Inverted Orthodoxy 427- Failure as a church, Judas Betrayal, Angels, Reincarnation, and Science

Welcome to the Inverted Orthodoxy Podcast! We're Blake, Kyle, and Doug the pastors from Living Springs, here to take you on a weekly adventure through the twists and turns of faith. Got questions? We've got answers, and sometimes more questions! Join us as we explore, celebrate, and embrace the beautiful complexities of belief. This week tackles the following questions:

(1:10)-  Are you aware of the divisions that have been created in our church over the failure to recognize monumental attacks on Christianity? Charlie Kirk should have been recognized as the hero he was, this was a large failure on living springs.

(6:40) - What is your opinion on what happened to Judas? I understand that he betrayed Jesus, but he realized that he sinned and gave the coins back. Then was so riddled with guilt that he hung himself. Jesus knew what he was going to do, which needed to be done to fulfill the scripture, but do you believe he was forgiven in the end? 

(14:45) - In Daniel God sent an angel to answer Daniel’s prayers. Why would He need to use an angel? Does He still use angels if we have the Holy Spirit now?

(22:37)- I don’t understand Jesus response to the statuses with his take on reincarnation: “ But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[b]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.””. If it refers to the story about the seven brothers dying, and who would the wife be married to in heaven, I don’t think it’s a given that they are all going to hell and therefore.” dead.”, so who is Jesus referring to when he says the dead? Surely he is the God of the characters in the story who have died(?)

(30:27)- The primary success of the scientific method has been that it can be self-correcting; so, when new information or evidence arises, the conclusion can change to account for that. A criticism of Religion has been that it cannot be self-correcting in the same way, especially when moral claims are based on scripture that is locked in time and culture according to when it was written.

For christianity, is there space for any internal "self-correction" to account for anything that arises in the Bible or church history that we wouldn't hold to today? For example, slavery in the Bible doesn't seem to be explicitly condemned, but instead recognized as a cultural phenomenon at the time. It seems that our 21st century view that slavery is wrong has to come from how we interpret broader moral messages of the Bible and then use that to re-interpret other specific points.

From this, I have two questions:

1) Does christianity allow for "self-correction" as an institution?

and 2) If so, how do we hold to an unchanging book of Scripture and allow for change over time of what we believe?

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