The Protestant Libertarian Podcast

In this episode I talk with Dr. Kevin Chen, professor of Old Testament Studies at Gateway Seminary in Ontario, California, about his brand new book ‘ Wonders from Your Law’ , out now on IVP. In this book he argues that nexus passages, which are texts that bring together major themes and motifs from throughout the Old Testament, demonstrate both a textual unity and a theological center to the entir...

In this episode I talk with Kelly Patrick, host of The Kelly Patrick Show , about the current state of American politics. We discuss the awful legacy of 9.11 and why most Americans believe in political propaganda. Kelly then shares his thoughts on the Trump/Harris debate and the lack of any substantial policy proposals on offer by either candidate. We also discuss the state of the 2024 race, make...

In this episode I share a sermon that I preached at my church on Sunday, August 18, 2024. In this sermon I discuss the Kingdom of God. I explain how Christians have traditionally misunderstood this very important concept, it’s centrality to the message and mission of Jesus, how Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God conflicts with a more popular understanding proclaimed by the Pharisees, and how Jesu...

In this episode I talk with Dr. Matthew Levering, a Catholic theologian who teaches at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Illinois. He is the author of the brand-new book Why I Am Roman Catholic , out now on IVP, where he explains why he is committed to the Roman Catholic Church. We discuss his conversion to Catholicism, what he finds appealing about the Catholic church, and some of the c...

In this episode I talk with Trent Horn, a Catholic apologist at Catholic Answers, author, and host of the ‘ Counsel of Trent ’ podcast. We discuss his background in Catholic apologetics, why he debates protestants like James White, and why he believes in the Catholic church. He then explains the Catholic position on the Reformation, Sola Scriptura, liberation theology, Vatican II, economics, and p...

In this episode, I present a conversation that I had with Jacob Winograd, host of the Biblical Anarchy podcast, about Biblical Inerrancy. This took place on his previous show, the Daniel 3 podcast. As I clarified my positions on Protestantism, the creeds, and inerrancy in the previous episode (146, available everywhere), I thought that this conversation would help highlight my position on Biblical...

In this episode I revisit three of my most controversial episodes (5, 19, and 57) that discussed the creeds of the Christian church and Biblical inerrancy. Most of the negative feedback from my show has been generated by these two episodes, and I wanted to revisit them one more time to clear up any potential misunderstandings. First, I explain how the common denominator among all protestants is th...

In this episode I talk to Trenton Hale. Trenton is a young libertarian activist and writer who specializes in foreign policy, history, and economics. We discuss his journey to libertarianism at a young age, his published books and articles, working for Students for Liberty, and promoting libertarian philosophy at Western Kentucky University. He then explains how the culture wars, the actual wars,...

In this episode I share a sermon I preached at my church on Sunday, July 28, 2024. Using passages out of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, I explain the significance of our membership in God’s universal church. I explore the boundaries around the church and how Paul determines who is and who is not a part of the church (Ephesians 1:13-14), God’s purposes in calling the church (Ephesians 2:10 and 3:1...

In this episode I talk to George Harrell, a high school humanities teacher with Kepler Education, an online Christian education program, who is also the executive director of the Buchanan Forum, an organization promoting the relationship between liberty and theology. We have a very wide-ranging conversation that is centered on American Biblical illiteracy and how the west has lost sight of the ver...

In this episode I talk with Dr. Benjamin Shaw, who teaches at both Liberty University and Colorado Christian University. He is the president of Core Apologetics and the author of the brand-new book “ Trustworthy: Thirteen Arguments for the Reliability of the New Testament ”, which is out now on IVP. He discusses his unusual introduction into the field of apologetics and why he believes that Christ...

In this episode I talk with Sundar Iyer, a successful American entrepreneur and businessman, about how the California Department of Civil Rights (CRD) openly discriminated against him on the basis of religion. Sundar grew up in India and is himself not religious, but after a disgruntled employee complained to the CRD, the CRD assigned Sundar the religion of ‘Hindu’ and wrongly claimed that he was...

In this episode I welcome back Laurie Calhoun, an author and senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute. Laurie published a recent article at the Libertarian Institute entitled “ Sham-ocracy, Scam-ocracy ” in which she explores how the rhetoric of democracy has been used in pursuit of very anti-democratic ends. We discuss how democracy theoretically means ‘the rule of the people’ and how the polit...

In this episode I share a sermon I preached at my church on Sunday, June 30th. We are in the middle of a series called ‘Choices’, and I made the decision to explore what the book of Revelation tells us about making the choice to follow Jesus. I explain how to understand Revelation historically, exploring the author, the original audience (the seven churches in Asia minor), and the genre, which is...

In this episode, I talk with Noah Khrachvik, a Marxist and co-director of the Midwestern Marx Institute. He explains the dialectics of Marxism and why true Marxists are inherently populist. He demonstrates that Marxism is different from both postmodernism and critical theory, and why the American left has sold out their principles. We then have a long discussion about the Federal reserve, the mili...

In this episode I talk with Jeremy Kauffman, an entrepreneur and libertarian activist from New Hampshire. A recent article in Reason magazine was critical of the current direction of the Libertarian Party, and Jeremy debated the merits of the claim, as well as Reason’s funding and audience, with several Reason staffers, including Zach Weissmueller, who shared his perspective with me in my last epi...

In this episode I talk with Zach Weissmuller, senior producer at Reason magazine and cohost of the ‘Just Asking Questions’ podcast with Liz Wolfe. Wolfe recently published a piece for reason entitled ‘How the Libertarian Party Lost It’s Way’, which is critical of the current direction of the LP. It generated a lot of conflict between Reason staffers and Mises Caucus-oriented libertarians, and Zach...

In this episode, I talk with Caleb Campbell, pastor of Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona, about his brand-new book ‘ Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor ’, out now on IVP. In this book he argues that we should view Christian nationalism as a missionary opportunity, seeking to lovingly lead Christian nationalists back to Jesus. He discusses his experiences...

In this episode I welcome back Dr. James McGrath to discuss his brand-new book “Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist”, out now on Eerdmans press. In this book Dr. McGrath crafts a biography of John in which he offers a fresh look at the historical sources in an attempt to understand who John was and why he was so influential. McGrath explores John’s early life, including the tension between bei...

In this episode I explain inflation and the negative effects it has on society. I provide the correct definition of inflation, which is an increase in the supply of money relative to the amount of goods and services in an economy. I explain how the Federal Reserve, which controls the nation’s money supply and monetary policy, creates inflation by printing new money. It is this injection of new cas...

In this episode I talk with New Testament scholar Dr. Najeeb Haddad, who has written two very compelling books critiquing the popular perspective in Biblical studies that the apostle Paul was actively opposed to the Roman empire. We discuss the history of the Paul and empire debate and explore some of the key scholars and interpretive methods that have been used to justify the belief that Paul was...

In this episode I talk with Stephen Wolfe, author of ‘ The Case for Christian Nationalism ’ about the thesis that he outlines in the book and why he believes that Christian Nationalism is the solution to our political problems. This is not a debate; I ask him about various aspects of his work and let him explain his ideas and how they would work in practice. He defines Christian nationalism, how i...

In this episode, I explain why I am unhappy with everyone’s interpretation, including my own. Christians from every political perspective want to either claim Romans 13 validates their position or try to explain it away theologically, and I don’t believe that either of these approaches are historically correct. I examine the many shortcomings with popular interpretations of Romans 13, including in...

This episode is a recording of a sermon I preached on Sunday, May 19th at my church. In this sermon, I outline four reading strategies that will help guide Christians to a better understanding of the Bible. I discuss how the Bible is a library, not a book, that the Bible was written for us but not to us, that the Bible must be understood in its historical context, and that the Bible should challen...

In this episode I talk with Karl Streitel, a retired high-school English and finance teacher who now works as a freelance writer and editor. Karl writes and speaks extensively about the problems with America’s public education system, and in this episode we discuss what actually happens in American public schools, why they are systemically broken, and how we can fix them. We both share stories fro...