• Condensed Spiritual Geography

    SHEOL/HADES: In the Old Testament, it was understood that when anyone died they went to Sheol. It was not a pleasant place since it was also the home of evil spirits, but it wasn’t Hell. Many think the idea of Sheol went away in the New Testament, but it didn’t. Rather, as the Hebrews found…

  • Lord of the Rings

    Tylar and I kick off our new 1208-Bit Podcast with a conversation on “The Lord of the Rings.” We talk a bit about Tolkien’s life and his relationship with Lewis and others; faith elements in the Lord of the Rings; the faith journey of many of its readers; its impact on current culture; and much,…

  • The Non-Violence of Revelation

    If you’re like me then you didn’t open up Revelation much growing up because you didn’t know what to make of all the violence. Jesus showed us His loving character by dying on behalf of others and exercising extreme forgiveness, but at first glance He appears quite the opposite in Revelation. What do we do…

  • Armageddon & Har Mo’ed

    If I wanted to teach you the Hebrew word for God, I wouldn’t spell it as, “אֱלֹהִים”—rather, I would spell it as, “Elohim.” This is how transliteration works: I take the closest English letters I can find to help you pronounce the Hebrew word, recognizing that Hebrew letters are likely foreign to you. John uses…

  • God’s Extended Patience

    The short answer? I don’t think so. I could never say for sure since Jesus said that only God knows when the end is coming, but Jesus did say in Matthew 24 that things would be way worse than corona—like, “the-entire-cosmos-is-falling-apart” worse. Yet it seems that anytime Americans get a little taste of the suffering…

  • The Qualities of Jesus Justice

    There is a huge difference in what it looks like for us to take justice into our own hands and to do justice as Jesus would have us do it. In Romans 12:14-21, Paul tells us what it means to live and act like Jesus in the midst of evil. Watch this message above or…

  • Progressive Creationism

    Me and Erin continued our series on the different theories of creation. Check out the latest episode on the Erinvironment section of the 1208PODCAST. You can listen on the 1208GREENWOOD webpage or by subscribing to the 1208PODCAST on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play.

  • Revelation’s Babylon

    When we read Revelation we naturally think that John was talking about the oppressive Babylonian Empire when he references Babylon—but John’s audience knew he was talking about the oppressive Rome. They knew this because, for one, the Babylonian Empire had crumbled some 500 years earlier and, for two, John described the Lady Babylon with characteristics…

  • The End Times

    People often say the end times are coming soon or that the end times are here, but from a Biblical perspective the end times started after Jesus was resurrected. He ascended into the heavens and now all He has to do is come back. Therefore, we are in the final pages of the grand story—we…

  • What’s the Mark of the Beast?

    Is it a credit card? Your social security number? The bar code? RFID microchips? No, no, no and no. We must remember that while Revelation is partially about that which is to come, it was also very much about that which has already happened since it was a letter to seven communities 2,000 years ago,…