Restitutio

This is part one of our Biblical Giving Series . Having grown up with a prosperity theology, Will Barlow begins by sharing about his background regarding tithing before tackling five myths about giving: The tithe was monetary and applied to all Israelites. The tithe was the first fruits of the harvest The tithe was always 10%. The poor Israelites tithed to God. Abraham's tithing makes it applicabl...

Growing up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Timypaul Lupe came face to face with poverty, hunger, and even war. However, his relationship with God provided him with stability and strength through the hardest of times. In this interview, you'll hear about what life was like in Africa, how Timypaul came to America as a student, and how he eventually came to find his role as a passionate evan...

Have you ever attended an online bible study? Would you like to start one, but don't know how? In our episode today, John Paola Ely share about their own journey of faith and how they have come to appreciate the interactive bible study model of fellowship. Not only does this type of meeting help attendees engage with the text of scripture, but it also fosters genuine community in an age where we a...

This is part 7 and the final episode in our holy spirit series . Are you on a journey with God or have you arrived? Are you still willing to learn and grow and try new things or have you erected boundaries around your current understanding and practice? Today my guest is Kevin Guigou, a full-time minister at Christian Family Fellowship in Tipp City, Ohio. Although he came from a background that st...

This is part 6 of our holy spirit series . Today we hear a new perspective on the manifestations of the spirit from Carlos Jiménez who stakes out what he calls an "evidentialist" position. He is neither a cessationist nor a continuationist, but someone who retains a certain level of skepticism towards reports of spiritual activity. His concern is to test the spirits to make sure they are biblicall...

Today we enter into part 5 of our series on the holy spirit . We've seen a couple of perspectives, but my guest today is bringing in a third view to our exploration of this important topic. Growing up with the belief that tongues were the only evidence of salvation, Pastor Victor Gluckin eventually changed his view to accept more diversity in how the spirit shows up in believers' lives. Victor Glu...

This is part 4 of our holy spirit series . Today we continue to hear John Truitt and Greg Deuble discuss speaking in tongues. If you haven't listened to the previous three episodes in this series, it would be good to do that before listening to this one. Also, if you want to get the most out of this bible-heavy discussion, you should read 1 Corinthians 14 prior to listening--and maybe also keep it...

This is part 3 of our holy spirit series . Do you know what I don't hear enough of today? Dialogue--honest-hearted, biblically-informed, respectful dialogue. So often we silo ourselves off in echo chambers with our doctrinal comrades, occasionally lobbing malotov cocktails at the other side, never taking the time to understand them, much less ask the question, "Could I be wrong on this?" My goal h...

Last week John Truitt explained why he believes the gifts of the spirit are still available for Christians to experience. Today, Greg Deuble pulls on his own biblical research and personal experience to present an opposing case. What's fascinating about Deuble is that he believes in God's miraculous activity in the world today. However, he doesn't believe that speaking in tongues (glossalalia) is...

Restitutio exists to restore authentic Christianity and live it out today. As a restorationist, it really does matter to me how the earliest Christians practiced their faith. A question I ask myself is if I jumped in a time machine and went back to the late first century and attended a house church meeting, would I fit in? Is what I believe about the bible what they believed? Is how I do Christian...

As our society increases in polarization and ideological tribalism, it's easy to become thin-skinned, taking offense at the slightest remark. Even certain words can trigger us to explode in outrage and vitriol. What are we to do? Should we cloister ourselves in echo chambers, surrounded by those who already agree with us? Should we listen when criticisms come our way? After all, sometimes they may...

Today in our fourth and final part of our series on postmodernism Pastor Jacob Ballard explains four key guidelines for cross-cultural ministry. Always change the language, but never change the message Exchange meta-narrative for personal narrative or community narrative Exchange certainty for humility, clues, hints, and mysteries Exchange absolutist morality for personal accountability and commun...

Today, in part three of our series on postmodernism we ask the question, "How is postmodernism affecting our world today?" Pastor Jacob Ballard explains how narrative, experience, community, and subjective truth are key ways that postmodern-minded people go about making sense of reality. Then he shows how movements like Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights draw strength from these postmodern ways...

In our last episode, Pastor Jacob Ballard explained what worldviews are. Today he covers the two major worldviews: modernism and postmodernism. Although many today still approach life from a modernist mindset, postmodernism is here in increasing force. What are we as bible-believing Christians to do about this? The first step is to become aware of what's going on and how it both fits with and chal...

Have you noticed the shifts happening all around us in our culture? Skepticism of traditional institutions from the government to the media to churches is at an all time high, while increasingly we're told to discover our authentic self and live it out courageously. Universal truth claims sound like power grabs while individual personal truths are celebrated no matter how patently false they seem....

Have you noticed the shrill tone that permeates public discourse in our time? It seems like everyone is on a hairpin trigger ready to rage and vent at their ideological enemies. What is a Christian to do? Should we stand up for our beliefs, morals, and politics? Should we disengage from conversation about controversial issues? Is there another way? Peter Miano, my guest for today, shares how respe...

Did you know the Unitarian Christian Alliance just launched a podcast? In this interview, Mark Cain explains what he aims to do with this newest addition to one God podcasts and how the UCA podcast is different from the others. Ultimately, he wants to see unitarian Christians carry ourselves with confidence, knowing that our faith is firmly rooted in the scriptures. —— Links —— Contact Mark Cain:...

Sam who asked me not to use his last name for fear that he will get kicked out of his current church, tells his story of navigating evangelical Christianity as a biblical unitarian. He shares two sad stories of excommunication from a college ministry and a local church. As you might suspect, this harsh treatment drove Sam to question his non-trinitarian beliefs. Even though he had every reason to...

Pastor Jeff Deuble of the Churches of Christ in Sydney, Australia shares his journey to uncover the genuine Jesus from scripture alone. After his brother Greg challenged him to understand Christ from a Jewish perspective, Jeff set out on a quest, reading through all of scripture to see what it really said about the Messiah. What he found upended his life, bringing both delight at his clearer under...

This is the second part of a conversation where Jerry Wierwille challenges Brandon Duke's soul-making theodicy. In particular, Wierwille raises the following questions: Why is hiddenness and epistemic distance considered a necessity for moral development considering the biblical examples where people experienced God and still retained their ability to make real moral choices either to obey or reje...

In our last two episodes , Brandon Duke laid out his way of answering the question of why God allows so much suffering in our world. He did so by putting forward a modified version of the late John Hick's soul-making theodicy. In this episode, Jerry Wierwille pushes back on a few issues with soul-making, preferring instead a classic free will theodicy. First we'll see how Duke's version of soul-ma...

In part one , Brandon Duke laid out some of the important groundwork for thinking about how a good and powerful God might have a world capable of experiencing immense amounts of evil and suffering. In our conversation today, we'll delve further into the idea of soul-making to explain why suffering like death, damage, decay, and deprivation along with the limitation of God's hiddenness are necessar...

If God is so good and powerful, why is there so much evil in our world? Although you might retort, "It's because humanity fell into sin and we are all suffering the consequences." Such an answer merely pushes the question back one step, since God is the one who determined just how fallen our world would become once sin entered the picture. Why doesn't he allow more suffering or less? What are his...

When Joshua Anderson left home and attended a secular college, the environment bombarded him with skepticism and criticism of Christianity.  He internalized the general attitude manifested on campus from professors, students, and text books to such a degree that he began doubting his faith.  He fell into a two year period of existential despair as he desperately read book after book trying to find...

I love hearing people's stories--especially people of faith. In this episode you'll get to know Bob Jones, a professor at the Atlanta Bible College. He's equally adept teaching chemistry or physics as he is Old Testament or Systematic Theology. Now in his seventies, Jones looks back on his life to see how God led him through it all, even in the darkest of times. —— Links —— To get in touch with Bo...