The Blue Collar Scholar

The New Testament class is arranged so that we examine each book of the New Testament more-or-less in the order that they were written. Having looked at James, the early epistles or Paul, Mark, & Matthew, we are ready to look at Luke & Acts. Chronologically, it is likely that these books were written while Paul was in house arrest in Rome in Acts 28. This episode looks into the author Luke, the re...

Jesus makes it clear Matthew 18:21-35 that we all need to forgive others. But we are not naturally forgiving people. Furthermore, forgiveness - by definition - only goes to those who don't deserve it. But there are 6 reasons to forgive: (1) Forgiveness frees you from burden. (2) Your bitterness will not make the situation better. (3) Unforgiveness breeds conflict. (4) Forgiveness may not be justic...

For our *** 400th EPISODE *** we have the next installment of our "History in My Lifetime" class lectures. In this episode we briefly go over the major geopolitical shifts that have occurred since the close of World War II.

The Summer 2026 Sermon Series officially comes to an end with this sermon. The First John series became a 1st through 3rd John series because 2nd & 3rd John are so short, and it felt right to cover them, too, so as to be thorough. From the tiny letter of Third John, we learn that to be the Body of Christ, we must: (1) pray for & rejoice with our brothers & sisters in Christ, (2) support missionari...

Each of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ tell a slightly different story. Each tells a coherent narrative that is compatible with the other Gospels, but each author has chosen certain events and details while leaving out others. The "Synoptic Gospels" (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) share a very similar chronology with many of the same details in mostly the same order. By analyzing the differences...

Second John is the shortest book in the Bible. This sermon breaks down the entire book into the following points: (1) God is the Source of grace, mercy, peace, truth, & love. (2) We should love our brothers & sisters, and rejoice in their success. (3) We exhibit love by obeying God's commands. (4) Do not give in to lies. (5) Do not support false teachers in any way.

History in My Lifetime is a discussion class. It has become clear to me that much of what drives our discussion is driven by the decades in which we grew up. A person who was a teenager in the early '60s is going to be a very different person from someone who was a teenager in the late '90s. So in this episode we take a look at each decade from the 1950s to the 2020s. Our knowledge, recollection,...

Romans is, perhaps, the most important book in the Bible, and the greatest piece of theology writing ever. In this episode we dig into the soteriology (the study of salvation) in Romans. That makes this the most sermon-like of my academic lectures.

There have been several major historical events regarding human exploration of space in living memory. In fact, just about the entire history of humanity in space has happened in lifetimes of people still alive today. In this episode we reminisce about the triumphant events and the tragedies directly related to space, space exploration, and commercial use of space.

Our summer sermon series has been going on since the end of May. We have been going through the book of First John, listening to the Apostle John's message to the followers of Jesus Christ in his day. Those messages still very much apply to Jesus' followers today, especially John constant refrain that fellow believers should love one another. Though the series will continue for 2 more weeks — 2nd...

The New Testament series continues as we begin to examine the texts themselves. The format of this class is to read the texts in the order that they were most likely written. Therefore, before we get to the Gospels, we will look at James, Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and 1 & 2 Corinthians.

For most of us, 9/11 is the biggest single-day historical event we have ever witnessed. So much changed after that terrible day. But 9/11 was hardly the only act of terrorism that has happened in our time. In this episode we survey the major terrorist attacks from Munich to October 7th.

The episode 5 lecture in the New Testament class will examine the actual text of the New Testament. Before we do that, let us back up and see an overview of the life of the New Testament's central figure: Jesus of Nazareth. This episode examines Jesus as a religious figure, but also as an actual person in history who lived in a particular place and at a particular time.

All of First John comes to a head in chapter 5, verse 13, when the Apostle tells us that he wrote all of the book so that we can KNOW that we have eternal life. It was not God's intention for us to be on pins & needles, never quite sure whether we've done enough to earn His favor. Rather, once we are adopted into His family, then we are part of His family, period.

The 5th chapter of John has a couple of passages that are a challenge for Bible translators. In one passage, the Greek text seems clear, but a short clause seems to have been added by a Medieval commentator (the "Johannine Comma" of 1 John 5:7-8) and translators have to decide whether to keep in a passage that is very likely not written by John, but if they translators leave the passage out, it wi...

This episode is designed to jog your memory and trigger discussions regarding all of the American wars of the last 70 years. Special emphasis is given to the Vietnam War. It was such a drawn-out, bloody, and exhausting conflict. It was sold as part of a great struggle of the democratic West against communism. However, from the very beginning, the War in Vietnam felt like an anti-colonial struggle...

The final lecture on the context of the New Testament starts with a review of the major Near East empires leading up to Alexander the Great. We then look at Alexander's conquests to understand how Greek culture & the Greek language became so ubiquitous during the times of the New Testament. We see some of the collision of Greek & Jewish culture in the books of Maccabees in the Apocrypha (a.k.a. th...

In the introductory episode of this series, we discussed the context of the New Testament within the history of recorded history and written language. In this episode we keep building upon our understanding of the context of the New Testament by taking a long look at the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the primary and most important context for the New Testament. By looking at the Old Testamen...

What is the New Testament? It is a deeply Jewish book that serves as a sequel -- of sorts -- to the Old Testament. It is a small library of 27 books. It is a biography (or, rather, 4 biographies) of the greatest Man who ever lived, as well as a sequel (Acts) and 22 books that add to Jesus' legacy. It is a series of documents originally written in Koine Greek, and the beautiful collision of Jewish...

The First John series enters the final chapter of the epistle. In this passage, we learn how to love God: (1) love believers, (2) obey God's commands, & (3) have faith in Christ.

This episode gives a brief overview of the Civil Rights Movement in the US since Brown v. Board of Education. We also take a look at the women's rights movement, as well as movements for the rights of immigrants, disabled persons, and the LGBTQ+ community. This episode ends with over 2 weeks of Daily Journal Prompts to tell one's own story.

"Perfect love casts out fear." - 1st John 4:18 ... In this sermon I break down the idea of such perfect love. In 1st John 4:16-21, see see that if God abides in you, then He will perfect (verb) love within you. We also see the following benefits of such perfect love: (1) perfect love will give you confidence on the Day of Judgment, (2) perfect love will make us "like" Christ, (3) perfect love free...

In this, the Fall 2026 semester, we will be trying something new: a class called "History in My Lifetime: Documenting My Place in History to Tell My Grandchildren." Each week we will discuss a different category of major historical events in the last 80 years or so, with emphasis being on the lived experience of the average person who lived through these historical events. The class will also invo...

If you have been reading along with us through the book of First John, you have probably noticed that the Apostle John has told us about a dozen times to love each other. It is an important theme for this epistle. In 1st John 4:7-16, we are told once again to love each other and to love God, for God Himself is love. In this passage we also learn that if God abides in you, then (1) you will live by...

Spiritual warfare is an interesting biblical topic. We see glimpses of spiritual warfare in books like Daniel & Revelation, and it is obvious that there is some kind of conflict between angels and demons, between the spiritual forces of God vs. the spiritual forces of darkness. But the Bible does not actually give us many details about what spiritual warfare is, exactly. But there are glimpses. Th...