The Ryley Heppner Podcast

In my conversation with New Testament Professor, Dr. Ben Witherington III, I ask Dr. Witherington about his journey into scholarship, about the decline of biblical literacy in the west and about some of Jesus' teachings on money and the places where Christians struggle to live those teachings out. It was a pleasure to talk Dr. Witherington and I hope now that you are both as challenged and encouraged in your listening to this conversation as I was in having it. Dr. Ben Witherington III is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. He has written over sixty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Patheos website.

Christians are to be led by the Spirit, but how do we discern the Spirit's leading? On top of that, when the Spirit leads us into painful and difficult things, how are we to endure where we have been led?

I had the privilege of chatting with New Testament Professor Darrell Bock. In particular I wanted to ask Dr. Bock about cultural engagement (a topic he has written on and taught on extensively), and how he thinks the western church is doing at engaging with and speaking gospel truth into the culture. Dr. Darrell Bock serves as the executive director of Cultural Engagement at the Hendricks Center and as the senior research professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the author of many books, including How Would Jesus Vote?: Do Your Political Views Really Align With The Bible? (Howard Books, 2016) and Cultural Intelligence: Living for God in a Diverse, Pluralistic World (B&H Academic, 2020). Dr. Bock holds a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen.

Whatever the reasons are, we all end up looking for a new church at some point. With that being said, what should we look for in a church?

Are there things that we have allowed into our lives that actually cannot be adapted but must be confronted and killed?

I was privileged to be joined today by Dr. Chris Watkin. In our conversation Dr. Watkin shared about his journey into scholarship and then spent time unpacking for me both the modern uses of the term deconstructionism and what Jacques Derrida called, "Religion Without Religion." Dr. Chris Watkin is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and associate professor in European languages at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a scholar with an international reputation in modern and contemporary European thought, atheism, and the relationship between the Bible and philosophy. His published work runs the spectrum from academic monographs on contemporary philosophy to books written for general readers, both Christian and secular, including the award-winning Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture. You can follow him on Twitter, his academic website, or his Christian resources website.

New Testament professor, Dr. Craig Blomberg joined me to share about his journey into academia, to talk about the relationship between the church and biblical scholarship and to share wisdom and insights into how Christians can navigate the complexities of the information age. Craig Blomberg is distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, where he has been teaching since 1986. Blomberg earned degrees from Augustana College, Trinity Divinity School, and Aberdeen University in Scotland. He previously taught at Palm Beach Atlantic College and spent one year in Cambridge as a research fellow with Tyndale House. He has been on translation committees for the New Living Translation, English Standard Version, and the Holman Christian Standard Bible. He is the author, coauthor, or co-editor of numerous books and more than 80 articles in journals or multi-author works.

Ben Jepsen was kind enough to be my guest today. Ben is just wrapping up twelve years of pastoral ministry, and I wanted to take the chance to pick his brain on the highs and lows, the ins and outs and the many lessons learned in twelve years of pastoring.

Last time the question was, 'Do idols still exist?' Having answered that with a giant YES, the question for this week is 'How then do we live in, interact with and confront an idolatrous culture?' Do we hide from it, or as the apostle demonstrated in Athens, do we seek to understand it that we might effectively speak the Gospel into it.

It is easy to think that idols don't exist anymore because we don't see bronze statues around town and people offering sacrifices to them. But what if we just have a misconception of idols? Maybe the bronze or the wood material or even the visible sacrifices being offered to them are not what make idols into idols. And maybe if we would change our concept of idols we would start to see that they are everywhere.