Shermer and Ehrman discuss:
- Ehrman’s religious journey
- Who wrote the Bible and why?
- how to read the Bible and the book of Revelation
- Who wrote Revelation and why?
- violence in the book of Revelation
- why Jesus spoke in parables
- What did Jesus mean when he said “there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” (Mark 9:1)
- “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28)
- a history of false predictions of the end of the world
- Real-Life Consequences of the Imminent Apocalypse (why worry about climate change if the world is going to end soon?)
- Millerites and the Great Disappointment
- David Koresh and Waco
- Reagan and end times politics
- how Jesus became a capitalist and militarist
- the social gospel vs. the prosperity gospel
- faith healers, televangelists, and other Christian con artists
- Christian ethics and what Jesus really said about the poor and needy.
Bart D. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity and a Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The author of six New York Times bestsellers, he has written or edited more than thirty books, including Misquoting Jesus, How Jesus Became God, The Triumph of Christianity, Did Jesus Exist?, God’s Problem, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot, and Heaven and Hell. Ehrman has also created nine popular audio and video courses for The Great Courses. His books have been translated into 27 languages, with over two million copies and courses sold. His new book is Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End.
About the Book
You’ll find nearly everything the Bible has to say about the end in the Book of Revelation: a mystifying prophecy filled with bizarre symbolism, violent imagery, mangled syntax, confounding contradictions, and very firm ideas about the horrors that await us all. But whether you understand the book as a literal description of what will soon come to pass, interpret it as a metaphorical expression of hope for those suffering now, or only recognize its highlights from pop culture, what you think Revelation reveals…is almost certainly wrong.
In Armageddon, acclaimed New Testament authority Bart D. Ehrman delves into the most misunderstood — and possibly the most dangerous — book of the Bible, exploring the horrifying social and political consequences of expecting an imminent apocalypse and offering a fascinating tour through three millennia of Judeo-Christian thinking about how our world will end. By turns hilarious, moving, troubling, and provocative, Armageddon presents inspiring insights into how to live our lives in the face of an uncertain future and reveals what the Bible really says about the end.
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This episode is sponsored by Wondrium:
This episode was released on March 21, 2023.
