Lighthouse Faith

The Martin Scorsese production of "The Saints", now streaming on Fox Nation, is wrapping up its first four episodes this week with Maximillian Kolbe, a Polish priest who sacrificed his life in a Nazi concentration camp so that another prisoner could be spared. The series will continue in the Spring, during the Lenton season, with four more stories of extraordinary people of faith: Francis Of Assisi, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene and Moses the Black. And after that, the creator of the project Matti Leshem, wants audience input about who they want to see next. The Catholic Church recognizes more than ten-thousand saints, so there's a lot to choose from for future episodes. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Leshem, who is Jewish, talks about working with Academy Award-winning director Scorsese, and how even people who aren't Catholic or Christian can be inspired by these stories of regular men and women, whose faith compelled them to unimaginable heights of bravery and courage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are now in the Advent season, the four weeks leading up to Christmas and the joy of Jesus' birth. Like Advent itself, the birth of the Savior has a lot of back story. Woven through the Bible's Old Testament are hundreds of prophecies that tell of a Messiah that will be born sometime in the future. Many of the prophecies, like those in Isaiah, are written centuries before the birth of Jesus. Cumulatively, they predict the conditions of the birth, the location of the birth, who he will be born to, what he is coming to do and so much more. Jesus fulfills every one of those prophecies. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz and investigative filmmaker Tim Mahoney delve into the prophecies of the Old Testament and the archeological evidence that shows that the core tenets of Christianity are grounded in the historical record. Mahoney's Patterns of Evidence production house has investigated the archeological evidence biblical prophecies and events from the Exodus to his most recent on Israel Dilemma that explores the Israel's covenant with God and the land. Lotz, well-known author and Christian speaker, is the daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fleeing from Europe to the New World for religious freedom in 1620, the Pilgrims intended to settle in northern Virginia, not far from Jamestown where there was an established community. But their ship was blown off course and landed instead at Plymouth, Massachusetts. And because they were in unsettled territory, the Pilgrims (before disembarking the Mayflower) created a document that became the prototype for America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, author and historian Dr. Jerry Newcombe explores the faith steeped history of Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims who landed in the New World and created the essence of the American experiment, the agreement for self-government, a civil body politic under God. The very first Thanksgiving, as the Pilgrims sat down with the Indians to share a meal, was always about giving thanks to an Almighty God, through whose Providence they were brought to a new land. Unfortunately, the education system in this land of the free has worked to erase God from the history books. But Newcombe, the Executive Director of Providence Forum, is pushing back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The book of Acts seems to sit benignly in the Bible, following the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It's presented almost as a travelogue of what happens to the apostles and the growing community devoted to a man named Jesus who was crucified. But Acts, if read properly, is quite subversive, and a potential source of great fear for the kings and rulers of the world because it directly challenges their authority, says Dr. N.T. Wright. Acts, written by the Apostle Luke, announces that the Kingdom of God has been launched, and that Jesus is its head. Why is this a problem for us today? Because the Western world's 'Separation of Church and State' is a wobbly philosophy if in fact Jesus is King, and really can't be lived out to its most extreme manifestations, that they are on a collision course we can in fact see today in politics and the culture. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Dr. Wright, author, theologian, scholar, and Anglican priest, explains his new book, "The Challenge of Acts: Rediscovering What the Church Was and Is". Wright says, "Acts is a dangerous book; and if people take it seriously, it's still dangerous today because the powerbrokers don't like the idea that actually there is this thing called the Kingdom of God." Luke also wrote one of the two Gospels that includes the narratives of Jesus's birth. Luke describes it as the Royal Birth, of a King that will be at odds with all  the Kings of the earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices