No Church Answers!

That some early Christians insisted that gentile converts submit to the Jewish circumcision rite touched off the early church's first great crisis. Some say Paul just sought to cynically rewrite scripture to dispense with the requirement. We look at the some of Biblical arguments he makes, including his insistence that even in the Old Testament, righteousness came first through faith, not Torah La...

To this day the story of Saul of Tarsus cannot help but seize the imagination. Saul was the brightest of rising stars among the Jerusalem high priests and pharisees and was being groomed for leadership. He proved he could even do the “dirty work” of investigating, arresting and imprisoning and executing Christians as blasphemers. Yet all the changed one day on the road to Damascus. We look at Paul...

Paul gets right to the point: There is one true gospel, he says, and is "astonished" at how quickly the Galatians could be swayed by those who would alter the fundamental message of grace through faith. We often find ourselves scolded by believers and non-believers alike that Christian humility means "go along to get along." Paul's opening in Galatian stands in stark contrast to this notion. In a...

In our fourth annual Christmas special, we look at the shepherds -- the working stiffs of the Nativity narrative. Although often relegated the the background, their role is indispensable to the Christmas story. We look at the significance of God's choice of shepherds to be the first recipients of the news of the Messiah's birth and what it can teach Christian men today. Hosted on Acast. See acast....

Advent is supposed to be a time for joyous anticipation of our Savior and King. Yet for most men, it's four weeks of stress and pressure as they try to meet year-end work responsibilities, family demands and church and community needs. Our panelist Mike says it feels like "forcing a size 14 foot into a size 10 shoe." We won't deny frustrations and obstacles increase in the Christmas season, but we...

Drop your nets! Lock up your tax booths! Follow us as we journey into Season 1 of The Chosen . We talk about the elements that make this series different both from past attempts at Biblical dramas and more recent independent faith-based programming. Daring choices abound, starting with its adoption of world-building and multi-thread storytelling techniques used in secular shows such as The Wire, F...

With Thanksgiving coming up, the fellows talk about how grace and gratitude are connected. Granting grace--excusing a transgression or forgiving a debt--may be the ultimate act of kindness. Gratitude understands the opportunity for renewal and change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at ht...

Walk into a church service and it's guaranteed you will hear the word "faith" within five minutes. Yet, even long-time Christians can find themselves tongue-tied when asked to define or explain it. We attack the question from a variety of perspectives. Can faith be measured? Can one have too little faith? Is faith only truly expressed in action? Can faith exist alongside doubt? And what about the...

We're back with three hypothetical scenarios that would force committed Christians to consider whether a course of action suits the Lord's way or merely indulges selfish desires. Never afraid to make gray areas even grayer or take scripture out of context, we debate everyday ethical choices when it comes to responding to queries from insurance companies, problematic directives in final wills and r...

We debate whether it's appropriate for Christians to participate in traditional Halloween festivities of dress-up, trick-or-treating, parties and games. Is it a harmless secular holiday, or something darker? The fellows talk about the Halloween memories and family traditions, church programs such as Harvest Festivals and Trunk-or-Treats, and, yes, some of the pagan origins that the Church supplant...

“Jesus rules the world?” a skeptic might ask. “Have you looked out the window lately?” In our final podcast on N.T. Wright's Simply Jesus , we examine his assertion that God, through Christ, has established his kingdom on Earth. Wright does not deny that evil still thrives. But his position is that Christians should be doing something about it because Christians, as kingdom people, have been calle...

The Bible tells us Jesus ascended into heaven and promised to return. Jesus may be in heaven, but his disciples have been commissioned and are at work. According to N.T. Wright, “The whole book [Acts] is the story of how Jesus, exercising his power as the CEO of earth as it is in heaven, sends out his followers as ambassadors to make his kingdom a reality, climaxing with the strange paradox of Pau...

In order to defeat sin and death, the Messiah had to battle sin and death, a battle played out on the Cross. In Simply Jesus , even N.T. Wright admits that in human terms, this was "the craziest vocation one could imagine." But these were cosmic terms, not mere human. Calling back to last week's podcast, this was the great Battle and this was how the Temple was cleansed and restored. Join us as we...

We talk about Jesus re-aligned sacred space, special time and the nature of our physical world. In Jesus, according to N.T. Wright, the concepts of Temple and Sabbath are simultaneusly transformed and fulfilled. We also talk about the significance of Jesus' miracles and the danger when Christians try to explain them away as either exaggerations or pre-Enlightenment misunderstandings. Wright asks p...

Jesus of Nazareth was just one of many personalities in the ancient Middle East who claimed to the prophesized Jewish Messiah. So why do we, as Christians, testify that he alone is the genuine Savior? Author N.T. Wright says the critical difference is in how Jesus redefined historical, scriptural and cultural expectations as to the enemy the Messiah would battle and consequently, how he would clea...

Dare we say it, but the message of many of Jesus' parables has been dulled by repetition. With N.T. Wright as our guide, we revisit several parables aiming to rediscover how provocative and subversive they were to original listeners. Jesus was using the parables to illustrate the nature and order of the Kingdom he was proclaiming and, pointedly, who would be in and who would be out. Repeatedly, we...

It's been six-and-a-half years since we dropped our first podcast March 29, 2017. Now, 300 podcasts later, we look back on how far we've come, rarely missing a week despite meeting challenges of hurricanes, floods, a pandemic, accidents, surgeries and job changes. Along the way we've produced a TV show, hosted live events and tackled all sorts of Biblical questions, rejecting simple "church answer...

How does a new ruler announce he's in charge? In this fallen world, it's usually through a show of force and intimidation -- as in let the purges begin. How did Jesus announced his kingship? Wright points to healing, forgiveness and celebration. All three were omnipresent in Jesus' ministry and, according to Wright, are primary characteristics of the Kingdom of God. We discuss all three and how th...

No Church Answers! host Bill Cox talks to Peary Perry, a retired Houston police officer who in 2012 launched a prison ministry where inmates repair and refit kids' bicycles for donation. Taking inspiration from Joshua 13:1, Peary speaks to answering the Lord's call later in life and the transformative power that seeing pictures of kids receiving repaired bikes has on convicts. More information abo...

We begin a study of N.T. Wright's Simply Jesus: Who He Was, What He Did and Why He Matters. We start by introducing Wright's central point, Jesus is God, the ruler of all creation and his overall mission inaugurated that kingdom--on earth as in heaven, and is much more than a distant figure in some ethereal dimension but active in this world today. We begin by looking at the how Christ was the cen...

One can be humiliating, the other humbling. Either way, they can tear at a man's sense of self-worth. Bill Cox, host of the No Church Answers! podcast, has been through both in the past 12 months and talks about the differences in how he felt, how each played out and the role his faith played in seeing matters through. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about y...

Panelist Steve Titch is on a mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya, where he interviews Ezekiel Kayeli, senior pastor of Kahawa Sukari Baptist Church. Pastor Ezekiel talks about planting churches both in rural Kenya and densely urban Nairobi, confronting political and cultural divisiveness among believers, the wide-scale Christian revival occurring in Africa and the geographical South, and the influence...

Robert Cocheu ("The Professor") interviews Steve Titch ("The Gambler") on his thoughts and takeaways from a recent four-day deep-dive into Acts by leading Christian theologian and author N.T. Wright. Steve talks about Wright's themes of the radical counterculture the early church introduced to the Roman world and how the first Christians understood the significance of the resurrection and how it d...

We conclude our study of Chad Bird's Limping with God with a discussion of Jacob's last years in Egypt and the final blessings he gives Joseph's sons and then his own sons. We look at the blessing of Judah in particular, which doubles as a Messianic prophesy and discuss what Jacob might be thinking as he looks back on the events of his life and if he could glimpse how they would fit into God's lon...

Twenty years after his son Joseph is believed to have been killed by a wild beast, Jacob discovers his lost son not only is alive but is the top-ranking official Egypt second only to the Pharoah, Amidst a devastating famine, Joseph offers welcomes his family with forgiveness and deliverance. Author Chad Bird calls this a "eucatastrophe" (Google it!). We continue our study of "Limping with God," re...