by Brian Godawa
Old Testament Storytelling Apologetics
Israel shared mythopoeic images with their pagan neighbors: The sea dragon of chaos, and the Storm god. These are polemical concepts used by Biblical writers to show the incomparability of Yahweh.
Biblical Creation and Storytelling: Cosmos, Combat and Covenant
Creation stories in the ancient Near East and the Bible both express a primeval battle called Chaoskampf, the fight of deity to create order out of chaos. But how do they differ?
The Universe in Ancient Imagination
A detailed comparison and contrast of the Biblical picture of the universe with the ancient Mesopotamian one. Does God communicate material structure or theological meaning?
New Testament Storytelling Apologetics
Paul’s sermon to the pagans on Mars Hill is an example of subversion: Communicating the Gospel in terms of a pagan narrative with a view toward replacing their worldview.
Mythopoeia in Prophecy and Apocalyptic Genre
God uses mythical descriptions of future events to deliberately obscure his message while simultaneously proving his claim about the true meaning and purpose behind history.
An Apologetic of Biblical Horror
An exploration of the genre of horror to show how God uses it as a powerful moral tool to communicate serious spiritual, moral, and social defilement in the context of repentance from sin and redemptive victory over evil.
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Myth Became Fact
AUDIO LECTURES BY BRIAN GODAWA
Brian has spoken around the world on the topic of movies, worldviews, and faith. Now you can purchase some of his presentations on downloadable MP3 directly from his website, www.godawa.com! Here are a sample of presentations:
Art, Movies & Worldviews
6-Lecture Series by Brian Godawa
1. The Church and the Arts: Friends or Foes?
2. From Bezalel to Jesus: Art in the Bible
3. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: Sex & Violence in the Movies
4. That’s More Than Entertainment!: Redemption in the Movies
5. Following Your Heart: Existentialism in the Movies
6. Losing Our Grip on Reality: Postmodernism in the Movies
Screenwriting for Christians
A 9-Lecture Series by Brian Godawa
Brian teaches the basic elements of storytelling used in writing screenplays from a Christian worldview, complete with examples and analysis of movies that illustrate the lessons. Comes with 30 pages of Student Handouts so you can follow along and take the class on tape! This was taught at YWAM's University of the Nations.
1. Introduction/ Sex & Violence & the Bible
2. Christian writer
3. Basic Structure/ Premise/Theme
4. Premise/Theme Part 2
5. Character
6. Plot
7. Scene
8. The Business and the Life of the Writer
9. Analysis of first 10 pages of “The Sixth Sense”
Storytelling, Worldviews & Persuasion
2 Lectures by Brian Godawa
Part 1: Incarnation
The modern Christian exclusive concentration on logic, precision and rationality has missed a fuller Biblical approach. In the Scriptures, truth and persuasion are mediated through imagination and storytelling as well. Brian addresses the power of incarnation used in Biblical storytelling and imagery. Examples from film clips are used to illustrate.
Part 2: Subversion
Brian examines the Biblical usage of subversion through storytelling as a means of engaging culture and capturing it for Christ. He shows how the Apostle Paul used subversion to retell the Stoic story in Christian terms.
Defense of the Faith
12-Lecture Series by Brian Godawa
This is a different approach to apologetics than the typical way that “proves” a generic theism, then “proves” the Bible, then “proves” the resurrection. This series addresses the weaknesses of typical apologetics and explores how to defend the faith on a deeper level, the level of the worldview of the unbeliever.
1. Introduction to Apologetics
2. Logic Part 1: Intro
3. Logic Part 2: fallacies
4. Logic Part 3: fallacies
5. Faith and Reason
6. Antithesis: Acts 17
7. Worldviews Part 1
8. Worldviews Part 2
9. Authority and Truth
10. Authority: Part 2
11. Ethics
12. Technique
Bible Prophecy & the End Times: It’s Not When They Told You It Is
10-Lecture Series by Brian Godawa
The Book of Revelation is more like an Epic Horror Fantasy than a sermon. Brian explores the creative literary imagery of the First Century writings used in Revelation. The Left Behind novel series has made a gazillion dollars based on a popular view of the End Times. What would shock some Christians is to discover that this view is not Biblical. Brian examines the common beliefs of the Left Behind dogma and compares them to the Bible. He shows how the Bible itself explains how most of these prophecies have already been fulfilled. A partial preterist approach to Bible prophecy.
Two options are available for purchase. You can either buy just the MP3 audio, or buy the DVD video versions that have the same audio, BUT ALSO lots of colorful and helpful Powerpoint visuals and film clips for a much richer presentation of the material.
1. Interpreting Bible Prophecy
2. Israel in Prophecy
3. The Last Days
4. The Rapture
5. The Great Tribulation
6. The Anti-Christ
7. The Beast
8. The Coming of Christ
9. The Millennium Part 1
10. The Millennium Part 2
To order these audio lectures and other books and products by Brian Godawa, as well as FREE articles, just go to the STORE at:
http://godawa.com/store/
Sex and Violence for Christian Storytellers
Video or Audio Lecture with Q & A
by Brian Godawa
84 minutes
In this latest version of his "Beyond Sex and Violence" talk, Brian talks to Christian writers and storytellers about their craft (with a focus on movies). He examines the Bible to see just how it deals with the sins of mankind and draws principles how to apply that in storytelling for those who wish to be faithful to their Biblical values without being inauthentic in their picture of the world. A very frank and popular lecture.
Horror: A Biblical Genre
Video or Audio Lecture with Q & A
by Brian Godawa
80 minutes
God likes the horror genre, or else he wouldn’t have used so much of it in the Holy Bible! Brian takes a look at examples of the horror genre in the Bible and in movies and explains how similar they can be as well as the differences. Though this is not intended to turn you into a horror fan, it will be helpful in gaining a broader understanding of the Biblical power and high value that God places on the horror genre in communicating original sin, human nature, the consequences of sin, and prophetic social commentary.
To order these audio lectures and other books and products by Brian Godawa, as well as FREE articles, just go to the STORE at:
http://godawa.com/store/
Genesis To Revelation: Understanding the Bible as Story
6 Audio Lectures
Approx. 6 hours
The Bible is not a textbook of systematic theology. It is a story, God’s story of how He saves His people. Genesis to Revelation: Understanding the Bible as Story is a 6-week class that provides a narrative approach to theology that will help you understand your own place as an actor in the unfolding drama of the Kingdom. You’ll take a rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of the narrative of the entire Bible, exploring some of its exciting plot twists and how it ultimately relates to our lives.
NOTE: A couple of the lectures had technical problems that caused some
annoying sound problems, but all the lectures are entirely audible.
1. Story: Understanding God through Narrative
2. Creation: People, Land, Temple
3. Fall: Primeval History, Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac & Jacob
4. Israel: Election, Exodus, Exile, Return
5. Messiah: New Covenant, New Creation,
6. Church: New Israel, New Temple, New Jerusalem, Resurrection
7. Student Worksheet and additional reading material for each lecture included.
To order these audio lectures and other books and products by Brian Godawa, as well as FREE articles, just go to the STORE at:
http://godawa.com/store/
DVD LECTURES by Brian Godawa
The Book of Enoch: Scripture, Heresy or What?
This dvd video lecture by Brian Godawa will be an introduction to the ancient book of 1Enoch, its content, its history, its affirmation in the New Testament, and its acceptance and rejection by the Christian Church. What is the Book of Enoch? Where did it come from? Why isn't it in the Bible? How does the Book of Enoch compare with the Bible?
Chronicles of the Nephilim: The Ancient Biblical Story
Watchers, Nephilim, and the Divine Council of the Sons of God. In this dvd video lecture, Brian Godawa explores the Scriptures behind this transformative storyline that inspired his best-selling Biblical novel series Chronicles of the Nephilim.
Horror: A Biblical Genre
Horror is not an inherently evil genre of storytelling. It can be used for gratuitous evil purposes, or for godly moral purposes. The Bible tells many stories using the horror genre in order to inspire holy fear of evil and admonish or chastise those in sin. In this dvd video lecture, Brian Godawa presents how horror movies can be biblically redeeming.
Sex and Violence for Christian Storytellers
In this dvd video lecture, Brian Godawa examines the issue of sin depicted in the movies and in the Bible. Should Christians watch or create R-rated movies, novels or articles? Are we sinning, or opening ourselves to sin, if we expose ourselves to dramatic visual images of sex, violence & profanity?
To order these DVD lectures and other books and products by Brian Godawa, as well as FREE articles, just go to the STORE at:
http://godawa.com/store/
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[1] His infamous paragraph describing Jesus Christ (Antiquities of the Jews 18.63-64) is controversial and some have argued that it is a later Christian redaction. But there remains solid scholarship for its legitimacy. For a balanced scholarly assessment see Steve Mason, Josephus and the New Testament, (Peabody, MA Hendrickson Publishers, 1992), 163-174.
[2] In Antiquities 18.106 Josephus places the trade around the time of the death of Herod’s brother, Philip, who died in A.D. 33/34: Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), footnote C.
[3] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.101-105. Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987).
[4] Josephus, Antiquities 18.105.
[5] N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1992), 178–180.
[6] Richard A. Horsley and John S. Hanson, Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the Time of Jesus (New York: NY, Winston Press, 1985).
[7] Martin Hengel, The Zealots: investigations into the Jewish freedom movement in the period from Herod I until 70 A.D. (Edinburgh: U.K., T. & T. Clark, 1989).
[8] Hengel, The Zealots, 108.
[9] Josephus, Antiquities 20.102.
[10] Josephus, Antiquities 20.4-5.
[11] Josephus, Antiquities 20.161. Under the procurator Felix.
[12] C. Marvin Pate, Communities of the Last Days: The Dead Sea Scrolls, The New Testament & The Story of Israel, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 107-132.
[13] Israel Knohl, “By Three Days, Live”: Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 88, No. 2 (April 2008), pp. 147-158
[14] Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 146–170.
[15] Pate, Communities of the Last Days, 113.
[16] N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1996), 209. N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1996), 209.
[17] Stanley E. Porter, “Paul Confronts Caesar with the Good News,” Stanley E. Porter, Cynthia Long Westfall, Ed., Empire in the New Testament (Wipf and Stock, 2011), 172-3.
[18] Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003) 23.
[19] Paul F. Burke, “Augustus and Christianity in Myth and Legend,” New England Classical Journal 32.3 (2005) 213-220. From Augustine’s City of God 18.23.1.
[20] Origen, “De Principiis,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 240.
[21] Brian Godawa, Enoch Primordial (Los Angeles: Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2013), 367-373.
[22] See the chapter “The Book of Enoch: Scripture, Heresy, or What?” in When Giants Were Upon the Earth: The Watchers, Nephilim and the Cosmic War of the Seed (Los Angeles: Embedded Pictures, 2014),.
[23] G. J. Riley, “Demon,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 238. Early church fathers who believed this are Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Minuciux Felix, Irenaeus, among others: Bo Reicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism (New York: AMS Press, 1946), 80-81. Other Intertestamental literature that affirms demons as sons of the Watchers are Test. Of Solomon 5:3; 17:1; Jubilees 10:5; Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q510 v.5; 4Q511 Frag. 35; 4Q204 Col V.2-3 (1Enoch 10:15), that call the demons, sons of the Watchers or “spirits of the bastards.” Florentino Garcı́a Martı́nez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (translations)” (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–1998), 415, 1029, 1033-35. 11Q11 Col. V.6 calls demons “offspring of man and of the seed of the holy ones.” DSS Study Edition, 1203. See Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “The ‘Angels’ and ‘Giants’ of Genesis 6:1-4 in Second and Third Century BCE Jewish Interpretation: Reflections on the Posture of Early Apocalyptic Traditions,” Dead Sea Discoveries, Vol. 7, No. 3, Angels and Demons (2000), pp. 354-37; Ida Fröhlich,”Theology and Demonology in Qumran Texts,” Henoch; Vol. 32 Issue 1, June 2010, 101-129.
[24] James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983), 22.
[25] Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament: English Translation, Is 34:13–14 (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1870).
[26] Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament: English Translation, Is 13:21–22 (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1870).
[27] Johan Lust, Erik Eynikel and Katrin Hauspie, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint: Revised Edition (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft: Stuttgart, 2003).
[28] Judd H. Burton, Interview With the Giant: Ethnohistorical Notes on the Nephilim (Burton Beyond Press, 2009) 19-21. “Regardless of his [Azazle’s] origins—in pre-Israelite practice he was surely a true demon, perhaps a satyr, who ruled in the wilderness.” Jacob Milgrom, A Continental Commentary: Leviticus: a Book of Ritual and Ethics (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2004), 169.
[29] The Psalmist also casts the gods of Canaan; Molech, Asherah, Ashtart, Ba’al, and others
as demons as well in Psalm 106:37–38: “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.”
[30] “Siyyim,” Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2000), 850.
[31] Hans Wildberger, A Continental Commentary: Isaiah 28–39 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002).
[32] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament), electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
[33] Special thanks to Doug Van Dorn for this “revelation.” Van Dorn, Douglas (2013-01-21). Giants: Sons of the Gods (Kindle Locations 3922-3925). Waters of Creation. Kindle Edition. In fact, his “Chapter 13: Chimeras” was helpful for more than one insight in this appendix.
[34] “Lilith,” DDD, 520.
[35] Handy, Lowell K. "Lilith (Deity)". In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992, 324-325.
[36] Ginzberg, Louis; Szold, Henrietta (2011-01-13). Legends of the Jews, all four volumes in a single file, improved 1/13/2011 (Kindle Locations 1016-1028). B&R Samizdat Express. Kindle Edition.
[37] 2050a,קִפּוֹז Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr. and Bruce K. Waltke, electronic ed., 806 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999). קִפּוֹזBrown, Francis, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs. Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. electronic ed. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2000.