Forging Ploughshares

Paul explains the logic of Anselm’s ontological argument, what it does, and connects it to the death of Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul continues his study in I John. And so John gives us the test, “You know the spirit of God—every spirit who confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” You do not distinguish between the man and the divinity, the incarnation, then, is God in the flesh. If you do a little church history it’s amazing how this same thing comes up again and again. I kind of like Luther’s phrase that “God died on the cross. “What he’s combatting is the tendency that he was running into of people splitting up God… Jack Cottrell does this most beautifully. He says, “Well, the spirit of God can’t die, it was the body of Jesus that died.” Oh, we’re right back into dualism and Gnosticism. Other than that it’s a wonderful doctrine, but John says it’s of the antichrist and by this test he would be a false kind of prophet… but I’m not going to say that… Okay, maybe I will. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul presents a reconstituted, holistic form of apologetics that may provide effective witness. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul invites Matt Welch to share his story and talk about his current work with the 91four ministry. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul lays out his understanding of why Christ died and how His death can be described in terms of a change of subjectivity. I think what we see God getting satisfaction out of, we do, too. In a very perverse way. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Frank continue their discussion on communion. This episode covers “real presence” and the meaning of “eating” and “drinking” the flesh and blood of Jesus. Rather than dwelling on the theoretical, they dive right into a big-picture view of the Gospel of John by going through the whole story to understand what Jesus meant when He gave that strange commandment. Sources Cited: Scott Hahn’s talk Alexander Campbell’s article If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul continues his study of I John. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

The universal notion of sacrifice and the biblical departure from this system in the Old Testament and in the sacrifice of Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Ethics and belief must be brought together in the ethic of love. To not bring them together results in ideology – a religion without content. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

The equation of hope/love, self-sacrifice/love, righteousness/love, recognizing Jesus/love. All of these are needed to arrive at a notion of agape love. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

The Christian ethic begins by putting our security in the hands of God. Evil arises because we would secure ourselves and this is the ground of personal and corporate evil. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Modern apologetics would presume to be able to prove God through the traditional arguments for God. Paul proposes holistic witness as an alternative. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

How we define evil will be determinative of how we understand God. We know God not on the basis of a law or tradition as with the Friends of Job but through Christ. As we confront and challenge evil, that is precisely (in the thinking of Bonhoeffer) where God meets us. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Jonathan Totty talk about Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus, and how he travels a road very similar to Zizek and Lacan. The difference of course is that Kierkegaard moves beyond Climacus to a full blown Christianity. The question is if his criticism of Hegelian Christians as falling short applies to the contemporary scence. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul continues his explanation of Romans 13. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul’s study in I John continues, this time about practicing righteousness and what it means to be born again. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul explains the disastrous consequences in the 20th Century brought about in part by the role modern philosophy of religion played. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul addresses how the Christian should respond to evil government in Romans 13. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul describes the keys to recognizing the false Christians among us. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

What kind of dialogue does the Gospel of peace have with the state, especially in as dark a political time as the one we find ourselves in? That of obedient supporters of its agendas or of withdrawn resignation to its violence? Jason and Paul discuss the New Testament’s witness (from the Gospels and the epistles) of the Church as a radical alternative Kingdom to Caesar’s, a Kingdom whose prophetic words and life are an engaged critique of the powers of this dark world. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Subordination is significantly different from unconditional obedience. Was Christ “obedient” to Rome? He was killed by Rome. Romans 13 is not about “blind obedience to the state.” If that was the case, the Christians would all have been worshiping Caesar. Paul is rejecting any notion of violent revolution. Paul has no illusions about Rome being a servant of God, though he does use corrupt nations for his purposes as they remain under his judgment. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

John poses three tests to determine orthodoxy: The moral test (How do you walk in light or darkness?), the social test (Do you continue to fellowship with the saints or are you divisive?) and the doctrinal test (Do you believe that Jesus is Lord and that he was fully human?). If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul discusses how our own self-image and the idolatrous image reflect a failed image. The restoration of the image in Christ is actually more of a fulfillment of an original potential. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In this study John’s opposed pairs are shown to counter dualistic notions in that one pair is always pictured as overcoming the other. Salvation is pictured as entailing a set of practices (walking in the light) that John clearly delineates. Practicing Christianity is already an idea aimed at defeating the dualistic separation of faith and practice. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Sharon Klingemann, Mazie Sinlee and Paul discuss the lost apostle – Junia. Why has she gone missing and what are the implications of a woman apostle? The discussion is based on Sharon’s research of the subject. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

This conversation between Paul and Jason is inspired by Paul’s essay The Mystery Revealed. The conversation explores legitimate and illegitimate understandings of the mystery of Christ and focuses largely on pagan understandings of the “idol” and the contrast of the “Image of God” as described by Genesis 1. As the conversation unfolds, what emerges is an understanding of loving God and loving neighbor as self as a restoration of the image of God and a correction of perverse notions of God which are more pagan than Christian. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul begins a Bible study on I John. This introduction covers key ideas leading to universal false teaching as represented by Gnosticism. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul explains how the image of God defines us. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Frank continue their conversation on house church. Topics covered in this episode include what to call “house church,” confession, disciplinary action, and integrated learning. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Jonathan Totty discuss the life of Søren Kierkegaard. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Jonathan and Catie Totty visit and discuss mysticism within Eastern Orthodoxy, specifically Vladimir Lossky, and their baby joins the dialog. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Frank begin a conversation about house church. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul concludes the study of Galatians. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul demonstrates how the Holy Spirit overcomes the various socio-cultural and personal barriers so as to bring about unity. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Ryan, in an unusual move, combines Pauline theology and the Book of Revelation with the peaceable living of agrarianism. He talks about Wendell Berry’s agrarian pacifism, it’s a sort of rooted peaceableness. In my mind, I can’t imagine anything more peaceable than rooting oneself on a piece of land, committing oneself and one’s family to live in tune with that place and embodying the gospel by your peaceable existence on that land and in that community. I can’t imagine anything less violent than saying, “I’m going to reject what the world says I should be doing in terms of pursuing all of these economic goals,” rejecting that whole system and instead saying, “I’m going to root myself here and I’m going to take my life from this land.” That’s how I connect the way I think about creation care and agrarianism and how, at its core, is concerned with a kind of patient peaceableness that I think the gospel calls us to. So, we can talk about peace all day, but at the end of the day if we’re still getting our food from an industrial system that destroys God’s creation and depends upon oil, then we’re still benefiting from other people committing acts of violence. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul compares the two economies presented in Galatians. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul interviews Michael Householder, who practices a very different “church growth” system than what we normally see in consumer-oriented mega-churches. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

That we have entered into this millennial kingdom in and through Christ—what should mean for us in our immediate experience is that we’re no longer desperate to save ourselves. If we understand the human enterprise—the kingdoms of this world—what are they all about? Well, they’re in the business of securing themselves. They’rein the business of saving themselves. And that is the desperate need that consumes peoples’ lives. It’s the driving force. And, so, when we talk about the millennial kingdom, it is a resolution that is enacted in baptism through the church now,so that we begin to live resurrection lives in the present. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Frank continue their discussion on the meaning, origin and practice of communion. This episode covers the purpose of the Levitical sacrifices and the significance blood, more readings from the Didache, whether communion and the assembly should be open or closed, and a little more detail on the way thanksgiving offerings were practiced. For Further Learning: Didache Getting Political Rediscovering Communion – Part I If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Romans chapter 10: The end of the law, or the purpose of the law is shown to be the way it points to covenental relationship which resolves the problem of shame and death which is the problem of sin. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In this lecture, Paul discusses the root negative emotion, shame, and how Christ addresses it. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Jonathan Totty have a conversation about the state of the restoration movement. Paul: To my mind, this is the pernicious influence that we’re combatting: Donald McGavran church-growth philosophy which flows with American utilitarianism, pragmatism, and consumerism to produce the model of the mega-church as the goal which is pervasive—and I don’t mean just the big churches, but even in the little churches, the mega-church is just the goal. Is that your perception? John: Yes, even in smaller congregations in smaller communities, Instead of thinking in terms of how do we best serve the community, how do we grow spiritually,and how do we grow deeper in our knowledge of the Word, the emphasis is still on how we grow numerically. Paul: Right, and how you grow numerically is not through a scholarly engagement with the Old Testament, but a kind of concealed light treatment—a kind of “gospel-light.” But the whole trend in preaching is toward a kind of spectacle and production—as is the music—all bent upon delivering a product. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

What is the mystery resolved in Christ? Paul connects the resolution of this mystery to the meaning of world history and to the meaning of predestination and the role of Israel and the Church. (Romans 9-11) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

There is no personal relationship to God apart from the historical ground of the covenant with Abraham fulfilled in Christ. The perverse underside of the law draws us in through imagining we can gain righteousness through agonistic struggle or through intensified personal effort or emotion – through an intensified “personal” disembodied relationship. This leads to the fruits of the law. The problem Paul struggles with is how to avoid the trap of perversion, that is, of a Law that generates its transgression. Paul presents a sinful perspective on the law which generates transgression (and transgressive desire), but he presents no way out of this bind other than through re-founding subjectivity in Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

NT Wright says, “The story of the new exodus in Christ and the homeward journey of God’s people led by the Spirit provides the setting for incorporative and participationist language.” This is over and against the old Lutheran reading, right? In other words the way you are saved in a Lutheran/Calvinist understanding is not so much through participation in Christ but it’s through an imputed legal righteousness. That leaves out the narrative reality that is being described. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

A first-Sunday-of-Advent message about the meaning of the cross of Christ and how it resolves the violence of people and not the violence of God. Inherent in the discussion is the topic of the meaning of OT sacrifice. Jason gives an alternative to the classic “appeasing an angry God” reading of the atonement sacrifice. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul and Frank start a conversation about a Biblical understanding of communion and what it may mean to restore Biblical practice today. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound Resources from the conversation: Didache Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, “On the Breaking of Bread” For further reading: Lindsay, Dennis R. “Todah and Eucharist: The Celebration of the Lord’s Supper as a ‘Thank Offering’ in the Early Church.” Restoration Quarterly 39 (1997): 83–100. Gese, Hartmut. “The Origin of the Lord’s Supper,” In Essays on Biblical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1981. Hicks, John Mark. “Churches of Christ and the Lord’s Supper: Twentieth-Century Perspectives.” Stone-Campbell Journal 13 (2010): 163-176. Hicks, John Mark. Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper. Orange, CA: Leafwood Publishers, 2002. Thurian, Max. The Mystery of the Eucharist. American ed. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981.

Paul describes the problem with divine satisfaction and presents an alternative biblical understanding. As long as we are willing to sell our brother down the river, have the other suffer instead of us, I believe we have no part in true Christianity. When we are willing,though, to take up the cross and stand with those who are suffering, stand with those who are oppressed, then I believe we have joined the way for Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

What is the Church and how does it save? The point is not that we have to negotiate between two realities – there is only one cultural reality and this is that established in the body of Christ. As NT Wright has put this, “No first century Jew could imagine that the worship of their God and the organization of human society were matters related only at a tangent.” That is that who God is—think of the Old Testament means coming out of the nations, forming an alternative economy—what is the economy of the Jews? It’s the strangest economy of the world, it’s built on Jubilee and Sabbath. Every 50 years everything reverts back [debt is erased]. Now, whether the Jews practiced that is in question, but Jesus came preaching, “The year of Jubilee has arrived.” Here is a kingdom, a culture that is going to put into practice the ideas built into Israel. It’s a social rebellion—a departure from the most powerful Empire in the world. This should resonate here. We live in the most powerful Empire in the world. And the tendency is to continue to make bricks. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

The New Testament describes the defeat of sin and death and the devil. Historic explanations have missed this focus by picturing atonement as removing an obstacle located in a singular person (God, humans, the devil) when all three are involved in the construct which the cross addresses. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.