The Blue Collar Scholar

Epistemology - or, how we know things - is important. We humans know things through logic, reason, observation, empirical research, etc. One way to know things is through revelation. So, for instance, what number am I thinking of right now? The answer is 42. How do you know that the answer is 42? Because I *revealed* it to you. And by the nature of the knowable thing in question, you can only ever...

This episode is a quick overview of the entire Bible, placing the major characters and the 66 books of the Bible in their appropriate place in a mostly chronological survey of the Holy Bible.

In the Fall of 2017 & Spring of 2018, Fellowship Baptist Church of Neosho, Missouri, and its then-pastor Buddy Funk entrusted to me the Sunday nigh worship service, an honor that I still cherish almost a decade later. What I crafted was something I called "Ambassador Academy." 2 Corinthians 5:20 in the English Standard Version reads, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal...

The last episode with my friend Aaron was a serious discussion of immigration policy, but this episode is silly pop culture fun! First, we discuss the things we like, the things we're trying to like, and the things we can't like no matter how hard we try. But then, the main event! From the IMDB Top 250 Movies, I took the highest ranking films that (1) we both have watched, & (2) only one film per...

This is the third interaction between Southeast Kansas' own The Blue Collar Scholar podcast and Southwest Missouri's own Trying to Like It podcast. In episode 66 (which is episode 84 of Trying to Like It), we talked about music festivals and classic rock. In episode 102 I respond to Trying to Like It episode 109 which talked about conspiracy theories. In this episode, my friend Aaron Carmichael an...

The plan was to teach a "Comparing World Religions" class this fall. Unfortunately, too few students signed up for the class. Nevertheless, the first lecture was given and recorded, and here it is. In this episode, we ask the question "What is religion?" Each religion answers ten different questions, and each religion answers those questions quite differently. This lecture analyzes how different r...

The plan was to teach a World War II class this fall. Unfortunately, too few students signed up for the class. Nevertheless, the first lecture was given and recorded, and here it is. In this episode, we take a look at the history leading up to "The Great War," and do an ever-so-brief survey of World War I (as the Great War came to be known).

In 2021, I was invited onto an atheist podcast five times to represent an evangelical perspective. The podcast is known as "Analyzed" and can be found in your podcast distributor. This episode was originally called "Episode #29 Celebrity Moral Failings and Societal Retributivism." This episode has been edited by the Blue Collar Scholar podcast in order to ensure that we would not need an "E" ratin...

In 2021, I was invited onto an atheist podcast five times to represent an evangelical perspective. The podcast is known as "Analyzed" and can be found in your podcast distributor. This episode was originally called "Episode #26 Abortion and Personhood Debate." This episode has been edited by the Blue Collar Scholar podcast in order to ensure that we would not need an "E" rating, but the views of a...

In 2021, I was invited onto an atheist podcast five times to represent an evangelical perspective. The podcast is known as "Analyzed" and can be found in your podcast distributor. This episode was originally called "Episode #24 Convo with Will About the Atlanta Shooter and Evangelicalism." This episode has been edited by the Blue Collar Scholar podcast in order to ensure that we would not need an...

*** NOTE: This episode features a panelist talking frankly about his history of drug use. This episode may not be suitable for younger viewers. *** In 2021, I was invited onto an atheist podcast five times to represent an evangelical perspective. The podcast is known as "Analyzed" and can be found in your podcast distributor. This episode was originally called "Episode #21 Our Deconversion Stories...

This is my very first podcast of all time, back in 2021 when I was invited onto an atheist podcast to discuss sex and relationships. The podcast is known as "Analyzed" and can be found in your podcast distributor. This episode was originally called "Episode #19 Challenging a Pastor on Monogamy and Sexuality." This episode has been edited by the Blue Collar Scholar podcast in order to ensure that w...

The final episode in the Life of Christ series is also the last extant recording of any of the sermons I gave at First Baptist Church of Goodman, at least any recordings I am aware of. In this sermon, I explore the resurrection of Christ and why it is such an important event.

The death of Jesus Christ is perhaps the most important moment in all history, according to a Christian theological interpretation of history. The death gives the resurrection obvious meaning, it represented (once again) prophecy fulfilled by Jesus, and mostly it was the moment of atonement, went Christ's blood served as the penal substitutionary atonement that makes salvation possible.

One week before Easter each year, most churches celebrate what is called "Palm Sunday." This commemorates the moment when Jesus enters into Jerusalem to begin his final week of ministry before His death, burial, and Resurrection. As Jesus is entering the city, his followers wave palm branches and lay down their cloaks on the ground to hail His arrival. That is why we call it Palm Sunday; but that...

Jesus chose His closest disciples from amongst the working class, the poor, the outcasts, & the unwanted. And Jesus took those men - men that society saw as losers - and the Lord changed the world with these men. Each person who belongs to the family of God with the name Christian applied to our name is a disciple, and it is our duty to worship the Lord and to love the least of these, a.k.a. those...

At the risk of stating the obvious, Jesus Christ is the most important person in Christian teaching and theology. The Old Testament points to Him, the New Testament documents His ministry and the birth of the Church that exists to worship Him, and of all human history since the First Century has been affected by His life. This sermon is the first in an 8 part series on the Life of Christ. Unfortun...

This was not the conclusion to the End Times Series, but the last couple of messages were not recorded. So this sermon about the Tribulation is the last teaching about the End Times that we will have on this podcast for a very long time, since I have already covered this topic thoroughly in Sunday School format and in lectures from a Revelation class for senior citizen learners. In this message, I...

I am always careful when dealing with the topic of the rapture, acknowledging that many (perhaps most) Biblical scholars scoff at this piece of dispensational theology, and I remain extremely non-dogmatic about it. Nevertheless, this episode of the pod makes a Scriptural case for the rapture, but also gives a more expansive set of lessons that we can learn from this bit of doctrine.

This episode explores the differences between premillennial dispensationalism, historic premillennialism, and amillennialism. (Unfortunately, the recording got cut off before discussing postmillennialism or preterism.) In short, there are many different interpretations of eschatology. Scripture is not as crystal clear about eschatology as we would like, and therefore, Christians should be very tol...

If your exposure to my teaching is mostly limited to the content of this podcast feed, then you might have concluded by now that I am one of the those End Times preachers. After all, I have already done a Bite-Sized Theology series on the End Times, a pandemic-era Sunday School series on the End Times, and a Lifetime Learning college class on eschatology. I ask you to believe that I actually do no...

In this conclusion to The Hurt & the Healer series, we talk about what it looks like to heal, and how God can use the tragedies in your life to bring glory to Him, to enrich your life, and to love and serve others in their times of trouble.

The Hurt & the Healer series continues by showing that the ultimate struggle between God and Satan is already a foregone conclusion. Satan and evil and death and pain are marked for defeat. Ultimate victory and healing belong to God, and Christ's victory is our victory. For in New Heavens & New Earth, He will wipe every tear and there will be no more pain or death, and God will make His dwelling w...

This episode digs into the age-old Problem of Evil, or as it is usually expressed: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The question can be answered, but we need to be careful. Telling a hurting person that God may have sufficient reasons to allow a certain instance of suffering, or that there are not really any purely good people, is probably not helpful. Such explanations are not going to...

This is the first sermon in a series called "The Hurt & the Healer." This series was inspired by the Mercy Me song of the same title. This series seeks to provide hope to those who are hurting. The theme of this message is "strong tower," as in: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe." (Proverbs 18:10) Each of us has a crossroads moment when hard times...