Restitutio

This is part 18 of the Early Church History class. I wonder how many Christians in the world today believe the gifts of the spirit ceased in the time of the apostles? I know there are quite a few. Many others, however, believe they are available today and make time for them in their worship services. This is one of those topics about which we don’t need to guess. We have the historical record and can just look and see if generations after the apostles continue to speak in tongues, prophecy, cast out demons, or perform miraculous healing. In today’s episode we’ll survey what the data say about the first five hundred of Christian history. We’ll also cover the Montanists, a lesser-known movement centered on prophecy, tongues, and asceticism. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out our series on gifts of the spirit with interviews from different perspectives here. More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Gifts of the Spirit in General Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 82.1; 88.1 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 2.32.4 Tertullian of Carthage, On Baptism 20 Novatian of Rome, On the Trinity 29 Apostolic Constitutions 8.1-2 Speaking in Tongues and Prophecy Didache 11.7-12 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5.6.1 Tertullian of Carthage, Against Marcion 5.8; On the Soul 9 Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity 8.33 Montanism (Excursus) 165 – Montanus began speaking in tongues and prophesying, initiating a movement called the New Prophecy[1] Sayings of Montanus “Behold, man is like a lyre and I fly to him like a plectrum. Man sleeps and I stay awake. Behold, the Lord is the one who throws human hearts into ecstasy and gives a heart to men.” (Panarion 48.5.1)[2] “I am the Lord God, the Almighty, who abide in man.” (Panarion 48.11.1) “Neither angel nor envoy, but I the Lord God, the Father, have come.” (Panarion 48.11.9) Maximilla and Priscilla became prophetesses. The New Prophecy people emphasized obedience to God, asceticism, fasting, celibacy, and spiritual experiences. They rejected remarriage and any serious sin after baptism. They survived until the mid-sixth century when Justinian initiated a persecution in Pepuza.

This is part 17 of the Early Church History class. Throughout the first five hundred years of Christian history, a significant shift occurred in what we believed about our ultimate destiny. The New Testament and the early church fathers repeatedly expressed belief in God&#8217;s kingdom coming to earth. Over time, however, this idea gave way to the more recognizable medieval dichotomy of heaven or hell immediately at death. In this episode you&#8217;ll learn who the major players were on both sides of this struggle as well as the main reasons why Christianity ultimately rejected the kingdom. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out our entire class on the Kingdom of God available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. This class includes the four original lectures on which this single one was based. More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Kingdom of God is the idea that the Messiah Jesus will come back to earth, resurrect the saved, and initiate an age of restoration, eventually making everything wrong with the world right. We find robust belief in this idea in the New Testament; however, by the Middle Ages, heaven or hell at death had entirely replaced the Kingdom idea. Kingdom Believers First Century Didache 8.2; 9.4; 10.5; 16.7-8 Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 42.3; 50.3 Psuedo-Barnabas, Epistle of Barnabas 1.7; 6.13; 10.11; 15.4-5 Second Century Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Ephesians 16.1 Polycarp of Smyrna, Epistle to the Philippians 5.2; 11.2 Hermas, Similitude 9.15.2-3; 9.20.2-3 Pseudo-Clement; 2 Clement 5.5; 9.6; 11.7; 12.1, 6; 17.4-5 Papias of Hierapolis, cited in Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.33.3-4; see also Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men 18 Justine Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 80 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5.32-5.36 Third Century Hippolytus, On Genesis Fragment 3; On Daniel 2.4; Scholia of Daniel 7.22; Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 65 Commodian, Instructions 29; 33; 34; 35; 44 Nepos of Egypt, cited in Eusebius, The Church History 7.24.1 Victorinus, Commentary on Revelation 1.5, 15; 14.15; 20.2, 5, 6 (Greek version<a href="#_ftn1

This is part 16 of the Early Church History class. Jerome and Augustine are two of the most influential Latin Christians of the first millennium of Christianity. This episode will introduce you to their lives, personalities, and some of their most important ideas. You'll see how significantly asceticism affected their lifestyles as well as how their particular take on Christianity came to set the norm for Roman Catholic Christianity. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtNF5-rvmwU&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=16&amp;pp=iAQB —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Jerome’s Life (347-419) Actual name: Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus Excellent Latin education, highly intelligent Learned Greek and Hebrew Lived as a hermit in the Syrian desert 382-385 - served as secretary to Pope Damasus I, bishop of Rome Jerome’s Asceticism Believed everyone should be celibate Worked a lot with wealthy widows from the senatorial class and their daughters Thought the only benefit from marriage was the production of more virgins After Paula’s daughter Blaesilla died, he moved to Bethlehem. Spent his time engaging in controversies by letter, translating the Bible and other literature into Latin, and writing commentaries on scripture Jerome’s Writings Though deeply influenced by classical literature, especially Cicero, he advocated reading only the Bible and Christian literature. Worked on the Vulgate (382-405) Became the dominant Latin Bible for the Roman Catholic Church from 600 onwards; though in Jerome’s day, many still preferred a translation of the Septuagint (including Augustine) Translated Origen’s On First Principles, Pachomius’ Rule, and Eusebius’ Historical Chronicle into Latin Lives of Illustrious Men provides short biographies of many early Christians. Commentaries on many books of the Bible Augustine’s Early Life (354-430) Grew up in North Africa with a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father, Patrick Had an excellent education in Carthage Particularly influenced by Cicero’s dialogues, especially his Hortensius Became a teacher of rhetoric in Rome, then Milan Augustine’s Sexual Life Stealing pears as a teenager “I was burning t

This is part 15 of the Early Church History class. We are shifting gears away from Christology to talk about the desert fathers and mothers. These were people that decided to leave the city and go off alone or in communes to practice spiritual disciplines and asceticism. They denied themselves pleasure in their pursuit of sanctification and spiritual warfare. Today we'll go over four early founders, including Anthony, Pachomius, Basil, and Benedict. Although this subject may seem somewhat tangential to the main arc of early church history, as it turns out, these monks exercised a huge influence on Christianity at large. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEUeiVsNeo0&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=15 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Anthony the Great (251-356) One of the earliest hermits Athanasius of Alexandria wrote the Life of Anthony, which became an extremely popular hagiography. Heard what Jesus said to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.21 and sold his possessions to give to the poor Trained under an old hermit (a.k.a eremite or anchorite) before going off alone Practiced extreme asceticism and isolation Repeatedly tempted and beaten by demons Lived in a tomb, then an abandoned Roman fort, then on a mountain Athanasius had Anthony come to Alexandria to endorse the eternality of the Son over against the subordinationists. Pachomius (292-348) Studied 7 years under a hermit named Palaemon near Anthony in the Egyptian desert Went off on his own and lived as an anchorite Started a XXfor hermits unable physically or mentally to live alone Known as founder of cenobitic monasticism Developed a rule to govern monastery life Monasteries dotted the desert in Egypt, Judea, and Syria Basil Caesarea (329-379) Grew up wealthy and well-educated Became a Christian and donated his fortune to the poor Studied with monks in Egypt and influenced by Pachomius Returned to Caesarea and began founding monasteries Diminished the austerity of Pachomian monasteries and adapted to life in the city where monks ran orphanages, hospices, and hospitals Designed a rule for monasteries, incorporating interspersed periods of worship and manual or scholarly labor Adapted and popularized monastery life in the Greek-speaking East Died

This is part 14 of the Early Church History class. We've been learning about the controversy over Christ's origins in the last couple of episodes. This battle raged between groups of Christians who agreed that Jesus pre-existed for sixty years. But today we are taking a break from that and looking instead at the early Christians who held to a dynamic monarchian Christology. Specifically, we'll consider two influential bishops: Paul of Samosata and Photinus of Sirmium. Although sometimes mislabeled as adoptionists, these two believed in the virgin birth but did not think Christ existed before then. Although what we know about these two survives in the writings of their enemies, we can reconstruct sketches of their beliefs and influence. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKAwd6Cqzc&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=14 —— Links —— See other episodes featuring famous biblical unitarians: Thomas Emlyn, Michael Servetus, Adam Pastor, Claude of Savoy, Armenian Unitarians, Socinian Movement in Poland and Transylvania, British Unitarians More Restitutio resources on Christian history For the postscript discussion about the Constantinian Shift, see Preston Sprinkle's book, Nonviolence (previously called Fight), and his interview with George Kalantzis as well as his book Caesar and the Lamb See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Over the last couple of sessions, we’ve looked at the shameful battle between egalitarians and subordinationists. Both parties believed Jesus pre-existed but couldn’t a

This is part 13 of the Early Church History class. Between the year 325 and 381 titanic shifts occurred that changed Christianity forever. Rather than ending conflict and ushering in a golden era of lasting peace, Constantine's Council of Nicea ignited a theological civil war within Christianity that raged for six more decades. In today's episode you'll learn about the struggle over Christology that eventually ended with the emperor Theodosius endorsing the trinitarian creed of Constantinople in 381. Rather than sugarcoating this tumultuous period, my hope is to relentlessly tell the truth in hopes that you can draw your own conclusions. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZXXcufcuis —— Links —— See other episodes and posts about the Trinity here More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— 325 Council of Nicaea Constantine invited many bishops to his lake summer palace at Nicaea. Between 250 and 300 bishops attended, but only 5 from the West. Constantine suggested adding the word homoousios to the creed that Eusebius of Caesarea presented. The Creed of Nicaea declares the Son to be “begotten of the Father…that is, from the essence (ousia) of the Father…begotten not made, one in essence (homoousia) with the Father”. Decades of Controversy The Council of Nicaea did not pacify the controversy but instead fueled it. Everyday people were informed and argued about the various positions in the streets, baths, and marketplaces. Three Main Parties Homoousions (Athanasius) Anomoeans (Eunomius) Homoians (Acacius) Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373) 326 - Became bishop of Alexandria Took up mantle of Alexander and fought tirelessly for the eternal Son position and homoousios Repeatedly deposed and exiled from Alexandria Spent at least 15 years in exile of his 45 year bishopric Used violent speech and physical violence to defeat his enemies Anomoeans Believed the Son was not like the Father Most famous representative was Eunomius. Strong subordinationists 357 - Second Creed of Sirmium Homoians Believed the Son was like the Father but not the same substance Constantinople was a homoian stronghold for decades prior to 381.

This is part 12 of the Early Church History class. Today we begin a two part series on the Christological controversies of the fourth century. Our focus for this episode is the conflict between Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and his presbyter, Arius. You may be surprised to learn that Arius was not some youthful outsider spouting off obvious heresy. Rather than depending on what modern historians and biased apologists say, we'll depend on ancient historians and the surviving letters from Arius, Alexander, and Constantine to reconstruct what really happened. You may be surprised what we find. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BFihtpvP2o&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=12 Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— See other episodes and posts about Arius More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Bishop Alexander of Alexandria (bishop from 313-326) Authoritarian bishop (in the steps of Demetrius 80 years prior) Called together a meeting of clergy wherein “with perhaps too philosophical minuteness”[1], he explained the unity of the Father and the Son. Arius of Libya (260-336) Presbyter of ancient Baucalis Church in Alexandria Austere, ascetic, older man Highly intelligent and an expert logician Objected to Alexander’s teaching about the unity of the Father and the Son, thinking it sounded like Sabellianism Investigation Alexander held two rounds of debates among clergy in which Arius participated. Alexander found both sides convincing but ended up siding with the eternal Son position. Alexander held a council of bishops and requested Arius to sign a confession of faith. Arius denied; Alexander excommunicated him 89 others left with Arius. Letter Wars Alexander wrote letters to other bishops against Arius. Alexander wrote an encyclical against Arius. Arius wrote letters looking for support. Eusebius of Nicomedia and Eusebius of Caesarea had Arius write a conciliatory letter to Alexander. Constantine wrote Alexander a letter which requested him to make peace with Arius. Arius’ Theology Word/Son is first created being (before the ages) He is superior to all other created beings and objects. “There was when he was not.” God begat/created Christ out of nothin

This is part 11 of the Early Church History class. Have you heard of the Roman emperor Constantine? He had a massive impact on Christianity. Not only did he end the brutal persecutions of his predecessors, but he also used the Roman government to actively support the Church. However, his involvement also resulted in significant changes that eventually led to the merger between Church and State called Christendom. In this episode you'll learn about the good and the bad effects of Constantine's involvement in Christianity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDFaIh2SsY&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=11 Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— More podcasts about Constantine Get Kegan Chandler's book, Constantine and the Divine Mind Find out more about this summer's Family Camp here. More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Today, we’re looking at one of the most influential people in church history: Constantine (272-337). Also called Constantine the Great or Constantine I There would be 10 more emperors named Constantine. Constantine 11th was the last Roman emperor who died when the Muslims conquered Constantinople in 1453. Constantine’s “Edict of Milan”[1] 303-313 - The Great Persecution 313 - Toleration granted to Christians and all religions Restore confiscated property Constantine’s Favoring of Christianity Exemption from public office Tax exemption Use of cursus publicus Printing of Christian scriptures Closing of law courts on Sundays Abolition of face-branding as a punishment Constantine and Churches Donated 3,000 bags of money to church in African provinces Rebuilt and enlarged damaged churches Built new churches, especially through his mother, Helena Helena also allegedly finds the true cross (relic). Constantine’s Government Appointed government officials that were Christians Sought advice from Christian bishops on decisions Shared his table with Christians Had bishops accompany soldiers

This is part two of a two part series refuting the opening statement of a debate on the question "Is Jesus Yahweh?" This week Brand Duke and I are going to critique Samuel Nesan's opening statement in his recent debate over the question, "Is Jesus Yahweh?" Nesan has a Master of Christian Studies at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia and another Masters of Theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Southwestern. He's served as a pastor, speaker, and apologist. He's the co-founder of Explain International, a ministry seeking to equip the church to accurately articulate and defend the Christian faith. In our episode today, we'll play out sections of Nesan's opening statement and respond. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSPU45IWErA —— Links —— Read Troy Salinger's article on the Aramaic word pelach in Daniel 7.14 Check out these other debates and this multi-part refutation of Michael Brown's case for the deity of Christ More about Brandon Duke at TruthBorn.org and on his YouTube channel For an entire class on the biblical unitarian understanding of God, see One God Over All on the web, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part one of a two part series refuting the opening statement of a debate on the question &#8220;Is Jesus Yahweh?&#8221; This week and next week we are taking a little break from our Early Church History class to do discuss a recent debate about Christ&#8217;s identity. So, if you&#8217;re not interested in that, just skip ahead two episodes and you can pick up on the class. But, since this debate just happened, I wanted to take a couple of episodes to respond while it&#8217;s still fresh in people&#8217;s memories. If you haven&#8217;t listened it yet, you can watch it on YouTube or listen on Spotify. Just search &#8220;Is Jesus Yahweh debate.&#8221; You&#8217;ll find the Gospel Truth channel on YouTube or the Biblical Unitarian podcast episode 271 in your podcast app. But, even if you haven&#8217;t yet listened to this debate, we are going to play out the audio and respond, so you should be able to follow along fine. Now this was a two on two debate between Dr. Dustin Smith and Pastor William Barlow who took the negative position &#8220;Jesus is not Yahweh&#8221; vs. Dr. Kyle Essary and Apologist Samuel Nesan who took the affirmative position that &#8220;Jesus is Yahweh.&#8221; In this episode Brandon Duke of TruthBorn and I are going to perform a postmortem critique of the debate. We&#8217;ll play out Dr. Essary&#8217;s opening statement and respond to it. Of course Dr. Smith and Pastor Will responded to several of these points in the debate, but I thought it would be helpful to take a little more time with them. Then in our next episode we&#8217;ll take on Samuel Nesan&#8217;s opening statement. Before jumping into my conversation with Brandon Duke, I first want to formally introduce Kyle Essary. He&#8217;s a scholar of the Old Testament with a PhD in biblical studies. He is currently a lecturer at the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary where he also serves as the interim dean. He is originally from Dallas, USA, but has lived in China, the Middle East, and Malaysia for most of the past decade. And I hasten to add to this little bio, that he also seems like a genuinely kind man. Maybe that&#8217;s just his southern accent, but he came across as fair minded and respectful. Well, that&#8217;s enough of an introduction. Here now is episode 491 Refuting Kyle Essary&#8217;s case that Jesus is Yahweh with Brandon Duke. —— Links —— Check out these other debates and this multi-part refutation of Michael Brown&#8217;s case for the deity of Christ More about Brandon Duke at TruthBorn.org and on his YouTube channel For an entire class on the biblical unitarian understanding of God, see One God Over All on the web, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Support Restitutio

This is part 10 of the Early Church History class. The Roman government persecuted Christians for the first three centuries. In this episode, you'll learn about various persecutions that flared up during the reigns of Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Valerian, and Diocletian. We'll also cover why Romans both despised and feared Christianity. Learning about the martyrs among our spiritual ancestors helps us to put in perspective our own situation as well as provide us with inspiring examples of how to face dire situations courageously. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4dHYePy8g&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=10 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Disclaimer: In order to do this subject justice, I need to describe some actions that are inappropriate for children. So, if there are little ones in ear shot, you should probably wait until later. To be honest, this material is traumatizing for all ages. Still, I think we need to know our own history. Pliny the Younger (61-113) governor of Bithynia wrote and received letters from emperor Trajan Trajan forbade an assembly of firemen Pliny had heard Christians would not worship statues Christian lifestyle was morally upright, thought their refusal to comply with the government infuriated Pliny Pliny was worried about diminishment of worship at the temples Criticisms of Christianity lump us in w/ Epicureans (atheists) stubborn and oppositional miracles were falsely reported or tricks gullible, easily deceived by charlatans anti-reason (blind faith) Rumors Christians ate babies Christians participated in incestuous orgies Persecutions (155) Polycarp of Smyrna, Asia Minor (177) Blandina and Sanctus in Lyons, Gaul (203) Perpetua and Felicitas in Carthage (249-251) Decian Persecution (257-260) Valerian Persecution (303-313) The Great Persecution (Diocletian) We Survived Jesus said to Peter after he confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16.18) death did not prevail against us not only did we survive, we also grew from 100s of thousands in the 3rd c. to millions in the 4th c. Jesus said, “They will deliver you up to tribulation

This is part 9 of the Early Church History class. How did Christians organize themselves in the first few centuries? We're taking a break from theology and switching to focus on practical matters of church offices, church governance, church discipline, conversion, and charity. As it turns out we have a surprising amount of information about how early Christians did church not only from scattered quotes, but from a series of church manuals that have survived. In some ways these church orders sound eerily familiar to modern ears and in other ways, utterly foreign. See what you think. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7tCjuTbHx8&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=9&amp;t=1892s —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Sources The Didache (100)[1] Apostolic Tradition (215) (Hippolytus?)[2] Didascalia Apostolorum (230)[3] Apostolic Church Order (300)[4] Apostolic Constitutions (380)[5] quotes from others like Justin, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, etc. Church Orders are notoriously hard to date (composite documents). They don’t necessarily reflect the whole church and sometimes disagree with each other. They simply represent a snapshot of what Christians were doing in a particular time and place. Joseph Lynch: “In the innermost circle were the people who were full members, the baptized faithful. Two groups were in the second circle: the unbaptized catechumens (“those under instruction”) who were seeking entry to the inner circle and the baptized penitents who had been expelled from the inner circle and were trying to get back in. The huge third circle held the non-believers (pagans and Jews), the former Christians (apostates), and the unacceptable Christians (heretics).”[6] Bishops (Overseers) qualifications in 1 Timothy 3.1-7; Titus 1.7-9 extraordinary honor as God’s representative 50 years old (if possible) learned (if possible) and skillful with words preach, administer communion, baptize, rebuke sin, restore repentant, visit the sick supported financially, but live moderately coordinate burying believers Presbyters (Elders) qualifications in Titus 1.6-9 functions

This is part 8 of the Early Church History class. Origen of Alexandria is the man behind the curtain. Although few Christians today would recognize his name, most denominations are still on a trajectory he initiated eighteen hundred years ago. His influences in theology, christology, eschatology, apologetics, textual criticism, asceticism, hermeneutics, and Christian philosophy are astonishing. Understanding Origen's life and ideas is a major key to comprehending the history of ideas within Christianity's most creative and speculative period. With the knowledge you've gained from our previous two episodes, you'll be able to see how Origen drew on Philo and Clement and also moved beyond them to synthesize a doctrinal package in response to pressures and criticisms from the Gnostics, Valentinians, pagans, philosophers, and Jews. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg_Hz1TDjg0&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=8 —— Links —— Additional podcasts and articles on Origen of Alexandria More Restitutio resources on Christian history See other classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— “Origen was the most important Christian thinker between Paul in the first century and Augustine in the fifth century.” –Joseph Lynch Life (186 - 253) grew up in a Christian home a committed ascetic Scripture strong commitment to the inspiration of Scripture an early textual critic: one who compares manuscripts to figure out the original reading Hexapla Hebrew (had learned from a Jew) Secunda (transliteration of Hebrew into Greek letters) Aquila of Sinope (2nd c., ad 130) very literal translation Symmachus the Ebionite (late 2nd c.) Septuagint with textual critical notes to mark where it differs from the Hebrew Theodotion (late 2nd c.) (Jewish Christian?) interpreted Scripture looking for hidden treasures preferred “spiritual” readings rather than reading according to “the letter” (2 Corinthians 3.6, 14-16) esoteric interpretation for elite, educated Christians (2 Corinthians 2.6-7) Books Commentaries Commentary on Matthew, John, Song of Songs, etc. Sermons (Homilies) approximately 280 survive Treatises on Subjects On Prayer, Exhortation to Martyrdom, On Passover An Apology <li

This is part 7 of the Early Church History class. Philo of Alexandria was the most well-known representative of Hellenistic Judaism in the first century. His many books combine Platonism with scripture via allegory--a daring project that had a massive influence on Christian thinkers. Clement of Alexandria followed in Philo's footsteps a century later, doing for the Christian scriptures what Philo had done for the Jewish bible. In addition to covering these two we'll take a couple of detours to learn about the city of Alexandria as well as a few of Plato's important ideas. Although overlooked today in most discussions of the history of Christology, Philo and Clement lay the foundations upon which Origen, the Cappodocians, and Augustine would build generations later. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WijYP1cGJlI&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=7 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Alexandria (founded 331BC) named after Alexander the Great capital of Egypt for a millennium (until the Muslims came in 641) still the largest city on the Mediterranean had the Pharos light house (one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world) had a massive world-famous library port city providing grain to Rome center of philosophical learning diverse and populous metropolis Philo of Alexandria (20 BC – AD 50) Jewish Platonist philosopher heavily influenced by Plato The true realm is the upper, spiritual, invisible world. (Allegory of the Cave) A craftsman created our world based on the pattern of the eternal realm. (Timaeus) Our souls are immortal and will escape our bodies at death, enabling us to perceive the eternal, unchanging realm. (Phaedo) applied allegorical interpretation method to the Old Testament (LXX) Logos God’s organ to create and govern universe second place next to God God is the Father and wisdom [Sophia] is the mother of the Word [Logos] Clement of Alexandria (AD 150 – 215) grew up non-Christians traditional religion mystery religion schools of philosophy found Pantaenus to teach him books Protrepticus (Exhortation to Greeks) c. 195 Paedagogus (Tutor or Educator) c. 198 Stromata (Miscellanies) c. 203</l

This is part 6 of the Early Church History class. In the latter half of the second century, two kinds of Christians arose to defend the faith. On the one hand, apologists wrote defenses of Christianity directed at the Roman government. They responded to rumors, arguing that Christians were decent people who should be shown toleration. On the other hand, heresy hunters (or heresiologists) began to combat Christian groups that diverged significantly from apostolic Christianity, such as the Gnostics, Valentinians, and Marcionites. Today we'll briefly overview this fascinating period of Christianity when persuasion not coercion was the means to defeat one's opponents. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mIuUVqCK0&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=6 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Apologists (Defenders) of the 2nd C. - Quadratus (130?)- Aristo of Pella (c. 140?)- Aristides (c. 145)- Miltiades (c. 160-180?)- Justin Martyr (d. 165)- Athenagoras (c. 170-180)- Melito of Sardis (c. 170-180?)- Appolinaris of Hierapolis (170-180)- Tatian (d. 180?)- Theophilus of Antioch (c. 180-185)- Epistle of Diognetus (150-225) Quadratus of Athens (130) - addressed book to Hadrian (r. 117-138)- claimed to know people healed by Jesus Epistle of Diognetus (150-225) - author ideas: Hippolytus, Aristides, Pantaenus- common criticisms are that Christians are incestuous b/c we call each other brother and sister, cannibals b/c we eat body and blood of Jesus, atheists b/c we didn’t believe in the gods, politically subversive b/c we didn’t honor the emperor by offering incense to his statue- Diog. 5.1-17 provides an excellent example of an effective apologist Justin Martyr (100-165) - Stoic -&gt; Peripatetic -&gt; Pythagorean -&gt; Platonist -&gt; Christian- founded a school in Rome- claimed Greek philosophers accessed truth of the Logos, thus Christianity is not a novel religion- Justin addressed his case to the Roman emperor and his sons and the senate and the Roman people (First Apology 1.1-2)- Dialogue with Trypho employed the idea of heresy as defined by a key belief—resurrection (see chapter 80) Heresy Hunters - Justin (140-160)- Irenaeus (180-199)- Tertullian (200-213)- Hippolytus (200-230)- Eusebius (324)- Epiphanius (374-377)- Theodoret (452-453) Standard Arguments - too complicated- trace beliefs to heresiarch- unnatural interpretation of scripture- can’t trace beliefs back to the apostles- perverted truth leads to pe

This is part 5 of the Early Church History class. Have you heard of the Gnostics before? Gnostics of different types claimed to have secret knowledge of humanity's true origins and destiny. They were intellectuals who combined the philosophical thinking of their day with Jewish and Christian scripture to produce a compelling alternative to biblical Christianity in the second century. In today's episode you'll learn what the Gnostics believed, mostly from their book, The Secret Revelation of John. Next we'll see briefly how Valentinus adapted the Gnostic myth and recruited Christians to join his secret meetings. Although this material is esoteric and somewhat difficult to grasp, I'm convinced a working knowledge of Gnosticism is necessary to understand theological and christological development in the third and fourth centuries (especially in Alexandria). Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGsWx7OfKE&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=5 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Gnostic Myth According to The Secret Revelation of John1 – the Monad (SRevJohn 4.1-4, 10-11, 28, 30, 34)– initial emanations of aeons in the pleroma (5.13-17, 20, 23; 6.1-3, 7- 10, 12-14, 18-20, 23, 25)– Christ’s unique origin and creation of the All (7.1-6, 8-10, 19, 22, 29-30; see also John 1.1-5 in the Bible)– Sophia’s rogue reproduction (10.1) and repentance (14.22)– Yaldabaoth generates his own aeons (12.11-12; 14.2)– Yaldabaoth and his aeons create Adam (15.12-15, 19; 17.64; 18.7, 18; 19.12-13)– paradise as a prison and the trees of life and knowledge (20.1, 6, 22; 21.16, 20, 26-31)– Cain, Abel, and Seth (22.16-21, 32-33) Afterlife Possibilities – souls who flees from evil “will be admitted into the repose of the aeons” (SRevJohn 23.24)– souls who are ignorant goes to Yaldabaoth’s authorities who “cast it into prison and they consort with it until it awakens from the forgetfulness and receives knowledge” (SRevJohn 23.29-30)– souls who understood but turned away will be tortured “and they will be punished with an eternal punishment” (SRevJohn 23.40) David Brakke: “David Brakke “The myth, then, emphasizes the transcendence of the ultimate God and the corresponding unfolding of God into lower, mediating divine principles, the lowest of which

This is part 4 of the Early Church History class. Our focus for this episode is the collection of second-century Christian literature known as the Apostolic Fathers. In total, there are 11 authors in this collection, 9 of whom we will briefly cover today. You'll learn about the earliest Christian documents outside the New Testament, two of which were possibly written even before the last book of the New Testament. What did Christians write about? Although the Apostolic Fathers is far from cohesive, they do give us a great window into some of the dominant threads of Christian thought in the generation after the apostles died. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwqv-Y87M&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=4 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Apostolic Fathers is a collection of Christian writings primarily from the second century. The Didache Epistle of Barnabas 1 Clement Shepherd of Hermas Epistles of Ignatius Fragments of Papias 2 Clement Epistle of Polycarp Martyrdom of Polycarp Fragment of Quadratus Epistle to Diognetus Sources for APF (Apostolic Fathers) Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org) Michael Holmes’ translation (available in English or English in parallel with Greek) Didache (60-150) Jewish-Christian document partly focused on righteous living and partly on church order (baptism, communion, fasting, hospitality, etc.) citations: Didache 9.1-3; 8.1; 2.1-2 Research Recommendation David Bercot’s A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs Epistle of Barnabas (70-132) author referred to as Psuedo-Barnabas allegorizing method of interpreting scripture, especially the Old Testament citation: Barnabas 10.11-12; 1 Clement (80-100) letter written from Roman leader to help church of Corinth resolve a dispute citations 1 Clement 59.4 Shepherd of Hermas (100-150) freed slave writing on holiness and repentance citation: Shepherd 59.5-7 Epistles of Ignatius (108-160) bishop in Antioch arrested and brought to Rome where he faced martyrdom three recensions survive: long, middle, and short Long Recension To the Ephesians To the M

This is part 3 of the Early Church History class. Today we begin to look at the second century. We&#8217;ll start by considering Jewish Christian movements, including the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. Next we&#8217;ll shift gears and explore the cultural pressure of asceticism and how it began infiltrating Christianity. We&#8217;ll briefly survey the influence of Marcion and his followers before sketching out the various christologies of second century. This episode is a hodgepodge of unrelated topics that overlap in the same time period. This will serve as a good introduction before we get into other topics in the second century. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Outline Jewish Christianity Asceticism Marcion Gnostics Christologies in the 2nd c. Jewish Christianity Patricia Crone: “Originally, the bastion of law-observing Christianity was the Jerusalem church, the undisputed center of Christianity until the first Jewish war with Rome (AD 66–70). When this war broke out, the Jerusalem Christians reportedly fled to Pella (Ar. Fiḥl) in the Decapolis in Transjordan, and though some returned to the devastated city in 70, they were expelled again after the suppression of Bar Kokhba’s revolt in 135, when Hadrian forbade Jews to reside in Jerusalem. Thereafter, Jewish Christians were concentrated in the Aleppo region in northern Syria, in the Decapolis around Pella…and in the Dead Sea region, as we know from Epiphanius (d. 403) and Jerome (d. 420). They would seem also to have been present in the Golan, where excavators of an abandoned village have found lintels decorated with a combination of crosses, menorahs, and other mixed Jewish and Christian symbols, probably indicating that the building was a Jewish Christian synagogue. After Epiphanius and Jerome, however, we have no certain evidence for the existence of Jewish Christians in Greek, Latin, or Syriac sources written before the rise of Islam.”[1] For Nazarenes see Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.1-6; 29.9.2-4 For Ebionites see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.27.1-6 Asceticism ἄσκησις, askesis = exercise, training asceticism is the rigorous pursuit of discipline in avoiding bodily pleasures Examples Acts of Paul and Thecla Proto-Gospel of James Acts of John Marcion of Sinope Lived from 8

This is part 2 of the Early Church History class. Before the great revolution of 66 in which the Jewish nation declared independence from the Roman empire, no fewer than five micro-revolution occurred between 4 BC and 58 AD. In the years that led up to the first Jewish-Roman war (66-73), incompetent Roman governors repeatedly and egregiously antagonized the Jewish populous until there was no turning back. After the war that destroyed the temple that Herod had renovated, Christians and Jews began parting ways. This episode will briefly cover the three Jewish-Roman wars and how Christians and Jews gradually began to separate. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ9ExalbABs&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=2 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Flavius Josephus (AD 37-100) primary source for first-century Jewish history Antiquities of the Jews The Jewish War Revolutionary Movements Athronges (4 BC) Judah the Galilean (AD 6) The Samaritan Prophet (AD 36) Theudas (AD 45) The Egyptian Prophet (AD 58). Four Types of Judaism Pharisees Sadducees Essenes Fourth Philosophy Sicarii The First Jewish-Roman War (66-73) Began in 12th year of Nero’s rule anti-taxation protests Roman governor, Gessius Florus, plundered the temple rebellion took Antonia fortress, forcing King Agrippa II and his government to retreat from the city Nero sent Vespasian with four legions In 69 Vespasian went to Rome to become emperor, leaving his son, Titus, to conquer Jerusalem Titus breached the city in 70 He plundered and burned the temple, leaving for Rome in 71 at the head of a Roman triumph The last holdouts fell at Masada in 73 Christians Fled from Jerusalem Jesus warned his followers to flee “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies” (Luke 21.2-24) Eusebius (AD 324) and Epiphanius (AD 375) both mention the desertion of Christians from Jerusalem Exclusion of Christians from Synagogue Berkat haMinim = blessing the heretics actually a curse upon Christians whom the Jews called “Nazarenes” late first century or early second century In AD 160, Justin Martyr mentions the curse in the synagogues Rabbinic Judaism <u

This is part 1 of the Early Church History class. Introducing Early Church History Get answers to questions, like: Did early Christians prophecy and perform miracles? How do I research church history for myself? How did heaven replace paradise on earth? What happened to the Jewish Christians? How did the Trinity become mainstream? How did Constantine affect Christianity? Who were Dynamic Monarchians? Who were the Gnostics? And so much more... Some people believe the strand of Christianity that eventually merged with the government and became dominant is the authentic original form. Others believe Christianity got off track immediately after the first century and has not been restored until recent times. This class will put you in touch with what really happened. As it turns out, there were quite a few Christian groups that competed for adherents in the first few centuries. Some of these groups maintained key New Testament beliefs and practices while others mutated under pressure from philosophy, society, and the government. This class will cover what happened in the main Christian groups in the first five centuries of our history in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Part 1: Christianity in the First Century In this episode you'll learn why Church history matters, why primary sources are king, and how historical dating systems work. In addition to introducing this class, we'll also briefly cover the life of Christ and the early growth of the church in the Greco-Roman world. Lastly, we'll look at early persecution, including the fire that decimated Rome and the emperor Nero's viscous pogrom of the Christians in that city. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etUHkoDdevU&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&amp;index=1&amp; —— Links —— Access the class on the historical Jesus on the web, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Check out the church history class on the last 500 years (from Martin Luther to Joel Osteen) on the web, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube More Restitutio resources on history Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) <a href="

How do you engage with culture? Are you aware of how culture is shaping your sensibilities about meaning, power, morality, religion, and aesthetics? Do you blindly reject everything in the culture so that you can remain separate from the world or do you blindly accept everything so that you remain relevant? My guest today is Dr. Justin Bailey of Dordt University in Iowa. Today we&#8217;re talking about his book Interpreting Your World. Rather than accepting or rejecting culture, professor Bailey advocates exegeting the culture and evaluating it in light of the gospel and the Christian worldview. Then we can better understand our own hearts as well as reach unbelievers with the gospel. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— More about Dr. Justin Bailey on his website pjustin.com See these posts about culture or apologetics Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Questions—— To begin, could you tell us a little about yourself and your work? You seem like the kind of person who straddles the fence between theology and praxis. Is that a fair characterization? You&#8217;ve written a book about culture. It&#8217;s called Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture, published by Baker Academic. Why did you write this book? I&#8217;ve been in pastoral ministry for 17 years so far. During that time, I&#8217;ve seen two extremes. On the one hand, you&#8217;ve got the people who fully embrace separation from the world and for the sake of holiness, disengage from the culture as much as possible. On the other hand, you&#8217;ve got the people who so inhabit the culture that they are super relatable to unbelievers, but they also indulge in the sinful behaviors of the world to such a degree that they lose their witness. Have you seen that too? (How can your book help people figure out a good balance on this?) Let&#8217;s talk about your concept of Christianity as a virus. What do want to get across with that analogy? (Little awkward writing this during COVID, eh?) You structure the book around five main dimensions of culture. If it&#8217;s alright with you, I&#8217;d like to go through each&#8211;if time permits. Let&#8217;s begin with meaning. What does our culture say about meaning? What does the bible say about meaning? What about power? It seems like we&#8217;ve fully entered the Nietzschean age when everyone is obsessed with power. It&#8217;s the lens through which we judge each other. What&#8217;s going on? What does the bible say about power? Can you briefly explain the other three lenses? morality, religion, aesthetics Dr. Justin Bailey, thanks for joining me today. Once again the book is called, Interpreting Your World. How can people learn more

What do we do when the science in the bible seems wrong by today's standards, but typical for their world? For example, those who believe in a flat earth often point to scripture as evidence for their belief. Indeed the bible arguably does contain some texts that imply a flat earth. But, if the Hebrew people believed in a flat earth, does that mean we should today? Should we posit an elaborate conspiracy that Google, SpaceX, and NASA are trying to hide the truth of a flat earth? In addition to tackling scientific inaccuracies, Will Barlow will also cover many scientific accuracies that point to divine inspiration in scripture. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBPmdNyROgQ&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&amp;index=16 See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Science in the Bible • Cases when the science is “wrong”• Cases when the science is “right”• Overview and concluding thoughts Cases when the science is “wrong” • Flat Earth• Dome over the Earth• Unmovable Earth• Foundations of the Earth• Thinking with your intestines Flat Earth Isaiah 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; Daniel 4:10-11 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Dome over the Earth Job 37:18 Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror? This question by Elihu assumes a hard dome ove

When COVID first broke out many endeavored to put their extra time to good use. Tom Huszti began listening to podcasts. He was intensely curious about theology. Huszti came to question several key beliefs he had imbibed as a lifelong Anabaptist, living in rural Ohio. Eventually he saw that the church's God and the bible's God were at odds with each other. Huszti embraced unitarianism and faced significant troubles because of this change. He is now launching a new ministry on YouTube called "The Unitarian Anabaptist" in which he intends to share his insights about Christ's identity with others. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKDRJOklzU —— Links —— Check out Tom Huszti's website unitariananabaptist.com as well as his YouTube channel Listen to Mark Cain's interview with Huszti on the UCA Podcast Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Dr. Steven Nemes is an analytic philosopher and theologian who uses a phenomenological approach to reading scripture and constructing theology. In this interview I ask him about his unique approach to evaluating doctrine, especially the Trinity, from a phenomenological perspective. We also discuss restorationism as a common ground and delve into Church history extensively. In the end Nemes argues for freedom rather than dogma when evaluating various doctrines related to the Trinity. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out Nemes&#8217; personal website, blog on substack, and YouTube channel Here is his interview with Dale Tuggy from three months ago Follow Nemes on Twitter @snemes2 Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Questions for Interview —— 1. Most people know what systematic theology is&#8211;simply the categorizing of doctrines or beliefs&#8211;but most don&#8217;t know what phenomenology is. Can you offer a brief explanation? 2. A lot of your work focuses on reading scripture. Why did you decide to focus on the phenomenology of reading the bible? 3. Let&#8217;s talk about the Trinity. When I listened to your interview with Dale Tuggy in September you listed off a whole series of problems with the Trinity. Then he asked you, &#8220;Well, why do you still believe in it?&#8221; You replied because it&#8217;s hard to disprove one ousia in 3 subsistences. Now, however, you no longer identify as a trinitarian. What changed? 4. You mentioned Mark Edwards&#8217; book, Catholicity and Heresy that what the Gnostics did&#8211;hypostatizing attributes of God like wisdom, spirit, mind, etc.&#8211;influenced Nicene reasoning. Could you talk more about that? 5. You&#8217;ve recently been making a public case for unitarian theology and christology, what has prompted that? 6. It seems like you’re a fan of the Polish Brethren and specifically, their book The Racovian Catechism. What drew you to this work? Would you identify as a Socinian? 7. Tell me about your book, Orthodoxy and Heresy. What&#8217;s the main idea. 8. As you probably know unitarians have been excluded, deplatformed, persecuted, and even martyred for centuries. Have you faced any opposition? 9. What advice would you give to unitarian Christians to help us grow as a movement?

What happened in Egypt during the ten plagues? Approaching the matter from a scientific perspective, our teacher, Will Barlow, brings to light some interesting connections. Probably most of us think God's miracles are akin to magical interventions where he breaks the laws of nature to perform a supernatural feat. As we saw last time, the bible doesn't require that view nor does it shy away from offering details occasionally about how God achieved the miraculous. Drawing on the work of Colin Humphreys, Barlow takes a close look at the events surrounding Israel's exit from Egypt, including the timing of the event, the number of people involved, the ten plagues, and the location of Mount Sinai. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7QRFotwkkw See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Miracles of Exodus • Background• The Ten Plagues of Egypt• A Possible Route Background Colin Humphreys received a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University. He is also an expert in chemistry, astronomy, and geology. He has spent a great deal of time and effort researching ways to reconcile Scripture and science. Dating the Exodus • If we take the evidence from Exodus 1:11, the Hebrews built the city of Rameses (1300 BC)• But 1 Kings 6:1 seems to indicate that the Exodus occurred 480 years before the Temple (1446 BC) Humphreys prefers the later date because it is easier to reconcile historically. How then can we understand the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1? The Septuagint says 440 years, and this is a great clue. Really, 480 years could be an approximation based on the numbers of generations since the prior events. Humphreys actually goes much further than this. He demonstrates that there are 14 high priests starting from Aaron and ending at Azariah, the high priest at the time of the construction of the Temple of Solomon. But Aaron is 2 generations old (age

What is a miracle? Does it mean God breaks the laws of physics or merely that he intervenes within the system? After considering several definitions of miracles from Christian thinkers, Will Barlow interacts with a number of biblical incidents to explain what a miracle is and is not. He examines the parting of the Red Sea, Moses getting water from the rock, the collapse of Jericho&#8217;s walls, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, and Daniel in the lions&#8217; den. For each Barlow looks at how God performed the miracle, shedding light on how science and scripture interact. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Miracles • Defining a Miracle • Archetypal Example • Other Examples What is the big deal with miracles? Why are miracles important? • Thomas Jefferson famously refused to believe in miracles &#8211; his edited version of the NT had all of the miracles removed • In modern times, miracles are still controversial Richard Swinburne on miracles: “What the theist claims about God is that he does have a power to create, conserve, or annihilate anything, big or small. And he can also make objects move or do anything else…He can make the planets move in the way that Kepler discovered that they move, or make gunpowder explode when we set a match to it…” “or he can make planets move in quite different ways, and chemical substances explode or not explode under quite different conditions from those which now govern their behavior. God is not limited by the laws of nature; he makes them and he can change or suspend them – if he chooses.” Francis Collins on miracles: A miracle is “an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin.” —The Language of God, page 48. William Lane Craig on miracles: “You see, natural laws have implicit ceteris paribus conditions—that’s Latin meaning, ‘all other

Having looked at the basics of earth science last time, we are now ready to consider Noah's Flood. As always you'll learn the major options for interpreting this biblical event. Some Christians understand the flood to have been a local event, largely limited to the region of Mesopotamia. Others hold to the notion that this flood covered the entire planet, rising above even the highest mountains. No matter which position you take, you'll have to answer key biblical and scientific questions. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0xPsa6WrPE&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&amp;index=13&amp;t=4s See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Noah’s Flood • Considerations• Global or local?• Evidence for Noah’s Flood• Implications of Noah’s Flood Considerations • Rain before the flood?• Plate tectonics and evolution• Scope and evolution• How big was the ark? Rain before Noah’s flood? Many have taught that, before Noah’s flood, there was no rain: Genesis 2:5-6 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground-- Scholar Mark Futato suggests that “mist” should be translated as “rain.” • In the context, there are two “problems” • No rain• No man to till the ground • Thus, “mist” could equal “rain” Reasons why “mist” could be better: • If you hold late tectonic shift, mist would be required (“land” singular in Genesis 1:10)• The sign of the rainbow — the rainbow is only physically possible with rain• Possibly rain kicked off the modern water cycle - this answers the objection “where did the water go?” Plate Tectonics and evolution What we believe about plate tectonics impacts our view on

So far we've considered physics and biology in our exploration of scripture and science. Today we begin to consider how earth science and the bible fit together. This becomes particularly significant when considering interpretations for Noah's flood. We'll get to that next time. But, for today, our teacher will lay out the basics of geology and earth science to give us a good overview. He'll also cover radiometric dating, which has a bearing on how scientists determine the age of the earth. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VzgrLAFXfg&amp;embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Flhim.org%2F&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Geology, Earth Science, and Atmospheric Science • Geology• Important cycles• Plate tectonics Geology • Types of rocks/rock cycle• Geological principles• Dating methods• Structure of the Earth What is Geology? Geology is the study of the Earth and the processes related to the Earth. • Geologists study rocks (and the rock cycle)• Subfields include atmospheric studies (meteorology), volcanology (studying volcanos), and mineralogy (study of minerals) Types of Rocks There are three major categories of rocks: • Sedimentary - formed by pressure acting on sediment• Igneous - formed by lava• Metamorphic - formed by extreme pressure and heat The Rock Cycle Since wind and water are constantly affecting change, there is a rock cycle. Geological Principles There are several main principles of geology: • Superposition• Cross-cutting relationships• Uniformitarianism Dating Methods There are major types of dating: • Absolute dating• Relative dating Absolute Dating Absolute dating is based on radioactive decay. What is radioactive decay? • Some forms of certain elements are (by nature) unstable• Over time, these elements change on the atomic lev

I&#8217;d like to take an opportunity to interrupt this Scripture and Science class. We&#8217;ve just done three episodes on evolution. The first one covered the basics of what evolution is. Our second teaching evolution covered biblical problems and the third surveyed some scientific problems. Then Will interviewed Sam about his beliefs in both Christianity and evolution. I figured we&#8217;d just leave it there and move on to hear what Will had to say about geology. But after seeing various comments coming in, I decided it would be good to interject some of my own thoughts both defending my reasons for honestly engaging with evolution as well as my reasons for still not believing in it. My reasons: Lack of evidence for evolution Problem of first life Mutations as an inadequate mechanism Humans ill-adapted for survival Allegorical readings of Genesis are ad hoc Evolution undermines the Fall Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Since it's inception, evolutionary theory has remained controversial for many. Although one might think only uneducated laypeople find the idea unpalatable, quite a sizeable minority of scientists too struggle to come to terms with Darwinism. In today's episode, Will Barlow explores a number of major scientific objections to evolution, including the Cambrian explosion, mutations as an insufficient mechanism, irreducible complexity, and the fossil record itself. Additionally, he briefly explores the issue of abiogenesis--the presumed starting point for any evolutionary development. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdx6kuhRqQY&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Scientific Objections to Evolution • Evidence problems (open scientific questions)• Methodological problems• Evolution or design? Evidence Problems The theory of evolution has several major open problems that are yet to be solved: • The Cambrian Explosion• Mutations The Cambrian Explosion Much of the fossil record could be viewed in a light to support evolution, but the Cambrian Explosion poses a big problem: • The theory of evolution requires slow changes over a long time• Cambrian explosion was a big change in a short period of time Simply put, what is the Cambrian explosion? • Evolution would predict species would diverge and lead to new genera, families, orders, classes, and then phyla• Most animal phyla (and many major classes within them) appear fully formed in the Cambrian period “According to modern paleontologists James Valentine, Stanley Awramik, Philip Signor, and Peter Sadler, the appearance of the major animal phyla near the beginning of the Cambrian is ‘the single most spectacular phenomenon evident in the fossil record.’”— Jonathan Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, page 1

Having looked at what the theory of evolution teaches last time, today we're going to think through how well evolution fits with the bible. Will Barlow covers two main scriptural objections that young earth creationists bring against evolution before exploring three more issues that arise from the perspective of old earth creationism. How does Genesis 1 fit with evolution? Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZysp0JF3CA&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Genesis 1 and Evolution • Review of evolution• YEC and evolution• OEC and evolution• Non-literal views and evolution Review of evolution Misconception #1: “It’s just a theory!”Misconception #2: It means to explain how life beganMisconception #3: Evolution says that humans evolved from apesMisconception #4: Evolution is a progression from simpler organisms to more complex organisms YEC and Evolution How does YEC view evolution? • In short, YEC reject the theory of evolution• YEC make both Scriptural and scientific arguments to defend their position - we will focus on the Scriptural arguments for now Scriptural Objection #1 “Adam and Eve are no longer the first humans, and original sin goes out the window. This does irreparable damage to the biblical redemption narrative. The Bible says that death came into the world because of man’s sin (Romans 5:12) and that all of creation labors under a curse because of sin (Romans 8:22). Scripture also says that Christ is the last Adam, come to redeem us from the sin brought into the world through the first man, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45).” “If Adam were a mythical figure, which is what evolution demands, even in a Christianized form, the entire parallel between the two Adams and the kinsman redeemer concept is destroyed. By advocating evolution, theistic evolutionists are undermining the very tenets of Christiani

Having taken a short break from our Scripture &amp; Science series, we are back. Today begins a series of three episodes exploring evolution. Whether you believe in evolution or not, it's important to understand what the theory claims and how evolutionists reason. In this episode, Will Barlow briefly explains how evolutionists explain the gradual change from one species to another. He dispels four common misconceptions and delves into the genetic insights popularized by Francis Collins who is both an evolutionist and a Christian. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDi6QRlyfSE&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Biochemistry and Evolution • Common misconceptions with evolution• General framework of evolution• Modern evolutionary theory Common misconceptions with evolution Misconception #1: “It’s just a theory!” • Often, opponents of evolution will state that it is a theory (and use that term pejoratively)• However, evolution does account for much of the scientific evidence and has made many successful predictions Definition of “theory”“A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed.”-Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show of Earth, pg. 9 Common misconceptions with evolution Misconception #2: It means to explain how life began • Often, opponents of evolution attack the beginning of life problem• However, evolution does not attempt to account for the beginning of life; this is the theory of abiogenesis Misconception #3: Evolution

Renowned Historical Jesus Scholar and Princeton Theological Seminary Professor, Dale Allison's life changed forever when he was just sixteen years old. In fact, he has chronicled nine profound spiritual experiences throughout his life. These extraordinary moments of transcendence led him to a comparative study to learn more about what is happening to people all around the world in our time. The result? A book that catalogues and describes weird encounters with angels in white, sudden terminal lucidity, near death experiences, and even encounters with evil spiritual entities. This is not the typical sort of book written by someone who has made a career of scholarship within a guild that generally prefers naturalism and reductionism to the miraculous or inexplicable. Nonetheless, now tenured and sitting atop a mountain of published successes--and without concern about his career--Professor Allison feels free to explore his own numinal episodes as well as those of a staggering number of others--most of whom keep such experiences to themselves. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://youtu.be/H4_ZSJH6SRs —— Links —— Get the book we discussed, Encountering Mystery For more about Dale Allison, see his books on Amazon Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Questions —— You begin your book by telling three personal experiences of the transcendent. Were you worried what people would think about you as a distinguished scholar of Jesus and the New Testament, especially among the more secular-minded elements in the academy? You remark on the difficulty of acquiring accurate statistics on mystical experiences because people tend to keep their encounters private. Why is that? And yet, they seem to be increasing, or at least reported more (see p. 21) You talk about a small piece of paper that you keep in your desk draw that chronicles nine experiences you've had between 1979 and 1999. Do you think it's important for people to maintain their memories of extraordinary events? Honestly, your little piece of paper reminded me of Blaise Pascal's night of fire. He sowed it into his house jacket and it was only discovered after he died. Why do you think there's so much shame a

Today we&#8217;re taking a little break from our Scripture and Science class for an author interview. I&#8217;m talking with Mary DeMuth who wrote, Love, Pray, Listen, which is about parenting wayward adult kids with joy. Because faith is not genetic, our children get to decide for themselves whether or not they will follow Jesus. Some believe in the home and then stand strong a lifetime. Others, have to go over fool&#8217;s hill and after a period of rebellion, come back to the faith with a powerful testimony. Still others, leave and never come back. What&#8217;s more, you have no idea what&#8217;s going to be the case with your kids. We parent, we teach, we pray, we love, but God has not given us the right to force our adult kids to believe. How do we deal with this? Well, Mary DeMuth has some answers to encourage you and help you maximize the possibility of them coming back to the faith. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— For more about Mary DeMuth, see her website at marydemuth.com Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Questions —— 1. Your book is for the parents of adult wayward children. What made you want to write about this? 2. Share a little about your own story. 3. A lot of Christ-followers with wayward adult children probably blame themselves. What would you say to them? 4. You talk about joy throughout the struggle. How can parents possibly have joy while their children are rejecting God and embracing our culture&#8217;s hostile attitude toward the bible and biblical Christianity? 5. Let&#8217;s talk about love. Tell us some ways we can love wayward adult children biblically and effectively. 6. What else. Anything else on this? Politics? other secondary issues that parents get fixated on 7. What about prayer? How can we pray for our adult children biblically and effectively? 8. What about listening? How can we listen to our adult children biblically and effectively? 9. &lt;if time&gt; Let&#8217;s talk about LGBT issues. How can parents both express love and retain their biblical ethics when their child says, &#8220;I&#8217;m gay&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;m trans&#8221;? 10. For those of us who still have our children in the home (like me). What would you say we can do to avoid losing them once they move out? 11. How can people learn more about you?

This episode rounds out three sessions focused on physics. Today we're learning about the incredibly precise conditions required for life to exist in our universe. From the strength of gravity to the properties of carbon or water to the beauty of math and the stars, Pastor Will Barlow enumerates several key ways in which the cosmos is finely-tuned to support life. Next he covers several of the common responses atheists put forward to explain this incredible precision. Barlow briefly responds to each before concluding that the God hypothesis fits the best. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQYtxleTue0 See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— What is fine-tuning? Fine-tuning is the idea that the existence of life on Earth is due to remarkably precise “settings” in the natural world. • Example: baking a cake vs. baking a “fine-tuned” cake• Example: Finding a watch in a forest Fine-tuning in Scripture Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Categories of fine-tuning • Cosmological• Properties of carbon and water• Beauty in math, physics, and nature Cosmological fine-tuning Example One: The Balance between forces • A 1% change in the strong nuclear force would have a 30-1,000 fold impact on oxygen and carbon production in stars• Small changes to gravity would make large life impossible• The balance between gravity and electromagnetism allows for gentler yellow stars like our Sun “The expansion speed, the material content of the universe, and the strengths of the basic forces, seem to have been a prerequisite for the emergence of the hospitable cosmic habitat in which we live.”-Martin Rees, physicist and skeptic Example Two: The Balance bet

Building on last week, Will Barlow continues to describe and analyze issues with the Big Bang Theory. He considers standard biblical and scientific objections brought forward by young earth creationists. After responding to these objections, he shows how each of the main Christian views of origins deals with the Big Bang. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yonfcv5mf6I&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Big Bang In basic terms, what does the Big Bang theory say? • The Universe began approximately 13.7 billion years ago• Space and matter have been expanding and cooling since then What is the current state of the Big Bang? • We will never be able to travel back in time to observe the beginning• Physicists used high-energy collisions to test hypotheses related to the Big Bang• There is a physical restriction on understanding the first moment of the Big Bang Are there viable alternatives to the Big Bang? • Oscillating universe — Universes expand and contract until the right one pops out• Multiple Universes — Infinite number of Universes exist beyond our ability to observe them• Inflationary models• Hawking’s theory YEC and the Big Bang How does YEC view the Big Bang? • In short, YEC reject several aspects of the Big Bang• YEC make both Scriptural and scientific arguments to defend their positionScriptural Objections What objections do YEC make about the Big Bang from Scripture?“The Bible tells us that God created heaven, earth, and everything within them in the span of six days (Exodus 20:11) and rested on the seventh day. This is the basis for our work week (Exodus 20:8). In contrast, the big bang model claims that the universe and earth formed over billions of years.” “Genesis tells us that God created the stars on the fourth day—three days after the earth was created. In contrast, the big bang

Now that we've considered a bunch of the options for interpreting creation in Genesis, we are moving to look at astronomy. In today's episode Will Barlow moves into his home territory--physics. You'll learn about the weird nature of light, how particles do strange things at the quantum scale, and how the big bang model actually leads to belief in God. If you've ever been curious how to talk to science-minded friends and relatives about belief in God, today's episode should help! Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiRc2q_RFX4&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&amp;index=6 See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Overview of Modern Physics • Light• General Relativity• Quantum Mechanics• The Big Bang Light • Perhaps the most interesting and necessary to support life• Comes in many forms• Can act as a wave or a particle (unique!)• Light can act like a wave (ex: sound or water)• Light can act like a particle (ex: basketball)• Light seems to know the fastest path through a material• The speed of light is a well-known quantity and is considered the “speed limit of the Universe” General Relativity • Has been verified enough to use in everyday items like GPS• Gravity can bend light and make “impressions” in space-time Quantum Mechanics • Useful when talking about microscopic things• Shows that electrons do not orbit a nucleus like a planet around the Sun• Gives probabilities for direction and location at any given time Imagine that you reach your hand out to touch a table: • On a microscopic level, what you feel as “solid” is actually the electrons in your hand repelling the electrons in the table• Theoretically, your hand could pass through the table if you could line up the electrons in your hand with the electrons in the table (quantum tunneling) The Big Bang • Some ancient pagans (like Aristotle) believed that the

Today we are going to cover gap theories and John Walton&#8217;s temple idea. Will Barlow explains how gap theories work, including the classic idea that there&#8217;s a gap of billions of years between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2 as well as the modified version. After explaining the pros and cons for these views, he briefly explains John Walton&#8217;s theory that Genesis 1 solely focuses on function not physical creation. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Check out the early Christian quotes about the Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew here Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— Gap Theory There are various versions of Gap Theory: • Standard &#8211; multiple options here • Modified (“Preparing the Garden”) Pros of Standard Gap Theory Here are some pros with the standard formulation of Gap Theory: • It takes the word “day” literally as a 24-hour period • It fits directly with scientific evidence for an old Earth • It looks to the text (both in Genesis 1 and remote texts) to reach conclusions Internal Evidence Genesis 1:2 The earth was [or became] without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. “Was” or “became”? • Generally, in Hebrew, the verb “was” is unnecessary when talking about simple existence Genesis 23:17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over “Was” or “became”? • Some scholars suggest that the verb is needed for

We've been considering the various options for interpreting the creation account in Genesis. Last time we looked at two young earth theories and today we'll survey three old earth perspectives, including the day age theory, modified day-age theory, and a non-literal approach. For each Will Barlow explains the basics and offers a gentle critique. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2y2H1PrJ34&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&amp;index=4&amp;t=180s See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Check out the early Christian quotes about the Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew here Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— What have we seen so far? • Genesis was written to a group of ancient people coming out of slavery• The questions that they were asking of the text are different than the questions that we ask Many views of Genesis 1Perhaps the easiest way to divide them is: • Young-earth views• Old-earth views• Views compatible with either Old-Earth Views • “Day-Age” and modified “Day-Age”— Hugh Ross, Gerald Schroeder• “Theistic Evolution” — Francis Collins• Gap and modified gap — Scofield Bible• “Day-Age” and modified “Day-Age”— Hugh Ross, Gerald Schroeder• “Theistic Evolution” — Francis Collins• Gap and modified gap — Scofield Bible Day-AgeThere are various versions of Day-Age: • Standard• Earth-bound perspective (Hugh Ross) Pros of Standard Day-AgeHere are some pros with the standard formulation of Day-Age: • Generally, the sequence of events seems like it could be a plausible representation from an ancient person’s perspective of the scientific order of events• In the Bible, “day” can mean more than one 24-hour period Examples of Lo

Have you heard of the Gospel of Thomas? What about the Gospel of Philip or Judas? Although most Christians are only familiar with the four Gospels contained in the Bible, ancient Christians wrote quite a few other Gospels as well. How do we know which Gospels are to be trusted? My guest today is Dr. Simon Gathercole, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Cambridge. His new book, The Gospel and the Gospels, puts forward a commonsense historical methodology to determine which Gospels are most reliable. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGhQVsPdvs —— Links —— Get your copy of The Gospel and the Gospels from Eerdmans or on Amazon More about Simon Gathercole here. See also my interview with Aaron Shelenberger: Episode 444 Resurrection Objection 1: Unreliable Gospels? More podcasts on apologetics here Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Interview Questions —— Dr. Gathercole is professor of NT and early Christianity at the University of Cambridge. He's got degrees from Cambridge and Durham university, where he studied under James Dunn. Before we jump into the book, what was that like studying under Dunn?Well, today, we're talking about your book The Gospel in the Gospels. Writing this book must have been a monumental task. It's 576 pages, hundreds of footnotes, published by Eerdmans, how long were you working on this project? Share a little about the process.Many don't know there were other Gospels that didn't make it into the New Testament. Outside of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what other Gospels are there? What are they like?How can someone access these other Gospels? Would you recommend the Lost Scriptures by Bart Ehrman or The Complete Gospels by Robert Miller? or your own volume?You've done a lot of work on non-canonical Gospels over the years. What drew you to them? What about them makes them worth studying?Some say the four canonical Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--are not special or authoritative, but merely the ones favored by one group of Christians who managed to seize power and suppress all others. How common is this belief in the a

Today we'll begin to consider interpretive options for the first chapter of Genesis. We'll see three main groupings of theories, including those that propose a young earth of only thousands of years, those that see the earth as old (billions of years), and those that are compatible with either. After introducing the main options, Will Barlow goes on to explore young-earth creationism. He presents the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Lastly, he shows why the "appearance of age" hypothesis fails to convince him. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9xyFXqh5xw&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— What have we seen so far? Genesis was written to a group of ancient people coming out of slavery The questions that they were asking of the text are different than the questions that we ask How can we read Genesis 1? Does Genesis 1 begin with a continuous narrative or is there an initial creation in verse 1 followed by a “re-creation” or “reconstitution”? “Gap” theory says the latter Most other views take the former How can we read Genesis 1? How do we read the word day? Is a day a literal 24-hour period of time? Or is it something else? YEC and “gap” theory view the word “day” as a literal 24 hour period Most other views either don’t require a day to be a specific length of time or say it is a longer period of time How can we read Genesis 1? Is Genesis 1 meant to be a description of creation itself? Or is it meant to describe how God ascribed function to already existing systems? “Modified gap” theory and Walton’s “Temple” theory both focus on Genesis 1 describing function, not creation Most other views take Genesis 1 to be describing creation How can we read Genesis 1? How importantly should we weigh the

Who was the original audience for the book of Genesis? Although we might be tempted to think we are, Genesis was written a long time ago in a different language and culture. Thinking through who the audience was, will help us approach the first chapter of Genesis on its own terms. In this episode, Will Barlow labors to put Genesis in its own context. He reminds us of what Israel had just been through in Egypt as well as other creation accounts from the ancient Near East. His goal is simply to contextualize Genesis within it's own time and place in order to help us avoid anachronism. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6BJBuavTnE&amp;feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow's previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— What is our assumption about the Bible? Background to Genesis Who wrote Genesis? Some say that it was a mixture of writers over a longer span of time I believe that Moses wrote Genesis (with the spirit of God guiding him) How does this affect our reading of Genesis? What was going on: Exodus 1:8-10 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, "Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Exodus 3:1-2 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. Exodus 3:3-4 And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." When th

Today we're starting a new class called Scripture &amp; Science. As a college student, studying engineering, I remember a particular day at the school library when I had the thought: "Well, I guess I'm going to have to look into scientific objections to the bible." I had been raised a Christian and believed the bible was God-inspired and infallible. However, I was now taking lots of science and engineering courses and it seemed like all my professors were atheists. (I learned later that the smartest physics professor was actually a devout Christian.) I was faced with a dilemma. Do I go with scripture or science? I began an investigation, purchasing and devouring several apologetics books designed to undercut evolution and the old age of the earth. I found the arguments convincing and moved on. That worked out fine for me, but plenty of others came to the opposite conclusion, choosing science over scripture. This is a crisis young college students face over and over in the West. They ask themselves, "Do I go with God and the bible or science and reason?" If this is your situation or if you know someone who is wrestling with questions like these, this class is for you! Our teacher is Will Barlow who double majored in Physics and Math at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN before going on to do graduate work. Later he pursued biblical studies and is now going into ministry full-time. His aim in this class is to survey the most common ways Christians have worked scripture and science together. His non-dogmatic approach will inform you so you can make up your own mind about what is best. In today's episode, Barlow explains the goals for this class and introduces a few belief systems and his general approach. Instead of seeing scripture and science as enemies locked in a battle, he thinks we should learn from both the book of the bible and the book of nature. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WwypAP39Hw&amp;list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&amp;index=1&amp;t=369s See below for notes. —— Links —— Check out Barlow's previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here —— Notes —— About Will Barlow:Interested in faith/science discourse since childhoodBachelor’s degree in Physics/MathematicsMaster’s degree in Secondary Education (STEM focus)Published God &am

Have you heard of oneness theology? Also called "Jesus only," this is the idea that Jesus is all there is. Jesus is the Father; Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Jesus has manifested himself in many ways over the years, but there is only one individual or self who is God. Although not exclusive to the Pentecostal movement, most oneness believers belong to charismatic (or apostolic) groups today. This is a classic message given by Pastor J. Dan Gill in the early 2000s. I remember sitting there in the audience listening to him share about his community's journey of faith and thinking to myself, "Wow, he's my people!" Whether you currently hold oneness theology or not, take a listen to Brother Gill's testimony and see you what you think. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out these other episodes on oneness, including an interview with J. Dan and Sharon Gill as well as the testimony of famed gospel singer, Joel Hemphill. Also you may want to watch his YouTube presentation: "Acts 2-Listen Pentecostals" See his website and see many more of his videos and articles at The 21st Century Reformation If you live near Nashville, TN, visit the Gills at Higher Ground Church in Whitehouse. Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Why is Christianity awesome? Answering this question is a good exercise for us. So often we hear about why Christianity is terrible, especially in the eyes of the world. Many of these critiques are important and we should be humble enough to listen to problems, both real and perceived. However, my goal today is to focus on the positive. I'd like to spend some time just thinking about the goodness of our faith. I hope you will find it encouraging. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Notes —— Christianity makes sense of reality1. explains why anything exists2. explains why there is a beginning3. explains why creation is so good and beautiful4. explains why our world is so bad and ugly5. explains why laws of nature exist6. explains our desire for inclusiveness and fairness Christianity makes you a better person1. salvation from sin2. durable value3. ethical boundaries, duties, motives4. living hope Christianity makes society better1. salvation from sin2. durable value3. ethical boundaries, duties, motives4. living hope5. robust identity —— Links —— Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

A couple of weeks ago I got to speak at the Church of God's annual youth camp at Manchester University in rural Indiana. The week focused on all the different passions that we too easily allow to take God's spot in our hearts. Timypaul Lupe gave the message before mine in which he urged the listeners to smash their idols, demonstrating this by taking out a sledge hammer and breaking a jar on stage. My goal for this sermon was to encourage the audience to put God on the throne in their hearts. This is not something done once, but each and every day. Although my message was brief, especially by Restitutio standards, I figured I'd share it here. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Last Sunday, I shared this message about God's amazing grace. Instead of focusing on how gracious, merciful, and forgiving God is, I labored to explain why we don't deserve God's grace. I've observed this not only in my own journey, but also with many others who grow up in the church. We hear a thousand times how much God loves us and forgives us, but we easily overlook his wrath and holiness. God's grace is not amazing at all but an entitlement if you don't know in your bones that you deserve his wrath. In what follows I draw upon the first chapter of Isaiah to see God's heart towards his people, especially when we are enmeshed in sinful behaviors. Although difficult to preach, I believe this message is an important wake up call. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out these other podcasts and posts about God's holiness as a call to revival Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Last week Dale Tuggy discussed William Lane Craig's theory about the Trinity for an hour. In one sense this was a momentous occasion when two heavy-hitting philosophers got into the ring to duke it out. In another sense, the limited constraint of one hour barely gave either much time to warm up or process the other's position, much less land any serious blows. Still, it was a worthwhile exchange and it has already received over 5,000 views in its first week on YouTube. In this followup interview, I ask Dr. Tuggy about his impression of the exchange, his further thoughts on Craig's somewhat controversial Trinity theory, and how he would reply if given more time to engage with the "deity of Christ" texts. If you haven't yet listened to the debate, you can get it on YouTube or if you prefer audio, listen to Tuggy's Trinities podcast, episode 349. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj_WLXoL90I —— Links —— Here's the original debate between Dale Tuggy and William Lane Craig on YouTube, on the Trinities podcast Check out these other interviews with Dr. Tuggy More debates here Check out the One God Over All class, which provides you with an introduction to unitarian theology as well as explanations to commonly misunderstood texts. Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

What is the gospel? No, I&#8217;m not talking about the biographies of Jesus or catchy music. I mean, what is the message of salvation that Jesus commissioned us to preach? Pastor Victor Gluckin of Living Faith Christian Church in Rhode Island masterfully explains what the gospel is and does. The gospel is not good advice but good news that something has changed, is changing, and will change. The gospel is that Christ died, Christ rose, and Christ is coming again. Although most gospel presentations today only focus on the first component, Gluckin is careful to present a full gospel with all three critical elements: the cross, resurrection, and kingdom. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts As Christians we need to spend the rest of our lives mastering this message. -Victor Gluckin —— Links —— Videos of Pastor Victor available at his church website and their YouTube channel. More Restitutio episodes with Gluckin Find out more about KingdomFest (September 23-25) Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here

Whereas last time we examined 6 interpretations people hold for Hebrews 1.10-12, today we look at just one--the 7th. Jerry Wierwille is my guest again and in this episode he explains his take on Hebrews 1.10-12. He delves into wisdom christology to show how these verses speak of Jesus protologically as wisdom that created the heavens and the earth. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Recommended Reading —— "Intertextuality and Interpretation of Hebrews 1:10-12" by Jerry Wierwille Jesus the Sage by Ben Witherington III The New Testament Age, Vol 1 —— Links —— Check out these other episodes in this series on Hebrews 1 See more episodes with Jerry Wierwille More resources on Hebrews 1.10 Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here