth is the best we have."Here's Don Marquis' article that we spend a lot of time on in the second half of this episode: "Why Abortion is Immoral", in the Journal of Philosophy vol.86, no.4 (April 1989), pages 183-202: "The claim that the primary wrong-making feature of a killing is the loss to the victim of the value of its future has obvious consequences for the ethics of abortion. The future of a standard fetus includes a set of experiences, projects, activities, and such which are identical with the futures of adult human beings and are identical with the futures of young children. Since the reason that is sufficient to explain why it is wrong to kill human beings after the time of birth is a reason that also applies to fetuses, it follows that abortion is prima facie seriously morally wrong."Here's a link to the full New York Times podcast 'The Argument' episode called 'Why the Anti-Abortion Side Will Lose, Even if it Wins' (if you don't have a NYT subscription, just look it up on your podcast app - it was published on April 14, 2021. Watch Paxton Smith's speech from her Texas high school graduation here.Read this article in The Economist called 'Texas's new proposal shows why abortion law is a mess in America', re: the so-called Texan "heartbeat bill". Here's more on the Mississippi case that will come before the Supreme Court and challenge Roe v Wade, from the New York Times.Producer Kaley found this article really interesting while researching this episode: The epic political battle over the legacy of the suffragettes, in The Atlantic which explores why both sides of the abortion debate see themselves as inheritors of the early women's movement. Read the paper by economists Janet L Yellen and George Akerlof called 'An analysis of out-of-wedlock childbearing in the United States', Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1996, which carried this quote (among lots of other interesting insights): “By making the birth of the child the physical choice of the mother, the sexual revolution has made marriage and child support a social choice of the father.”

It's this season's Q&A episode, where listeners get a chance to ask John Dickson their burning questions. This episode is sponsored by Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible by Michael F Bird, a new book published by Zondervan.QUESTIONSIs all “music” at its best good or beautiful and at worst simply neutral; or can some “music” be “bad”, “evil” or “ungodly”? (Check out our two episodes on music from Season 3: Creation's Music and Discordant Religion).Are there dangers in pop music we might steer our children away from for example? Regarding the 7 Deadly Sins: what's their origin and their accuracy in terms of Jesus' teaching and Christian living? If I have a conversation with a person who is sceptical of Christianity about the issue of race, I know they're going to bring up times when God ordered the wiping out of a city or a whole race (like when Israel wiped out the Amalekites in the book of 1 Samuel) as evidence that the Bible is racist. What should I say? (Check out our last episode of Season 3, Racist Church)Why were the Jews God's chosen people? According to a lot of Christian principles (at least the ones I was brought up with) people who were alive before Jesus but didn't know the Hebrew god would go to Hell for not knowing him. So, why did God choose the Jews? Why condemn the people who lived at the same time, but in other parts of the world i.e the Australian Indigenous peoples?A listener comment that we made into a question: I thought that you gave the Black Lives Matter organisation a very soft run in this podcast. It is not anywhere close to a Christ-centred organisation. Their website, until recently, noted that they were seeking to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement” and “foster a queer affirming network” and “do the work to dismantle cisgender privilege”. Did you go too soft on this whole ‘Black Lives Matter’ thing on the Racist Church episode? Andrew says he listened to that version of ‘Little Things’ by Ziggy Ramo and Paul Kelly, which tells the tragic story that Australia’s colonisation starts with the Pope’s ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ in 1493, which Captain Cook later used to claim Australia as ‘Terra Nullius’ - nobody’s land. He says he’s looked into the doctrine of discovery and it’s just terrible. Why did the church make such a decree? What do you think about the idea of machines being “persons.” (Check out our two episodes on artificial intelligence: Artificial Intelligence and Homo Deus)There seems to be a slew of so-called prophets coming out of the woodwork in the USA prophesying all sorts of messages especially about the political scene. What does the Bible say about this?How does one explain the Egyptian culture and the God's that they believed in and the afterlife they believed in? Was there any part of the God that we worship today? Was he the same god then? Could the God of the Jews be the God of other faiths? Could other Faiths be just interpreting the same God in different ways? I've heard stories of other cultures around the world who hadn't been exposed to Christianity having similar principles and creation stories to that of the Bible. Could God have been revealing himself to them?I was listening recently to a podcast 'People I Mostly Admire' hosted by Freakonomics author Steven Levitt interviewing Magician Joshua Jay. They speculate whether Jesus' miracles were simply tricks and they claim tricksters at the time were doing exactly the same thing, obviously inferring Jesus was just kind of a trickster. I have never heard this suggestion before and I wondered if you could fact check it based on your study of Jesus' times. Did the 100 Pages episode mention the talking donkey? How do you tackle weird and wacky thing in the Bible?At the end of the Gospel of Mark, Mark describes how the women went away and said nothing to anyone. But other gospels say they went away and told people. What can we say about this contradiction in the Bible? (Check out our episode Bible Mistakes for more)The podcast often proudly cites non-believing references. I value this approach but is there a weight behind all these people who know scripture so well but don't believe?

Just when you imagine Christians are all so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly use … the Bible itself brings us back to the earth. That’s where the action is. In fact, the final great scene of the Bible doesn’t have us all floating up to heaven. It has heaven coming down to earth. Down … to … earth. There’s a lot in that phrase. As far as religions go, Christianity is arguably the most down-to-earth perspective you could imagine. LINKSWinnie The Pooh loves honey in the books and every movie he's in, but particularly the 2011 version we quoted from. This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book, Becoming All Things by Michelle Ami ReyesMeet our guests for this episode:Andrew Wilson, London pastor and author of a new book called God Of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday WorldTish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday LifeRead Psalm 19, which begins "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Read more about CS Lewis' "supposals" ... and check out The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe while you're at it. Watch the heartwarming Old People's Home for Four Year Olds. This one's the Australian version. Or, for a similar feeling, watch Ted Lasso on Apple TV. John Dickson called it "the best show since The West Wing" ... and that's high praise!Read more from James K.A. Smith on cultural liturgies.Read more about CS Lewis' conversion to Christianity.More reading, this time on Wendell Berry from the New Yorker.

The parting of the red sea is legendary today … and most people treat it as just that … legend.Like many things in the Bible, the exodus from Egypt (recorded in the book Old Testament book of Exodus) is looked on with great scepticism by secular scholars - and some Christian scholars even.It’s understandable. The existence of Moses, mighty prophet and prince of Egypt. The ten plagues that devastated that ancient civilisation. The blood of the passover lamb protecting the houses of Israel from the plagues. And, of course, the deliverance of the people of Israel en mass from the slavery in Egypt.They all lack direct historical evidence outside the Bible. So it’s just made up, right? Well, sort of … not really! LINKSThis episode is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book ‘God of All Things’ by Andrew Wilson.Meet our guest, James Hoffmeier, Professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern Archaeology at Trinity International University, Divinity School (Deerfield, IL).Check out the new book Five Views on the Exodus: Historicity, Chronology and Theological Implications, which showcases (as it says on the packet) five different views on the Exodus, including Hoffmeier's. Read Rick Watt's "gamechanger" book, Isaiah's New Exodus in Mark (the super expensive, textbook like one!) Connect the dots between The Exodus and the Gospels with John Dickon's A Doubter's Guide to Jesus. LISTENBonus Five Minute Jesus for this episode, listen here.

We all know Christianity thrives on ignorance, sunk us all into the dark ages, and has resisted human rights and equality for most of its 1500 year reign.What have the Christians ever done for us?Our guest today - who says he’s not a believing Christian - reckons many of us have things completely back to front. It’s Christianity, he insists, that gave us many of the secular humanitarian ideals we hold so dear.LINKSThis episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Person of Interest: Why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible by J Warner Wallace Meet our guest, Tom HollandRead Holland's latest book, Dominion: The making of the Western MindOr check out his YouTube channel, where you can watch one of the documentaries he made with the BBC on Islam Here's a 5 minute primer on stoicism from Ted-Ed. Want more? Here's a good place to start to learn more about Stoicism.Watch the trailer for HBO's award-winning series, Rome. Be warned... it's brutal. More on the Pax Romana ("Roman peace") Watch this segment from the Centre For Public Christianity's documentary, For the Love of God, on the origins of western healthcare.Here is Stephen Greenblatt's book The Swerve from 2012, which offers a contrary argument about Christianity's influence on the world. Full disclosure: Tom Holland, while an admirer of Greenblatt's work on Shakespeare, thinks The Swerve is by far his worst book. So ... the Dark Ages? Not so dark. We'll undoubtedly do a whole episode on that soon enough, but in the meantime, John Dickson's new book Bullies and Saints has a bit to say about it too.

John Dickson is taking a bit of a break to grieve the passing of his friend, Ben Shaw. So, in the interim, Producer Kaley and Director Mark have decided to choose their favourite Undeceptions episodes to drop into your podcast feed for two weeks. Week number two is brought to you by Director Mark. He has chosen to re-share the Remembering Women episode. John visits Dr. Lynne Cohick to chat about how early Christians valued and celebrated women in the first centuries of the church. Director Mark recommends it because unveils a side of feminine history he'd missed, gets us outdoors again in the middle of an Australian lockdown, and includes a whole gamut of contributions, including Producer Kaley's favourite music.

John Dickson is taking a bit of a break to grieve the passing of his friend, Ben Shaw. So, in the interim, Producer Kaley and Director Mark have decided to choose their favourite Undeceptions episodes to drop into your podcast feed in the next two weeks. Producer Kaley's favourite is the very first episode of Undeceptions, called ‘Old Papers’. It harks back to a time when we were allowed to travel overseas, and John visited the University of Michigan’s Papyrology department to get his hands on some of the earliest manuscripts we have for the New Testament. Producer Kaley reckons it’s what Undeceptions does best: it’s historical, it’s hands-on and it laid the groundwork for what this podcast wants to sound like - friendly and factual, with a little nerdy excitement thrown in.

Ben Shaw and John Dickson were friends since childhood, became Christians together in their teens, formed a rock and roll band in their 20s, and went on to study theology and minister in the fields God opened up to them.The death of Ben Shaw has provided John with an opportunity to reflect on the sort of book his best friend felt was worth using his last months to write, and the spiritual lessons he has learned from decades of standing beside him.

John Dickson invites solicitor and social commentator Stephanie Kate Judd to offer an opinion on the sexism that simultaneously abuses and silences women. Outrage, she says, is an appropriate response to significant wrongdoing, but unchecked rage can corrode the very hearts that feel that injustice most keenly.Instead, Stephanie suggests a way in which we can confront a problem but still keep our anger healthy.

Jesus was once a teenage boy, right? Was he a rascal? Who did he hang out with? Was he considered the ancient equivalent of a jock, a cool kid, a nerd, or something else?And how on earth did he get through the normal teenage years of angst and still be … the perfect incarnation of God?There’s a bit of speculation about teenage Jesus. And we promise to cover all the evidence for it in this episode.LINKS This episode is brought to you by Zondervan's new Bible commentary on the Gospel of MarkMore about 10 Things I Hate About You, which you heard at the beginning of this episode.Check out the Infancy of Thomas, an apocryphal document that purports to narrate episodes from Jesus’ youth from the age of five up until his twelfth year.Get to know our guest, Dr Chris Forbes.Listen to Canon Fodder, from Season 3 of Undeceptions, which also features Dr Forbes. It's all about how the Bible was put together and why which books were chosen as scripture and some books weren't. Here's that TedTalk on raising rebels. Good luck to listeners attempting to do so! The Lost Years of Jesus documentary.The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ by Nicolas Notovitch (Yeah, we're not suggesting your rush out and get this one!) Here's a travel diary to follow if you want to try to "walk in the steps of Jesus" in Nepal, even if he didn't actually go there! Articles like these just keep popping up. Check out this talk that John Dickson gave on the difference between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Buddhism or Hinduism. Here's the one passage in the gospels that talks about Jesus as a teen... Luke 2:42-51.More on David Flusser, the great Jewish Professor of History and Religion from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For every voice decrying the evils of pornography, there’s another that says it’s healthy, part of our freedom of expression, “sex positive”! So, which is it? LINKSThis epidoe of Undeceptions is brought to you by Zondervan’s new commentary on the book of Exodus by Christopher Wright.Meet our guest, Melinda Tankard Reist, and find out more about the Collective Shout Movement that she founded.Meet our other guests, Professor William Struthers and Simon CamilleriRead more on the protest of the 70,000 Korean women who held banners shouting 'My life is not your porn' in 2018 after a spike in the number of spycams found in female bathrooms. Read the New York Times explosive investigative report 'The Children of Pornhub', published in December 2020.In response to the NYT report, Mastercard and Visa withdrew their cooperation with Pornhub later that month. Read Melinda Tankard Reist's book, Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Porn IndustryHere's the research John Dickson lists off in this episode on pornography: A study by the Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society said it found that pornography enabled sexual confidence and positive community formation, especially for LGBTIQ+ people.A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Medicine found that the sex lives of 18 million men over age 20 were negatively affected due to excessive porn viewing.A recent study by the Kinsey Institute showed that people who use technology for sexting or webcamming gained a sense of emotional connection as well as sexual gratification from this contact.In a study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, researchers discovered a significant association between reported pornography hours per week and gray matter volume in the human brain, and a drop in reactivity to sexual cues.A study published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour looking at Norwegian use of pornography found that couples who use pornography together tended to enjoy a more permissive erotic climate. But where only one person in the couple did, men who used porn were likely to experience problems with arousal, and women who used porn were likely to have increased negative self perception. In February 2021 in Australia, a former Sydney schoolgirl launched a petition calling for ‘sexual consent education’ to be taught much earlier in schools.In this opinion piece, a high school teacher argues that 'Hardcore porn is to blame for disturbing teenage sex culture'This 'TraffickingHub' online petition to shutdown Pornhub has over 2 million signatures.Here's a [safe] link with more information on Pornhub's traffic numbers.Sexual health research stresses the ‘bonding hormones’ released with sexual encounters. Check out this with Australian sex researcher, Dr Patricia Weerakoon on this subject. C. S. Lewis, the great Oxford literary don and public advocate of Christianity, once defended the biblical approach to sex against the call in his day (the 1940s) for more sexual ‘freedom’. His insights are as relevant today as then:I know some muddleheaded Christians have talked as if Christianity thought that sex, or the body, or pleasure, were bad in themselves. But they were wrong. Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body—which believes that matter is good, that God himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once … There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying your food: there would be everything to be ashamed of if half the world made food the main interest of their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food and dribbling and smacking their lips. I do not say that you and I are individually responsible for the present situation. Our ancestors have handed over to us organisms which are warped in this respect: and we grow up surrounded by propaganda in favour of unchastity. There are people who want to keep our sex instinct inflamed in order to make money out of us. Because, of course, a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance. God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. HarperCollins, 1997, 81-82)

This is the second part of our two-part series on the Crusades. For Part One, click here.A brutal slaughter at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem marked the end of the first crusade. The Crusaders had recaptured Jerusalem and the Holy Lands. They had regained control and care of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, probably medieval Christianity’s most sacred site, built over what was believed to be Jesus’ empty tomb. Their job was done and most of the crusaders packed up and went home, bolstered in their belief that God had been with them and seized their victory. Job done! So, why the need for a 2nd Crusade? Or a 3rd, 4th or 5th for that matter? LINKS This episode is brought to you by Zondervan's new book Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History by John Dickson. There's plenty more on the Crusades that we couldn't fit into this episode.Meet our distinguished guest, Professor Christopher Tyerman and check out his magnum opus, God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Here's more on that terrible movie, King Richard and His Crusaders from 1954. The 50 Worst Films of All Time, according to Wikipedia.Learn more about Saladin, the most famous of Muslim warriors.Meet Francis of Assisi, one of the most charismatic and influential clerics of the Middle Ages.Here's some more on Rabbi Hillel, who John quotes from in this episode's Five Minute Jesus.John quotes extensively from David Flusser's book The Sage of Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus' Genius, also in this episode's Five Minute Jesus.Watch President George W Bush's full remarks from 16 September 2001, where he said of the 9/11 terrorist attacks: "This is a new kind of -- a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." Here's the Wall Street Journal article, 'Crusade reference reinforces fears this war on terrorism is against Muslims'Read up on the Ottoman Empire here.The Crusader City - Caesarea - and its archaelogical ruins make for an interesting travel destination, according to The Washington Post. Just one example of the Crusades misinterpreted history: 'The New Zealand massacre and the weaponisation of history'from Al Jazeera.

This is the first of a two part episode on The Crusades. Over nine hundred years after the launch of the first Crusade, world leaders are still invoking their memory to explain ongoing conflict. But how plausible is that?Chances are, whether you're a Christian or a skeptic, what you think you know about the Crusades is wrong. Or so says our guest for this episode.What were the Crusades? How did they start? What did they achieve? Why did they stop? And does their shadow really fall over modern tensions between the West and Muslim lands?LINKSGet John Dickson's new book Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History, published by our sponsor Zondervan. It's got a heap more on the Crusades than we could fit into this episode.Meet our distinguished guest, Professor Christopher Tyerman. Check out Tyerman's magnum opus, God's War: A New History of the Crusades. He has a written a bunch more, too. Watch the full news segment from France 24 about the Charlie Hebdo caricatures that enraged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Listen to this fascinating episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily, all about the killing of French teacher Samuel Paty and the raging debate in France over the relationship between government and religion - primarily the idea of Laïcité - the constitutional principle of secularism in France. Listen to the Undeceptions Single all about 'The Troubles' of Northern Ireland. Here are the Old Testament references where God commands violence:In 1 Samuel, when God commands Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites. Read this article from The Gospel Coalition writer and blogger Steve McAlpine, Indefensible? Saul and the Amalekite GenocideIn the book of Joshua, God ordains a holy war against the Canaanites.And then check out this article 'But, what about Canaan?' quoting John Dickson giving an explanation about what in the world is God doing in the Book of Joshua with the Canaanites.You might also like to check out this explanation, Why did God demand the invasion of Canaan in the Book of Joshua? by The Bible Project.Check out Saint Augustine's City of God for more on his broad principles of just war. Read Pope Urban II's full speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095, where he officially called for the First Crusade.Here's more on Ridley Scott's 2005 film, Kingdom of Heaven.

LINKSGet to know our guest Professor Robert WilkenThis episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book, The Problem of Jesus by Mark ClarkRead Robert Wilken's latest book Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious FreedomMore on the Edict of Milan, in which Constantine declared: “Freedom and full liberty has been granted in accordance with the peace of our times to exercise free choice in worshipping as each one has seen fit. This has been done by us so that nothing may seem to be taken away from anyone’s honour or from any religion whatsoever.”More on Roger WilliamsFind out more about Thomas Jefferson and religious freedom.Our 'Phone a Friend' guest this episode was Tim Wilson, an Australian Liberal MP and former Human Rights Commissioner. Watch a talk Tim gave on religious freedom to the Centre For Independent Studies here.

Guilt is a big topic - there is so much to say. Like the feeling of guilt itself, it is layered. We deal with guilt on an individual level and on a societal one. “Guilt is a religious problem which interests theologians, a social problem which interests sociologists and a psychological problem which interests psychologists,” wrote psychotherapist and theologian, Paul Tournier, in his book Guilt and Grace. People sometimes speak of ‘religious guilt’ or ‘Catholic guilt’ and it’s almost always used negatively. The assumption is that if you are religious, you are dealing with much more guilt than the regular person, and certainly more than is healthy!But maybe guilt is actually good? And maybe religion - Christianity in particular - is the maestro of listening to, directing, and silencing the guilt we experience in our lives. LINKSAbout that record... the first was already dead: angler -- read more about Clive White's trout confession.This episode is brought to you by Zondervan's new book Bullies and Saints: An honest look at the good and evil of Christian history by John Dickson. Meet our guest, Dr Rob Waller. Meet our guest, Professor Wilfred McClayHere's Rob's book, The Guilt Book Here's Bill's essay from The Hedgehog Review, The Strange Persistence of Guilt (behind a paywall, sorry!)The scene from Daredevil on Netflix was from Season 2, Episode 4. Though, we're not really saying you should watch it. This one's specifically for John, actually: More on 30 Rock, the American satirical comedy created by Tina Fey. (PS. It won 16 Emmy awards and is regarded as one of the best sitcoms of all time).Here's the atheist bus campaign that Bill talks about.You can learn more about Neitzsche's theory on the genealogy of guilt here.Here's Sigmund Freud's Civilisation and its Discontents, where he declared guilt to be “the most important problem in the development of civilization.” He said “the price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.”Here we are again, with a link for the Netflix series The Good Place. (So great that we keep quoting it. Dear John, you should definitely keep watching. Love Kaley and Mark) There's a lot of views about whether or not to destroy Confederate statues. Here's a few interesting reads from different perspectives:A Solution to the Confederate-Monument Problem: Destroying the statues won’t erase the past. Why not let them deteriorate in a public space instead? from The AtlanticWe need to move, not destroy, Confederate monuments from The New York TimesNearly 100 Confederate monuments removed in 2020, says report. Over 700 remain. from NPR (America's National Public Radio) The battle over Confederate statues, explained: Confederate statues have always been about white supremacy. That’s why they’re coming down, by VoxAnd, here's Undeceptions own Laurel Moffatt giving her thoughts during an Undeceptions single last year. Read the research by sociologists Bradley and Manning on victimhood: The Rise of Victimhood Culture, in which they write:"A culture of victimhood is one characterized by concern with status and sensitivity to slight combined with a heavy reliance on third parties. People are intolerant of insults, even if unintentional, and react by bringing them to the attention of authorities or to the public at large. People increasingly demand help from others, and advertise their oppression as evidence that they deserve respect and assistance. This only increases the incentive to publicize grievances, and it means aggrieved parties are especially likely to highlight their identity as victims, emphasizing their own suffering and innocence."It's Jiminy Cricket! Read more on Professor Tyler Vander Weele's research on whether forgiveness is a public health issue.

Perhaps you’ve heard it before - religion is bad for your mental health. It triggers feelings of guilt, self-loathing and bigotry. But, actually, there are many ways in which the opposite is true. Karen Pang's story is testament to that, which you'll hear in this episode.There’s also a growing body of research - authoritative, real-life, peer-reviewed research - that reports a significant benefit to wellbeing if you are religious. That’s right. You are more healthy if you are religious.Do you need help? If you're in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. In the UK? Call The Samaritans on 116 123.If you're in the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255LINKSThis episode is brought to you by Zondervan Academic's book, Three Views on Chrisitanity and Science with contributions from Alister McGrath, Bruce L Gordon and Michael Ruse. Meet our guest, Karen Pang Meet our guest, Professor Tyler VanderWeeleMeet out guest, Lyn WorsleyListen to the full interview with Buff and John Dickson on ABC's The Spirit of Things Watch the full Playschool series on feelings, How do you feel today?Read the full data on the risk of suicide for people with bipolar, from SANE AustraliaRead the biblical accounts of the deaths of Saul and Judas.Read St Augustine's City of GodCheck out Tyler VanderWeele's research on deaths of despair and religious service attendance. Full paper here.Tyler's research on mental and physical health and the effects of religious service attendance (also check out his full list of research papers in his profile above!) Watch Tyler VanderWeele consider whether the results of his research that concluded religious service attendance had a significant positive impact on mental health might be reverse causation.Get the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Health See for yourself the strong evidence of an association between attending religious services and happiness and life satisfaction.Need help to pray? Try the Book of Common Prayer, which Buff Dickson talks about praying through when she just couldn't find the words on her own. Here's an example, the prayer for Sunday 2 May 2021:Almighty God,who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christhave overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:grant that, as by your grace going before usyou put into our minds good desires,so by your continual helpwe may bring them to good effect;through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.Amen.

It is the day after ANZAC Day, that occasion when Australians and New Zealanders commemorate those who died in the defence of our country. At a time like this, it is worth considering the inscription bourne by many military tombstones across the world - 'Unknown Soldier - Known Unto God'.This is not just a way of saying, "We don't know who he is; I guess God does." It has a profound meaning about the peculiar way in which God knows His creatures.

Critics of Christianity have often pointed to The Troubles in Northern Ireland as proof that, "Religion ruins everything."But how accurate is the statement? How accurate is it to even label The Troubles a religious conflict?John Dickson shares a chapter of his upcoming book, Bullies And Saints, on how the Troubles got started and how Christianity helped to bring them to an end.Click here to order a copy of John Dickson's Bullies and Saints.

Gordon Menzies advised the federal government on the deregulation of the Australian dollar, underlining his credentials when it came to liberalism.However, his new book titled 'Western Fundamentalism' suggests a more conservative way of seeing the world.He tells John Dickson, though, that a Christian is capable of rejecting definitions of both left and right to forge a distinctly different path.

Dr. Laurel Moffatt rejoins the Undeceptions team to consider the state of the American soul.Researchers have revealed that this nation of the bold and the free is now united more by the things that its citizens hate than those they love.Is there any way out of this emotional and moral quagmire? Dr. Moffatt thinks so.

How do you face the rapidly approaching end of a battle with cancer?In Series 2, Episode 13 of Undeceptions, John Dickson met up with his friend Ben Shaw to discuss his recent diagnosis of that dreaded disease.The It's Cancer episode raised serious questions about what place pain has in a world created by a good God.Now, in the run-up to Easter, John returns to ask Ben if the call to face cancer has brought on new spiritual insights.

Some would argue that Christianity itself is racist. Given the sweep of history, this is a charge that has to be confronted. So we’re going to speak to a couple of people who, despite all the things the church has done wrong -- and continues to do wrong -- and despite all the things the church should be doing but just isn’t - still see Christ as Lord. They are still part of the church. They still think Christianity is beautiful, even if parts of the church are not. You as listeners - whether you believe or not - are going to have to be the judges here. This is not an episode in which I feel competent to lecture anyone. I don’t know what it’s like to be a minority. That’s why we’re speaking to people today who do know. LINKSMeet our guest, Jemar Tisby ​​​​​​​Read his latest book, How to fight racismRead Jemar’s other book The Colour of Compromise: the truth about the American Church’s complicity in racism Check out The Witness Get to know Brooke Prentis Find out more about Common GraceWatch Brenda Salter McNeil’s full talk on her ‘response to racism’ This episode is supported by Zondervan Academic’s book Evangelical Theology by Michael Bird Full CNN report on the global protests sparked by the death of George FloydRead more about the Black Lives Matter movement in this series from The New YorkerDivided by Faith: Evangelical religion and the problem of race in America, Michael Emerson and Christian SmithListen to Tim Keller’s full speech on Racism and Corporate Evil Also read Tim Keller’s series on justice and race in the Gospel In Life MagazineThe Bible and Race The Sin of Racism A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory Justice in the BibleRead more about the Southern Baptists and Critical Race Theory​​​​​​​And a little more about Critical Race Theory more generally: Are all white people racist? Why Critical Race Theory has us rattled, Sydney Morning HeraldMore on Australia’s Aboriginal historyMapping the massacres of Australia’s colonial frontier, The University of Newcastle More on the Aboriginal reserves and stations Close the Gap 2020: The annual report of Parliament on progress in Closing the Gap and achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in health and life expectancy Bringing Them Home Report 1997 - A Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says “Sorry” on behalf of the Australian Government in 2008 Watch Australia’s National Aboriginal Bishop in the Anglican Church, Chris McLeod’s full interview on Black Lives Matter and the Church Brooke Prentis gave us three pieces of content she believes all Australians should consume to learn more about the true history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia:Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Talking to My Country, by Stan GrantFirst Australians documentary, SBSHere's the alternate view on racism in AmericaCandace Owens is a conservative US commentator who has a very different take on the Black Lives Matter movement and how she thinks her country should be dealing with racism. On what she believes is the real goal of the Black Lives Matter movementOn White GuiltBen Shapiro is one of the most popular conservative commentators in the US. He disagrees with the idea of systemic racism. More here.Undeceptions T-Shirts are here! Click here to get yours now.

Perhaps you’re sceptical, perhaps you’re just undecided - our challenge for you for 2021 is: read at least 100 pages of the Bible. This book has shaped much of our world. It would be great to think that you’ve got your head around at least 100 pages, as an adult, with all your grownup questions activated. Yes, the Bible is weird. It’s got wars, bizarre laws, talking snakes, perhaps even a unicorn or two, slavery, misogyny, and much more. But there is way to read this stuff, and there’s a way not to.And we reckon today’s guest can help us with both, and make 2021 TO ETOS TES BIBLOU, the year of the Bible.This episode is brought to you by Zondervan Academic’s new book How to Fight Racism by Jemar Tisby.LINKSMeet our guest Dan KimballAnd get his new book How NOT to read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-Women, Anti-Science, Pro-Violence, Pro-Slavery and Other Crazy Sounding Parts of ScriptureRead more of the Finder survey that explored how many Americans make NY resolutions.And that Forbes Magazine article about how many will actually accomplish those resolutions.Here’s the full list of the most common NY resolutions according to “Polly” the artificial intelligence operated by the market research firm Advanced Symbolics Inc.Read the study that found that for around a half of adults today and two-thirds of under-25s, the Bible has absolutely no significance in their personal lives.Here's why might you want to read the Bible, even if you’re not a Christian. Dr Meredith Lake from the ABC wrote this piece for The Conversation in 2017 about why our decline in biblical literacy matters:"Among Australian creatives, too, literary lights such as Patrick White, Elizabeth Jolley, Tim Winton, Helen Garner and Christos Tsiolkas all make powerful use of biblical narratives and imagery. Songwriters from Nick Cave to the late Yolngu star Gurrumul have drawn on the scriptures in their lyrics."Biblical stories and symbols have also inspired visual artists such as Grace Cossington Smith, Arthur Boyd and Margaret Preston. Reg Mombassa’s popular creation, “Australian Jesus”, offers a subversive take on the gospels."Each of these Australians has found the Bible an enlarging influence on the imagination. Audiences can easily miss key elements of their work without a degree of biblical literacy."Or check out this book by John Dickson’s friend, and co-founder of The Centre for Public Christianity Dr Greg Clarke, The Great Bible Swindle, written especially for those who feel that they should know something about the world's most influential text, but may have been afraid to ask.Watch The West Wing scene about the Old Testament in modern times.Were footballs ever made of pigskins?Meet our 5 Minute Jesus author this episode, Laurel Moffatt.Christopher Hitchens speaking to Vanity Fair on the Ten CommandmentsUndeceptions Single series on slavery:Swing low: The campaign against slavery was a shining jewel in the collection of social changes that swept the 19th century. However history shows us it was clearly not a secular viewpoint that set people free.First Abolitionist: Gregory of Nyssa could have been the man who changed history, if history had listened to his theory on slavery.Freeing Slaves: The early church adopted many approaches to rescuing people from the scourge of slavery and, when legal means failed, its members were ready to risk themselves on slave raids.Medieval Manumission:What would you be prepared to give in order to set a slave free? How much would it be worth to you? One medieval man gave everything he had, right down to the shirt off his back. Indigenous slaves: Was Australia built on slavery, or wasn't it? It depends very much on who you ask.Make 2021 TO ETOS TES BIBLOU, ‘The Year of the Bible’Take up John Dickson’s challenge of reading at least 100 pages of the Bible this year. Here’s his Top Ten Old and New Testament Bible passages to get you started. Here’s some links to translations John Dickson recommends: New International Version (NIV)New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)English Standard Version (ESV)Learn more about Greg Koukl’s Never Read a Bible Verse which he says is his attempt to His “rescue believers from a superstitious way of reading their Bibles that causes silliness, confusion, and sometimes even disaster.”Here’s an overview of the storyline of the Bible.The visual was created by a church here in Sydney, based on a book by friend of the podcast, Vaughan Roberts, titled God’s Big Picture.Undeceptions T-Shirts are coming really soon! We've got top quality Ts in medium, large and x-large that will help you promote the show and do your own bit of undeceiving. Head to undeceptions.com later this week - they'll be ready for purchase soon.

You may not feel ready to experience heaven or hell quite yet but Undeceptions listeners certainly had a lot of questions about it! In this season’s Q&A episode, John Dickson attempts to answer at least some of the questions you’ve thrown at us this year. This episode is brought to you by Zondervan Academic’s How NOT to read the Bible by Dan Kimball LINKSWhat Dreams May Come trailerThe Good Place, TV show: how points are scored in lifeThe Rebel, by Albert CamusQUESTIONS Is the punishment of Hell proportional to our acts on Earth? Are there levels of Heaven? Why do we know so little about Heaven? What are we to think of God who is always present, even in the face of evil and abuse? Why is it considered Good News, if so many who don’t believe will end up in Hell? Do we lose our free will in heaven? Are demons real? Should Christians eat meat? Is there any benefit in reading the Apocrypha?Even if I believed in God, why would I believe in the Christian God? What makes Jesus so special as opposed to, say, Islam?Has the modern church tried to white-wash Jesus?Is the church trying too hard in its attempts to persuade same-sex attracted church people to live holy lives rather than relying on God and the power of the gospel?What should we do about the health, wealth and prosperity gospel? Extra questions John answered this seasonDrew asks,The highly regarded scholar David Bentley Hart’s somewhat recent translation of the New Testament translates the Greek work ‘aion’ [i-on] or ‘aionios’ [i-on-ios] to be the more temporal description of ‘of the Age’ rather than the traditional ‘eternal’.This seemingly impacts the well-established Christian doctrines of heaven and hell. Is the claim of life eternal through Jesus now seriously up for debate?Listen to John’s answer at undeceptions.com Follow up this question with some extra reading: David Bentley Hart’s translation of the New Testament A review of Bentley Hart’s translation in The Atlantic.More about Universalism.How Universalism, ‘the Opiate of the Theologians,’ Went Mainstream, Christianity Today.Steve asks, I just listened to the first podcast - Old Papers. I had always thought Paul wrote Hebrews, lately my various pastors have suggested that, no, Paul did not write Hebrews. Hearing that Hebrews was in these old papers of Paul’s writings made me think, I wonder what the answer is?Listen to John’s answer at undeceptions.com

Christianity has plenty to say about the future and what the end of the world might look like -- though some think it says a lot more than others.Christians have, in fact, been accused of being obsessed with end times, so much so that they stop caring about the world they’re in right now. And sometimes that’s true. But apocalyptic Christians aren’t the only ones dwelling on all this. Plenty of us are more interested than ever - especially this year! - in how the world will end. The stories we tell ourselves in culture are becoming increasingly apocalyptic. Why is that? This episode is brought to you by our season sponsor Zondervan Academic, publishers of the Collected Essays of N.T. Wright.LINKSHave a read through The Book of Revelation.Watch Australia’s Secretary for Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo’s, full speech on ‘Securing Australia’ here. Get to know our guest, Alissa Wilkinson from VoxAnd read Alissa’s book How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, Politics and the End of the WorldPssst… here’s an except of the book, a chapter on ‘The Myth of the Secular ApocalypseGet to know our guest, Professor Richard Bauckham, one of greatest living theologians.Professor Bauckham has written many, many books. But since our discussion revolved around the Book of Revelation, you should check out his book on that subject, The Theology of the Book of Revelation Here’s the 2010 New York Times article Alissa mentions by Chuck Klosterman, My Zombie, Myself: Why modern life feels rather undead.For a more in-your-face example of how pop culture continues to use biblical imagery from The Book of Revelation, just watch the trailer for the 2016 blockbuster, X-Men.The film’s director Bryan Singer told the LA Times that Apocalypse - an immensely powerful and ancient mutant - views himself not as a mutant but as a god. Singer says, quote “For all intents and purposes, he is potentially the God of the Old Testament. After being buried for 4,000 years, he awakens to a society that has become interconnected and developed hubris. Humans have created nuclear weapons and assumed godlike proportions in the buildings they build and the things they create. So he sets about to eradicate those things and build what he considers a cleaner, purer world.”Check out Alissa’s Syllabus for the End of the World - her list of stories that tell us how to live during -and after - a pandemic.Here’s the Al Jazeera tape of Harold Camping’s apocalypse prediction in 2011Here’s the Left Behind book series… but John reckons you should skip it. Read C.S. Lewis’ Narnia Series instead.More on the US National Evangelical Leaders survey of 2011, which found that 65 per cent of evangelical church leaders in the US identify with premillennial theology, which grounds this rapture idea.Watch REM’s Michael Stipe’s full Coronavirus message.More on the Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of 2020, “Doomscrolling”John quotes from the pseudepigraphal work (not in any biblical canon) Psalms of Solomon in this episode’s 5 Minute Jesus. Read more about them here.Movies and TV referenced in this episodeGame of ThronesThe Walking DeadCormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, and the “very fine” movie.Wagner’s Ring CycleThe Hunger Games EXTRASHere’s John Dickson and Professor Bauckham’s discussion on ‘the Millennium’ in the Book of Revelation. Listen here. WIN! We’re giving away 20 copies of John's book, 666 And All That: The Truth about the End Times, which he co-wrote with Dr Greg Clarke. If you’d like to win a copy, you just need to be one of the first 20 new subscribers to the Undeceptions e-newsletter. So quick! Head to undeceptions.com, scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and subscribe now. We'll be in touch with the winners in the first week of January.