Forging Ploughshares

Paul Axton Preaches - The God of the philosophers, the God of the law, the God of Christendom, and scientism is dead and to desire to return through fascism, right-wing fundamentalism, or nationalism is on the order of Israel desiring to return to Egypt, or a fall back into idolatry and law. In Christ we can face the desert of a world of lost meaning.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast,...

In this PBI discussion Jino (from India), Alan (from Mexico), Jason, Matt, Jon, and Paul (in the U. S.)  consider the systematic theology of the post-liberal approach of James McClendon as compared to a typical evangelical systematic theology. The applied nature and cross cultural nature of this practical theology is discussed. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating...

Paul Axton Preaches - The parameters of philosophy can be laid out along the lines of Paul's depiction of the subject. In the subject focused on the "law of the mind," the legal, philosophical order holds out life. With the focus on the ego there is a questioning of philosophy and law and the pointer to fullness in Christ alone. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donatin...

In this lecture on Romans 12-13 Paul Axton sets chapter 13's picture of being subordinate to the government in the context of chapter 12, of not being conformed to the world but being transformed. Subordinance is not compliance or conformity but a means of disempowering the weapon of death deployed by the state. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our...

Paul Axton Preaches - Friedrich Nietzsche misreads Paul in the standard Lutheran contractual theological manner as suffering from guilt and resentment against God and the law. His pronouncement of the death of God is a prophetic pointer to the demise of western philosophical foundations which a correct, apocalyptic, reading of Paul and Christianity already address.  Sign up for our class with PBI...

Paul Axton lectures on Romans 11 detailing the conclusion of how "God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all." Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

Paul Axton Preaches - Hebrews is a case in point of how a figurative reading of Scripture and history is existentially now and not yet. It is not Nietzsche's Platonic - not yet Christianity nor is it Hegel's immanent - now Christianity, thus it counters both fascism and Marxism. Apply for our upcoming class Philosophy for Theology https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/student-applications/new Become...

Paul Axton lectures on Romans 10 which depicts the universal predicament of turning to the sign of the law rather than the transformative relationship of covenant which resolves this problem. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - Romans 8 counters the suffering and agonistic desire described in chapter 7 with a participation in the Trinity grounded in hope. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt, Tim, Alan, Trenton and Paul compare and contrast various approaches to Romans 9-11, represented in part by David Bentley Hart and N. T. Wright, discussing the various facets of the possibility of universal salvation. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - Sin is the alienating power linked to the orientation to death in Romans 5 and 7 and this is what Christ defeats and which, as Romans 6 describes, Christians realize by being joined to Him. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

Paul Axton argues that in chapter 9 of Romans Paul is not talking about a double predestination of the Calvinist type. He is speaking of the way in which Israel’s vocation to be the people of the creator God, including specifically its calling to be the “vessels of wrath,” was the focal point of the plan to save the world. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to s...

Paul Axton Preaches - The defining doctrine of evangelicalism, Calvin's penal substitution, subverts the biblical meaning of the work of Christ, trading a God of love for a wrathful pagan-like deity. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt, Alan, Tim and Paul, in this initial discussion on Ro 9-11 discuss the mystery of Christ and the approach of David Bentley Hart and N.T, Wright to these chapters. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - John Calvin, by tying the place of the dead to eternal punishment and then linking this with the punishment inflicted on Christ on the Cross so as to achieve forgiveness, invented the doctrine of penal substitution. The correct translation of Isaiah 53 and the right understanding of the Apostles' Creed are set forth to counter Calvin's innovation with the biblical understandi...

Paul Axton lectures on Romans 8, depicting the contrast with Romans 7, as now love, life, Abba Father, the Holy Spirit, hope, prayer, and a new depth of communion and communication appear which were absent in chapter 7. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - The significance of recognizing the cosmic work of Christ as the predestined purpose and fulfillment of creation is that this is the only understanding adequate to overcoming the meaning generated by evil. To picture the work of Christ as a response to sin is to fit this work to an evil frame. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support o...

Paul Axton lectures on Romans 7 and discusses the identity of the "I" and the problem this "I" has with deception in regard to the law, which is definitive of sin. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - On this Mother's Day, the theological significance of John's privileging of women is portrayed. John seems to be narrating for us the theological point that to be joined to Christ will mean that we pass beyond stereotypical male/female roles in order to put on Christ – in order to be the bride of Christ.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating...

Paul Axton lectures on Romans 6, explaining the "likeness" we share, through baptism, with Christ and how this eliminates the false orientation of the "body of death" and gives us access to being, and not simply having, a body. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - Churches indigenous to the U. S. follow the pattern of the early church - acknowledging nonviolent peace and then forsaking this original commitment. The key to maintaining this original peace stance is to correctly understand and implement a nonviolent atonement.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In this PBI course discussion Matt, Tim, David, Trenton, and Paul discuss the way in which the false foundation of conservative faith, reflected in the treatment of women, has missed the foundation of Christ.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - Churches of the Restoration Movement once held to the doctrines of the historic peace churches as part of what was to be restored in the authentic church. By this measure, churches of this Movement do not meet the qualification of authentic Christianity, and as outlined by David Lipscomb, Alexander Campbell, and Barton W. Stone, Restoration Movement Churches are of the whore...

Paul Axton Preaches - The turn from Christ as ethical model also entails a turn from Christ as the full revelation of God. Abstractions about God's nature, apart from Christ, devolve to pure power and evil. The resolution is Christ's depiction of himself as revealing the will of God. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

Paul Axton untangles the problem of the mistranslation in the Latin Vulgate taken up and incorporated into Augustinian theology. A straightforward explanation of the reign of death, at the root of sin, and the defeat of this reign is set forth.