Podcast: Too Many Wives, Too Many Birthdays

Podcast episode featuring Callie Holland, Kent Bateman, and Eric Freemon. Part of our Year of the Bible series.

Show Notes:

Starting 2025 means we're starting Year of the Bible! City Church is spending the year reading through the entire bible - but we realize we can't cover all of the questions you may ask in our weekly Gatherings alone. So, for this year, we'll tackle extra topics right here on the podcast.

This month, Kent, Eric and Callie discuss approaches to reading and interpreting the Bible, focusing particularly on Genesis and some challenging Old Testament topics. The conversation works through controversial interpretations of Genesis 1 and explanations of complex Old Testament topics like living for a ridiculously long-time and polygamy. 

Key Topics & Timestamps:

0:00-2:00

• Introduction to Year of the Bible initiative

• Explanation of reading plan and resources

• Website information (citychurchnox.com/bible)

2:00-8:30

• Four approaches to biblical doctrine framework: 

  • Die for (essential Christian beliefs)

  • Divide for (potentially church-dividing issues)

  • Debate for (discussable differences)

  • Decide for (matters of preference)

8:30-15:00

• Discussion of Genesis 1

• Literal vs. figurative interpretation debate

• Emphasis on focusing on what the text is trying to communicate

15:00-22:00

• Biblical genres breakdown

22:00-30:00

• Discussion of extreme age spans in Genesis

• Different interpretations of biblical numbers

30:00-42:00

• Discussion of polygamy in the Old Testament

• Examples from biblical narratives

• Explanation of why it's portrayed negatively

• Story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel

• Solomon's example

42:00-44:00

• Wrap-up and reminder about submitting questions