Through the Bible

In 2019 we are going to go through the Bible Chronologically, which means we will be reading or listening to the content of the Bible in the order that the events took place, which is not the order they are in the Christian Bible. This way of taking in the content will help you understand the Bible in real history and the poetry, prophets, letters will make sense in a way they haven't before if you haven't gone through the Bible in this way.

Each Sunday, at 10:30 I'll be teaching a class at Orchard Community Church in Ventura, CA and after the class by sometime Sunday afternoon I'll have posted a podcast on the topic of the class (in most instances pre-recorded and containing more content than the class) and notes from the class on this website.

To download a schedule of the readings, CLICK HERE.

To go to the list of links where you can listen to the podcast, CLICK HERE.

To listen to the Truth and History Series, which is a great foundation for the podcasts and site, CLICK HERE.

Join us in this great adventure—you'll never be the same!

What do the Old Testament Laws & Odd Regulations have to do with us today?

February 17, 2019 by Yvon Prehn

Genesis and the first part of Exodus were interesting to read, but now it’s getting a bit strange…..

What do all these laws about what to eat, sacrifices, and how to build the Tabernacle have to do with us today?

Why should we bother reading them?

The answer is SO much more interesting and helpful than you can imagine! Not in that we should follow the laws and regulations in the same way the Children of Israel did, but in what these things foreshadowed in what was coming.

The study of this foreshadowing of what was coming is called “Typology.” The podcast not only discusses this topic but gives you reasons and encouragements why you should read these books that most people skip. From the middle of Exodus through Leviticus and Numbers, it can be hard to read and even harder to understand, but God put this material in our Bibles for a reason and this podcast will help you understand how much it will help you grow in your faith even if it doesn’t seem like it when you start.

Below the podcast are the notes from the podcast and a link I promised I’d give that has an excellent article on typology.

From a person to a people– Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph AND is God or are people in charge of history?

February 10, 2019 by Yvon Prehn

How did the Jewish people become a nation?

Did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph have any say in being the founding fathers or were they predestined to do all they did?

And what about us? What is God in control of and what are we responsible for?

Today we are going to answer these questions and more in our Podcast.

As we look at the lives of these founders of our faith, we can see God faithful to fulfill his plan and promises even though the people given the task to carry it out sometimes strayed from doing the right thing. Though we admire what they did, God is the hero of the story and our stories because He is the one who is faithful and who will carry us through the storms of life.

In addition to the overall themes above, this podcast has some extra material on the history of Midian, Edom, and why the Beatitudes are written in the way they are. If that didn’t make lots of sense–listen to the podcast and learn some fascinating facts we sometimes miss in Old Testament stories.

Click on the following link to download my messy, but hopefully helpful, notes that go with the podcast: NOTES People to a nation, is God or are people in control of history

Did Angels or extraterrestrials really have children with humans and other Q & A about Genesis

February 3, 2019 by Yvon Prehn

“Did angels (or as some have said, extra-terrestrials) have children with humans?”

“How do you explain fossils of humans 30,000 to 40,000 years old?”

“If the Bible says you can’t see God, how could people see him in Genesis?”

“What about the curses in Genesis?, e.g. Cain and Lamech, Canaan and Ham?”

“Is Jesus the only way to heaven and what does reading the Bible in Chronological order have to do with it?”

These are some of the questions I’ll answer in this Podcast on Questions & Answers about the book of Genesis.

For this podcast, there is a lot more I covered in the live class, and to give you the information on that, CLICK on the following link for the notes from it that will give you the content of those topics: NOTES on Did Angels or extraterrestrials really have children with humans and other Q & A about Genesis

Abraham, the Father of our Faith

January 20, 2019 by Yvon Prehn

Why do Christians call Abraham the “Father of their Faith?”

Isn’t he also the Father of the faith for Jews and Muslims? And didn’t he write an important book for the Mormons?

Do I have to be a person of great faith like Abraham for God to accept me?

These questions and much more are what we will cover in this podcast on Abraham.

I’ll start with an overview of the incredible archeological finds that have literally uncovered streets in the city of Ur and buildings that were there when Abraham lived there. We will do an overview of Abraham’s life and then compare the Biblical view of Abraham with the Abraham of the Muslim and Mormon faiths.

Finally, you’ll see why it isn’t the moral character and the perfection of Abraham that made him acceptable to God, but the character of his God, who always has and always will provide salvation to those who trust him, not by works, but by faith.

The Book of Job, more than troubles, answers to the difficult questions of life

January 13, 2019 by Yvon Prehn

Book of Job, podcast #3 — The book of Job is the true story of a real man who tackled some of the most challenging questions of life–but you’ve got to read the ENTIRE book or you won’t see the correct answers! This podcast will guide you through it.

Most people have heard about Job, the character in the Bible who went through the loss of everything in his life. It’s a classic story of pain and loss with a great ending.

What this podcast will show you is that the book is much more than a story, but the true story of a man who went through unbelievable pain for no apparent reason, who endured the accusations and tormenting from his friends, and who finally was confronted with God himself.

This podcast answers many questions including who is Satan? What about people who never hear about God? Do people live after they die? Did people in the Old Testament believe that? How do we comfort others (and ourselves) when we suffer?

Listen and be challenged and comforted.

Intro To Genesis and Job and BIG Questions

January 5, 2019 by Yvon Prehn

How did we get here?
Is God real and what is He like?
What messed things up?
Who is Satan and what power does he have?
Why do innocent people suffer? Not just Job, all Genesis characters. Why me?
What does God want from us?

That’s what we are going to start to cover in this series, but before that in the podcast below we are going to go over the presuppositions that undergird the teaching for this podcast.

Because our presuppositions determine our conclusions—you should know mine.

We’ll also look at time and eternity, how God can see the beginning from the end, look at an interesting chart of how long the Patriarchs lived and much more.

Here is the chart of the long lives of Bible Characters and how oral history could have been transmitted