The Bible Study Podcast episode 277. Today, the Bible Study podcast starts a study on the fundamentals of Christianity.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We're starting a study that I have been a little afraid

to talk about, and that is the fundamentals of Christianity. And one of the reasons that I wanted

to do it is illustrated by a story. I just went to Google's news today, and I searched for

fundamentalist Christian, and the very first story I found was this one. The Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman Mark Allen Siegel said Jews shouldn't trust pro-Israel Christians.

The Christians just want us to be there so we can be slaughtered and converted and bring on the second coming of Jesus Christ, Siegel said, while attending the Democratic National Convention.

The worst possible allies for the Jewish

state are the fundamentalist Christians who want Jews to die and convert so they can bring on

the second coming of their Lord. It is a false friendship. Now, this is obviously a quote taken out of

context. It's a quote within a presidential year election here in the United States with people on both sides arguing things in terms of faith sometimes.

And this term gets thrown around fundamentalist Christian.

And I think it gets used in ways that often confound me.

And I'll say just up front, this is a podcast where you try not to talk about politics.

I am sure that there is something about your politics that would offend me and something about mine that would offend you.

In particular for me, because I am neither at the far right nor at the far left within the American political spectrum.

But somewhere in the middle.

I actually don't know who I'm going to vote for for president this year.

And for the three of you who are still listening, as the Bible study podcast, I try not to be a Bible study about politics,

except that this word does get used a lot politically, and it is a charged word, but it is a term that

makes me wonder what people mean. In this quote that we had, again, what is a fundamental

Christian? What are the fundamentals of Christianity?

And who gets to decide?

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