Restitutio

Today, we are publicly announcing the launch of a new para-church organization called the UCA or the Unitarian Christian Alliance .  This is a new ministry that I’ve been working on with Dale Tuggy, Kegan Chandler, and Mark Cain for months and I believe it will help all of us, but especially those who don’t live near a church that allows for biblical unitarian members.  Currently the U...

This is part 6 of our Foreknowledge and Free Will series.  Last time Dr. Sean Cole introduced the Calvinist understanding of God’s foreknowledge and the limitations on our freedom as a result of our fallen nature.  This time I ask Cole about unconditional election and how that compares to a lottery.  After all, if God has no conditions by which he decides whom he elects to salvation, then is...

This is part 5 of our Foreknowledge and Free Will series.  We’ve considered Open Theism and Arminianism and now we are going to begin thinking about Calvinism. This way of conceiving of God’s foreknowledge argues for both exhaustive foreknowledge and meticulous providence. Thus, no one comes to Christ apart from God’s predestination since our natures are so corrupted that we do n...

This is part 4 of our Foreknowledge and Free Will series.  Last time Dr. Leighton Flowers of the Soteriology101 podcast laid out his commitment to both God’s complete knowledge of all future events as well as humanity’s ability to freely choose.  Rather than explaining philosophically how that is possible, he suggested that we do not need to know “how” God does something in...

We are now in part 3 of our Foreknowledge and Free Will series .  We’ve considered Open Theism–the idea that God’s foreknowledge is limited to what he plans to do as well as what he can ascertain from past and present conditions.  In a couple of weeks we’ll examine Calvinism, which holds that God not only foreknows but also predestines all who will be saved.  But, for today...

Last week we began our Foreknowledge and Freewill series with Dr. Dale Tuggy who gave us an overview of the various positions.  He also commended Open Theism as a view that triumphs where others suffer from logical contradictions.  Now, today in part two, Tuggy will further explore and defend Open Theism against a number of common critiques including: If God doesn’t know the future, how can...

Today we are beginning an exciting new series on one of the most interesting ongoing controversies within Christian theology.  Does God have exhaustive foreknowledge of the future?  Does he know everything that is going to happen before it happens?  If so, what does that mean for human free will?  What are the various options within Christian theology and philosophy that well-meaning bible student...

Gratitude is a key to spiritually healthy living.  We have so many reasons to be thankful, but in this message, I’d like to focus on just five: Thankful because God Commanded It Thankful for the Basics Thankful for the Family of God Thankful for God’s Attention Thankful for the Cross As God’s people, our lives should not look just the same as the world.  Rather, they should be marked b...

We’ve had quite a number of folks commenting in on episode 299, my interview with Dr. Jerry Wierwille, called “ Does the Bible Support Abortion “.  That episode was very limited to focusing on a couple of texts relevant to building a Christian perspective on abortion.  Essentially, we concluded, as on several previous episodes, that abortion-on-demand doesn’t fit with the b...

Are you sold out for God?  Would you move to a foreign land if he called to the mission field?  Well, Stan and Pam Chee of Australia have done just that.  In this interview, they share about their lives of service to God and Christ.  They grew up in Australia but have been serving in Toronto, Canada for the last decade.  Of particular note is how they started and continue to do college outreach at...

Abortion has been and remains a hot-button issue in our culture at large and even within some corners of Christianity.  In this episode Jerry Wierwille will explain the issues with the only biblical text that directly addresses this subject (Exodus 21.22-5).  In addition to exegeting this confusing passage, Wierwille also draws on evidence from Psalm 51 before discussing some of the big picture et...

Scott Shay is an interesting man.  He’s a succesful business man and banker who co-founded a bank in 2001.  He even has a TEDx talk where he spoke on Wall Street on the theme, “More Banks, Fewer Problems.”  However, he’s also an orthodox Jew who is passionate about his faith.  In this interview we talk about his book, In Good Faith, including why he wrote it, why monotheism...

Jesus once said, “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Luke 11.31).  In our wisdom series so far, we’ve looked at the wisdom of Solomon from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.  We’ve also delved...

Like Job, the book of Ecclesiastes wrestles with anomalies to the general principles of wisdom contained in much of the bible.  Sometimes our world functions in chaotic and unpredictable ways.  Sometimes the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the strong, nor bread harvested by the wise, nor riches acquired by the intelligent, nor favor gained by those with knowledge (Ecclesiastes 9.11...

The Hebrew Bible contains different kinds of wisdom literature.  For example, wise sayings in Proverbs typically express general principles, providing guidance for what to do when the world is working the way it’s supposed to.  However, Job deals with just the opposite issue.  What happens when you do everything right and still face extraordinary loss and suffering?  In this teaching we&#821...

What is the book of Proverbs all about and what can this book teach you about wisdom?  Join Jerry Wierwille as he leads you through Proverbs to gain key insights to be able to read it and benefit from it on your own.  Proverbs are not merely cutesy clever sayings, but helpful insights into how to act in a given situation.  Although you may think of the bible’s proverbs as unconditional promi...

Have you ever heard the saying, “doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of insanity?”  It certainly sounds foolish to try the same approach over and over, thinking something different will happen.  So often, what we need is not more education or life hacks, but bona-fide wisdom.  Today we are beginning a series on wisdom.  Stan Chee of th...

I’ve got a fascinating interview for you with Becket Cook. Now some of you may recognize his name from the interview I did with him two years ago ( Interview 18 ). In that episode Cook shared his amazing testimony of how he went from a committed gay production set designer in Hollywood to experiencing God in a church service so deeply that it completely changed his life forever. Here’s...

This is the third and final part of our series, God at Work in Kenya with Maurice Chahilu of Kingdom Life Ministries.  We’ve come to see so much about what is going on over there, but there’s still more to learn.  Last time I had asked bishop Maurice about his greatest challenges and what he is doing to overcome them.  He shared about a number of concerns, but the last of them was abou...

Maurice Chahilu and Rebekah Martin This is part two of our series on God at Work in Kenya with a focus on Kingdom Life Ministries and Maurice Chahilu.  In our last episode we saw how Maurice got started in his ministry.  (If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, go back and listen to it first).  Today, we’ll hear about some of his major challenges, his emphasis on the great commiss...

God is doing something in Kenya and churches are forming and growing rapidly.  Today we are beginning a series of shows on the work of Kingdom Life Ministries and the visionary who began the work there, Maurice Chahilu. A few weeks ago I went to Africa to visit Maurice and the churches he oversees.  I was part of a team of missionaries who were going over to support the work that has been going on...

Today is the second and final part of my interview with Leah Fronczek on detoxing your brain.  See part one here .  We begin by talking about the importance of free will in effecting change before getting into the specifics of how to combat toxic thinking.  Learn about multitasking, daydreaming, community, forgiveness, and honesty as ways to combat negativity.  This episode will help you in your q...

At the beginning of each year, we have a young adult event called Revive in Connecticut.  This year Leah Fronczek was one of the workshop leaders.  Her topic was detoxing your brain and I asked her to come on Restitutio to share with you what she learned in studying this topic.  This is so important for us as Christians, because God expects us to be able to control our thinking (Romans 12.2).  How...

Last Saturday while I was attending a Christian festival in Ohio, a 21 year-old man entered a Walmart in El Paso, TX and murdered 22 people, injuring 24 more, making it the 7th deadliest shooting in modern US history.  What’s so crazy about this, is that walking into a huge store like Walmart and shooting a semi-automatic assault rifle and hitting 46 people is only 7th!  Can you agree with m...

Bill Schlegel lived in Israel for 34 years, much of that time spent studying and then teaching about the geography of the scriptures.  In this interview he provides three reasons why every bible-student should study the land of Israel: historical accuracy archeological accuracy geographical accuracy He also talks about his upcoming tour to Israel (March 19-April 2).  Get more information about tha...