A Glimpse of the Kingdom by David W. Pendergrass, Ph.D.

"Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2. “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you”. 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth." What is the story behind fasting?  I do not remember reading anything in the Bible from God saying we should fast.  Just a tradition?  Even Jesus seemed neutral; he just said if you do it - do not do it to be seen by others as sacrificing for your own personal benefit. Dennis Hey Dennis, In the Old Testament, and in later rabbinic Judaism, fasting was practiced for several reasons: as a sign of mourning (i.e., “I’m too...

Hey David!!   I really enjoyed reading your response to the question about the validity of the Flood narrative (found   here )!!   I thought it was a great response!   You mentioned that Jesus made an "error" when He claimed that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds.   I'm assuming you don't believe in biblical inerrancy, which is totally fine, but do you think this ( http://christiananswers.net/q-aiia/mustardseed.html )   is a reasonable, compelling response to the mustard seed "error"?   Thanks David!!   Ryan Yeah…I’ve heard that explanation before. :) It seems we have a two options: 1) Jesus was ignorant of (at least) botanical information of all the earth’s seeds and plants, or 2) Jesus did have complete botanical knowledge and chose to say the wrong thing. It just seems like option #1 is the most probable. He says that the seed is the smallest “upon the earth,” not “in Israel” or “in Palestine” or “in this r...

I have another question for you and it is a theological one. What are your thoughts on the Validity of the story of the ark? I have a hard time taking it in a total literal sense given that it was recorded so long ago. I'm a believer that has struggled with doubt many times in my life as I know you have from listening to your podcasts. Part of me says it doesn't matter but when I get into debates with people of "science" it gets a little difficult. My theory is that in the time of the event they said the entire earth was flooded but If they didn't have an accurate knowledge of how big the entire earth was. How do you deal with the debate on this subject? I do believe the bible is Gods word. And from my experience when you start doubting some people get really offended by your doubt. Any answers on that would help.  Thanks,  Friend Hey brother, That’s a good question. I do think some type of major flooding occurred since a flood narrative appears i...

   Hey David!! I had a question about something I see come up a lot online when atheists and theists/religious believers debate the reasons why mass murders occur around the world. For example, with the Paris attacks, the murderers are clearly motivated by Islam, and this gives fuel for the atheists’ fire to say "See?!  Religion causes all the bad things in the world and all the wars!  Atheists are the superior beings, both morally and intellectually!"  And every time someone brings up the evil, murderous atheists that have existed throughout history (i.e. Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.), atheists ALWAYS say, "Well, those murders weren't done 'in the name of atheism.'"  So, apparently, they think this gets the atheism worldview out of being the cause of any wrongdoing among atheist murderers, but religion is bad because these other mass murders are done "in the name of (some religion)."  Even with Christianity, they will constantly point to the Crusade...

Hi David, hope you are doing well... Just listened to your latest podcast on the meaning behind Jesus dying for our sins. Very good stuff... I appreciated the historical explanations and context behind the various similes used in the NT. Question for you, and this is something I've asked myself that I don't think was addressed in the podcast but, why was his death the means of atonement and not something else? Could something different have been done, like have Jesus stick a white flag in the ground and say "it is finished and it's cool now between you and God"? Why not $50 or some specific amount of money? I'm being silly here but I think you see my point. Just wondering if there is an explanation in the Bible about why THE God-man’s death WAS the price? Thinking about it I could possibly say: 1) Since humans are "special" in that we have dominion over the Earth just like God has dominion over the universe nothing could possibly be ...

I was having a discussion with some friends the other day and it found its way around to discussing religion. One question was raised and I wasn't quite sure how to answer it. One of them asked, "If God is all powerful and all knowing, why does he let people (those who haven't heard the Word) die? They're given no chance be believe or not and are condemned to hell because of it." It being very late when we were having this conversation and I was unable to come up with an adequate response so I'm curious what you would say to someone if they posed that question to you. Thanks for your time ~Cheryl Hey Cheryl! That's a good question. This is question is called the "fate of the unevangelized" in theology. I think you mean, "why does God allow them to go to hell" rather than "why does God allow them to die." I think you mean that, of course, because non-Christians die all the time. Physical death is the ...