Welcome to the Bible for Normal People.

This episode is brought to you by Brazos Press, an imprint of Baker Publishing.

Find out how Brazos is working to foster the renewal of classical Orthodox Christianity

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You're listening to the Bible for Normal People, the only God ordained podcast on the internet.

I'm serious talk about the sacred book.

I'm Pete Ends.

And I'm Jared Byas.

Welcome everyone back to the conversation.

Today we're going to be talking about a perennial question that comes up again and again in the Bible.

What do we do with violence in the Old Testament, in the New Testament?

Sometimes commanded by God.

And how does that square with the idea of God as loving?

And for this conversation we're talking with Pastor Brian Zon.

He's the pastor of Word of Life Church, an author of several books.

His latest is called Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, where he deals with this question of divine violence.

His other books that also take a stance of peace, a farewell to Mars, and many others that you can look up.

Really a good conversation because as you'll see in it,

while we are looking at the idea of divine violence, we can't help but get back into the question of what is the Bible and what do we do with it?

Because it's through the lens of the Bible that we are able to address this question of divine violence.

And so how we read it becomes really important.

And we'll hear from Brian on how he comes to the Bible, how he comes to the text, and is able to navigate these very difficult questions that people have been asking for sinning.

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