Restitutio

This is part one of the Restoration Theology class . How do you know what to believe? Have you ever been frustrated when hearing multiple perspective on a doctrine and weren’t sure which to believe? There are so many denominations out there, each with its own statement of faith and traditions. How can you be sure that the beliefs you inherited are really true? Will you be satisfied if I just...

One of the great concerns that many of us pastors have about our churches is the lack of community. So often people come, sit for a while, and leave without making any real connections with others who are present. In other cases, a self-centered, spectator mindset leads to cynicism and misery, which, in turn, degrades or divides the community. I originally delivered this sermon back in January of...

Greg Cheney grew up in Texas where he joined the Independent Fundamental Baptists. In his twenties, he felt a call to ministry, which resulted in ordination and serving in three Baptist churches. After an unpleasant five years in ministry, Cheney found himself in the corrections industry. At this point, with no remaining institutional ties, he began questioning his beliefs on a variety of subjects...

Is new creation here now or must we until Christ’s coming to experience it? If new creation is here now, what does that mean? How can you participate in it? Join me as we consider what it means to be in Christ today. We’ll see that not only has God created a whole new realm through Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, but also that this new creation spans both heaven and...

Who is the child Isaiah prophesied about in the famous line, “For unto us a child is born”? Although most Christians see this as a reference to Jesus, we should first ask what this meant to Isaiah and his original audience seven centuries before Christ. When we do, we see that this prophecy was actually about deliverance from the Assyrian Empire and an unprecedented, miraculous militar...

Today we’re promoting a couple of upcoming events in 2026. First up is the inaugural conference near Sydney, Australia for the Unitarian Christian Alliance. This will be a weekend of scholarly presentations as well as practical workshops. In what follows I chat with several of the organizers for the event, including Matthew Bradley, Jeff Deuble, Andrew and Vivienne Johnstone, Ali Steer, and...

  Metaphysics Mike talks about his recent debate with Al Garza over the question is Jesus Yahweh. In the four-hour ordeal, two aspects of Garza’s unusual belief system made for a confusing and frustrating discussion: (1) Garza believes that Yahweh is not a name but an attributive title asserting eternality, and (2) he thinks the Syriac Peshitta and Aramaic Targums have primacy over the...

After graduating from Caltech with a degree in physics, Scott Sperling pursued computer science and ended up working in rocket science. He’s also been a Christian for decades and has applied his analytical mind to Bible study, especially on his website ScriptureStudies.com . In this interview I ask him about his paper, “ A Hypothesis for the Mechanism of Bodily Resurrection ” in...

Heroes of Faith Series Ezra stood at the precipice of history. God’s people had returned to the land after a traumatic seventy years in exile. They had begun rebuilding, but they had already–perhaps unknowingly–taken steps that would land them back into idolatry. Ezra’s stand for God changed the course of history. Not only was he a man of great faith who taught the Bible wi...

Heroes of Faith Series The book of Esther tells the story of a tragedy turned into a miraculous deliverance. But even more than that, it teaches us about courage. There are times in life when remaining faithful to God may cost you everything. What will you do if you find yourself in that kind of situation? I hope you will be like Esther who resolved to do the right thing “And if I perish, I...

Heroes of Faith Series How does your faith affect you at work? Of course, there’s the classic verse about working heartily unto the Lord, but beyond working hard, how does your faith affect you at work? Today in part seven of our Heroes of Faith series, we’re going to look at the life of Daniel. Although he was a prophet of great significance, he also worked for the government in an in...

Have you heard of the Disciple Collective ? It’s a new website putting out free Christian courses. In this interview I talk with Pastors Josiah Cain and Levi Salyers about this new project, including whom the Disciple Collective is for, what courses are available, how they’re putting them together, and what motivated them to embark on such an ambitious project. This is something you&#8...

Heroes of Faith Series Today is part 6 of our “Heroes of Faith” series. I hope you are enjoying it so far. Sometimes it’s good for the soul to be inspired and encouraged by heroic people in the Bible. Now we come to Hosea, one of the least read prophets in the Bible, though he has so much to say to us today. In fact, I would argue that for many of us our economic situation more c...

Heroes of Faith Series Today we’re going to consider a triplet of three heroes of faith: Hagar, Abigail, and Jehoshabeath. Originally this sermon was called “Women of Integrity,” but I think it fits our current series on heroes of faith nicely. I find their examples inspiring because they went through serious hardships and yet they chose to do the right thing. Anyone can pursue r...

Heroes of Faith Series Are you selling yourself short? Have you settled for the status quo? Is your faith too small? These are important questions to ask yourself from time to time. Is God calling to change something, move somewhere, or do something new? Today in our Heroes of Faith series we’ll look at the example of Elisha. He was a bold prophet who did extraordinary things for God in his...

Heroes of Faith Series With Hannah, we aren’t told what the cause was of her barrenness. We just know that it was a heavy load to bear in her time. Although in our time, many of us use contraceptives or go through procedures to ensure we don’t keep having children, Hannah’s time was different. Children were understood to be blessings from God that were absolutely essential for ca...

Heroes of Faith Series Ruth was an extraordinarily courageous and loyal woman of God. In our society of disposable relationships, cancel culture, and cutting off parents, Ruth presents us with a challenge to stick with family even when calamity strikes and hope seems lost. As a Moabite, Ruth was unlikely to be accepted in Israelite society. Even the Torah itself codified exclusion of all Moabites....

Heroes of Faith Series Today we’re beginning a new series called “Heroes of Faith.” For each of these episodes we’ll focus on someone who stood for God. My aim with this series is to inspire and encourage you in your faith. Today we’re looking at Noah. Although often relegated to children’s stories, his story is rather macabre. Living in a time of spiritual and...

I’d like to dedicate this episode to my mother, Mimi Finnegan who fell asleep in death yesterday. It was such a surreal experience, standing by that hospital bed with my brothers and sisters and dad. We had so much confusion regarding her prognosis, but eventually it became clear that she had very little time left. We prayed for her, read scripture to her, played some of her favorite Christi...

Quick question: “If you lived in the Roman Empire who would you want to be?” Most of us answering this question would immediately think, “the emperor” or “a wealthy person of importance.” Herod Antipas was just such a person. A son of Herod the Great and ruler of Galilee and Perea, Antipas was an influential and powerful person in the time of Christ. He was part...

Peering into the very late first century BC we find the briefest overlap of two individuals, both of whom would claim to be the king of the Jews. On the one hand we see Herod the Great, a capable and fierce man, full of ambition and paranoia. On the other hand, we see Jesus of Nazareth, who taught love, sacrifice, and humility. I wonder, which do you consider to be the real king of the Jews? Of co...

Do you ever feel discouraged? Do you ever think, “Why has God allowed so many to get off track?” Has someone challenged you with the question, “If you’re right about Christian theology, then why in the world would God allow the majority of Christians to be deceived for so many centuries?” Join me as we look to Isaiah 41 to see how God worked with ancient Israel to enc...

Michael Temperato (aka Metaphysics Mike) shares about his journey of faith. He tells about his struggles with drug addiction, pornography, broken relationships, and even jail. After hitting rock bottom, he turned to God and has been on a quest to pursue truth wherever it leads. After getting the left foot of fellowship from a church for asking questions, he came to embrace Torah observance and dou...

How should we understand the words, “in him all things were created” in Col 1.16? Although commonly taken to mean Christ created the universe, this view has contextual, structural, and exegetical problems. In what follows I’ll name six problems with old-creation readings before laying out why a new creation approach makes sense. I presented this talk at the 2025 Unitarian Christian Alliance...

Today is part three of our summer mini-series on evangelism. We started two weeks ago with a focus on God’s heart for the lost. Then last week we heard how simple it is to find opportunities to speak to people. Still, we need to cover what the message is that we ultimately want to share with the lost. Today you’ll learn about the rich, threefold message of the kingdom, the cross, and t...