Episode 20: The Dead Sea Scrolls, Why Pastors Talk about Controversial Bible Issues, Textual Criticism, and Guarana Antarctica Soda Review with Textual Criticism Expert Dr. Anthony Ferguson

Why should pastors talk about controversial Bible passages and difficult Bible origin questions with church members? Old Testament Scholar Dr. Anthony Ferguson answers... Today, we talk to Dr. Anthony Ferguson, an Old Testament Textual Criticism expert and pastor, about some pretty deep Bible nerd stuff, including how pastors can talk about the background of the Bible without turning the church into a seminary. Some of this short interview is pretty deep, but if you feel lost, never fear, we will process through a little bit of what we discussed at the end of the episode today, right after Cal Baptist Ministry student J.C. and I review Brazil's #1 Coke competitor, Guarana Antarctica.  Like me, Dr. Ferguson was taught in seminary to not use Greek or Hebrew in sermons, and also like me, he pretty routinely ignores this advice, which raises a question that the third part of our interview with Dr. Ferguson brings up: why would we focus a whole episode on some of the more academic points of the Bible, including textual variants, biblical origins, and the Dead Sea Scrolls? At least one of the answers to that question, Dr. Ferguson addressed in our opener - if you don't, somebody else well, and shouldn't a pastor be the one to shepherd the people through those issues, rather than somebody else?