Podcast + Blog – Becoming Adam, Becoming Christ

Jay Johnson April 12, 2020

Easter 2020. The churches are empty, and the shadow of death hangs over our land. As Joni Mitchell sang, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone….” Have we, as a society, lost something that we’ll never recover? I hope not, but trauma changes people. None of us will emerge from this experience the same. It’s my prayer that this enforced time apart makes everyone realize the value of time spent together. Our God brings life from death. Evil shall not have the last word. So, for Easter 2020, I offer a […]

Becoming Adam Podcast

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A Primer on Culture and a Warning about Role Models

Jay Johnson March 28, 2020

Like any human enterprise, culture can serve as a vehicle for good or evil. What of our culture? The values modeled by those in power give us a clue…. In Part 3 of Adam’s Evolutionary Journey, I said, “Human beings are indoctrinated into sin at the same time and in the same way that we learn language … and music, and art, and conformity to social norms, all of which are aspects of human culture. Mimesis and enculturation explain how ‘original sin’ arose and continues to be propagated.” Culture, in my view, serves as the vehicle for sin, but that […]

Becoming Adam Podcast

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Kierkegaard’s Complaint: Putting Adam ‘Fantastically Outside’ of History

Jay Johnson February 22, 2020

Was Adam directly created from dust and placed in a sinless, deathless paradise? If so, how does he represent me before God? What does a perfect man in a perfect environment have in common with anyone?

Becoming Adam Podcast

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Becoming Christ: The Political Context

Jay Johnson February 8, 2020

Since everyone is obsessed with politics this week, the time seemed right for another episode of Becoming Christ. As I mentioned in the first episode, to understand Jesus, we must enter his story and view him through the eyes of his first-century audience. Seeing Jesus as they saw him requires historical context – the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that shaped Christ’s world. Today, I’ll examine the political context.

Becoming Adam Podcast

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God’s Presence and Guidance in Evolution

Jay Johnson January 29, 2020

Before my unexpected “vacation,” one of my podcast listeners had asked for clarity on my series, Adam’s Evolutionary Journey. “After listening to Episode 3,” she wrote, “I was left feeling a little empty. Where is God in the evolutionary process? Did he just start the universe with the Big Bang and then step back?” Good question! My short answer is that God guided evolution at every step along the way. Now for the long answer …

Becoming Adam Podcast

Historical Context

Culture War, Inerrancy, Tolstoy, & the Gospels: A Personal Journey

Jay Johnson January 11, 2020

My formative years were spent in ultra-conservative Amarillo, Texas, during the 1970s. My family faithfully attended a Methodist church down the street from our house, and this being the ’70s, we piled into the car and drove to the end of the block to get there, rain or shine.

Becoming Adam Podcast

The Life of Christ

Becoming Christ: The Birth of Jesus the Anointed

Jay Johnson January 1, 2020

Living in a predominantly Christian culture, all of us – even those of us who don’t identify as Christian – think we know who Jesus is. We grew up decorating Christmas trees, singing carols, and watching Charlie Brown specials. Many of us attended church as children; others were dragged there as adults by well-meaning friends or relatives. People knock on our doors to “witness” to us, promise us on TV that Jesus will solve our financial problems, and accost us on the street with invitations to “accept” Jesus into our hearts. Our politicians vie for Jesus’ endorsement, our athletes credit […]

Becoming Adam Podcast

Genealogical Adam

Genealogical Adam & Eve Makes God a Monster

Jay Johnson December 22, 2019

Biologist Joshua Swamidass claims the ‘fall’ took place as recently as 4000 BC. Are murder, cannibalism, magic, and idolatry not sinful? … In my previous review of Genealogical Adam & Eve, I focused mainly on the scientific problems with the book. Specifically, the isolation of Tasmania adds at least 10,000 years to the scenario, so if author Joshua Swamidass wants to be honest with the science, he should quit proclaiming 6,000 years ago as a “likely” date for his genealogical Adam & Eve. The earliest “likely” point they could be inserted into history is about 14,000 BC, and even that […]

Becoming Adam Podcast

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Adam’s Evolutionary Journey, Pt. 3: Genesis & Evolution in Dialogue

Jay Johnson December 14, 2019

Can the ‘fall’ be an actual event in human history? Is ‘original sin’ something real, or just a Christian fairytale? … The structural metaphor that MORAL KNOWLEDGE = COMING OF AGE is immediately grasped by every human being in every culture, and in Genesis 2–3 it’s applied to the “the man” and “the woman” to create literary archetypes in a figurative text. The same conceptual journey from childhood to maturity resurfaces throughout Scripture, but it becomes especially prominent in the New Testament.

Becoming Adam Podcast

Genealogical Adam

The Death of Genealogical Adam: Shipwrecked in the Bass Strait

Jay Johnson December 9, 2019

Biologist Joshua Swamidass says a literal Adam and Eve could have lived as recently as 6000 years ago. Tasmania says otherwise. … What does genealogy have to do with Adam and Eve? Simply, it allowed them to become everyone’s “parents” without requiring them to be the first humans. In the “genealogical Adam” scenario, God created Adam from dust and Eve from his rib and placed them in the Garden of Eden in Mesopotamia 6,000 years ago. After being expelled from the garden, Adam and Eve then had children who interbred with the already existing population, and eventually they became related […]