Podcast Intro and Genesis Overview

This first episode introduces the host and what the listener can expect from the Beyond The Basics podcast. It also introduces an overview of the book of Genesis.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. I am your host, Dan Snyder, and I am very excited that you are able to join me today for this very first episode of Beyond the Basics, where we will be going through the Bible chapter by chapter, from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

First, a little bit about me so you know who you're listening to. I am married to a beautiful wife, have a 15-month-old son, and a crazy dog, and we live in St. Petersburg, Florida. Originally from Minnesota, I work in construction, moved down here for a job, and loved it here, so we've been here about three and a half years. I am a worship leader at a local house of prayer here in St. Petersburg. I've been leading worship for, oh gosh, probably about 12 years now. My wife and I are also deacons at our local church. We lead a house group.

I've been following the Lord most of my life. I grew up in the church. I got into my mid-20s and started following the Lord again and ended up going to a conference down in Kansas City. I went to Kansas City for this conference and I remember one night listening to one of the speakers, his name is Allen Hood, some of you might be familiar with him, and he was preaching on Revelation 4 and 5, and I remember very, very clearly the Bible just really coming alive to me at that moment, and I have been a student of the Bible ever since then. It felt as if I was reading the Bible for the very first time that night. And I love the Bible and I love Jesus.

So I am a disciple of Jesus and I am a student of the Bible. I am not, however, a scholar. I'm not a Bible scholar. I've never been to seminary. And I'm not an expert in Hebrew or Greek languages. So I've studied the Bible a lot. I've spent many, many years studying the Bible on my own, using various resources, learning how to study the Bible, but I've never been to seminary, so that means I am not going to approach this podcast as a teacher to a student. I am not telling you that what I am saying all the time is 100% right, and because I don't know Hebrew or Greek I will in most cases stay away from speculation on what much of the original languages mean unless I am very certain that the sources that I use are correct.

So a little bit about my approach to the Bible regarding interpretation. First of all, obviously the Bible was written mostly by Jewish people. It is a human book that was inspired by God. It was not written down by God and dictated to humans. The authors of the Bible did not go into a trance and write down directly what they heard from God. That's not how the Bible was written. It was written by humans. These humans wrote down these words that we read today, and these words were inspired by God to convey a message about God.

I believe that there are many applications of scripture, but there is only one interpretation. In other words, there is one plain meaning in the text. And there are many different ways that we can apply that meaning to our lives. I don't believe that much of scripture is symbolic in the sense that many scholars have interpreted it. I believe there are symbols, there are images that represent certain things, but the Bible is very clear when those are used. And that brings me to my next point.

The Bible should be taken literally. Considering the genre, of course, unless indicated otherwise by the Bible itself. So, for example, poetry is going to use metaphors and different imagery. Obviously, poetry is not always intended to be taken literally, but it's going to be clear when that is because we know we're reading poetry. For example, when the book of Joel talks about a flood overtaking the the nation of Israel. Well, we can tell by context that that flood is referring to an army of human beings, not a literal flood. And then we also have apocalyptic literature, which is highly, highly symbolic. But what we often find in apocalyptic literature is there is an angel that describes the symbols and what the symbols represent. And I think many scholars, many biblical scholars have done us a disservice by interpreting apocalyptic literature as only symbolic and leaving it up to all sorts of different interpretation when the Bible offers that interpretation right there for us. We don't have to guess.

Next point, all scripture points to Jesus. Highly, highly important when interpreting the Bible. We should be reading, especially the Old Testament, with a mind that it is pointing to Jesus. And that is what Jesus believed himself. Luke 24:27 says: When Jesus encountered the disciples on the road to Emmaus and he talked to them, it says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to t