February 26, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I make a list of the most popular things
we do on this show over the years. Having done
this for twenty years now, playing a Paul Harvey clip,
we up there, playing a Rush Limbaugh clip. Will be
up there, having doctor ed young On.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We'll be up there. Those are those are.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Things, And and then I will discover in my meanderings.
Usually somebody will send it to me, someone talking about
a book of the Bible, a character in the by
person in the Bible, or a parable or something of
the sort, or what a verse means to them. And
I'll find, you know, some some Bible teacher who explains
(00:44):
that in a way that is compelling, and so we'll
we'll share those. And it's amazing how many people will say,
where did that come from? Where do I find that?
Because they want to they want to listen again, or
they want to share it with someone else.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And so it's something that we enjoyed doing, and.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I intend to probably do much more of it going
forward because I enjoy it, and it seems to be
something that you enjoy as well. So someone sent me
an email.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And said, hey, you were at UH.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
When David Klingler was there. He was the superstar quarterback
went to the Cincinnati Bengals first round draft pick, and
I said, yes, we weren't buddies, but I knew who
he was. Obviously we all did. He was a big
man on campus. And I'm always interested in where are
they now? VH one did one? And this may be
my favorite where are they now? For somebody who I
didn't know what he was up to.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
He's teaching the.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Bible, and from what I understand, he's darn good at it.
I have gone on to his podcast which is called
Teach Me the Bible. He has a website, teach Me
the Bible lives out in Brenham. But I got to say,
this guy is doing literally doing the Lord's work. And
I was so delighted to see what he used his
(02:01):
celebrity and his skill set for. And so we reached
out through mutual friends to ask him to come on
and talk about his ministry. And I am honored to
say he's with us now. David Klingler, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Michael. Good to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So take me from in in ninety two, you're drafted
by the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We'll talk football in a moment.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Raiders ninety six ninety seven. Then you were on the
practice squad for the Packers. Football is over. Take me
to the next phase of your life. Let's start there.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Well, well, that's a great, great question. So so football
was over pretty much after my second year in Cincinnati.
I had had elbow damage, went to surgery and they
said it was care ending. And you know, one of
the things that I realized was that football is not
a career. Unless you're a coach, then it's not particularly
(02:55):
a good career. You're just waiting to get fired at
seeing me. But but then the question was what do
you do next? And uh, you know, what does life
look like after you know, you're you're you've done everything
that you thought you wanted to do and and and
so that was kind of how football came to an end.
(03:16):
And and I remember it was actually, uh, this the
first off season I had come back to Houston. You know,
we still had a home in Katie and and the Oilers.
That was back when the Oilers were in Houston. And
came back to the off season and was invited by
the FCA Director of the Houston Area to go to
the Oilers Bible Study. And I went to the Oilers
(03:38):
Bible Study. And a guy named body Backham was teaching
the Bible study and many of you may know that name,
and and uh and we got to talk and after
the study, and he said, you know, you need to
quit football and go to seminary. And I'm thinking, who
in the world goes to seminary? You know even know
what that means. But that's kind of how it started,
(03:58):
you know. And uh, and just an interest in in
the Bible. And and so over the next maybe eight
years he kept after me. And and finally I had had
a ranch out in the Burton area Brenda Mary and uh,
some some you know person pulled in wanted to buy
the ranch, and so I sold it. And he said,
(04:19):
well what do I do now? I said, well, I'm
going to go to seminary. And that's kind of how
it started.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So you had I think a thousand acres or more, No.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It was it was about five hundred little video. Yeah, well,
ral chat, that's a massive amount of Burton, in Burton,
in Washington County.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Well today, back then, you know, gosh, so I wish
i'd have bought you know, you know, everything the light
touches back. If I hadn't known then what I know now,
but but yeah, we you know, my plan was to
go retire, shut the gate and uh, you know, and
and we know and just trained some horses and and
(05:03):
my wife's plan was to raise our boys and uh
somewhere bigger than than Burton. And so we moved back
to the Kady area. Boys went to Sinco Ranch High
School and and really enjoyed it there. But but you
know how it is living in the town and property
taxes and traffic and people and all that, and uh,
and it was just time to get back out into
(05:23):
a little more space. And so we moved back out here.
We live in the Brenna Mary Now, okay, so that's
what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You complete seminary, and then what's the next step at
that point? What happened?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, the reason I went to sim I didn't want
to be a pastor. I didn't want to be a professor.
I didn't even that wasn't even on the radar. I
just wanted to know the Bible. And and I remember hearing,
you know, I used to listen to the morning Christian
radio and Tony Evans was on, Chucks Lindahl was on,
(05:57):
and they had two radio stations right too, radio shows
back to back, and I listened to them, and then
I just happened to go to church on Sunday, and
all three of them preached the same passage, but none
of them said the same thing. And I kept thinking,
you know, who are you supposed to listen to? Here?
You know, you got the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans,
(06:17):
the Baptists, and everybody's saying something different, and they're all
saying in some ways mutually exclusive things, and so who
are you supposed to listen to? And how do you
know what's right? And so I just went to seminary
to learn the Bible. I walked into my first seminary class,
and this professor just made the Bible so simple and
(06:40):
so understandable. You know, it wasn't versus an idolation, but
these actually made sense. You know, one sentence went with
the next sentence, you know, one verse went with the
next verson and the book started to make sense, and
so it really captivated my curiosity. I came home after
the first night and and I said, I want to
(07:02):
get a PhD. And my wife's looking at me, like,
who are you?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You've been there one day one day.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, one day, and that meant, you know, one hundred
and twenty hour degree, and about half about half of
that degree was in was in the Dallas area, so
I couldn't take it in Houston. And we had boys,
and so I said, well, she said, how are you
going to do this? So I said, I'll get up
at three in the morning, I'll drive and I'll be
home you know, in the afternoon or evening. And and
(07:30):
it required learning Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and you know,
and then for the PhD, French and German and you know,
I don't know, you start piling up the languages and
you start to lose track. But it was just a
passion to understand what, you know, what did the Bible mean?
And then and then once I started to take theology
(07:50):
classes and church history, then it really be there. Sure. Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
David Klingler is our guest. The site is Teach Me
the Bible dot com.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
This is the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Locked and loaded, it didn't loaded.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
David Klingler is our guest.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
He was he wrote too many as a college quarterback
at the University of Houston, first round draft pick with
Cincinnati Bengals, but what he does now is far more interesting.
The website is Teach Me Thebible dot com. There is
a podcast that effect. We're talking about a fellow who
arrives at seminary. I mean, look, you don't get to
be a star quarterback and throw for almost ten thousand
(08:32):
yards in college without being a little cocky, right, So
he shows up the first day in seminary to catch
you folks up and decides after that, yeah, I'll go
ahead and get a PhD. Were you a good student
growing up? Were academics something? Because most athletes obviously weren't.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Were you?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
You know? I went to so at University of Houston.
I was in the business program, and it was a
great school. But thinks I would pick out things pretty quickly,
and so I didn't have to spend a lot of
time at it. Now, if I was interested in it, boy,
it became a passion. And so, yeah, I could be
a good student. But I was interested in things I
(09:11):
was interested in. You know how boys are in the
things I wasn't interested in. I just had no interest in,
you know.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And so on a personal level, you were going to
seminary and driving back and forth and being a dad
and I'm assuming, you know, the sale of your property
out in Burton kind of you know, helped cover the
bills and hopefully you saved some of what you made
as an athlete. Were you were you, were you working,
Were you earning a paycheck anywhere during this time or
(09:38):
just going to a seminary, just going to seminary.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I just had totally devoted myself to learning the Bible,
not for any other really agenda or reason. I just
wanted to know the truth, so to speak. And I
was it is my second year of school, and the
dean then of the College of Biblical Studies here in
(10:02):
Houston asked some of the students, was that you know
that he was looking for some professors and people to
teach the Bible. And so he's asking the professors at
the seminary, do you have any good students? And my
name kept coming up, and so he asked me to teach,
and so I just went in and taught, you know,
told others what I had learned that was taught by
my professors. A couple of years later, the Dallas Seminary
(10:26):
asked me to teach start teaching biblical languages. And then
I started teaching Greek and Hebrew and Bible. I was
teaching actually at three schools before I had finished my PhD.
And which you know, they typically require a PhD to teach,
but they had made an exception for me. So I
(10:47):
was teaching at College of Biblical Studies, at Dallas Theological Seminary,
and then at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And again, my
passion was just to learn the Bible, and I realized
that it wasn't that complicated. Boy, we sure make it hard,
but it wasn't. It wasn't that complicated to understand. And
(11:10):
maybe out of frustration, you know, it's you know, I
wanted to teach others so that they could understand it,
so you didn't have to listen to what somebody says.
The Bible says that you can actually open it up
and read it and make sense of it well.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And that was always, uh, you know, as a Southern Baptist,
I am a believer that I don't need a pope
or anyone else to translate for me. You know, it's
in my language, and it's it's my personal journey and
it applies to me, and no one needs to translate it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For me, how did you arrive at the concept of
teach me the Bible? Were people asking you that question?
Because it's so simple and so.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Direct, And I think that that was part of what
I found to be the appeal when I went to
the website and then started on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, it's a funny story. So we live out here
in Brenham, and so met a pastor out here and
just wanted to help him, you know, succeed in the
pastor and it's such a bad job. It's a hard
job unless you're called to it. And so we would
sit on the porch and we would just talk about
(12:19):
the Bible, and he'd ask, you know, hey, what about this,
and so we talk about it. Well, we hired a
worship pastor and he came in and you know, he
had made the statement to him. He says, you know,
we teach the Bible and we sing heresy, how can
I learn the Bible? Because so many of our Christian
songs are such bad theology. I said, well, why don't
you just come sit on the porch with us and
(12:41):
talk the Bible? And he said, you know, we need
to make a podcast of that. And that's how it started.
So I said well, I don't even know what that
means podcasts, you know. He said, well, don't worry about that. Well,
I'll bring the microphones. We'll set it up. And so
he's our technology guy. So that's what we do. We
come in and and the microphones are set up and
(13:02):
they just ask questions and I talk, you know, tell
us about this book, and so we walk through the
book and it really is a simple concept, but it's
really had a great response when when.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Folks who grew up in the church but maybe have
have drifted away, or or folks who go to a
church and as you know, this is very common where
the Bible is not first and foremost, and they say,
I really want to get I want to go deeper in.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I want to engage in.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Personal study, not church going personal study. Do you have
an approach as to a place to begin or what
what is how do you handle that?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, well, well it's really interesting that we so much
of so many people today come to seminary for just
that they've been involved in church, but they want to
learn the Bible, and so they come in thinking they
know a whole bunch of stuff that usually they come
in with their theology with their you know, with their
(14:00):
life verses or whatever it is. And and when you
ask them to explain what that verse is doing with
the sentence right before the sentence right after it, they
have they have they can't answer. And you hear so often.
You know, you start in the Gospel of John or
something like that. But if I handed you any book,
any any book, and said here, read this book, well
(14:22):
you would just start at the beginning. And and that's
where you ought to start. In the Bible, you start
at the beginning. You start in Genesis, and and it's
really a simple story. It's the Bible is the revelation
of God's redemptive history through you know, through through human history.
(14:42):
I mean, it's just in the beginning, uh, creation fall
and off the Lord goes to bring about his promised deliverer,
and you get to walk down that trail uh with
the authors as they tell the story of God's redemptive
acts throughout human history, culminating in the person of his
(15:06):
son Jesus Christ. And so it makes perfect sense. It's
really simple to understand. But if we start in the middle,
or start with some verse, or you start with some
theological grid or concept or defense, it becomes really convoluted
very quickly.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Although full disclaim, full disclosure and disclaimer on your part,
your expertise is your PhD is actually an Old Testament
studies so would I would argue that in terms of accessibility,
most folks can start in the New Testament with a
lot greater ease to at least get to develop comfort
(15:44):
in who we're dealing with here, whereas the Old Testament
can be, in my opinion, can be a little tougheror
not to crack.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Well, yeah, so what happens is, let me start with
the Gospel of John. So John else the reader, why
he wrote his story that many other signs Jesus did
in the presence of his disciples which were not written
in this book.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Hold right there, we're up against the break. David Klingler
is our guest. The website is teach Me the Bible
dot Com and that is also the name of the podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
More than I have almost went the laws to myself.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
David Klingler is our guest, former star quarterback. Now teach
Me the Bible dot Com or you can listen to
the podcast teach Me about You were talking about the
Book of John. And and we're going to get to
Paul's letters, I hope at some point, because that's something that's.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Always appealed to me.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
But you were talking about we're talking about learning the Bible,
and I'm talking as much about self taught, which appears
to be a lot of what y'all do. And I
love that you're not trying to build an audience for yourself.
You're trying to it appears to me, at least my
my study of what y'all have done is to get
people engage themselves in a self help study of the Bible.
(17:06):
And I love that approach. But anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, our mission is to help the people of God
understand the Word of God. But you know the Gospel
of John, John is writing to convince the reader that
Jesus is the Christ. Well, if I ask students, and
I do this all the time in seminary, okay, well
what does that mean? And they look at me with
a blank stare, like I don't know. Like Jesus Christ right,
(17:31):
Like you know, if he was wearing a jersey on
the back of his jersey it would say Christ like
his last name. Well, that's not that's not, that's a title.
He's the anointed King of Israel, proven through what he does,
through what he says. His words and works match those
of the Old Testament. So he's not somebody because even
(17:54):
John says so. Jesus even says in the Gospel of John,
in interacting with the fair, you know, you search the scriptures,
because then then you think you have eternal life. But
it's these that speak of me. And of course he's
talking about the Old Testament, that all of creation was
waiting for this one to appear, and so that anticipation
is built in the Old Testament. And then you know,
(18:18):
I love how Matthew presents it. You know, the hope
of the world walked onto the scene in human form.
John says that that that the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, talking about John and the other disciples,
and we beheld his glory, we saw him, we touched
him our hands, we stuck our fingers in those holes,
(18:41):
and so we proclaimed to you. And so it's just
such an amazing story that corresponds to history. I mean,
you look at the world around us and even current
events today and what's happening, and this whole thing is
heading towards the end of God's redemptive history. And you know,
so the reason why it's so relevant to us is
(19:03):
because you're in it. We're all in it, you know,
and so so it's just such a compelling the story
to me that corresponds to life, to all of our lives,
and so I think it's something that everybody needs to
know for themselves.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
That's a fascinating approach.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I have experienced something over the years, and I'm sure
you have tenfold, and that is that if I have
someone on to talk about the Bible, or if I
myself make a statement about my interpretation of something, there
are a certain number of people who it's the one
upsmanship of social media. They can't help themselves, but they
(19:45):
love to tell you how that's wrong because their pastor
said this.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
This or this, And I equate it to this.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
If I were to go on Facebook today, which is
a toxic can be a toxic place, but it could
also be a wonderful place because we get some things
done there kind of crowd sourcing.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
And if I were to say.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I went to David Klingler's home this weekend and he
made burgers for us, and they were wonderful, delicious burgers
with cheese and meat and mayonnaise and bread. I would
out of the thousand people that would respond, fifty of
them would be, now, my brother's burgers are better, even
though they had never eaten you. There was just this
desire to kind of want to do you find people
(20:23):
to be after reviewing the podcast, A certain number of
them to be compat combative, argumentative, because I find that
the Bible brings that out in some people worse than
even sports fandom.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah. Yeah, politics, you deal with it. You know, it's politics, religion.
Those are areas in sports, right, politics for religion and sports.
So you know, those are the kind of the three
areas where everybody is entitled to their own opinion, you know.
And you can't tell me any different, but you know,
(20:56):
but again, what motivates me. I really like the example
of the Bareans that that Luke records in the Book
of Acts. You know that they're commended for going back
to the scriptures to see if these things are so.
And you know, and so I tell my students all
the time, don't listen to me. I don't want you to.
(21:17):
You know, when you stand before the Lord and say well,
doctor Klingler said, well, you know what I tell them.
Klingler's a moron. He's been a more in his whole life.
He's just trying to help you see what the scriptures say.
So let's go back to see if these things are
so and so often our interpretation of some verse doesn't
(21:38):
make any sense. You know, I hear the same ones
all the time. I can do all things through Christy
strengthens me. Well think about that for a second. Can
you what can you actually do through Christy strengthens you?
Can you leap tall buildings with a single bound? Or
mentoring a kid in high school and he had that
Philippians four point thirteen on his letter jacket and his
(22:00):
name is Casey, And I said, Casey, what's that phil
four thirteen? And he looked at me like, why aren't
you supposed to be a Bible teacher. Aren't you supposed
to know this? He said, I can do all things
through Christ, who strengthens me. I said, but like what?
And he got this panicked look on his face like
I'm not so sure now that you you pressed me
on it, And so I said, well how much do
(22:21):
you bench pressed? And he said, well, you know about
three fifteen, So that's pretty good for high school kid.
I said, how much you bench pressed with Christ's strengthened you?
He says, well, I guess about the same. I said,
what does that mean? And noticed that Paul's writing to
the Philippians and he doesn't say, y'all can do all
things through Christ, who strengthens y'all. He could have said that,
(22:44):
So what does he mean when he says what he says? So? Really, yeah, Well,
what he's talking about in the whole letter is that
he was concerned for these Philippians because you know, the
the it's a very wealth theology today that if you
serve the Lord, right, if you serve whatever God it
(23:06):
is you serve, he will bless you physically and financially. Now,
and of course that's not the gospel, that's not Paul's reality.
Paul had everything you know that a religious leader would
desire when he was a Pharisee. But he comes to
Christ and now all of a sudden, he's being beaten
and persecuted and shipwrecked, and everywhere he goes it's turning
(23:28):
terrible for him. And he's concerned with these Philippians who
have participated with him in the gospel from the first
Day until now. They've been with him in his defense
of the gospel. And he's concerned that they're going to
leave him because of the persecution that's coming. And so
(23:49):
they've sent him a gift, and he's thankful for the gift.
He's writing this in chapter four and he says, I'm
thankful for the gift, but I don't need it. I've
learned how to get along with plenty, and I've learned
how to get along with nothing. I'm amply supplied. I
can do all things through christy strengthens me. He can
endure all suffering, he can endure all hardship because his
(24:14):
hope is in resurrection, not in you know stuff now,
life now, prosperity now, and and so once you put
it in that context, now the reader, the Philippians who
are to adopt Paul's theology to think the same way
Paul thinks, can say, ah, now I understand what he's saying,
(24:35):
and we too can do all things through we can
endure all things through Christ, who strengthens us. And that's
really the the reality of life, isn't it that? You
know we were talking we were texting back and forth,
and we're getting old here, and you can see.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I'm not quite as old as here. We'll continue our
conversation with David Pling. The website is teach Me the
Bible dot Com. Teach Me the Bible dot Com is
also the name of the pipeline.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf
of Mexico to the Gulf of Michael Berry, which has
a beautiful.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
David Klingler was once known as a star quarterback of
Stratford High School and then at the University of Houston,
where he was a third in the running for the
Heisman Trophy the year that Ty Detmer of BYU won it,
and rocket ismael number two at Notre Dame. He was
his first round draft pick for Cincinnati Bengals, and after
his career.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Was over, as he said, even before that, he started.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Looking for more meaning in life and he wanted to
learn the Bible, not to preach, not for a living.
He didn't need to worry about that, but he wanted
to understand and learn the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So he went to.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The Dallas Theological Seminary and ended up getting his PhD.
And now Teach Me the Bible dot Com and the
podcast teach Me the Bible.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And with us.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Now, let me give you this segment if you would,
and you've got about eight minutes, and I want you
to teach me the Bible of the Birth of Christ
as you would, and I'll give you a one minute
wrap up. But I'm my guessing as you got your
clock down pretty good.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
All right, So the assignment the birth of would.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Have been nice if I gave you the lead time,
I know. But anyway, well that's.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, Well no, well, it's it's an Old Testament story,
you know it really, the birth of Christ is an
Old Testament story. The whole story is an anticipation. So
we you know, we go back to creation, we go
back to the garden, and you know, and God has
this mandate torre. He says, let us make man in
our image and in our lightnings, and let him rule
(26:52):
over the bird's ear and the fishency and the beasts
of the field. He creates man and gives him, creates
the one and a help her. They were to be
fruitful and multiply image bears and the serpent comes into
this scene. The antagonists or the Satan. We call him all.
Satan means hactan. The adversary comes in and deceives the woman,
(27:16):
and the man's there with her, and they eat of
the forbidden tree and they're kicked out of the garden.
They're removed from the tree of life. And so now man,
you know, Adam's name is a He comes from the
Adamah Adama means ground. He was raised up out of
the ground to never return to it, to rule over
(27:38):
the bird's, the ear, the fishescy of the beast, and field.
And now he's going back to the ground. And that
creates the problem. And it's our problem, right, we think
we've got a lot of problems. Our problem is you're
you know, your days are numbered, and you don't know
if today's your last day, and and so this introduces
the problem. And the Lord declared right there in Genesis three.
(28:01):
The Church has always recognized what we call the proto
e ben Gelian, the first proclamation of the Gospel, that
the Lord was going to bring through this woman, this
one who would be born, who would die for sin.
We're reading a little bit in here, but this is
what's developed in the story. And so the whole story
(28:22):
of Genesis is tracking this promise and really nothing else.
Practice attracts this promise down through the genealogies, through Noah,
through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through Israel, through Judah,
through the family line of Paris, to the house of
David the King, and this promise is given to him,
(28:43):
and it's going to come through this kingly line of
David and Isaiah. The prophet shows up and condemns the
whole line of David and says, a virgin will give birth,
that I don't need you kings, I don't need you.
The Davidic line, I don't need is I'll do it
(29:04):
by myself with a little girl. And so all of creation,
all of the hope of the world waits for God
to keep his promises. As Israel is disobedient, thrown out
of the land, dispersed among the nations, and at the
right time to the day, as Daniel the Prophet prophesies,
(29:28):
Christ is born, the promised One appears, and he's proven
through his words and works that he is the one
that the whole creation, all of the law and the
prophets and the psalms, was anticipating. And he walks onto
the scene and does exactly what was foretold, crucified, buried, resurrected,
(29:49):
ascends to the right hand of the Father, and you know,
and that's the gospel story. That's the it's the story
of the births of Christ. So it's a thirty nine
books building towards the gospels. Everything is pointing towards this one.
And when he's born, it is just, you know, the
(30:09):
hope of the world has appeared. And you know, and
so what.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know, you mentioned Philippians four thirteen and how people
use in a kind of a health and wellness. You know,
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
What are things about Christ's birth or life or I
don't want to get to teachings per se yet because
I want to save that. But what are things about
Christ's life that you think are not understood or widely misunderstood?
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Well, I think that the from the very beginning. You know,
you think about Job and Job's friends. This it's this
theology that says, if you serve the Lord or serve
God or whatever it is, you'll be blessed. Now and say, well,
that doesn't make any sense. It certainly didn't work for Paul.
It didn't work. I mean, you go back to the
(31:02):
very beginning of the of the Bible of Caina and Abel.
You know, Abel was the righteous one, but Cain kills Abel.
I mean, it didn't work for Abel, it didn't work
for Jesus, it didn't work for the prophets Paul. So
Paul is going to say things like, all who desire
to be godly in Christ, Jesus will suffer, will be persecuted.
And so this was Jesus's life, and so often I
(31:28):
think that and we kind of learned this through through
church history and our unique American experience, that we've westernized
the Gospel and americanized it so that the means by
which you can experience the American dream is through Christ.
(31:49):
He will help you, you know, achieve all you want
to achieve. I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord of future and hope. And so we
go in there, we grab that verse and jerk it
out of context, and we make it about us. And
and so you know, Christ came as a suffering servant
to lay down his life for sin, and I don't
(32:11):
think that we focus on that near enough and call believers.
And in the early Church, first a few centuries they
viewed suffering martyrdom as part of discipleship, to deny yourself
and to take up your cross, and it was very
real to them. But once the you know, Christianity kind
(32:36):
of becomes the state religion, or at least the accepted religion,
persecution ends and those verses kind of go away, and
they're uncomfortable, and now you know, it's yeah, and it
becomes a means by which we can achieve.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Ye, and we we thank Jesus because we won the game.
And I always think, well, does that mean the Lord
didn't care for.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
The other team?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
You know, there's this idea that you know, if I,
if I chuck up a deuce after the game.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
You know, then God will favor me with victories and
awards and all those things.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
And it's always it's always been interesting that that's that's
almost this this I don't know that that one's always
bothered me a bit more than the others. I don't
really know why. David Klingler is our guest.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
He is.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
He is the man behind, along with a team around him,
of Teach Me the Bible dot Com and then Teach
Me the Bible dot Com podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Which like every other podcast, is free and
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Accessible and a great thing to listen to as you're
driving across the country or just driving home, and he'll
be our guests or more I mean
When I make a list of the most popular things
we do on this show over the years. Having done
this for twenty years now, playing a Paul Harvey clip,
we up there, playing a Rush Limbaugh clip. Will be
up there, having doctor ed young On.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We'll be up there. Those are those are.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Things, And and then I will discover in my meanderings.
Usually somebody will send it to me, someone talking about
a book of the Bible, a character in the by
person in the Bible, or a parable or something of
the sort, or what a verse means to them. And
I'll find, you know, some some Bible teacher who explains
(00:44):
that in a way that is compelling, and so we'll
we'll share those. And it's amazing how many people will say,
where did that come from? Where do I find that?
Because they want to they want to listen again, or
they want to share it with someone else.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And so it's something that we enjoyed doing, and.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I intend to probably do much more of it going
forward because I enjoy it, and it seems to be
something that you enjoy as well. So someone sent me
an email.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And said, hey, you were at UH.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
When David Klingler was there. He was the superstar quarterback
went to the Cincinnati Bengals first round draft pick, and
I said, yes, we weren't buddies, but I knew who
he was. Obviously we all did. He was a big
man on campus. And I'm always interested in where are
they now? VH one did one? And this may be
my favorite where are they now? For somebody who I
didn't know what he was up to.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
He's teaching the.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Bible, and from what I understand, he's darn good at it.
I have gone on to his podcast which is called
Teach Me the Bible. He has a website, teach Me
the Bible lives out in Brenham. But I got to say,
this guy is doing literally doing the Lord's work. And
I was so delighted to see what he used his
(02:01):
celebrity and his skill set for. And so we reached
out through mutual friends to ask him to come on
and talk about his ministry. And I am honored to
say he's with us now. David Klingler, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Michael. Good to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So take me from in in ninety two, you're drafted
by the Bengals.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We'll talk football in a moment.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Raiders ninety six ninety seven. Then you were on the
practice squad for the Packers. Football is over. Take me
to the next phase of your life. Let's start there.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Well, well, that's a great, great question. So so football
was over pretty much after my second year in Cincinnati.
I had had elbow damage, went to surgery and they
said it was care ending. And you know, one of
the things that I realized was that football is not
a career. Unless you're a coach, then it's not particularly
(02:55):
a good career. You're just waiting to get fired at
seeing me. But but then the question was what do
you do next? And uh, you know, what does life
look like after you know, you're you're you've done everything
that you thought you wanted to do and and and
so that was kind of how football came to an end.
(03:16):
And and I remember it was actually, uh, this the
first off season I had come back to Houston. You know,
we still had a home in Katie and and the Oilers.
That was back when the Oilers were in Houston. And
came back to the off season and was invited by
the FCA Director of the Houston Area to go to
the Oilers Bible Study. And I went to the Oilers
(03:38):
Bible Study. And a guy named body Backham was teaching
the Bible study and many of you may know that name,
and and uh and we got to talk and after
the study, and he said, you know, you need to
quit football and go to seminary. And I'm thinking, who
in the world goes to seminary? You know even know
what that means. But that's kind of how it started,
(03:58):
you know. And uh, and just an interest in in
the Bible. And and so over the next maybe eight
years he kept after me. And and finally I had had
a ranch out in the Burton area Brenda Mary and uh,
some some you know person pulled in wanted to buy
the ranch, and so I sold it. And he said,
(04:19):
well what do I do now? I said, well, I'm
going to go to seminary. And that's kind of how
it started.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So you had I think a thousand acres or more, No.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
It was it was about five hundred little video. Yeah, well,
ral chat, that's a massive amount of Burton, in Burton,
in Washington County.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Well today, back then, you know, gosh, so I wish
i'd have bought you know, you know, everything the light
touches back. If I hadn't known then what I know now,
but but yeah, we you know, my plan was to
go retire, shut the gate and uh, you know, and
and we know and just trained some horses and and
(05:03):
my wife's plan was to raise our boys and uh
somewhere bigger than than Burton. And so we moved back
to the Kady area. Boys went to Sinco Ranch High
School and and really enjoyed it there. But but you
know how it is living in the town and property
taxes and traffic and people and all that, and uh,
and it was just time to get back out into
(05:23):
a little more space. And so we moved back out here.
We live in the Brenna Mary Now, okay, so that's
what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You complete seminary, and then what's the next step at
that point? What happened?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, the reason I went to sim I didn't want
to be a pastor. I didn't want to be a professor.
I didn't even that wasn't even on the radar. I
just wanted to know the Bible. And and I remember hearing,
you know, I used to listen to the morning Christian
radio and Tony Evans was on, Chucks Lindahl was on,
(05:57):
and they had two radio stations right too, radio shows
back to back, and I listened to them, and then
I just happened to go to church on Sunday, and
all three of them preached the same passage, but none
of them said the same thing. And I kept thinking,
you know, who are you supposed to listen to? Here?
You know, you got the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans,
(06:17):
the Baptists, and everybody's saying something different, and they're all
saying in some ways mutually exclusive things, and so who
are you supposed to listen to? And how do you
know what's right? And so I just went to seminary
to learn the Bible. I walked into my first seminary class,
and this professor just made the Bible so simple and
(06:40):
so understandable. You know, it wasn't versus an idolation, but
these actually made sense. You know, one sentence went with
the next sentence, you know, one verse went with the
next verson and the book started to make sense, and
so it really captivated my curiosity. I came home after
the first night and and I said, I want to
(07:02):
get a PhD. And my wife's looking at me, like,
who are you?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
You've been there one day one day.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, one day, and that meant, you know, one hundred
and twenty hour degree, and about half about half of
that degree was in was in the Dallas area, so
I couldn't take it in Houston. And we had boys,
and so I said, well, she said, how are you
going to do this? So I said, I'll get up
at three in the morning, I'll drive and I'll be
home you know, in the afternoon or evening. And and
(07:30):
it required learning Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and you know,
and then for the PhD, French and German and you know,
I don't know, you start piling up the languages and
you start to lose track. But it was just a
passion to understand what, you know, what did the Bible mean?
And then and then once I started to take theology
(07:50):
classes and church history, then it really be there. Sure. Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
David Klingler is our guest. The site is Teach Me
the Bible dot com.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
This is the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Locked and loaded, it didn't loaded.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
David Klingler is our guest.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
He was he wrote too many as a college quarterback
at the University of Houston, first round draft pick with
Cincinnati Bengals, but what he does now is far more interesting.
The website is Teach Me Thebible dot com. There is
a podcast that effect. We're talking about a fellow who
arrives at seminary. I mean, look, you don't get to
be a star quarterback and throw for almost ten thousand
(08:32):
yards in college without being a little cocky, right, So
he shows up the first day in seminary to catch
you folks up and decides after that, yeah, I'll go
ahead and get a PhD. Were you a good student
growing up? Were academics something? Because most athletes obviously weren't.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Were you?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
You know? I went to so at University of Houston.
I was in the business program, and it was a
great school. But thinks I would pick out things pretty quickly,
and so I didn't have to spend a lot of
time at it. Now, if I was interested in it, boy,
it became a passion. And so, yeah, I could be
a good student. But I was interested in things I
(09:11):
was interested in. You know how boys are in the
things I wasn't interested in. I just had no interest in,
you know.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
And so on a personal level, you were going to
seminary and driving back and forth and being a dad
and I'm assuming, you know, the sale of your property
out in Burton kind of you know, helped cover the
bills and hopefully you saved some of what you made
as an athlete. Were you were you, were you working,
Were you earning a paycheck anywhere during this time or
(09:38):
just going to a seminary, just going to seminary.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I just had totally devoted myself to learning the Bible,
not for any other really agenda or reason. I just
wanted to know the truth, so to speak. And I
was it is my second year of school, and the
dean then of the College of Biblical Studies here in
(10:02):
Houston asked some of the students, was that you know
that he was looking for some professors and people to
teach the Bible. And so he's asking the professors at
the seminary, do you have any good students? And my
name kept coming up, and so he asked me to teach,
and so I just went in and taught, you know,
told others what I had learned that was taught by
my professors. A couple of years later, the Dallas Seminary
(10:26):
asked me to teach start teaching biblical languages. And then
I started teaching Greek and Hebrew and Bible. I was
teaching actually at three schools before I had finished my PhD.
And which you know, they typically require a PhD to teach,
but they had made an exception for me. So I
(10:47):
was teaching at College of Biblical Studies, at Dallas Theological Seminary,
and then at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And again, my
passion was just to learn the Bible, and I realized
that it wasn't that complicated. Boy, we sure make it hard,
but it wasn't. It wasn't that complicated to understand. And
(11:10):
maybe out of frustration, you know, it's you know, I
wanted to teach others so that they could understand it,
so you didn't have to listen to what somebody says.
The Bible says that you can actually open it up
and read it and make sense of it well.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And that was always, uh, you know, as a Southern Baptist,
I am a believer that I don't need a pope
or anyone else to translate for me. You know, it's
in my language, and it's it's my personal journey and
it applies to me, and no one needs to translate it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For me, how did you arrive at the concept of
teach me the Bible? Were people asking you that question?
Because it's so simple and so.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Direct, And I think that that was part of what
I found to be the appeal when I went to
the website and then started on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Yeah, it's a funny story. So we live out here
in Brenham, and so met a pastor out here and
just wanted to help him, you know, succeed in the
pastor and it's such a bad job. It's a hard
job unless you're called to it. And so we would
sit on the porch and we would just talk about
(12:19):
the Bible, and he'd ask, you know, hey, what about this,
and so we talk about it. Well, we hired a
worship pastor and he came in and you know, he
had made the statement to him. He says, you know,
we teach the Bible and we sing heresy, how can
I learn the Bible? Because so many of our Christian
songs are such bad theology. I said, well, why don't
you just come sit on the porch with us and
(12:41):
talk the Bible? And he said, you know, we need
to make a podcast of that. And that's how it started.
So I said well, I don't even know what that
means podcasts, you know. He said, well, don't worry about that. Well,
I'll bring the microphones. We'll set it up. And so
he's our technology guy. So that's what we do. We
come in and and the microphones are set up and
(13:02):
they just ask questions and I talk, you know, tell
us about this book, and so we walk through the
book and it really is a simple concept, but it's
really had a great response when when.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Folks who grew up in the church but maybe have
have drifted away, or or folks who go to a
church and as you know, this is very common where
the Bible is not first and foremost, and they say,
I really want to get I want to go deeper in.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I want to engage in.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Personal study, not church going personal study. Do you have
an approach as to a place to begin or what
what is how do you handle that?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, well, well it's really interesting that we so much
of so many people today come to seminary for just
that they've been involved in church, but they want to
learn the Bible, and so they come in thinking they
know a whole bunch of stuff that usually they come
in with their theology with their you know, with their
(14:00):
life verses or whatever it is. And and when you
ask them to explain what that verse is doing with
the sentence right before the sentence right after it, they
have they have they can't answer. And you hear so often.
You know, you start in the Gospel of John or
something like that. But if I handed you any book,
any any book, and said here, read this book, well
(14:22):
you would just start at the beginning. And and that's
where you ought to start. In the Bible, you start
at the beginning. You start in Genesis, and and it's
really a simple story. It's the Bible is the revelation
of God's redemptive history through you know, through through human history.
(14:42):
I mean, it's just in the beginning, uh, creation fall
and off the Lord goes to bring about his promised deliverer,
and you get to walk down that trail uh with
the authors as they tell the story of God's redemptive
acts throughout human history, culminating in the person of his
(15:06):
son Jesus Christ. And so it makes perfect sense. It's
really simple to understand. But if we start in the middle,
or start with some verse, or you start with some
theological grid or concept or defense, it becomes really convoluted
very quickly.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Although full disclaim, full disclosure and disclaimer on your part,
your expertise is your PhD is actually an Old Testament
studies so would I would argue that in terms of accessibility,
most folks can start in the New Testament with a
lot greater ease to at least get to develop comfort
(15:44):
in who we're dealing with here, whereas the Old Testament
can be, in my opinion, can be a little tougheror
not to crack.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Well, yeah, so what happens is, let me start with
the Gospel of John. So John else the reader, why
he wrote his story that many other signs Jesus did
in the presence of his disciples which were not written
in this book.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Hold right there, we're up against the break. David Klingler
is our guest. The website is teach Me the Bible
dot Com and that is also the name of the podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
More than I have almost went the laws to myself.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
David Klingler is our guest, former star quarterback. Now teach
Me the Bible dot Com or you can listen to
the podcast teach Me about You were talking about the
Book of John. And and we're going to get to
Paul's letters, I hope at some point, because that's something that's.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Always appealed to me.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
But you were talking about we're talking about learning the Bible,
and I'm talking as much about self taught, which appears
to be a lot of what y'all do. And I
love that you're not trying to build an audience for yourself.
You're trying to it appears to me, at least my
my study of what y'all have done is to get
people engage themselves in a self help study of the Bible.
(17:06):
And I love that approach. But anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, our mission is to help the people of God
understand the Word of God. But you know the Gospel
of John, John is writing to convince the reader that
Jesus is the Christ. Well, if I ask students, and
I do this all the time in seminary, okay, well
what does that mean? And they look at me with
a blank stare, like I don't know. Like Jesus Christ right,
(17:31):
Like you know, if he was wearing a jersey on
the back of his jersey it would say Christ like
his last name. Well, that's not that's not, that's a title.
He's the anointed King of Israel, proven through what he does,
through what he says. His words and works match those
of the Old Testament. So he's not somebody because even
(17:54):
John says so. Jesus even says in the Gospel of John,
in interacting with the fair, you know, you search the scriptures,
because then then you think you have eternal life. But
it's these that speak of me. And of course he's
talking about the Old Testament, that all of creation was
waiting for this one to appear, and so that anticipation
is built in the Old Testament. And then you know,
(18:18):
I love how Matthew presents it. You know, the hope
of the world walked onto the scene in human form.
John says that that that the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, talking about John and the other disciples,
and we beheld his glory, we saw him, we touched
him our hands, we stuck our fingers in those holes,
(18:41):
and so we proclaimed to you. And so it's just
such an amazing story that corresponds to history. I mean,
you look at the world around us and even current
events today and what's happening, and this whole thing is
heading towards the end of God's redemptive history. And you know,
so the reason why it's so relevant to us is
(19:03):
because you're in it. We're all in it, you know,
and so so it's just such a compelling the story
to me that corresponds to life, to all of our lives,
and so I think it's something that everybody needs to
know for themselves.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
That's a fascinating approach.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I have experienced something over the years, and I'm sure
you have tenfold, and that is that if I have
someone on to talk about the Bible, or if I
myself make a statement about my interpretation of something, there
are a certain number of people who it's the one
upsmanship of social media. They can't help themselves, but they
(19:45):
love to tell you how that's wrong because their pastor
said this.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
This or this, And I equate it to this.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
If I were to go on Facebook today, which is
a toxic can be a toxic place, but it could
also be a wonderful place because we get some things
done there kind of crowd sourcing.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
And if I were to say.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I went to David Klingler's home this weekend and he
made burgers for us, and they were wonderful, delicious burgers
with cheese and meat and mayonnaise and bread. I would
out of the thousand people that would respond, fifty of
them would be, now, my brother's burgers are better, even
though they had never eaten you. There was just this
desire to kind of want to do you find people
(20:23):
to be after reviewing the podcast, A certain number of
them to be compat combative, argumentative, because I find that
the Bible brings that out in some people worse than
even sports fandom.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah. Yeah, politics, you deal with it. You know, it's politics, religion.
Those are areas in sports, right, politics for religion and sports.
So you know, those are the kind of the three
areas where everybody is entitled to their own opinion, you know.
And you can't tell me any different, but you know,
(20:56):
but again, what motivates me. I really like the example
of the Bareans that that Luke records in the Book
of Acts. You know that they're commended for going back
to the scriptures to see if these things are so.
And you know, and so I tell my students all
the time, don't listen to me. I don't want you to.
(21:17):
You know, when you stand before the Lord and say well,
doctor Klingler said, well, you know what I tell them.
Klingler's a moron. He's been a more in his whole life.
He's just trying to help you see what the scriptures say.
So let's go back to see if these things are
so and so often our interpretation of some verse doesn't
(21:38):
make any sense. You know, I hear the same ones
all the time. I can do all things through Christy
strengthens me. Well think about that for a second. Can
you what can you actually do through Christy strengthens you?
Can you leap tall buildings with a single bound? Or
mentoring a kid in high school and he had that
Philippians four point thirteen on his letter jacket and his
(22:00):
name is Casey, And I said, Casey, what's that phil
four thirteen? And he looked at me like, why aren't
you supposed to be a Bible teacher. Aren't you supposed
to know this? He said, I can do all things
through Christ, who strengthens me. I said, but like what?
And he got this panicked look on his face like
I'm not so sure now that you you pressed me
on it, And so I said, well how much do
(22:21):
you bench pressed? And he said, well, you know about
three fifteen, So that's pretty good for high school kid.
I said, how much you bench pressed with Christ's strengthened you?
He says, well, I guess about the same. I said,
what does that mean? And noticed that Paul's writing to
the Philippians and he doesn't say, y'all can do all
things through Christ, who strengthens y'all. He could have said that,
(22:44):
So what does he mean when he says what he says? So? Really, yeah, Well,
what he's talking about in the whole letter is that
he was concerned for these Philippians because you know, the
the it's a very wealth theology today that if you
serve the Lord, right, if you serve whatever God it
(23:06):
is you serve, he will bless you physically and financially. Now,
and of course that's not the gospel, that's not Paul's reality.
Paul had everything you know that a religious leader would
desire when he was a Pharisee. But he comes to
Christ and now all of a sudden, he's being beaten
and persecuted and shipwrecked, and everywhere he goes it's turning
(23:28):
terrible for him. And he's concerned with these Philippians who
have participated with him in the gospel from the first
Day until now. They've been with him in his defense
of the gospel. And he's concerned that they're going to
leave him because of the persecution that's coming. And so
(23:49):
they've sent him a gift, and he's thankful for the gift.
He's writing this in chapter four and he says, I'm
thankful for the gift, but I don't need it. I've
learned how to get along with plenty, and I've learned
how to get along with nothing. I'm amply supplied. I
can do all things through christy strengthens me. He can
endure all suffering, he can endure all hardship because his
(24:14):
hope is in resurrection, not in you know stuff now,
life now, prosperity now, and and so once you put
it in that context, now the reader, the Philippians who
are to adopt Paul's theology to think the same way
Paul thinks, can say, ah, now I understand what he's saying,
(24:35):
and we too can do all things through we can
endure all things through Christ, who strengthens us. And that's
really the the reality of life, isn't it that? You
know we were talking we were texting back and forth,
and we're getting old here, and you can see.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I'm not quite as old as here. We'll continue our
conversation with David Pling. The website is teach Me the
Bible dot Com. Teach Me the Bible dot Com is
also the name of the pipeline.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf
of Mexico to the Gulf of Michael Berry, which has
a beautiful.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
David Klingler was once known as a star quarterback of
Stratford High School and then at the University of Houston,
where he was a third in the running for the
Heisman Trophy the year that Ty Detmer of BYU won it,
and rocket ismael number two at Notre Dame. He was
his first round draft pick for Cincinnati Bengals, and after
his career.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Was over, as he said, even before that, he started.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Looking for more meaning in life and he wanted to
learn the Bible, not to preach, not for a living.
He didn't need to worry about that, but he wanted
to understand and learn the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
So he went to.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The Dallas Theological Seminary and ended up getting his PhD.
And now Teach Me the Bible dot Com and the
podcast teach Me the Bible.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And with us.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Now, let me give you this segment if you would,
and you've got about eight minutes, and I want you
to teach me the Bible of the Birth of Christ
as you would, and I'll give you a one minute
wrap up. But I'm my guessing as you got your
clock down pretty good.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
All right, So the assignment the birth of would.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Have been nice if I gave you the lead time,
I know. But anyway, well that's.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, Well no, well, it's it's an Old Testament story,
you know it really, the birth of Christ is an
Old Testament story. The whole story is an anticipation. So
we you know, we go back to creation, we go
back to the garden, and you know, and God has
this mandate torre. He says, let us make man in
our image and in our lightnings, and let him rule
(26:52):
over the bird's ear and the fishency and the beasts
of the field. He creates man and gives him, creates
the one and a help her. They were to be
fruitful and multiply image bears and the serpent comes into
this scene. The antagonists or the Satan. We call him all.
Satan means hactan. The adversary comes in and deceives the woman,
(27:16):
and the man's there with her, and they eat of
the forbidden tree and they're kicked out of the garden.
They're removed from the tree of life. And so now man,
you know, Adam's name is a He comes from the
Adamah Adama means ground. He was raised up out of
the ground to never return to it, to rule over
(27:38):
the bird's, the ear, the fishescy of the beast, and field.
And now he's going back to the ground. And that
creates the problem. And it's our problem, right, we think
we've got a lot of problems. Our problem is you're
you know, your days are numbered, and you don't know
if today's your last day, and and so this introduces
the problem. And the Lord declared right there in Genesis three.
(28:01):
The Church has always recognized what we call the proto
e ben Gelian, the first proclamation of the Gospel, that
the Lord was going to bring through this woman, this
one who would be born, who would die for sin.
We're reading a little bit in here, but this is
what's developed in the story. And so the whole story
(28:22):
of Genesis is tracking this promise and really nothing else.
Practice attracts this promise down through the genealogies, through Noah,
through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through Israel, through Judah,
through the family line of Paris, to the house of
David the King, and this promise is given to him,
(28:43):
and it's going to come through this kingly line of
David and Isaiah. The prophet shows up and condemns the
whole line of David and says, a virgin will give birth,
that I don't need you kings, I don't need you.
The Davidic line, I don't need is I'll do it
(29:04):
by myself with a little girl. And so all of creation,
all of the hope of the world waits for God
to keep his promises. As Israel is disobedient, thrown out
of the land, dispersed among the nations, and at the
right time to the day, as Daniel the Prophet prophesies,
(29:28):
Christ is born, the promised One appears, and he's proven
through his words and works that he is the one
that the whole creation, all of the law and the
prophets and the psalms, was anticipating. And he walks onto
the scene and does exactly what was foretold, crucified, buried, resurrected,
(29:49):
ascends to the right hand of the Father, and you know,
and that's the gospel story. That's the it's the story
of the births of Christ. So it's a thirty nine
books building towards the gospels. Everything is pointing towards this one.
And when he's born, it is just, you know, the
(30:09):
hope of the world has appeared. And you know, and
so what.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know, you mentioned Philippians four thirteen and how people
use in a kind of a health and wellness. You know,
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
What are things about Christ's birth or life or I
don't want to get to teachings per se yet because
I want to save that. But what are things about
Christ's life that you think are not understood or widely misunderstood?
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Well, I think that the from the very beginning. You know,
you think about Job and Job's friends. This it's this
theology that says, if you serve the Lord or serve
God or whatever it is, you'll be blessed. Now and say, well,
that doesn't make any sense. It certainly didn't work for Paul.
It didn't work. I mean, you go back to the
(31:02):
very beginning of the of the Bible of Caina and Abel.
You know, Abel was the righteous one, but Cain kills Abel.
I mean, it didn't work for Abel, it didn't work
for Jesus, it didn't work for the prophets Paul. So
Paul is going to say things like, all who desire
to be godly in Christ, Jesus will suffer, will be persecuted.
And so this was Jesus's life, and so often I
(31:28):
think that and we kind of learned this through through
church history and our unique American experience, that we've westernized
the Gospel and americanized it so that the means by
which you can experience the American dream is through Christ.
(31:49):
He will help you, you know, achieve all you want
to achieve. I know the plans I have for you,
declares the Lord of future and hope. And so we
go in there, we grab that verse and jerk it
out of context, and we make it about us. And
and so you know, Christ came as a suffering servant
to lay down his life for sin, and I don't
(32:11):
think that we focus on that near enough and call believers.
And in the early Church, first a few centuries they
viewed suffering martyrdom as part of discipleship, to deny yourself
and to take up your cross, and it was very
real to them. But once the you know, Christianity kind
(32:36):
of becomes the state religion, or at least the accepted religion,
persecution ends and those verses kind of go away, and
they're uncomfortable, and now you know, it's yeah, and it
becomes a means by which we can achieve.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Ye, and we we thank Jesus because we won the game.
And I always think, well, does that mean the Lord
didn't care for.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
The other team?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
You know, there's this idea that you know, if I,
if I chuck up a deuce after the game.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
You know, then God will favor me with victories and
awards and all those things.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
And it's always it's always been interesting that that's that's
almost this this I don't know that that one's always
bothered me a bit more than the others. I don't
really know why. David Klingler is our guest.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
He is.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
He is the man behind, along with a team around him,
of Teach Me the Bible dot Com and then Teach
Me the Bible dot Com podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Which like every other podcast, is free and
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Accessible and a great thing to listen to as you're
driving across the country or just driving home, and he'll
be our guests or more I mean
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