Bible Podcast and Commentary from Yvon Prehn

Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn, this podcast and website are my latest efforts in a lifetime of teaching and writing about my faith in Jesus. The name Bible 805 comes from my belief that the Bible, Jesus, and the Christian faith is as real as the place I live in (area code 805)—Ventura, California. The palm tree image here is a picture of a palm tree in my front yard.

If you are new to this site, I’d encourage you to listen first to the Truth and History Series that talks about how we got the Bible and why we can trust it. For 2019 my big project is teaching through the Bible in Chronological Order. Don’t let that intimidate you—the lessons are self-contained and you can jump in any time or listen to the stand-alone lessons. If you’ve never read through the Bible like this before, listen to these Six Benefits for what it will do for you.

I’ll also do stand-alone podcasts like, Why Jesus Wasn’t a Zombie and Life After Death—God’s Gift or Man’s Wishful Thinking.

Wherever you start, Welcome to Bible 805!

Who is Jesus? Answers from history, religions, and the Bible

November 14, 2019 by bible805

Who is Jesus?

Secular history and all the major religions of the world agree He existed, but they have very different answers as to who He is.

In our podcast today we’ll look at the history that verifies His existence, the beliefs about Him that have no basis in history all to help us answer the most important question of time and eternity—Who do you think Jesus is?

Click the following link for a copy of the PDF notes for the Podcast: PDF NOTES Who is Jesus, Answers from history, other religions and the Bible

Below the podcast is a copy of the notes:

Intro to the Gospels: Images of the Incarnation

October 27, 2019 by bible805

What is the most important thing about the Christian faith? How does it claim to connect you with God, forgive your sins, and give you eternal life?

So back to our question: what is the most important thing about the Christian faith?

• Is it knowing all the things you learned about the Old Testament if you’ve been listening to this podcast the last few months?

• Is it holding to certain beliefs like a 6-day Creation theory or 5-point Calvinism?

• Or is it what you do like being sure that you don’t do cheat on your spouse or taxes?

• As we will see in our lesson today it isn’t a what or a what you do, that is the most important thing about Christianity, that is at the core of what it takes to connect you with God, it’s a WHO

Below the podcast is a link to a downloadable PDF of the notes for the podcast and below that the notes are written out.

Click the following link to download the notes for the podcast: NOTES the Gospels, Images of the Incarnation

Conversations with God, the book of Malachi

September 28, 2019 by bible805

What kind of a relationship do you have with someone if you never talk to them?

OR if they talk to you and you ignore them?

In our podcast today we’ll review God’s conversations with His people throughout the Old Testament and what he finally had to say to them before becoming silent for 400 years. Along the way, we’ll talk about how we ought to respond when we read his messages today.

To download PDF of the notes for the Podcast, click the following link: Malachi-NOTES

Zechariah and Captain America—why does God chose to speak in images?

September 22, 2019 by bible805

If you want to describe the perfect super-hero, a sterling example of strength, integrity, leadership, and self-giving, you could list these characteristics in minute dictionary detail or you could simply say, “Captain America.”

An image can contain volumes of backstory and meaning in a few words—the challenge is you need to understand the meaning of the image.

The books of the Old Testament and Zachariah is one of the main ones that do this, uses imagery in much the same way.

The challenge to modern readers have is that we don’t know the backstory of the imagery. For us visions of myrtle trees, golden lampstands, and a flying scroll make about as much sense to us as Captain America, Thor, and Spiderman would make to the Old Testament Jews.

In our podcast, we’ll discover the meaning of the images in this fascinating book that also contains more specific prophecy about Jesus than any other Old Testament book other than Isaiah.

For a PDF of the notes and more information, click the following link and following the podcast is the complete print out of the notes: NOTES Zechariah and Captain America–why God uses images

What will make us truly happy and satisfied? —answered by the Prophet Haggai

September 14, 2019 by bible805

What makes you truly happy and satisfied?

Is its financial security? A loving family or relationship? A beautiful home?

Though all of these things, financial security, loving family, beautiful home are what most of us want, we’ll see in our podcast today that these are not what creates true happiness and inner satisfaction and peace—but we won’t stop with being negative, but will talk about how we can achieve not only what we want, but what we are created for.

Our source of for this lesson is the Prophet Haggai and that’s what our podcast is about.

CLICK the following link to download a PDF of the notes: NOTES FOR HAGGAI–how to be truly Happy

The full copy follows.

Book Recommendation: How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

September 7, 2019 by bible805

Even more tragic than not reading the Bible at all is to read it incorrectly and to think it says something it doesn’t say. Another tragic mistake is to think the Bible promises something that it doesn’t and then to get angry with God because He didn’t do what you thought He should do because you didn’t understand what the Bible passage was truly about.

To keep readers from making these mistakes and many others as they read their Bible and to help you understand and apply the Bible properly, I highly recommend How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Douglas Stuart and Gordon Fee. First published in 1981, it was revised and updated in 2014. I consider it an invaluable guide to understanding the Bible and use it as a key reference in my preparation of the Bible805 podcasts.

Genre makes all the difference

The approach taken in the book is genre-based and here is how the authors describe what this means:

. . .the basic concern of this book is with the understanding of the different types of literature (the genres) that make up the Bible. Although we do speak to other issues, this generic approach has controlled all that has been done. We affirm that there is a real difference between a psalm, on the one hand, and an epistle on the other. Our concern is to help the reader to read and study the Psalms as poems, and the Epistles as letters. We hope to show that these differences are vital and should affect both the way one reads them and how one is to understand their message for today.

Here is the Table of Contents that shows how they divide and discuss the various genres:Continue Reading