Tag Archives: John the Baptist

469-Ritual Extraction: The Advent of Solitude

“Why do you suppose that the Advent of the Kingdom of God began in the wilderness, twenty miles away from religion? Or is that a new consideration for you?

In today’s podcast and post, I teach how Religion has controlled the Advent narrative for a long time, and in doing so, has conflated the Kingdom of God with religion itself, thus imposing barriers to entry and rituals to get us “in.”

Join me now as I reconnect us to the authentic Advent experience of the Kingdom in which everyone exists already. Learn how we can possess both today, from the solitude of our own internal desert.

468-Emotional Extraction: True Advent Feels Wrong

“If the Biblical Advent goes beyond the nativity story to include John the Baptist “preparing the way,” and that “way” was not through religion, then why do you think people today are so emotionally threatened by John’s invitation to leave the religious industrial complex?

In today’s podcast and post, John the Baptist swings his axe and calls us into God’s kingdom which resides outside of religion in the desert.

Join me now as we deconstruct our emotional dissonance to John’s Gospel, which sounds so wrong when we first hear it.

2. The Forerunner of Subversion

 

“Does your understanding of the gospel take into account how subversive it is to institutional power?”

Today we continue to go deeper into the life and message of John the Baptist. We saw last week he was the forerunner of a wide-open message of forgiveness. This week we will see how the two largest institutions of power, Religion and State, react to such a message of liberation.

Let’s jump in behind the trail that John is blazing so that we can see beyond everything.

1-The Forerunner of Forgiveness

 

“Who was John the Baptist? And what was he really talking about?” Anyone with even a small amount of bible knowledge is familiar with the character of John the Baptist. He was distinct in a world that had long hoped to hear his message. But what was that message? And to what exactly was he the forerunner?

In today’s broadcast we start a series where we look closer at John’s life and message. He doesn’t go to church, he eats bugs, and he was the forerunner of forgiveness.