Bethel Lectures with Jerry Hanlon: Recent Episodes
Jerry Hanlon
Bethel Lectures given by Jerry Hanlon at Grace Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas.
Published weekly.
--- OT Lectures 1-20 --- Wisdom Books 1 --- NT Lectures 1-20
Greetings Bethel Pilgrims, Jerry has attached the Epilogue to our Bethel Journey that has been edited for audio clarity and smoothness by our friend and technical genius, Steve MacFarland,
My dear Bethel companions, I have attached the recording of our last meeting together as Pilgrims through the Bible as aided by the Bethel Series course. In this gathering, six people volunteered to give their summary of the Bible, as informed by the just-completed Bethel course, and or their faith statement, as developed during this course. Steve MacFarland has edited this recording, making it clearer, crisper, louder and much easier to comprehend, and excluding extraneous noises and dead time as the microphone was passed from one person to another. But, alas, I was unable to load Steve's fine work onto this podcast. Steve and I will work to get his much more polished work to you at a later date. For now, the attached coarser version will have to do.
This audio also contains my attempt to provide some thoughts that may help you when a friend asks difficult questions as you explain the gospel to her/him.
I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting every one of you and look forward to observing the development of your walk with our Lord, Redeemer, Savior and Friend, Jesus Christ. And please remember: "Now that you now these things, you are blessed if you do them."
In this final Bethel lecture, Bethel NT # 20, "Revelation" ("The Revelation of Jesus Christ"), Jerry uses the phenomenal work of The Bible Project (check it out!) and Tim Mackie. Today's lecture came directly from Tim Mackie's work on Revelation, one of the very best on-top and summary treatments of this complicated and confusing book available. John's apocalypse (from the Greek word meaning revelation or the uncovering of something that had been concealed) is a remarkable summary and revealing of the entire Bible, including mankind's rebellion against God, God's various and patient attempts to motivate repentance among the rebelling nations so that they will return to God, God's ultimate defeat and eradication of evil and the inauguration of a New Creation. This New Creation is, in effect, a return to an advanced version of the relationship of mankind with God, self, others and nature described in the first two Bethel lessons, "Creation and Its Concepts" and "Divine Intentions".
I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing with you our 12-month, 42-lesson journey through God's Word with you!
In Bethel NT 19: "Sanctification", Jerry defines and describes Sanctification, the process of the miracle of a human being's transformation into Christ-likeness.
In Bethel NT 18, "False Teaching", Jerry explains the serious assaults on the early Christian churches by many false teachers who distorted, maligned and slandered the truths of the gospel and the apostles who proclaimed it. The false teaching in the first century church usual came in the form of either, both or a combination of mystic pagan polytheism and strict Jewish law, customs and traditions. The outcome of the infiltration of these heresies ran the gamut, paradoxically, from strict asceticism to open sexual licentiousness. The NT letters that addressed these crises in the early church were Colossians, 2nd Peter, 1st & 2nd John, James and Jude. These letters are of immense value to us, as it illustrates how the early evangelical Christians pushed back on denials of and attacks on the truths of the gospel. They show how the Bible, in addition to being a book unlike any other book, is also the most honest and open of all books: It gracefully, effortlessly and convincingly answers the strongest and most malicious of charges, denunciations, condemnations, accusations and charges. This should both provide us with an inventory of responses to questioners of the truth of the gospel as well as elevated confidence in the veracity of Scripture.
In Bethel NT 17: "1st Peter", Jerry describes Peter's circular letter to the many churches of persecuted Gentile Christians residing in modern-day Turkey. Peter addresses these major points regarding the recipients' suffering and hardships: (1) A worldview and lifestyle consistent with the teachings of King Jesus will bring the Christian into violent collision with the values and standards of the world. (2) As a result, suffering, hardship, difficulties, rejection, insults and ostracization by others are inevitable, as Jesus warned His disciples. (3) The disciple is to endure these hardships without retaliation. (4) Prayerful faith and hope will engage the Holy Spirit to enable the disciple to tolerate and endure these hardships. (5) Enduring these hardships brings divine benefits, including testing and proving the genuineness of faith, building holy character, bearing powerful witness to Jesus Christ, and winning over observing souls to Christ Jesus.
In Bethel NT 16: "1st & 2nd Timothy", Jerry describes two letters that Paul wrote to his trusted and long-time co-worker, Timothy. Paul had sent Timothy to Ephesus to confront corrupt teachers and bring order and discipline to the church that had become dysfunctional and divided. The letters consist of a description of Timothy's assignment along with guidance, instruction and encouragement to consider as he managed it.
In Bethel NT 15, "The Church", Jerry describes (1) the history, origin and purpose of the Church, (2) the mission of the Church, and (3) how God uses ordinary human beings who have been filled, equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to effectively carry out that mission..
In Bethel NT 14 "1st & 2nd Corinthians", Jerry describes the occasion for and purposes and content of Paul's two letters to the Church at Corinth. The occasion of the letters was, as was so often the case, major crises of chaos, disorder and thus dishonoring of Jesus Christ's reputation in the church. Without these crises, painful, unwelcome and difficult as they were, we would not have these two letters that have been such a magnificent source of God's revelation to us. It is yet another example of the mysterious ways that God chooses to reveal His truth to us.
In Bethel NT 13, "1st and 2nd Thessalonians", Jerry describes Thessalonica, the second city in Europe that Paul evangelized on his second missionary journey, 50 - 52 A.D., and the two letters he wrote to the church in that city.
In Bethel NT 12, "Faith", Jerry describes how our belief in the revelations of God in the Bible, which cannot be proven or seen, is not irrational, but rather, we are commanded to use our intellect and full strength of our mind. We learn that the constituents of faith are knowledge, assent and trust. Knowledge alone, even when accompanied by assent (positive confirmation and acceptance of the "facts") are not enough. These two constituents must be accompanied by trust, which results in our basing our thinking, worldview, priorities, values and behavior on the teachings of Jesus of Christ.
In Bethel NT 11, Jerry describes how justification, i.e., "getting right with God", is achieved only through faith in the redemptive work of God through Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. The many significant virtues of mankind and its impressive achievements and good works will not get one right with God.
In Bethel NT 10, Jerry describes one of the earliest of the many obstacles facing the primitive church: The demand by the earliest Christians, who were all Jews, that all non-Jews wishing to become Christians must first comply with the Jewish laws and tradition. In other words, to become a Christian, these "Reversionists", or Judaizers, as they were called, claimed that Jesus alone was inadequate for salvation. Rather, the heretical formula was: "Jesus + ________= Salvation"
In Bethel NT - 9, "Christ the Lord", Jerry discusses the Book of Acts (also called, "The Acts of the Apostles"). In general, this the sequel to the four gospels, explaining the birth of the Christian Church. In particular, it serves as a "bridge" from (1) the gospels to the rest of the New Testament, (2) Christ to Christianity, and (3) Jesus Christ to the "Body of Christ", the Church. It also shows, in concrete and tangible ways, the work and power of the Holy Spirit as He transforms (1) a boastful and betraying coward like Peter into a magnificently courageous and compellingly eloquent evangelist for Jesus Christ and (2) a violent and zealously murderous legalist like Saul of Tarsus into an energetic, tireless courageous and brilliant witness, interpreter, expositor and church-planter for Jesus Christ.
In Bethel NT - 8, "The Empty Tomb", Jerry discusses the fact and consequences of and the witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, proving the veracity of the Hebrew Scriptures' prophecies of His birth, life, teaching, death and resurrection, along with the truth of His teachings, the assurance of His promises and the certitude of his claims to have conquered sin and death. Jerry also discussed the presence, purpose, work and power of the Holy Spirit.
In this lecture, Bethel NT - 7, "A Light in the Darkness", Jerry describes how Jesus, through His redemptive work on the Cross, brought new meaning to the everyday words "life", "light", "wisdom" and "folly". Also discussed are how Jesus prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures regarding a mysterious Messiah who will eliminate the darkness, confusion, chaos and despair that had long enslaved mankind.
In this lecture, Bethel NT- 6, "Jesus the Savior", Jerry describes the Bible's claims of Jesus' scope and depth of purpose, meaning, promises, blessings, results, consequences and demands of His disciples as our Savior.
In Bethel NT 4, "Jesus - Spokesman to Distortion", Jerry describes the teaching Jesus directed to the teachers and scholars of the Hebrew Scriptures and their listeners about how God's original blessing and intent of (1) the Law, (2) the Tradition of the Elders and (3) the Separation concept had become so distorted in its application that it had become a curse, perverting, burdening and even destroying life.
In Bethel NT 5, "Jesus the Teacher", Jerry discusses how the broad teaching of Jesus revealed (1) the true nature of God, (2) the true nature of man as God had originally intended and (3) how mankind should cooperate with God in His desire to develop in us a God-related way of thinking, speaking and behaving.
In Bethel NT 3, "Jesus the Man", Jerry continued an exploration of the incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation. In Bethel NT 2, "The Word Became Flesh", we explored the Bible's claim that Jesus was fully God. In this lesson, we explored the Bible's claim that Jesus was fully human. We also discussed the Bible's explanation of the purpose, consequences and implications of Jesus' humanity.
In Bethel NT - 2, "The Word Became Flesh", Jerry explains the Biblical view of something unexplainable, indescribable, incomprehensible and thoroughly mysterious: The Incarnation. Jerry describes the Bible's assertion of the need, purpose and integrity of the incarnation, God's coming to earth over 2,000 years ago in the form of the human being, Jesus of Nazareth.
In this first Bethel lesson on the New Testament, "In The Fullness of Time", Jerry describes how God engineered the interception of human history, politics, philosophy, religion and the frightful state of the human condition to make it the perfect time to execute the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
In this transitional episode, "The Time Between the Testaments", Jerry describes the history, social developments, literature, and development of Judaism that occurred between 432 B.C. and 5 B.C. that created the world we read about in the New Testament.
In this final episode on the Old Testament, Jerry describes the Bible's so-called Wisdom Literature, held in the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. Jerry focuses on a detailed description of Job in this lecture, providing the Biblical view of "Why do bad things happen to good people?" He addresses the other four wisdom books more briefly.
In Bethel OT-20, "The Restoration", Jerry discusses the events occurring over about 150 years following the four waves of deportations of Jews from Palestine by the Babylonians in 605, 597, 586 and 581 B.C. These events are recorded in the OT books of Ezra and Nehemiah, meant to be read as a connected account. These events were ignited by the Persians succeeding to world dominance by defeating the the Babylonians in 539 under the military and administrative genius of Cyrus the Great, who, in exercising wise tolerance for other cultures, permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The events and people highlighted in Ezra-Nehemiah are best understood in four sections: (1) The first return of the Jewish exiles under Shesbazzar in 537; (2) The rebuilding of the the temple under Zerubabbel in 536 to 515; (3) the re-establishment of the Torah (Law) under Ezra (arrived in Jerusalem in 458); and (4) the rebuilding of the Jerusalem walls under Nehemiah (arrived in Jerusalem in 445). While these events seemed to be, at least on their surfaces, the fulfillment of much of Israel's prophetic promises, Ezra-Nehemiah intentionally portrays them as ultimately disappointing and anti-climatic. The reason is that the accomplishments, restorations and geographical repatriation all happened without a change in the hearts of the Jews - they were still the same sinful people they were before the exile. So, in the most important area, the people's relationship to God, nothing had changed. What was needed was a holistic transformation of the human heart that could be brought about only by God in a supernatural way through a supernatural Messiah.
In Bethel OT -19, "History Itself is the Judgment of God", Jerry describes God's purpose for mankind, as well as His character, insistence on justice and compliance and cooperation with His revealed will, all as inferred and interpreted from the historical events and prophetic utterances recorded throughout the Old Testament.
In Bethel OT - 19, "The Exile", Jerry describes the tragic circumstances leading up to the annihilation of the nation of Judah by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and the horrifying events and conditions inside the walls of Jerusalem that were part of the 30-month siege, and the subsequent exile. This pivotal national and historical event, which the Bible describes as the judgment of God that had been proclaimed for decades by God's prophets, ushered in a profound change regarding the Jews. Now a people without a nation of their own, spread all over the known world as a result of two exiles, their purpose and destiny in God's plan had not changed, but the ways in which these would be fulfilled would take form that no one would have ever imagined.
In Bethel OT 15, "The Crumbling North", Steve MacFarland reviewed the United Kingdom under Saul, David and Solomon. Under Solomon's reign, God's covenantal promise to Abraham of 1,000 years earlier seemed largely fulfilled. But Solomon's titanic ambition for empire, power and influence involved overtaxing and forced labor of the people of Israel, creating distrust, enmity and eventual civil war between the ten northern tribes (collectively called "Israel") and the two large southern tribes (collectively called "Judah"). Over a period of approximately 200 years, Israel was ruled by 20 kings, all of whom rejected the devoted worship of the One True God in exchange for idolatry with the local deities, especially the perverse and degrading Baalism. Despite incessant prophetic warnings sent by God to the priests and rulers of the northern kingdom, their collective apostate behavior invited God's inevitable judgment in the form of national dissolution and the annihilation and exile of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 722/721 B.C. The plight of the Northern Kingdom is a picture "writ large" of the failure of the individual against assaults by the Evil One and fleshly impulses because of rebellious rejection of the One True God as our only hope in this world and the one to come.
In this episode, Jerry describes the shocking decline among Israel in their devotion the One God, morality and justice. Worst of all, while they willingly accepted God's grace, blessings and privileges as God's Chosen People, they forgot and spurned their responsibility to be a blessing of God's light to the rest of the world. And all of this after God's fulfillment, in the reign of Solomon, of many of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God spoke to His people through the 16 prophets in the OT, four "major" and 12 "minor". Through these prophets, God pointed out and rebuked the people of Israel of the many ways in which they had deviated terribly from God's plan for them. The prophets exhorted the Israelites to recognize and correct their wayward lives and get with God's plan for them or face horrible judgment.
In this lecture, Bethel OT 13, "The United Kingdom", Jerry explores the nature of the first three kings of Israel, Saul, David and Solomon. The governance of God's people, Israel, by a human monarch, as opposed to rule by God alone, the intended theocracy, was a result of the fear and confusion precipitated by the crisis of the Philistine capture of the Ark of the Covenant and the desire to establish governance like other nations with a strong, charismatic leader. But, in reality, it was a result of disobedience and unbelief. Nevertheless, God instructed Samuel to permit Israel to establish a government ruled by a human king, but only after he thoroughly disclosed to the people of Israel what they were really asking for. This lesson describes the nature of the governance of Israel by the all-too-human Saul, David and Solomon.
Jerry describes the invasion, conquest and possession of The Promised Land by the Israelites after 40 years of wandering in the desert, as described in the Books of Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua.
Jerry summarizes Harley Swiggum's main point in his Bethel OT-9 lesson, which is that the institution of atonement was the most important of all of the factors which the Lord introduced to help Israel realize its destiny. Jerry also explained and interpreted Israel's sacrificial system of worship as laid out in detail in the Book of Leviticus. He shows how the regulations and ordinances governing the propriety of sacrificial offerings both point to Calvary and provide a rich resource for understanding the 1st-century Christians' interpretation of Jesus Christ's sacrificial death as the ultimate, final and perfect sacrifice achieving atonement and the reconciliation of God and mankind.
Jerry describes the the Biblical account, from Exodus 1 through Joshua 5, of the various factors God used to insure that the promises and obligations made in His covenant with Abraham will be brought to fruition, despite the many obstacles posed by human nature.
In OT-7, Jerry discusses the Biblical account of how God's promise and prophecy, outlined in the Abrahamic Covenant at Genesis 12.2-3, is worked out by God in human history. The account makes its transition in the 279 years from the end of Genesis to the beginning of Exodus, reminding us that God's "silence" in the Biblical record by no means indicates that he is not present or active. Jerry then describes the story of God's redemption of the nation Israel (at least 2 million people!) from Egyptian bondage through the covenant mediator, Moses. This is followed by the story of the responses of faithlessness, ingratitude and rebellion by God's children, which is met by His judgment of 40 years of aimless wandering in the deserts of Sinai, Paran and Zin in the second part of Exodus and the Book of Numbers.
In Bethel OT #6, "United for a Destiny", Jerry describes how God created and then sustained for seven centuries Israel's self-awareness of its identity, purpose and destiny. The source of Jerry's lecture is God's revelation as expressed in Genesis 12 through Exodus 20. This lecture was given on Sunday, October 28, 2018 at Grace Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas.
Jerry describes what the Bible says about the components of the Covenant that God made with Abram in Genesis chapter 12 and why they would be so important to nomads like Abram and his family. Jerry also explains the way in which God works, specifically here through the implementation of a three-fold separation concept: (1) Ethnically, (2) within families, and (3) geographically.
Jerry reviews the Biblical account of the cosmic malignant growth of sin in Genesis chapters 3 through 11. Jerry interprets these chapters as mankind's attempt over and over again to find achievement, success, meaning, purpose, peace and contentment without God, and its repeated failures, even after the four new-beginning "do-overs" dramatically portrayed in the Bible. This sets the reader up for God's merciful plan of salvation, beginning in Chapter 12 of Genesis with God's choosing of Abram (later Abraham) to be the agent of His plan to save mankind: "I will bless you....so that you will be a blessing,,,,and through you all the nations on the earth will be blessed". This is the beginning and the heart of the gospel revealed in the Bible.
Jerry reads and interprets Genesis chapter 3, the cosmic calamity ignited by man's misuse of free will by disobeying God, creating the unbridgeable chasm between mankind and God that only Jesus Christ will be able to adequately address. This lesson explains the need and the truth of Christianity.
Jerry describes and interprets God's intended relationship for man with God, within himself, with other humans and with nature, as laid out in Genesis chapters 2 and 3.
Jerry Hanlon summarizes and interprets the Biblical description of creation and its concepts as portrayed in Genesis chapters 1 and 2.