Restitutio

This is part four in our series on responding to your questions and comments.  In this episode, we respond to a comment made on Off Script 37: Killing Criminals , in which we took the position that capital punishment is a biblically justifiable practice, but in America today it is fraught with problems, including the outrageous cost of death row and the possibility of executing the innocent.  We r...

This is part three in our series on responding to your questions and comments.  In Off Script 28: Seeking a Christian View on Refugees and Immigrants , we concluded on the basis of several scriptures in the Old Testament as well as the Great Commission that Christians should welcome refugees into their countries.  In response to this, William wrote: First, Thank you for your podcasts and all the w...

  This is our second answer in our series on responding to your questions and comments.  In Off Script 38: Killing in War: A Christian View of Violence , we discussed whether it is appropriate for Christians to participate in war, concluding that Jesus’ command to love our enemies means that Christians should not kill others.  If you haven’t already, check out that episode first b...

Welcome to our series answering your questions and responding to some of your comments.  We’ve been saving these up and over the next few weeks, we’ll address a number of them.  We’ve decided to do these in individual episodes, so if you’re not interested in the topic, you can just skip it and listen to the ones that matter to you.  As a result, these are each significantly...

Have you ever heard the martyrdom argument for the resurrection of Jesus?  It goes something like this.  Jesus’ apostles faced persecution and martyrdom for their confession that God raised Jesus from the dead, sealing their witness with their blood.  Why would they die for a lie?  Their martyrdom unequivocally proves that they sincerely believed in Christ’s resurrection.  Since they w...

Have you ever read the book of Ruth?  Though it’s only four chapters, it contains timeless truths that can help us today.  Our culture puts an incredible amount of pressure on spouses to never change, be perfectly compatible, and fulfill our deepest longings that it’s no wonder that singles often can’t seem to find the right one.  However, the lesson of Ruth’s life is that...

Mary Willson, director of women’s initiatives for the Gospel Coalition, wrestles with a couple of the Old Testament texts that critics use to show that God hates women, including Deuteronomy 21.10-14 and Numbers 5.11-31.  First she looks at how we perceive these ancient scriptures from the perspective of our own culture, then she shows how they functioned in their original historical context...

In this last episode of our 500 class, we’ll cover a bunch of 20th century American groups including Christian Science, the Evangelicals, Plymouth Brethren, Pentecostals, Calvary Chapel, Vineyard Churches, Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Way International, the Worldwide Church of God, Scientology, the Moonies, and Megachurches (Rick Warren, Craig Groeschel, and Joel Osteen).  It&#8217...

How do you deal with difficult people? Jesus teaches us that there’s nothing noteworthy about showing love to those who love us. Rather, he says we are to be like God who sends rain on the just and the wicked. He calls us to love annoying people, boring people, monopolizing people, vengeful people, shallow people, prideful people, and all other kinds of difficult people. We are not free to s...

The 1800s was an exciting time for Christianity in America. At the same time that secularism and liberal Christianity made huge gains, several renewal movements occurred throughout the land, including the Second Great Awakening. In this episode you learn about the birth of the Protestant missionary movement with the Moravians and the Baptists, how the various Adventist denominations got their star...

This is part two of our discussion about Charles Mathewes’ Washington Post article, “ White Christianity is in big trouble. And it’s its own biggest threat. ”  Check out part one here .  In this episode we consider gun control, immigration, the death penalty, and treatment of the poor in an effort to understand and respond to evangelicalism’s ongoing public relations problem.  Are “whi...

This lecture covers the two main types of criticisms leveled against Christianity during the Enlightenment period: biblical and philosophical.  In addition you’ll see how some Christians dug their heals in and worked hard to defend their faith while others gave ground but reinterpreted Christianity in a way that would not only survive the criticisms but also attract “cultured despisers...

While scrolling through Facebook, I came across Charles Mathewes’ Washington Post article, “ White Christianity is in big trouble. And it’s its own biggest threat. ”  At first reading, I was infuriated at what I felt were unfair criticisms, but after I thought about it, I realized what an opportunity this article presented.  It collects together no less than thirteen criticisms a...

Hear the winding tale of early Christian history in the Americas with a special focus on the thirteen colonies.  Right from the start the Americas were full of Christian diversity including Catholicism, the Church of England, Puritans, Baptists, and Quakers.  In this lecture you’ll see how this diversity led to an unprecedented level of religious tolerance and flourishing.  Other significant...

Several significant sexual harassment cases have come to light in the last few months.  Now a whole range of behaviors have come under scrutiny as women (and some men) have felt emboldened to make public their experiences.  In this episode we even out our Off Script panel with one more female voice, Terri Crowder, to help us discuss this prevalent phenomenon from street corners to workplaces to ch...

Although the focus of this class is on the history of Protestants of various stripes, it’s also important to realize that Catholicism changed a good deal during the last five hundred years.  In this lecture, you’ll get a brief sketch of the history of significant Catholic movements and doctrinal declarations during this period, including the inquisition, Council of Trent, the Jesuits,...

Learn about the dissident groups in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, and Unitarians. In addition, Sean Kelly presents a vignette of John Biddle’s life and influence. This is lecture 10 of a history of Christianity class called Five Hundred: From Martin Luther to Joel Osteen . All the notes are available here as a pdf. —— Notes —— Puritans Rob...

In this sprint through British church history, you’ll learn about King Henry VIII and his staggering Act of Supremacy when he pulled the Church of England out of Catholicism and appointed himself the head of the church.  After Henry’s death, England swayed back and forth as Henry’s successors adopted Protestantism then Catholicism then Protestantism again.  Still none of this tum...

Did you know that Christianity spread to Asia in the first century?  At one time the Church of the East was bigger than the Roman Catholic Church.  Although often overlooked, this part of the world is critical to our understanding Christianity in the last five hundred years.  Our guest lecturer, Matthew Elton, guides us through an enlightening and helpful survey of the history of Asian Christianit...

Have you ever thought about what it must have been like for Adam and Eve have that conversation after the Fall, after they had become ashamed of what they had done and they had to come to grips with the new reality.  In this stunning piece of poetry, written by Preston and Jackie Perry, we see the two of them embodying Adam and Eve in a very intense exchange where they blame each other and then co...

Zooming out, this episode casts a wide net to summarize how the movement started by Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin affected Europe over the next century. We’ll see how the Reformation took root in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands while simultaneously failing to find fertile ground in France, especially among those in power. Lastly, we’ll consider the Thirty Year’s War (1618...

Have you ever noticed that pastors tend to get called to bigger churches over time, usually with better pay.  However, after fifteen years of serving at a church in rural South Carolina, Pastor Alan Cain heard God calling him to move to a smaller church that was having financial difficulty.  Although he took some convincing, Cain moved his wife and children up to Ohio and began serving at the Lawr...

In the 1500s scholars in northern Italy began questioning the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Before long the Inquisition forced these burgeoning Italian biblical unitarians to flee, resulting in the spread of their ideas to other parts of Europe. The two most significant groups that emerged were the Polish Brethren and the Unitarian Church of Transylvania. In this lecture, you’ll learn...

Is war ever justified?  If so, can Christians participate in killing?  In this episode we delve into a sensitive and controversial subject to figure out what the bible has to teach us about how we should treat our enemies.  Our aim here is not be provocative, but faithful to what our lord taught us.  Here now is the conclusion of our series on killing: off script 38: Killing in War: A Christian Vi...

Although sometimes lumped in with enlightenment rationalism, the biblical unitarian movement came to prominence right from the start of the Reformation.  Essentially, as soon as bible translations started getting into the hands of regular people, a great many Catholic doctrines came under scrutiny.  In this episode you’ll learn about three major biblical unitarian trailblazers of the sixteen...