Jeremiah Against Orthodoxy (Ancient and Modern)

The message of the prophet Jeremiah repudiated the orthodoxy of his day, and it repudiates the orthodoxy of our day. In doing so, it also positively teaches us some valuable lessons. Before getting into that, though, let’s go over a few important facts about Jeremiah. The When – Jeremiah delivered his message during the last […]

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Who May Travel Into Yahweh’s Tent?

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) I’ve recently been writing about a philosophy within ancient Israel that understood Yahweh to be the God of Truth and truth itself to be the supreme principle. This was actually part of the materialist school in ancient Israel. If you aren’t familiar with ancient Israelite materialism, I recommend reading/listening to the […]

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God: A Purely Material Person

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) So, it’s the Day of Atonement, and we’ve covered a lot in seven blog posts/podcasts over the past 10 days starting with Dirt You Are (Israelite Anthropology). Fittingly, today we’ll be talking about the subject that is holiest of all, the person of God Himself. In our last post, we covered […]

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Jesus: A Purely Material Person

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) In our last post, we saw that Jesus and his early followers had a materialistic understanding of human nature. They believed and taught that bodily resurrection is the only hope for a future life (a doctrine that is fundamentally inconsistent with the idea that we have immaterial souls). In this post, we […]

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Resurrection: The Only Hope of Future Life

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) In the past few posts, we’ve seen that ancient Israelite ideas of death were rooted in their ideas of human nature. Death, to them, consisted neither of “soul wakefulness” nor of “soul sleep” (that is, if by “soul” you mean what most people mean – a non-physical “self”). Rather, they saw […]

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To Dirt You Will Return (Israelite Anthropology)

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) In this post, I’ll answer the question from the end of our last post: What did ancient Israelites think about death? Before getting started, I should repeat a qualification I made a few posts back. I’m generally referring to “what ancient Israelites believed” on these subjects, but please keep in mind […]

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Cognitive Kidneys (Israelite Anthropology)

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) Have you ever had a hard time wrapping your brain around a new idea? You just keep racking your brain, but get nowhere! Then someone comes along with a completely different background and a different education, and to them, it’s a no-brainer. You can see that they understand it so much […]

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Israel’s Despiritualizing Philosophy

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) In the previous post, we went through a number of ancient Israelite texts that present a materialistic view of human nature. Unlike the popular idea that humans have a dual nature (physical and non-physical), these texts portray humans as made of only one substance – dirt. Humans, like the other animals, […]

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Dirt You Are (Israelite Anthropology)

(Podcast Version – Follow/Subscribe) It’s time to disclose that popular theology goes hand in sand with Israelite anthropology; it throws the ole soul into sheol. The new one they say is ethereal. Can’t hear it; it’s an immaterial spirit. Everywhere is nowhere near it. But Hebrews saw a body of dirt Though once inert, a […]

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