September 1, 2025 • 34 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time time time, time, luck and load. Michael
Verie Show is.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On the air.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
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
be up there, playing a rush Limball. Clip will be
up there, having doctor ed young on.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
We'll be up there.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Are those are things? 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
about a person in the Bible, or a parable or
something of the sort, or what a verse means to them.
(00:59):
And I'll find and you know, some some Bible teacher
who explains 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?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Where do I find that?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Because they want to they want to listen again, or
they want to share it with someone else. And so
it's something that we enjoyed doing, and 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 and said, hey,
(01:35):
you were at UH when David Kleingler 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.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Know what he was up to.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
He's teaching the 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
(02:20):
what he used his 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.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I am honored to say he's with us now.
David Klingler, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Michael. Good to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So take me from in in ninety two, You're drafted
by the Bengals. We'll talk football in a moment 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 4 (02:54):
Well, boy, that's a great question. So so football was
over pretty much after my safecond year in Cincinnati. I
had had elbow damage, went to surgery and they.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Said it was career ending.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
And and you know, one of the things that I
realized was that football is not a career unless you're
a coach, and it's not particularly a good career. You're
just waiting to get fired, it seemed to me. But
then the question was what do you do next? And uh,
you know, what does life look like after you know?
(03:28):
You're you 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.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And and I remember it.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Was actually, uh, this the first off season i'd 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 Bible Study and guy
(04:00):
named Body Bachham was.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Teaching the Bible study and many of you may know
that name, and.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And uh and we got to talking 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, you know. And uh,
and just an interest in the in the Bible. And
and so over the next maybe eight years he kept
(04:28):
after me and and finally I had had a ranch out.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
In the Burton area Brenna, Mary and uh.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Some some you know person pulled in wanted to buy
the ranch, and so I sold it and he said,
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 1 (04:45):
So you had I think a thousand acres or more, No.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
It was it was about five hundred little video Yeah,
world chat, that's a massive amount of in Burton, in
Washingt in the county.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Well today, back then, you know, gosh, so I wish
i'd have bought, you know, you know everything the light
touches back.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
If I haven't known then what I know now.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
But but yeah, we you know, my plan was to
go retire, shut the gate and.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Uh, you know, and and you.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Know, and just train some horses and and my wife's
plan was to raise our boys and somewhere bigger than
than Burton. And so we moved back to the Kady area.
Boys went to Sinca Ranch High School.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And and really enjoyed it there. But but you.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
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
a little more space.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And so we moved back out here. We live in
the Brenna Mary Now, okay, so that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You complete seminary and then what's the next step. At
that point what happened?
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Well, the reason I went to sim I didn't want
to be a pastor. I didn't want to be a professor.
I don't that that wouldn't even on the radar. I
just wanted to know the Bible. And I remember hearing,
you know, I used to listen to the morning Christian
radio and Tony Evans was on, Chucks Lindall was.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
On, and they had two radio stations, or right, two
radio shows back to back, and I listened to them,
and then I just.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Happened to go to church on Sunday, and all three
of them preached the same passage, but none of them
said the same thing.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And I kept thinking, you know, who are you supposed
to listen to? Here?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
You know, you got the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
The Baptists, and.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
That 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 and this
professor just made the b was so simple and so understandable.
(07:02):
You know, it wasn't versus an iolation, but these actually
made sense. You know, one sentence went with the next sentence. Here,
one verse went with the next verson and the book
started to make sense, and and so it really captivated
my curiosity. I came home after the first.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Night and and I said, I want to get a PhD.
And my wife's looked at me like, who are you there?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
One day?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
One day? Yeah, one day, and that meant, you know,
one hundred and twenty hour degree. Yeah, and about half
about half of that.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
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?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
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 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, you start to lose track.
But it was just a passion to understand what, you know,
(08:06):
what does the Bible mean? And then and then once.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I started to take the altost the site is teach
Me the Bible dot com.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
This is the.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Locked and loaded, don't load it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
David Klingler is our guest. He was a hero too
many as a.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
College quarterback the University of Houston first round draft pick
with Cincinnati Bingals. But what he does now is far
more interesting. The website is teach Me the Bible 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 yards in college without being a little cocky, right,
(08:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Were you a good student growing up?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I dimmicks something because most athletes obviously weren't.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Were you?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You know?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I I went to so at University of Houston. I
was in the Business UH program, and it was a
great school and but things, I would pick up 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 was interested in.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You know how boys are the things I wasn't interested in.
I just had no interest in. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So, 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
(09:53):
just going to seminary, just going to seminary.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
I just had totally devoted myself to learn in the Bible,
not for any other really agenda or reason.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I just wanted to know the truth, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
And I was it was my second year of school,
and the dean then of the College of Biblical Studies
here in Houston, as some of the students was, 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
(10:30):
to teach, And so I just went in and taught,
you know, told others what I had learned that was
taught by my professors.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
A couple of years later.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
The Dallas Seminary 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 each but they had made an
(11:01):
exception for me. So I was teaching it at College
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 maybe out of frustration, you know,
(11:27):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Open it up and read itn't make sense of it well.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
And that was always 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 for me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
How did you arrive at the concept of teach me
the Bible?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Were people asking you that question because it's so simple
and so 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 2 (12:13):
Yeah, it's a funny story.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Bad job.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
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 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,
(12:46):
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 talk the Bible? And he said, you know,
we need to make a podcast of that, and that's
how it starts. 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, will
(13:08):
set it up. And so he's our technology guy.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So that's what we do. We come in and and.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
The microphones are set up and they just ask questions
and I talk, you know, tell us about this book,
and so.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
We walk through the book.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
And it really is a simple concept, but it's really
had a great response.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
When when 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, and I want to engage in personal study,
not church going personal study. Do you have an approach
(13:48):
as to a place to begin or what what is?
How do you handle that?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, well, well.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
To learn the Bible, and.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And so they come in thinking they know a whole
bunch of stuff that usually they come up come in
with their theology, with their you know with their 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
(14:29):
you know, you uh, 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
you would just start at the beginning. 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
(14:51):
God's redemptive history through you know, through through human history.
I mean it's just in the beginning, uh, creation fall
and off the Lord goes to bring about his promised deliverer.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
And you get to walk.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Down that trail with the authors as they tell the
story of God's redemptive acts throughout human history, culminating in
the person of his 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,
(15:29):
or you start with some theological grid or concept or defense,
it becomes really convoluted very quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Although full 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
(15:58):
in who we're dealing with here, whereas the Old Testament
can be, in my opinion, can be a little tougher
nut to crack.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Well, yeah, so what happens is, let me start with
the Gospel of John. So John tells the reader why
he wrote his story, that many other signs are stared
in the presence of those disciples, which we're not written
in this book.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Old right there against David Klingler is our guest. The
website is teach Me the Bible dot Com and that
is also the name of the podcast.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
More than they have almost went the laws to them the.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Michael Berries Show.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
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 always appealed to me. But you were talking about
(16:59):
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 study of what
y'all done is to get people engage themselves in a
self help study of the Bible. And I love that approach.
(17:21):
But anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
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 the
blank stare like I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Like Jesus Christ right, Like you know, if he was
wearing a jersey on the back of his jersey it would.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Say Christ like his last name. Well that's not that's
a title. He's the anointed King of Israel, I proven
through what he does, through what he says. His words
and works matched those of the Old Testament. So he's
not somebody because even John says so. Jesus even says
(18:09):
in the Gospel of John, in interacting with the Pharisees,
you know, you search the scriptures, because then then you
think you have eternal life.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
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,
I love how Matthew presents it. You know, the hope
of the world walked onto the scene in human form.
(18:39):
John says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us talking about John and the other disciples, and we
held his glok, we saw him, we touched him our hands,
we stuck our fingers in those holes, and so we
proclaimed to you. And so it's just such an amazing
story that corresponds to history. I mean, you look at
(19:04):
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 redempt at history, and you know. So
the reason why it's so relevant to us is 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
(19:28):
so I think it's something that everybody needs to know
for themselves.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
That's a fascinating approach.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
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
(19:58):
love to tell you how that's wrong because their pastor
said this, this.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Or this, And I equate it to this.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
They're kind of crowd sourcing. And if I were to say.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
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 no, my brother's burgers were better, even
though they had never eaten here. There's just this desire
to kind of want to do you find people to
(20:36):
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 2 (20:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
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,
but again what motivates me. I really like the example
(21:14):
of the Boreans that that Lucre courts 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.
You know, when you stand before the Lord and say well,
doctor Klingler said, well, you know what I tell them
(21:36):
Klingler's a moron. He's been a more in his whole life.
He's just trying to help you see what.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
The scriptures say.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
So let's go back to see if these things are
so and so often our interpretation of some verse doesn't
make any sense. You know, I hear the same ones
all the time. I can do all things through Christ
the strengthens people. Think about that for a second. Can
you what can you actually do through Christy's strengthens you?
Can you leap tall buildings with a single bound? Or
(22:07):
mentoring a kid in high school and he had that
Philippians four thirteen on his letter jacket and his name
is Casey, And I said, Casey, what's that phil four thirteen?
And he looked at me like, well, aren't you supposed
to be a Bible teacher. Aren't supposed to know this?
He said, I can do all things through Christ, who
strengthens me.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I said, well, like what?
Speaker 4 (22:25):
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
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'd bench pressed with Christy's strengthened you?
And he says, well, I guess about the same.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (22:48):
And notice that Paul's writing to the Philippians. He doesn't say,
y'all can do all things through Christy strengthens y'all. He
could have said that, So what does he mean when
he says what he says?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So? Really?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, Well, what he's talking about in the whole letter
is that he was concerned for these Philippians because you know,
it's a very alive in wealth theology today that if
you serve the Lord, right, if you serve whatever God
it is you serve, he will bless you physically and financially. Now,
(23:23):
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 while all of a sudden he's being beaten
and persecuted and shipwrecked, and everywhere he goes it's turning
terrible for him. And he's concerned with these Philippians who
(23:45):
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
they sent him a gift, and he's thankful for the gift.
He's writing this in chapter four and he says, I'm
(24:08):
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 Cristy strengthency. He can endure
all suffering, he can endure all hardship because his hope
is in resurrection, not in you know stuff now life now,
(24:33):
prosperity now. 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, now,
I understand what he's saying, and we too can do
all things through We can endure all things through Christ,
he strengthens us.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
And that's really the the reality of life, isn't it
that you know, we were talking, we were texting tack
and forth, and we're getting a and you can see it. Yeah,
well you have great I know I'm not.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Quite as old as you. Gray hair give way.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
We'll continue our conversation with David Klingler. The website is
Teach Me the Bible dot Com. Teach Me the Bible
dot Com is also the name of the pipeline. We're
going to be changing the name of the Gulf of
Mexico to the.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Gulf of michael Berry, which has a beautiful way and.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
David Klingler was once known as a star quarterback at
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 the Cincinnati Bengals, and
after his career was over, or as he said, even
(25:49):
before that, he started 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 learned the Word of God.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So he went to.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
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 and with us. 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,
(26:26):
and I'll give you a one minute wrap up.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
But my guessing is you got your clock down pretty good.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
All right, So the assignment the birth of would have been.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Nice if I gave boy the lead time, I know.
But anyway, well.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
That's okay, Well, no, well, 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 to where he says, let us make man
in our image and in our lightnings.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Let him rule over the bird's ear and the fish
and the sea. At the beast of the field.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
He creates man and gives him, creates the woman to
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 hassatan. The
adversary comes in and deceies the woman, and the man's
(27:29):
there with her, and they eat of the forbidden tree,
and they're kicked out.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Of the garden. They're removed from the tree of life.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
To it, to rule over the birds, the ear, the fish,
to see the beast and field.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
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 them is
you're you know, your days are numbered, and you don't
know if today's your last day. And so this introduces
the problem, and the Lord declares right there in Genesis three.
(28:13):
The Church has always recognized what we call the proto Evangelium,
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 of Genesis is
(28:34):
tracking this promise and really nothing else practical 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 to the house of David the King,
and this promise is given to him, and it's going
(28:56):
to come through this kingly line of David, and Isaiah
prophet shows up and condemned the whole line of David
and says, a virgin will give birth, that I don't
need you, King a has I don't need you. The
Diavidic line I don't need is I'll do it by
(29:16):
myself with a little girl.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
And so all of.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
At the right time to the day, as Daniel.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
The prophet prophesies, Christ is born, the promised One appears,
and he's proven through his words and works that he
is the one that the whole.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Creation, all of the.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Law and the prophets and the psalms, was anticipating. And
he walks onto the scene and does exactly what was foretold, crucified, buried,
resid directed as sends to the right hand of the Father.
And you know, and that's the gospel story. That's the
it's the it's the story of the births of Christ.
So it's it's a thirty nine books building towards the gospels.
(30:14):
Everything is pointing towards this morn and when he's born.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
It is just.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
You know, the hope of the world has appeared. And
you know, and so.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
What 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
strengthened 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
(30:47):
or widely misunderstood?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Well, I think that the from the very beginning. You know,
you think about Job and Job's friends. This it's this,
the it says if you serve the Lord or serve
God or whatever it is, you'll be blessed. Now you 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
(31:13):
very beginning of the of the Bible of Cain 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.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Paul.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
So Paul is going to say things like, all who
desire to be godly in Christ, Jesus.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Will suffer, will be persecuted.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
And so this was Jesus's life, and so often I
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
(31:54):
which you can experience the American dream is Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
He will help you, you know.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
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 think that we focus on that near
(32:24):
enough and call believers and in the early Church first
few centuries, they viewed suffering martyrdom as part of discipleship,
to deny yourself and to take up your.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Cross, and it was very real to them.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
But once the you know, Christianity kind of becomes the
state religion, or at least the accepted religion, persecutions 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 3 (33:02):
Yeah, it's not and we we we thank Jesus because
we won the game. And I always think, well, does
that mean the Lord didn't care for the other team?
You know, there's this idea that you know, if I,
if I chuck up a deuce after the game, you
know that then God will favor me with victories and
awards and all those things. And it's always it's always
(33:23):
been interesting that that's that's almost this.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
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 2 (33:34):
He is.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
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, which, like every
other podcast, is free and accessible and a great thing
to listen to as you're driving across the country or
just driving home.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
And he'll be our guest or more I mean
It's that time time time, time, luck and load. Michael
Verie Show is.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
On the air.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
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
be up there, playing a rush Limball. Clip will be
up there, having doctor ed young on.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
We'll be up there.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Are those are things? 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
about a person in the Bible, or a parable or
something of the sort, or what a verse means to them.
(00:59):
And I'll find and you know, some some Bible teacher
who explains 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?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Where do I find that?
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Because they want to they want to listen again, or
they want to share it with someone else. And so
it's something that we enjoyed doing, and 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 and said, hey,
(01:35):
you were at UH when David Kleingler 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.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Know what he was up to.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
He's teaching the 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
(02:20):
what he used his 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.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I am honored to say he's with us now.
David Klingler, Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Michael. Good to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So take me from in in ninety two, You're drafted
by the Bengals. We'll talk football in a moment 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 4 (02:54):
Well, boy, that's a great question. So so football was
over pretty much after my safecond year in Cincinnati. I
had had elbow damage, went to surgery and they.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Said it was career ending.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
And and you know, one of the things that I
realized was that football is not a career unless you're
a coach, and it's not particularly a good career. You're
just waiting to get fired, it seemed to me. But
then the question was what do you do next? And uh,
you know, what does life look like after you know?
(03:28):
You're you 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.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And and I remember it.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Was actually, uh, this the first off season i'd 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 Bible Study and guy
(04:00):
named Body Bachham was.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Teaching the Bible study and many of you may know
that name, and.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
And uh and we got to talking 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, you know. And uh,
and just an interest in the in the Bible. And
and so over the next maybe eight years he kept
(04:28):
after me and and finally I had had a ranch out.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
In the Burton area Brenna, Mary and uh.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Some some you know person pulled in wanted to buy
the ranch, and so I sold it and he said,
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 1 (04:45):
So you had I think a thousand acres or more, No.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
It was it was about five hundred little video Yeah,
world chat, that's a massive amount of in Burton, in
Washingt in the county.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Well today, back then, you know, gosh, so I wish
i'd have bought, you know, you know everything the light
touches back.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
If I haven't known then what I know now.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
But but yeah, we you know, my plan was to
go retire, shut the gate and.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Uh, you know, and and you.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Know, and just train some horses and and my wife's
plan was to raise our boys and somewhere bigger than
than Burton. And so we moved back to the Kady area.
Boys went to Sinca Ranch High School.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And and really enjoyed it there. But but you.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
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
a little more space.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And so we moved back out here. We live in
the Brenna Mary Now, okay, so that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You complete seminary and then what's the next step. At
that point what happened?
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Well, the reason I went to sim I didn't want
to be a pastor. I didn't want to be a professor.
I don't that that wouldn't even on the radar. I
just wanted to know the Bible. And I remember hearing,
you know, I used to listen to the morning Christian
radio and Tony Evans was on, Chucks Lindall was.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
On, and they had two radio stations, or right, two
radio shows back to back, and I listened to them,
and then I just.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Happened to go to church on Sunday, and all three
of them preached the same passage, but none of them
said the same thing.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
And I kept thinking, you know, who are you supposed
to listen to? Here?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
You know, you got the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
The Baptists, and.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
That 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 and this
professor just made the b was so simple and so understandable.
(07:02):
You know, it wasn't versus an iolation, but these actually
made sense. You know, one sentence went with the next sentence. Here,
one verse went with the next verson and the book
started to make sense, and and so it really captivated
my curiosity. I came home after the first.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Night and and I said, I want to get a PhD.
And my wife's looked at me like, who are you there?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
One day?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
One day? Yeah, one day, and that meant, you know,
one hundred and twenty hour degree. Yeah, and about half
about half of that.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
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?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
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 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, you start to lose track.
But it was just a passion to understand what, you know,
(08:06):
what does the Bible mean? And then and then once.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I started to take the altost the site is teach
Me the Bible dot com.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
This is the.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Locked and loaded, don't load it.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
David Klingler is our guest. He was a hero too
many as a.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
College quarterback the University of Houston first round draft pick
with Cincinnati Bingals. But what he does now is far
more interesting. The website is teach Me the Bible 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 yards in college without being a little cocky, right,
(08:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Were you a good student growing up?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I dimmicks something because most athletes obviously weren't.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Were you?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You know?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I I went to so at University of Houston. I
was in the Business UH program, and it was a
great school and but things, I would pick up 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 was interested in.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
You know how boys are the things I wasn't interested in.
I just had no interest in. You know.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So, 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
(09:53):
just going to seminary, just going to seminary.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
I just had totally devoted myself to learn in the Bible,
not for any other really agenda or reason.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I just wanted to know the truth, so to speak.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
And I was it was my second year of school,
and the dean then of the College of Biblical Studies
here in Houston, as some of the students was, 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
(10:30):
to teach, And so I just went in and taught,
you know, told others what I had learned that was
taught by my professors.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
A couple of years later.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
The Dallas Seminary 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 each but they had made an
(11:01):
exception for me. So I was teaching it at College
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 maybe out of frustration, you know,
(11:27):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Open it up and read itn't make sense of it well.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
And that was always 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 for me.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
How did you arrive at the concept of teach me
the Bible?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Were people asking you that question because it's so simple
and so 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 2 (12:13):
Yeah, it's a funny story.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Bad job.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
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 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,
(12:46):
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 talk the Bible? And he said, you know,
we need to make a podcast of that, and that's
how it starts. 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, will
(13:08):
set it up. And so he's our technology guy.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So that's what we do. We come in and and.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
The microphones are set up and they just ask questions
and I talk, you know, tell us about this book,
and so.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
We walk through the book.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
And it really is a simple concept, but it's really
had a great response.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
When when 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, and I want to engage in personal study,
not church going personal study. Do you have an approach
(13:48):
as to a place to begin or what what is?
How do you handle that?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, well, well.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
To learn the Bible, and.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And so they come in thinking they know a whole
bunch of stuff that usually they come up come in
with their theology, with their you know with their 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
(14:29):
you know, you uh, 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
you would just start at the beginning. 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
(14:51):
God's redemptive history through you know, through through human history.
I mean it's just in the beginning, uh, creation fall
and off the Lord goes to bring about his promised deliverer.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
And you get to walk.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Down that trail with the authors as they tell the
story of God's redemptive acts throughout human history, culminating in
the person of his 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,
(15:29):
or you start with some theological grid or concept or defense,
it becomes really convoluted very quickly.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Although full 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
(15:58):
in who we're dealing with here, whereas the Old Testament
can be, in my opinion, can be a little tougher
nut to crack.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
Well, yeah, so what happens is, let me start with
the Gospel of John. So John tells the reader why
he wrote his story, that many other signs are stared
in the presence of those disciples, which we're not written
in this book.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Old right there against David Klingler is our guest. The
website is teach Me the Bible dot Com and that
is also the name of the podcast.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
More than they have almost went the laws to them the.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Michael Berries Show.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
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 always appealed to me. But you were talking about
(16:59):
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 study of what
y'all done is to get people engage themselves in a
self help study of the Bible. And I love that approach.
(17:21):
But anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
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.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
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 the
blank stare like I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Like Jesus Christ right, Like you know, if he was
wearing a jersey on the back of his jersey it would.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Say Christ like his last name. Well that's not that's
a title. He's the anointed King of Israel, I proven
through what he does, through what he says. His words
and works matched those of the Old Testament. So he's
not somebody because even John says so. Jesus even says
(18:09):
in the Gospel of John, in interacting with the Pharisees,
you know, you search the scriptures, because then then you
think you have eternal life.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
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,
I love how Matthew presents it. You know, the hope
of the world walked onto the scene in human form.
(18:39):
John says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us talking about John and the other disciples, and we
held his glok, we saw him, we touched him our hands,
we stuck our fingers in those holes, and so we
proclaimed to you. And so it's just such an amazing
story that corresponds to history. I mean, you look at
(19:04):
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 redempt at history, and you know. So
the reason why it's so relevant to us is 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
(19:28):
so I think it's something that everybody needs to know
for themselves.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
That's a fascinating approach.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
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
(19:58):
love to tell you how that's wrong because their pastor
said this, this.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Or this, And I equate it to this.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
They're kind of crowd sourcing. And if I were to say.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
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 no, my brother's burgers were better, even
though they had never eaten here. There's just this desire
to kind of want to do you find people to
(20:36):
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 2 (20:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
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,
but again what motivates me. I really like the example
(21:14):
of the Boreans that that Lucre courts 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.
You know, when you stand before the Lord and say well,
doctor Klingler said, well, you know what I tell them
(21:36):
Klingler's a moron. He's been a more in his whole life.
He's just trying to help you see what.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
The scriptures say.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
So let's go back to see if these things are
so and so often our interpretation of some verse doesn't
make any sense. You know, I hear the same ones
all the time. I can do all things through Christ
the strengthens people. Think about that for a second. Can
you what can you actually do through Christy's strengthens you?
Can you leap tall buildings with a single bound? Or
(22:07):
mentoring a kid in high school and he had that
Philippians four thirteen on his letter jacket and his name
is Casey, And I said, Casey, what's that phil four thirteen?
And he looked at me like, well, aren't you supposed
to be a Bible teacher. Aren't supposed to know this?
He said, I can do all things through Christ, who
strengthens me.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I said, well, like what?
Speaker 4 (22:25):
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
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'd bench pressed with Christy's strengthened you?
And he says, well, I guess about the same.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
What does that mean?
Speaker 4 (22:48):
And notice that Paul's writing to the Philippians. He doesn't say,
y'all can do all things through Christy strengthens y'all. He
could have said that, So what does he mean when
he says what he says?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So? Really?
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, Well, what he's talking about in the whole letter
is that he was concerned for these Philippians because you know,
it's a very alive in wealth theology today that if
you serve the Lord, right, if you serve whatever God
it is you serve, he will bless you physically and financially. Now,
(23:23):
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 while all of a sudden he's being beaten
and persecuted and shipwrecked, and everywhere he goes it's turning
terrible for him. And he's concerned with these Philippians who
(23:45):
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
they sent him a gift, and he's thankful for the gift.
He's writing this in chapter four and he says, I'm
(24:08):
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 Cristy strengthency. He can endure
all suffering, he can endure all hardship because his hope
is in resurrection, not in you know stuff now life now,
(24:33):
prosperity now. 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, now,
I understand what he's saying, and we too can do
all things through We can endure all things through Christ,
he strengthens us.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
And that's really the the reality of life, isn't it
that you know, we were talking, we were texting tack
and forth, and we're getting a and you can see it. Yeah,
well you have great I know I'm not.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Quite as old as you. Gray hair give way.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
We'll continue our conversation with David Klingler. The website is
Teach Me the Bible dot Com. Teach Me the Bible
dot Com is also the name of the pipeline. We're
going to be changing the name of the Gulf of
Mexico to the.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Gulf of michael Berry, which has a beautiful way and.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
David Klingler was once known as a star quarterback at
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 the Cincinnati Bengals, and
after his career was over, or as he said, even
(25:49):
before that, he started 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 learned the Word of God.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So he went to.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
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 and with us. 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,
(26:26):
and I'll give you a one minute wrap up.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
But my guessing is you got your clock down pretty good.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
All right, So the assignment the birth of would have been.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Nice if I gave boy the lead time, I know.
But anyway, well.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
That's okay, Well, no, well, 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 to where he says, let us make man
in our image and in our lightnings.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Let him rule over the bird's ear and the fish
and the sea. At the beast of the field.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
He creates man and gives him, creates the woman to
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 hassatan. The
adversary comes in and deceies the woman, and the man's
(27:29):
there with her, and they eat of the forbidden tree,
and they're kicked out.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Of the garden. They're removed from the tree of life.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
To it, to rule over the birds, the ear, the fish,
to see the beast and field.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
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 them is
you're you know, your days are numbered, and you don't
know if today's your last day. And so this introduces
the problem, and the Lord declares right there in Genesis three.
(28:13):
The Church has always recognized what we call the proto Evangelium,
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 of Genesis is
(28:34):
tracking this promise and really nothing else practical 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 to the house of David the King,
and this promise is given to him, and it's going
(28:56):
to come through this kingly line of David, and Isaiah
prophet shows up and condemned the whole line of David
and says, a virgin will give birth, that I don't
need you, King a has I don't need you. The
Diavidic line I don't need is I'll do it by
(29:16):
myself with a little girl.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
And so all of.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
At the right time to the day, as Daniel.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
The prophet prophesies, Christ is born, the promised One appears,
and he's proven through his words and works that he
is the one that the whole.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Creation, all of the.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Law and the prophets and the psalms, was anticipating. And
he walks onto the scene and does exactly what was foretold, crucified, buried,
resid directed as sends to the right hand of the Father.
And you know, and that's the gospel story. That's the
it's the it's the story of the births of Christ.
So it's it's a thirty nine books building towards the gospels.
(30:14):
Everything is pointing towards this morn and when he's born.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
It is just.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
You know, the hope of the world has appeared. And
you know, and so.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
What 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
strengthened 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
(30:47):
or widely misunderstood?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Well, I think that the from the very beginning. You know,
you think about Job and Job's friends. This it's this,
the it says if you serve the Lord or serve
God or whatever it is, you'll be blessed. Now you 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
(31:13):
very beginning of the of the Bible of Cain 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.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Paul.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
So Paul is going to say things like, all who
desire to be godly in Christ, Jesus.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Will suffer, will be persecuted.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
And so this was Jesus's life, and so often I
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
(31:54):
which you can experience the American dream is Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
He will help you, you know.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
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 think that we focus on that near
(32:24):
enough and call believers and in the early Church first
few centuries, they viewed suffering martyrdom as part of discipleship,
to deny yourself and to take up your.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Cross, and it was very real to them.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
But once the you know, Christianity kind of becomes the
state religion, or at least the accepted religion, persecutions 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 3 (33:02):
Yeah, it's not and we we we thank Jesus because
we won the game. And I always think, well, does
that mean the Lord didn't care for the other team?
You know, there's this idea that you know, if I,
if I chuck up a deuce after the game, you
know that then God will favor me with victories and
awards and all those things. And it's always it's always
(33:23):
been interesting that that's that's almost this.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
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 2 (33:34):
He is.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
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, which, like every
other podcast, is free and accessible and a great thing
to listen to as you're driving across the country or
just driving home.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
And he'll be our guest or more I mean
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