Halting Toward Zion

Greg, Rachel, and Emily continue their discussion of their kingdom of Persia, its relationship with the children of Israel, and the slow progress to rebuild the temple. Transcript: ⁠https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/hadassah-queen-of-persia?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true⁠

Greg, Rachel, and Emily continue their discussion of the Medo-Persian Empire, king Cyrus and his relationship with Israel, Zoroastrianism, and much more. Transcript: https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/cyrus-king-of-persia?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Greg, Rachel, and Emily discuss the origin of the Medo-Persian Empire, how it claimed the title of world power from Babylon, and the work God did through Daniel.

Greg, Rachel, and Emily continue their discussion of world powers with Babylon, and the 4 brave Hebrews we follow through the book of Daniel. Transcript: https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/hananiah-mishael-azariah-and-daniel?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Why don't we know about Assyria? Why does a secular classical education ignore it? Greg, Rachel, and Emily ask these questions and more as they discuss ancient Assyria/Persian culture.

Greg, Emily, and Rachel summarize Israel's history up to the point they left off with the Phoenicians and Egyptians and setting the foundation of the Davidic Covenant as the framework for history going forward. Transcript:

God commanded His people to read His word out loud- that requires it to be written down. Join Greg, Rachel, and Emily as they discuss the impact of the Phoenician alphabet, the artist as a part of history and culture, why it is and has been imperative that history is written our history down, and much more. Transcript: https://haltingtowardzion.substack.com/p/947b3ccf-e3b0-4b48-917f-7d6652f540d1

Greg, Rachel, and Emily discuss the Phoenician/Punic/Canaanite peoples and what they brought to culture, technology, art, and what their relationship was like with Israel... and why that matters today. Transcript: https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/purple-dye-and-child-sacrifice?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

"Your ultimate priorities generate your ethics" Join Greg, Emily, and Rachel as they continue their discussion of the 10 commandments. Why should we not kill? What does kill even mean? What is the significance of the marriage covenant? Why are liars grouped together with murderers and adulterers? Who and what defines ethics and why can't ethics change as time moves on? Our hosts discuss all these questions and more in this weeks episode Transcript: ⁠https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/the-worldview-that-shaped-western?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true⁠

Moses went up to Mount Sinai and received the law from God. What does that mean for Isreal? For us? for all cultures? Join Greg, Rachel, and Emily as they discuss the first 4 of the 10 commandments. Transcript: ⁠https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/the-law-on-mount-sinai?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true⁠

Why does having an accurate record of history matter in God's story? Why does it matter that we tell a story in order? Why is it that secular histories refuse to consider the Bible an accurate historical text? Join Greg, Rachel, and Emily as they discuss all this and more in this week's episode. Transcript: https://haltingtowardzion.substack.com/p/6c193884-cbf8-4048-a736-f348d5160ff6

Greg, Rachel, and Emily discuss "the gift of the Nile" -Egyptian. Tune in for their discussion of Egyptian Geography, Mythology, and death rituals, along with plenty more.

"He really didn’t do much. He didn’t lead Israel out of Egypt. He didn’t call fire down from heaven. He didn’t raise the dead. He didn’t survive a world flood. He mostly lived out in the wilderness and raised some good sheep and cattle. But God promised to do something incredible through him and his seed, and without him everything afterwards falls apart." Join Greg, Emily, and Rachel as the discuss Abraham, who his seed are, and justification by faith. Transcript: ⁠https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/by-faith-abraham?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true⁠

"As promised, we will talk about dinosaurs today – dinosaurs and the deification of the dead – and I hope we’ll get to Abraham as well, but let’s start with dinosaurs." Join Greg, Emily, and Rachel as they discuss dinosaurs, the implications of the cultural shift from Dragons to Dinosaurs, and what past cultures believed about the diety of the dead. https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/i-believe-in-dragons?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true⁠

"We left off last time right on the precipice before the Tower of Babel..." Mankind reached for godhood, building a tower they imagined was unto heaven, building a society in rebellion to God's command to "Fill the earth." God quickly showed them that wasn't going to happen. Join Greg, Emily, and Rachel as they discuss the post-flood world, ziggurats, the implementation of diverse languages, and cave dwellers. Transcript: ⁠https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/the-tower?r=1mbq24&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true⁠

What are the sons of God in Genesis 4? What was the actual scope of the flood? What happened to culture after the flood? Greg, Emily, and Rachel discuss all this and more in this week's episode. Transcript: https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/htz-2023-12-28

Greg, Emily, and Rachel discuss the way culture grew in the first 2,000 years of history, from Cain and Abel to the flood and the technology and other advancements of the time. Transcript: ⁠https://open.substack.com/pub/haltingtowardzion/p/the-world-before-the-flood

"I think we’re wrapping up and beginning the long trudge through 6,000 years of human history." Greg, Emily, and Rachel discuss what exactly we are looking forward to, what (who) the substitute really is, and the aspects of a good story that we get directly from God's storytelling. Transcript: https://haltingtowardzion.substack.com/p/674540dc-48dc-43a4-845b-f2f380bc11dc

"What are the framing ideas to the way we look at history?" Greg, Emily, and Rachel discuss how and why sin affects our actions and our perception of history. Transcript: https://haltingtowardzion.substack.com/p/32ae0b7c-ef65-496a-87f9-20e166c37e4d

Greg, Emily, and Rachel discuss God's commandment to "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth," what being the image of God means, and the implications of continued Christian growth and fellowship in eternity. Transcript: https://haltingtowardzion.substack.com/p/daf67e49-f950-46ca-a59e-a9103fd9f792

As we enter season 3, we welcome our new host, Rachel Voytek, to join Greg Uttinger and Emily Maxson. In this new season, we're focusing on World History and Church History, and how they relate. And as any discussion of history should, we start at the beginning... again.