Restitutio

When was the last time you heard a sermon about singleness?  Married people have lots of sermons, classes, books, and conferences dedicated to them, but singles are largely ignored.  Today, Matthew Elton, himself a single millennial, shares what Jesus and Paul have to teach us about the incredible advantages of singleness for God's people.  Far from second class citizens, singles have much to offe...

Nearly a year ago, I interviewed Pastor Jeff Deuble from Sydney, Australia about his journey of discovering the genuine Jesus of the first century.  At the close of that interview, he mentioned that he had written a book that makes a case for his understanding of the biblical Christ.  Well, I’m happy to say that this book is now available, published by Living Hope International Ministries. ...

How should those of us committed to a biblical sexual ethic treat those who are same-sex attracted or who identify as the opposite sex?  In our polarized world, it seems like only two options are available to us: (1) we accept, approve, and celebrate LGBT+ lifestyles or (2) we deny, denigrate, and dismiss them.  Either we reject scripture or reject love.  Surely, there must be a better way.  Can w...

This is the third and final part of our series on conditional immortality with Warren Prestidge.    Although most Christians today believe hell is a place where the dammed suffer eternal conscious torment, the bible teaches that the lost will perish.  For example, the most famous verse in the bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him wou...

 Last time Warren Prestidge walked us through a case for conditional immortality.  Today, we'll delve into some of the key texts that proponents of natural immortality employ to make their case, including these four texts: Luke 23.43; John 14.2-3; 2 Corinthians 5.8; and Philippians 1.23.  In each case, Prestidge appeals to the context of the passage and basic logic to make his case.  If you've eve...

What happens when you die?  This is such a big question for all of us.  Do we go somewhere like heaven or hell? Do we stay on earth as a disembodied spirit?  Or are we unconscious? My guest today is Warren Prestidge of New Zealand, who contends that we should embrace the biblical language of the sleep of the dead.  The idea--often called conditional immortality--is that immortality is not automati...

This is the last episode of our class, Why Christianity.  We've covered so many different reasons why Christianity is attractive, makes sense, and is worthy of our attention.  We've looked at scientific, logical, epistemological, social, psychological, and historical reasons for God's existence, Christ's resurrection, and the gospel's effectiveness.  Today, we consider three stories of changed liv...

Although many throughout the Western world are quick to criticize Christianity, Jesus remains well-liked.  In fact, one of the most obvious answers to the question, “Why Christianity?” is “Jesus.”  To this day, reading the Gospels  draws the reader to Jesus’ magnetic and compelling way of life.  What’s more, the less satisfied we are with our own society, the mo...

Community is so important.  As so many continue to struggle with the ache of loneliness, anxiety about social encounters, and the gnawing pain of depression, we who belong to Christian communities have a huge opportunity and obligation to invite outsiders in, provide them a taste of God’s goodness, and welcome them with a spirit of genuine hospitality.  However, as soon as you begin reaching...

What is the proper role of your emotions?  Should you trust them?  How do you know when they are helping and when they are hurting?  Today we'll take a look at another exciting advantage that Christianity provides.  In this episode, you'll learn about the problems endemic to emotional reasoning, the robust biblical teaching about your heart, and how God provides us away to exercise self-control. ...

One of the most enduring problems we have faced throughout human history is tribalism.  From the Nazis to the Rwandan genocide, we’ve repeatedly seen the devastating results of group think and dehumanizing outsiders.  Although some Christian groups have tragically fallen into this sin, we don’t have to.  Christianity provides a better way.  We can draw upon our roots in scripture to li...

Who are you and why does your life matter?  These two piercing questions get to the heart of your identity.  Our society in the West has increasingly embraced an internally discovered identity on the basis of individual passions.  Such expressive individualism is exciting to live out, especially if those around you push back, however, the resulting identity is both fragile and abrasive.  In contra...

Let's face it, suffering is a major problem for those of us who believe in a good and powerful God.  How do you answer skeptics who challenge your belief in God because of the gratuitous suffering endemic in human history?  In this episode we'll explore some answers to this question offered by several worldviews before looking at how the Christian metanarrative offers hope. Listen to this episode...

Freedom and morality are two interrelated concepts that everyone has an opinion about. From a Christian perspective, we limit our freedom based on our received moral code. We believe that the restrictions the bible provides us are for our good; They are not the result of a capricious deity's arbitrary or stifling whims. In fact, we believe that the limits God places on our freedom lead to the best...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 8 of the Why Christianity class . Last time we delved into the first two components of scripture's overarching story line: creation and fall.  These two explain where the world came from and what went wrong with it.  Today we'll consider the last two components: redemption and restoration.  These two tell us what God has done about t...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 7 of the Why Christianity class . So far in this class we have stuck to classic apologetics topics like reasons for God’s existence, the historicity of the resurrection, and the rationality of Christian epistemology.  Now we are going to shift gears and do some work on worldview.  One of the reasons Christianity appeals to some...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 6 of the Why Christianity class . The Bible is such a strange thing. On the one hand, it looks like a big book, on the other hand, it’s a library of books. It’s loaded with very different kinds of literature from poetry and wisdom to history and prophecy. Dozens of people were involved in it’s production over centur...

  Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 5 of the Why Christianity class . How would you go about convincing someone that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened?  Now, what if that person didn't recognize the scriptures as inspired by God.  How would you go about making a case for Jesus' resurrection in that kind of scenario?  In this presentation, you learn fou...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 4 of the Why Christianity class . Is Christianity irrational?  Is believing in God intellectually vacuous?  Jerry Wierwille will address the criticism of skeptics that Christian belief is arrogant, unjustified, and irrational.  Next, he'll describe the popular secular belief in scientism before exposing its deleterious effects. —— Li...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 3 of the Why Christianity class . How do you know God is real?  What sorts of evidence would you marshal to make a case for God’s existence?  It won’t do to tell skeptics you believe in God because you’ve always believed in him, because you were raised to believe in him, or because the Bible says so.  In this episod...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 2 of the Why Christianity class . It’s so easy to universalize our own local context.  For example, I (Sean) live in a secular, post-Catholic part of New York state.  It would be easy for me to think that most of the state or country or world is just like my area.  However, this ethnocentric perspective will not do justice to t...

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts This is part 1 of the Why Christianity class . In a culture where biblical Christianity is falling more and more out of fashion, it’s increasingly important to have confidence in your faith. Today we are beginning a class called Why Christianity, in which we will lay out a few of the ways that our faith makes sense and works best. In this f...

What do you do when everything is stripped away?  You find out who you really are. In this sermon you'll see what happened in ancient Judah when the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, ultimately resulting in utter destruction, humiliating shame, and forcible deportation. Although our times today can't really compare to the level of suffering these people went through, their experience has much to tea...

This is part three of our Biblical Giving Series . In this third and final interview with Will Barlow, we'll spend some focused time looking at Malachi 3 to understand what this passage meant in it's original context and how it relates to us today.  Next we'll take a look at three myths about Christian giving: 1. Christians are in debt to God. 2. Christians must pay for God’s protection. 3. The gi...

This is part two of our Biblical Giving Series . Today Will Barlow continues to lay out a comprehensive biblical theology of giving. First he looks at three areas of continuity between the Old and New Testaments: regarding ourselves as stewards of God's wealth giving to the poor giving to ministers Next, Barlow explains three ways in which the New Testament diverges from the Old Testament: no more...