The Blue Collar Scholar

This is the first in a 10-part Sunday School series on the Book of Daniel. Note: this teaching was recorded on 31 January 2021.

Happy Mother's Day! This one is for any mother who fears that she is not a good mom. Statistically-speaking, it is unlikely that you are a failure as a mom. To illustrate this point, allow me to introduce you to three bad moms from the Bible: Sisera's mother, Athaliah, and Herodias. In these women, we see what it looks like to be a bad mom by instilling the value of violence into your son, or by causing harm to your own family for personal gain, or by manipulating those you love in order to hurt other people.

This is the final lecture of the 1960s class. This is a summary of many of the main themes. But this episode also digs into some topics - such as sports and entertainment - that we have not yet dealt with over the course of the semester. We conclude by examining how the Sixties are remembered.

Sixties Playlist: All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix (1968) For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield (1966) Fortunate Son by CCR (1969) The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel (1964) Turn, Turn, Turn by The Byrds (1965) Lil’ Red Riding Hood by Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs (1966) In My Room by The Beach Boys (1963) Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C. Riley (1968) Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers (1965) Aquarius by The 5th Dimension (1967)I Wanna Hold Your Hand by The Beatles (1963) San Francisco by Scott McKenzie (1967) People Are Strange by The Doors (1967) Good Times Bad Times by Led Zeppelin (1969)Runaway by Del Shannon (1961) Be My Baby by The Ronettes (1963) Dead Man’s Curve by Jan & Dean (1963) Wild Thing by the Troggs (1966) Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys (1966) I Can’t Help Myself by The Four Tops (1965) California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & the Papas (1965) Second That Emotion by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (1968) Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation by Tom Paxton (1965) Where Did Our Love Go by The Supremes (1964) Louie Louie by The Kingsmen (1963) Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (1963) Hey Jude by The Beatles (1968) Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Elvis Presley (1960) Bad Moon Rising by CCR (1969) The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-To-Die Rag by Country Joe the Fish (1967) The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan (1964) Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (1966) Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum (1969) Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond (1969) I’m a Believer by The Monkeys (1967) I Want You Back by the Jackson 5 (1969) I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye (1968) Ode to Billy Joe by Bobby Gentry (1967) Respect by Aretha Franklin (1967)Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf (1969) Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison (1964) Where Have All the Flowers Gone by The Kingston Trio (1961) Hooked on a Feeling by B.J. Thomas (1968) Devil with the Blue Dress by Mitch Ryder (1967) Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (1967) House of the Rising Sun by Animals (1963)It’s Not Unusual by Tom Jones (1965) I Say a Little Prayer by Dionne Warwick (1964) The Name Game by Shirley Ellis (1965) The Ballad of the Green Berets by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler & Robin Moore (1966)

Yes, I know that the Watergate break-in and resulting scandal happened entirely in the early 1970s. But I contend that the Watergate scandal is the loss-of-innocence moment that represents the social/cultural shift from the Sixties to the Seventies, at least in the United States. This episode presents a timeline of events and examines the causes of Watergate, the events in question, the cover-up and scandal, and finally the fall out from the scandal.

The United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a fierce rivalry in the 1950s and 1960s called the Space Race. Both the US & the USSR each achieved a variety of accomplishments in space travel, starting with the the successful orbit of the Soviet Sputnik satellite and culminating with the United States Apollo 11 program successfully putting 2 men on the moon. Of course, humanity would continue to make advancements in space travel and research from that point to today. This episode goes back thousands of years and tracks humanity's long-time obsession with human flight, all the way through the age of air travel, the Space Race, and the future potential of interstellar space travel.

This episode follows the various American women's rights movements back to the early 1800s up to the Women's Liberation Movement. From Suffrage to the Equal Rights Amendment, we examine the women who fought hard for women's rights in America, and how the women's rights movements intersected with other movements, such as the slavery abolition movement, alcohol temperance and prohibition, and the Civil Rights Movement.

The Civil Rights Movement is a part of history so substantial, interesting, and important that it deserves its own class, or at least several lectures of a class. Foolishly, however, I will try to cover the entire Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. in a single lecture because we have so much in the 1960s to cover and so few remaining lectures to do so. To survey the Civil Rights Movement, we will take a look at over 30 individual men and women whose contributions to the Civil Rights Movement is invaluable and irreplaceable.

Four men occupied the Oval Office in the 1960s. Dwight D. Eisenhower held it for the first year and three weeks of the 1960s. Then John F. Kennedy served from 1961 to 1963. This episode of the pod focuses on the other two: Lyndon B. Johnson & Richard M. Nixon. This brief history will explain how each man's experience - including their humble childhood, education, limited WWII experience, extensive service in both houses of Congress, and service as Vice President for the two aforementioned Presidents - prepared them to lead the most powerful nation on Earth during the Cold War.

This episode is a closing argument for faith in Christ. I begin by assuring the doubter that doubt is normal, and that there are healthy and unhealthy ways to address doubt. The second half of the pod recaps some of the arguments for Christian faith that I find most persuasive. (Note: This teaching was recorded on 1-24-2021.)

For me, the argument against the existence of God that hits the hardest is the "Hiddenness of God." In other words, if God really exists, He seems to be trying to remain hidden, and that the universe that we live in is exactly the kind of universe that one would expect if there is no God. In this podcast episode, we will break down that argument, and show that God is not hidden, but rather Holy! (Note: This teaching was recorded on 1-17-2021.)

In our Church-in-Quarantine series from last summer (recorded Spring 2020), we dug into church history. This episode of the pod is much more of an brief overview. This episode lists a handful of aspects of church history that are shameful, and another list showing the immense positive value that the church has provided to human history. So, for those who object to Christian faith because of the history of Christianity, all I have to say is that, yes, Christian history is messy, but the church has been a driver of progress as well. (Note: This teaching was recorded 1-10-2021.)

Hell is easily one of the most controversial and off-putting doctrines in all of Christian theology. In fact, the reality of hell is an objection that many use to reject Christian faith. Is this a valid criticism? Do we even understand what heaven and hell really are? Dig in to this episode to find out. (Note: This teaching was recorded on 1-3-2021.)

This sermon was delivered right after Christmas 2020 and talks about the visit of the Magi in Matthew chapter 2. From that passage we learn that (1) God works through tragedy, (2) God intervenes to prevent tragedy, & (3) God’s plan is always pushing forward. (Note: this teaching was recorded on 12-27-2020.)

Yes, Christianity is an exclusive claim that can not countenance rival truth claims that deny that Jesus Christ is THE singular Savior. And yet, Christianity is the most inclusive faith, open to every single human who draws breath and bows the knee to Jesus as Lord. (Note: This teaching was recorded on 12-27-2020.)

All roads lead to Heaven, or so we have been told. Yet, when Jesus talks about this, He says that He is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life (see John 14:6). So, we need to talk about the exclusive claims of Christianity. Is this a dealbreaker? Or is exclusivity proper for such a meaningful truth claim? (Note: This teaching was recorded on 12-20-2020.)

This episode is a presentation of the Gospel in short story form. The short story was written by Will Reitz, the teacher and the host of this podcast. I hope that you like it. (Note: This teaching was recorded on 12/6/2020 & 12/13/2020.)

Can we trust that the testimony of Scripture accurately describes the historical events that it reports? And are there any considerations we should apply when interpreting Scripture so that this ancient text can speak to us today? In this pod episode, we will ask if the Bible is historical reliable and how to apply it. (Note: this teaching was recorded on 11-29-2020.)

If the Bible that we hold in our hand cannot be trusted, then the entire Christian faith falls like a house of cards. But the contention of this episode of the pod is that you can trust the reliability of the Holy Bible. (Note: this teaching was recorded 11-22-2020.)

When we read the Book of Joshua, passages about wiping out entire cities and villages really bother us. And these passages should bother us. But are there any aspects of these passages that we are missing? Are there any extenuating circumstances that make these passages easier to accept? Check out this episode and we will look into it. (Note: This teaching was recorded 11-15-2020.)

This episode closes our discussion on evolution on what I tried to make a conciliatory note, admitting much strength in the theory of evolution, and preaching an abundance of caution when discussing the subject. *** An editor’s note on the issue of evolution. This teaching that you are about to listen to was delivered in church during the late fall of 2020. This is why I occasionally talk about the pandemic and the upcoming presidential election. My attitude toward evolution has always been a moving target, and any time I talk about the subject, it is a time capsule of how I felt at the time. By 2020, my attitude toward evolutionary theories had softened, and for the most part, what I said in 2020 represents what I believe in 2025. I have 2 exceptions: (1) I no longer believe in the near absolute absence of transitional fossils in the fossil record. Some people more knowledgeable on the subject than I am have said that there are more examples of transitional fossils than just archaeopteryx, the so-called “missing link.” My current position regarding the lack of transitional fossils is that there probably still is not enough fossil evidence to support a grand, all-encompassing tree of life, but that paleontologists should continue their work, and I may yet be proven wrong. (2) While I still am skeptical of macro-evolutionary theory, my attitude has softened so much that I now consider Evolutionary Creationism to be a completely reasonable position for a Christian to take. End of editor’s note. ***

In this episode, I highlight a few of the biggest weaknesses in macroevolutionary theory. *** An editor’s note on the issue of evolution. This teaching that you are about to listen to was delivered in church during the late fall of 2020. This is why I occasionally talk about the pandemic and the upcoming presidential election. My attitude toward evolution has always been a moving target, and any time I talk about the subject, it is a time capsule of how I felt at the time. By 2020, my attitude toward evolutionary theories had softened, and for the most part, what I said in 2020 represents what I believe in 2025. I have 2 exceptions: (1) I no longer believe in the near absolute absence of transitional fossils in the fossil record. Some people more knowledgeable on the subject than I am have said that there are more examples of transitional fossils than just archaeopteryx, the so-called “missing link.” My current position regarding the lack of transitional fossils is that there probably still is not enough fossil evidence to support a grand, all-encompassing tree of life, but that paleontologists should continue their work, and I may yet be proven wrong. (2) While I still am skeptical of macro-evolutionary theory, my attitude has softened so much that I now consider Evolutionary Creationism to be a completely reasonable position for a Christian to take. End of editor’s note. ***

The debate between "evolution" and creationism is often heated, with far more heat than light. As I begin to address the issue of evolution, I present a series of "rules of engagement" for how to discuss the subject fairly for all parties. *** An editor’s note on the issue of evolution. This teaching that you are about to listen to was delivered in church during the late fall of 2020. This is why I occasionally talk about the pandemic and the upcoming presidential election. My attitude toward evolution has always been a moving target, and any time I talk about the subject, it is a time capsule of how I felt at the time. By 2020, my attitude toward evolutionary theories had softened, and for the most part, what I said in 2020 represents what I believe in 2025. I have 2 exceptions: (1) I no longer believe in the near absolute absence of transitional fossils in the fossil record. Some people more knowledgeable on the subject than I am have said that there are more examples of transitional fossils than just archaeopteryx, the so-called “missing link.” My current position regarding the lack of transitional fossils is that there probably still is not enough fossil evidence to support a grand, all-encompassing tree of life, but that paleontologists should continue their work, and I may yet be proven wrong. (2) While I still am skeptical of macro-evolutionary theory, my attitude has softened so much that I now consider Evolutionary Creationism to be a completely reasonable position for a Christian to take. End of editor’s note. ***

Miracles are a controversial topic because most of us have never seen one, many who claim to have seen a miracle are not telling the truth, methodological naturalists deny that miracles can happen at all, and Christianity loses its entire footing without the Resurrection, a miracle. So in this episode I do my best to defend miracles and refute arguments that try to undercut miracles. (Note: This teaching was recorded 10-11-2020.)

The Resurrection of Christ is the whole ballgame. If Jesus be not raised, then Christianity is false, and we should devote none of our time to Christ's church. But, is there a reasonable defense of the Resurrection as an actual event that happened in history? This episode of the pod will attempt to make such an argument. (This lesson was recorded on 10-10-2020.)

This episode of the podcast concludes our analysis of the Problem of Evil, which is the most prevalent objection to Christian faith. (This lesson was recorded on 10-4-2020.)

This episode digs into the problem that any human being has regarding not having the proper perspective to analyze the Problem of Evil. Like a baby receiving a lifesaving injection, we just do not have the perspective to know why such suffering is being allowed. (This lesson was recorded on 9/27/2020.)

This episode launches a new Sunday School series based on the Lee Strobel book "The Case for Faith." In this episode, we introduce the Problem of Evil and begin to address this common objection to Christian faith. (The teaching was recorded 9/20/2020)

The 1960s were a tumultuous decade in many respects, including the history of religion. In this episode, we will talk about the Jesus People movement with in the Sixties Counterculture, the Vatican II council, the Nation of Islam, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the New Age, and several other relevant religious topics

There have been a few times in American history when we felt particularly polarized. Right now kinda feels like such a time, but we take the Bronze. The actual Civil War and the time leading up to it has to take the Gold, but the Silver Medal definitely goes to the 1960s. Between opposition to the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, American society never felt so polarized without literally going to war with each other. In this episode we will examine the Anti-War Movement in America as well as the hippie counterculture that grew along side the Anti-War Movement.

You all know what the Vietnam War is. So I want to use this summary/preview to give some trigger warnings: (1) At one point in the podcast, I refer to American WWII death as "heroes" and American Vietnam War deaths as "victims." I debated removing it from the podcast, but left it in because I was trying to make a point about war policy, NOT what I think about the men who fought in those wars. (2) At one point in the podcast, I refer to a few racial epithets that were used against Asians in WWII, the Korean War, & the Vietnam War. I do not approve of these terms. I was showing how those terms are used to dehumanize people. (3) I try to handle the subject of American war crimes very carefully. I do not want to excuse war crimes, nor do I want to make it seem like all or most American servicemen in Vietnam committed war crimes.

This episode and the next episode will cover the war in Vietnam, which is easily the most defining event of the 1960s. The trauma of the war in Vietnam will extend into and affect every other topic we will cover this semester. But in this first episode, we are covering the history of the war before the 1960s. First, we quickly survey Vietnamese history going back into ancient history. Then we follow the career of Ho Chi Minh as he and the Vietnamese people get ready to fight the Japanese conquerors (in World War II) and for their independence from their French colonizers. This leads eventually to the epic victory of the Viet Minh over the French at the "fortress" of Dien Bien Phu. In the next episode, we will discuss the war as the United States takes over the struggle against communism in Vietnam.

As I have argued before, November 22nd, 1963, is the day that "the Sixties" as a culturally significant decade began. Before the assassination of President Kennedy, the world felt more innocent, proverbially black & white. Of course, that is an impression and not necessarily a reality. The 1950s was a decade that was both wonderful and terrible, just like every decade. There was American prosperity, but also McCarthyism and systemic racism. Nevertheless, the America that Kennedy administered feels like an extension of the 1950s. But after his death, the 1960s feels like a time of turmoil, conflict, creative proliferation, and cultural upheaval. But before we get to all that, we must discuss November 22nd, 1963, and the death of the American President in public, and in broad daylight. The evidence is actually pretty conclusive that Lee Harvey Oswald, a loser who led an unhappy life, shot the President from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository where he worked. But, there is much about Oswald's life that is weird, and conspiracy theorists have had a field day for over 60 years latching onto open questions and oddities about Oswald, as well as Oswald's death at the hands of Jack Ruby, and any possible oddity even remotely related to the assassination. So in this episode, we will take a dive into choppy and murky waters, and examine the assassination and several conspiracy theories.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first major protagonist of the 1960s, and his tragic death set the tone for one of America's most tumultuous decades. This episode is a brief survey of his career, with a significant detour to discuss Fidel Castro, arguably his nemesis. NOTE: The JFK assassination is the focus of next week's episode.

The Spring 2025 class is about the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. In order to understand most of the major events and themes of the 1960s, it is necessary to recognize the Cold War, and how it touched nearly all aspects of life and society in the United States and around the world. In fact, the Cold War shrank the world dramatically, as the USSR & the USA stuck their foot in nearly every corner of the world to influence politics, war, and the economy on a global perspective. This episode is an introduction for the class as a whole, and then there's a brief survey of communism and the Cold War that followed the spread of communism.

In the final episode of our not-consistently-recorded Sunday School series on the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, we engage Jesus' teaching, actions, and attitudes regarding race & racism, and His multi-cultural interactions with those who weren't part of Jesus' Jewish race and culture. The Sunday School audio was recorded on 6-26-2022.

There are many issues of human sexuality, and Jesus does not address all of them. But he does directly address some issues, such as marriage, divorce, sexual immorality, and healing & restoration for those who have sinned. In this episode, we join in our not-consistently-recorded Sunday School series on the Philosophy of Jesus. This lesson was recorded on 6/19/2022.

Suffering is terrible, and no one should seek it out. But it happens. It happens to all of us. And Jesus promises us that it will happen to us. This Sunday School lesson dives into Jesus' teachings on suffering. This is audio from a Sunday School lesson on 5-29-2022.

This Sunday School lesson examines the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels to determine His philosophy of human free will. This Sunday School lesson was recorded on 5-22-2022.

Christians ought to treat Jesus Christ not only as God the Son, but also as our greatest teacher and philosopher. This Sunday School series delves into Jesus' teaching from the Gospels to discern what is His philosophy of various topics. This episode digs into Jesus' philosophy of the nature of reality. Recorded Audio from a Sunday School lesson - 4/17/2022

Evangelicals are wonderful when it comes to believing in Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The death, burial, and resurrection of God the Son? Yeah, we got that down! ... But what about Jesus as our Lord, our teacher, or our philosopher? Do we do what He says? This episode of the podcast is not only a sermon delivered sans notes (the pastor got sick at the last minutes), but it serves as a backdoor pilot for a Sunday School series about Jesus as our Philosopher.

This simple, quick lecture brings our Fall 2024 class on the Book of Revelation to a close.

In this episode, when I am not chasing bunny trails (which is often), we go deep into the Biblical concept of Heaven. We look at both Old Testament and New Testament passages relevant to the concept of Heaven, and we spend quite a bit of time in the final chapters of Revelation, looking at the Millennial Kingdom and New Heavens & New Earth.

The Book of Revelation makes a poor chronology. It does some jumping about. And several chapters are enigmatic, far more enigmatic than the book as a whole, which is one of the most enigmatic books in the Bible. There are messages that are concealed, symbols that have no consensus regarding their meaning, and even a main character - the Great Prostitute - who remains a great mystery. In this episode we will take a crack at these other chapters of Revelation.

This episode picks up our survey of the Judgments of God in the Book of Revelation. There are 21 judgments, which come in three sets of seven: 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, and 7 Bowls/Vials. This episode picks up with the 5th Trumpet Judgment and continues to the end. We also examine the Battle of Armageddon, the final defeat of Satan, and the Great White Throne Judgment.

As the Fall 2024 Revelation class continues, we are proceeding using the interpretation of Revelation as primarily a futurist document. There definitely are other interpretations, and I would encourage you to seek out scholars who provide those other perspectives. Nevertheless, if we proceed as if Revelation is primarily a futurist document, then the heart of the End Times timeline is 3 sets of 7 judgments, identified in the Book of Revelation as 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, and 7 Vials or Bowls. This episode, part 1, examines the 7 Seals as well as the first 4 of the Trumpet Judgments. To set the stage, we begin by briefly talking about the attributes of God, identifying various events in the Bible that are identified as judgments of God, and taking a close look at the Ten Plagues, the Judgments against Egypt, as a template for Judgment as a set of judgments, a motif repeated thrice in Revelation.

This episode digs into the Scriptural data for Satan a.k.a. the devil a.k.a. Beelzebub a.k.a. the ancient serpent a.k.a. the Dragon of the Book of Revelation. We also do a bit of corrective analysis to make sure that we aren't letting the popular conception of Satan drive our understanding of the figure that is taught in Scripture. Furthermore, the character known as Satan makes very few appearances in the early part of the Bible, but he is dealt with more thoroughly in the newer books of Scripture. This implies either that Satan is a myth, or that his existence and work in the universe is revealed to us bit-by-bit in what is known as Progressive Revelation.

Besides the Devil himself, there is no scarier character in the Bible than the person that the Book of Revelation calls the Beast, and 2nd Thessalonians calls the Man of Lawlessness (or Man of Sin; Man of Perdition), and the Book of Daniel calls the Little Horn. The term that we commonly use for this character is the Antichrist. Ironically, Scripture does use the term Antichrist five times, but never for this person. Nonetheless, that is the preferred term often used for the prophesied future global political leader who controls the worlds' military, religion, economy, etc. and who actively opposes Jesus and all of His followers. In this episode of the podcast, we take a look at Scriptures that may give us details about this future evil leader.

This is a combination of 2 lectures into one. First, we dig into the Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24-25 (see also Mark 13 & Luke 21). In this, one of the final longform teachings of Jesus Christ prior to His death, burial, & resurrection, Jesus accurately predicts the destruction of the Temple, which would happen in the year 70AD. He goes on to talk about false teachers, war, rumors of war, natural disasters, etc. that are inevitably part of the human experience in history, and now, and also in the End Times. He also talks about events that sure seem to point to the End Times as well. In the second half of the lecture, we switch gears and talk about the Great Tribulation (or the Tribulation) in general terms, as well as diving into Daniel 9 to discern why many eschatology teachers have concluded that the Tribulation shall be a seven year period just prior to Christ's Second Coming.

Well, any discussion of the End Times requires one to cover the Rapture, which is the least-agreed-upon topic in all of Christian theology. In this episode, we examine the passages of Scripture from which John Nelson Darby and Dispensationalists draw out the teaching of a Rapture event. Then, assuming the truth of the Rapture event, we examine the implications of such an event. Finally, we look at a few alternate viewpoints of the Rapture, and look at the strong criticisms of this teaching. ... Also, Bunny Trail alert! We chase about four or five metaphorical bunnies in this episode.