Restitutio

How do you know God exists? What reasons do atheists have to doubt God’s existence? Can you arrive at certainty? These questions are among the most significant that you can ask. If God exists, there are huge implications for your daily life. If not, then you can more or less choose your own adventure, making up meaning as you go. My guest today is Andrew Drinkard, the editor and project lead...

Are all your beliefs equally important? If not, how do you rank them? By what standard do you say, “This belief matters” and “This one is less important”? My guest today is Michael Hughes who has been working on these very questions. He’s written a couple of papers addressing levels of evidence. In his more recent work, he’s enumerated a nine-level rating system...

Are you looking for a biblically-grounded albeit easy-to-read introduction to theology? Well, look no further, because I’m excited to announce the publication of Pastor Will Barlow’s book, Explore What We Believe . He goes through what the Bible teaches about God, humanity, covenants, the kingdom of God, Jesus, salvation, Israel, the church, the spirit of God, the spiritual realm, deat...

I have a new book out and I’m excited to tell you all about it. In order to do that, Anna Brown is hosting Restitutio today and putting me in the hot seat. In this interview, she asks me about Read the Bible for Yourself,  a book I’ve been working on for the last three years. In our conversation we talk about whom the book is for and how to use it most effectively. I share about the ch...

Jesus said, “Make disciples of all nations” (Mat 28:19). How are you doing on this? Are you currently mentoring someone in the faith? Are you under the impression that this work is only for pastors, those in church leadership, or those with the gift of evangelism? You may say to yourself, “I don’t have a Bible-college degree,” or “I don’t know enough to te...

To whom was God speaking in Genesis 1.26 when he said, “Let us make humanity in our image”? My guest today, Sam Mansfield of Adelaide, South Australia, has found six different answers to this question. In the following interview, I ask him about his recent presentation at the inaugural Australian Unitarian Christian Alliance conference, called “ Wrought with Wisdom: How Solomon U...

Many Bible-believing churches are ridged keepers of tradition. They have a statement of faith, a historic confession, or old creeds that determine what people should and should not believe. There’s very little space for people to genuinely ask questions, investigate competing doctrines, and honestly change their minds over time. Today I’m speaking with Matt Lovegrove of New Castle, New...

Paul Robson was an upstanding Christian leader in a Bible-believing church when his friend upended his world by revealing that he no longer believed the Trinity was biblically true. Although Robson initially reacted negatively to such a departure from the norm, he eventually came to change his mind based on a thorough study of Scripture. What happened next was both tragic and all too common–...

One of the largest and most intriguing blocks of teaching in the Gospel of John is the upper room discourse in chapter 13-17. This block of time begins with the washing of the disciples’ feet (13) and ends with Jesus’s high-priestly prayer (17). In the middle chapters (14-16), we encounter Jesus preparing his followers for his departure. They still didn’t quite understand what wa...

Have you ever heard the expression “a smoking gun”? It comes from an earlier era of guns when black powder produced a good cloud of smoke each time someone fired the weapon. Originally a smoking gun referred to a situation when someone was caught with the weapon in hand, still emitting smoke. The implication of this is not just that the smoking gun is evidence of the person’s gui...

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . Today is our last episode in our Restoration Theology class. Believe it or not, not everyone thinks restorationism is great. In fact, most Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, are against restorationism, preferring the confessional approach. Have you started to face objections and dismissive language when you talk to others about restor...

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . Today is the capstone episode of this entire class on Restoration Theology. We’re going to put together what we’ve learned so far into a twenty-question diagnostic. The purpose of this method is to evaluate any Christian belief or practice. You can use it on your own doctrines to refine what you believe, or you can apply it to ot...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . About a year ago I was listening to a podcast that said black plastic cookware comes from recycled electronics. Such plastics are loaded with chemicals like fire retardants and should not be used in cooking. I was thinking about the black plastic spatula our family used regularly. I imagined how each time it was heating up, bad chemicals w...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . As we continue through our survey of the major branches of theology, we come to the subject of doctrinal precedents. Who has believed a particular idea before? Were there any Christians who held position x in the past? Who were they? If the majority of the church no longer holds to a certain belief, what happened? When I was in high school...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . Restoration Theology is an approach that brings together good hermeneutics and good theology. We’ve talked a great deal about hermeneutics, which how to interpret the Bible well, and now we’re working our way through all the major branches of theology. In previous episodes, we’ve looked at biblical and systematic theologi...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . Whereas last time we focused on differences and development, today our goal is to perceive the final form of a doctrine. Because restorationists believe God inspired scripture, we recognize that amidst the diversity we can also detect coherence. Although there were many authors, there was only one God inspiring each of them. Today you&#821...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books, written by dozens of authors over centuries. It did not drop from heaven, nor did it arrive all in one generation. No, God slowly revealed the Christian scriptures over time. As a result, we find development within them, which is important to understand when building theology. While next time,...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . Although one of the most overlooked aspects of hermeneutics, figuring out how to apply scripture to your own context today is extremely important. If you interpret the Bible well, but never ask the question, “How does this affect me?” what good does it do you? Like the scholar of religion who is just curious, you can read the B...

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . There’s no getting around it. The Bible is a historical book. The events it describes occurred in history. What’s more, biblical history isn’t just limited to a single period of time. No, it stretches over thousands of years. As a result, it’s critical that you always remember that you’re reading something fro...

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . What’s the difference between reading the Bible and studying it? Reading the Bible is like surfing on the waves, following the general flow of thought as you go. Studying the Bible is more like swimming underwater, perhaps with scuba gear to enable you to investigate matters thoroughly. Today we’re doing the second one. You&#8217...

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class . Would you agree that every translation of the Bible has some sort of bias in it? Even the most literal translations have a good deal of bias baked into them. What can we do? Well, you could learn Hebrew and Greek so you can read the Bible for yourself instead of depending on a translation. Ok, but if you don’t have the inclination, mot...

This is part four of the Restoration Theology class . The Old Testament, also called the Hebrew Bible, is a collection of 39 books written before the time of Christ. Today you’re going to learn about the three major manuscript families of the OT: (1) the Masoretic Text, (2) the Septuagint, and (3) the Samaritan Pentateuch. Like last time, we’ll go through several of the most significan...

This is part four of the Restoration Theology class . Last time we covered the importance of using the Bible to build our beliefs. But what is the Bible? Well, it wasn’t written in American English or in the West or in recent history. The Bible is a library of books written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Still, that doesn’t quite answer the question of what the Bible is. Let’s ju...

This is part three of the Restoration Theology class . If there’s one thing I’ve learned about communicating with people who don’t come from my background, it’s that assumptions matter. It’s important to know what I’m assuming and what the other is assuming so we can have meaningful dialog. In our episode today, we’re talking about two presuppositions that...

This is part two of the Restoration Theology class . Restorationism–the impulse to restore authentic Christianity–is not new. Before diving in to learn how to build a proper restoration theology, we owe it to those who have come before us, to remember how we got here. Although we generally take for granted our freedom to dissent from the governing authorities and the unprecedented acce...