The Blue Collar Scholar

In this episode, we talk about some of the chapters of Revelation that appear to be out of chronological order. Then we look at the 3rd set of 7 judgments called the Vials of God's Wrath. Following that, this episode discusses the physical return of Christ, Armageddon, the Millennial Kingdom, the Final Rebellion of Satan, and Judgment Day.

The middle chapters of the Book of Revelation mirror the early chapters of Exodus, showing an active God who uses a series of judgements to achieve His aims. These chapters describe events that ought to be interpreted literally, as well as events that ought to be interpreted figuratively. This Sunday School lessons quickly surveys the first 14 of the judgements in the Book of Revelation, which the...

The figure that evangelical Christians know as "the Antichrist" is an archetypal figure that informs many of the great villains in fiction, especially Nicolae Carpathia in the Left Behind novels. However, the Book of Revelation does not even refer to this person as the Antichrist, preferring to refer to him as "the Beast." In this episode, we will take a brief look at what the Bible says about thi...

After discussing various interpretations of the End Times, this series will continue in a basic premillennial understanding of eschatology. The central event - or series of events - to this interpretation of the End Times is the Tribulation, a 7 year period of hardship and judgement on the Earth that precedes the physical return of Christ. Just a reminder to hold your End Times theology loosely. W...

The Rapture is almost certainly the least-agreed-upon topic in eschatology (the study of the End Times). Men and women who are dedicated to studying Scripture and are careful to let the Scriptures dictate doctrine (and not the other way around) will disagree vehemently about the Rapture. So, in this episode, we will look into the Scriptures that premillennial dispensationalists use to form the doc...

This episode opens with a nice little time capsule: a discussion about when and how to reopen after quarantine in 2020, a process that ended up happening three times as we had to thrice go into quarantine during surges of Covid. The main thrust of this episode is a frank discussion of the 4 different "schools" or interpretations of eschatology (i.e., the study of the End Times). Those interpretati...

After the completion of our church's Church History series, we began a series on the End Times. This episode of the podcast is the introductory lecture of that series. There are major themes that Revelation, the prophetic books of the Old Testament, and other New Testament books teach us. These themes are important to establish before one digs in to deeper the details of eschatology.

2 Kings 22 is one of the more subtly shocking chapters in Scripture. In it, the high priest *FINDS* the Book of the Law in some chamber of the Temple as they are engaged in renovations. The implication is the Israel and Judah went generations when even the priests did not not read Scripture, and seemingly, they weren't even aware that they were missing it. Their religious system went on for genera...

If the faithful Christian life for you is an impossibly long checklist of things you have to do (or things you must not do) and that list is mostly things that are not dictated by Scripture, then do I have good news for you! In Christ, the believer has liberty. In this lesson, we examine Freedom of the Believer. (1) Freedom of the Believer is not there to give you free reign to sin. (2) Freedom of...

In this episode a take a crack at 10 conspiracy theories.     Here is the list that I use. Link: https://gemini.google.com/share/eb9af94fd1f5?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3uGG6FCaMsdeCUFkOj26Ky2MPegW7IPE5vW5nRcyg95hDAA4OOpIaRylQ_aem_AdPi1pqPdikY-b5wE1XlaFZCv7JiSMuErAq42zIYIUWoftlIA9SRqQ_vULuVO02-0UIF3VAxYjhpx6R9NFhLOz_0     This episode is a direct rebuttal of the Trying to Like It podcast, episode...

This is the finale of our church's Sunday School series on church history. In this episode, we discuss how the Gospel has expanded and prospered in a post-WWII world. We also look at trends that will likely define the next few decades.

My parents have been an extraordinary blessing to me. Growing up in a healthy, loving, nuclear & unbroken family is a treasure not everyone gets to enjoy. My parents are persons of high character who passed on great lessons. My father taught me the value of hard work, and my mother taught me the value of studying hard, even when the task to difficult-to-impossible. She is the original Blue Collar...

As the pandemic carried on into its second month, our church continued its 2020 quarantine. This episode brings our Sunday School lessons at the time up to nearly the present in our exploration of church history, as we take a look at developments in Christian history in the 19th & 20th Centuries.

This episode is the audio lifted from the Facebook Live broadcast of our Sunday School lesson at Living Hope Southern Baptist Church of Parsons, KS, for Easter 2020. It was April 12th, the 4th week of quarantine. The Sunday School lesson was recorded on Good Friday because I had to be on the way to the airport on Sunday morning, quite an ordeal amidst Covid Quarantine. Nevertheless, the show must...

The history of the English Bible goes all the way back to the mid-1300s when John Wycliffe decided that English speakers needed our own Bible. His version was available as of 1382. For the next 229 years, there were a variety of English translations that appeared, but none of them were as excellent as the Authorized Version - commonly known as the King James Version or the KJV - which appeared in...

This episode explores the distinctive beliefs and practices that make Baptists different from other Christians. Note: This episode was recorded 4 years ago. I refer to COVID-19 as "Coronavirus" because "COVID-19" wasn't the popular term for it yet. I refer to the pandemic as something that was just beginning. Some of my political, social, and religious opinions are subtly different now than they w...

In March 2020, COVID-19 snuck up on us and caused most of our institutions to close. We had to wear masks and only walk down the Walmart aisles in a single direction, and the TP aisle was empty. It was a weird time. Our church made the decision to go online for a few weeks, which ended up becoming several months. And even after coming back in person, we had to do quarantine again, and yet once mor...

In this, the grand finale of the American Revolution class, we examine the Constitutional Amendments. First, we take a look at all of the proposed amendments that were approved by Congress & sent to the states, but failed to be ratified by 3/4 of the states. Next, we look at each of the 27 Amendments that are part of the US Constitution. Finally, we explore several possible Constitutional Amendmen...

In this final episode in the Women in the Bible series, I introduce the concepts of Complementarianism & Egalitarianism as philosophical positions one might take when deciphering the New Testament's teachings on gender roles. We go through four of the most potent and controversial passages in the New Testament on the topic. As to whether Complementarianism or Egalitarianism represents the correct,...

The Revolutionary generation in the United States of America could not lead the country indefinitely. Eventually they had to pass the torch to the next generation. This episode surveys the history of the early American Republic in the early 1800s. We will discuss the major events, trends, and controversies during the Jefferson, Madison, & Monroe Administrations as three men from the same party and...

This episode surveys all the women who appear in the narrative of Acts, or who are mentioned in any of the books of the New Testament after the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John).

With the Constitution firmly established as the Law of the Land, the federal government was up and running, and in much better shape than it had been under the Articles of Confederation. Probably the most obvious change was that the United States finally had an executive officer as head-of-state. George Washington and then John Adams were our first two Presidents to fill that role, and in these 12...

This episode examines the Scriptures from Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John which involve female characters in the narrative. Note: The Virgin Mary is the focus of a separate episode, and is only mentioned in passing in this episode.

In this episode, we will look at the last acts of the Congress under the Articles of Confederation, the great debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists which was carried out mostly via letters/editorials in newspapers and journals, the timeline of ratification of the Constitution done by ratification conventions in the 13 states (plus Vermont), and - as always - we chase bunny trails!

Mary the Mother of Jesus is almost certainly the most recognized, significant, and important female character in Scripture. There are many misunderstandings concerning this person, too. In this episode, we will look at the Scriptural passage where Mary's story is told.