Theology for the Rest of Us

Did Jesus have physical siblings? If so, wouldn’t that prove that Mary was not a virgin for her entire life? And, if that is the case, why do Catholics still refer to her as the “Virgin Mary” even though she conceived and gave birth to several children after Jesus? These questions and thoughts came to Kenny by email from a listener. In this episode, Kenny makes the point that Jes...

In this episode, Kenny responds to a regular listener asking about giving to charities. Kenny opens the episode by making it clear that Christians should be extremely generous; God has given us so much, we ought to demonstrate His generosity by choosing to be generous to others. There is no set amount that we ought to give, but we should seek to be sacrificial in how we give. There are no shortage...

Throughout the Scriptures we see these supernatural creatures called “angels” highly involved in a variety of things that God is doing with and through His own people. While we don’t have a lot of specific information about angels, there are plenty of things about them that we can observe. In this episode, as a response to an e-mail from a regular listener, Kenny tells about thes...

Throughout the centuries God revealed His truth to certain people, and in most cases those persons documented the revealed truth. Typically the truth was revealed for some specific contemporary purposes, but those truths were also typically transcendent and therefore valuable to all peoples of any time period. God did this many times throughout the pages of the Old Testament through the prophets....

Throughout the Bible we see several moments when God spoke to people through dreams and visions. Does God still do this? Does He still speak to people in this manner? In this episode, Kenny reminds us that the Bible is sufficient in terms of knowing what God desires from us. The Scriptures must always be the ultimate authority in our lives when it comes to determining the will of God and determini...

In the pages of the Old Testament, we see God declare pork (and several other foods) as unclean. Any person that ate these foods would be labeled “unclean” meaning that he/she would be unfit for worship. But when we fast forward to the New Testament, we see God declare pork clean. Why? In this episode, Kenny dives into understanding why God declared pork unclean in the Old Testament bu...

God cares deeply about the world. As Christians, one of our greatest desires ought to be to see the Gospel proclaimed in every place on Earth. In order to do so, we need to engage people-groups all around the globe. In this episode, Kenny interviews missionary Jonathan Ferguson about the theology of world missions and the importance of all believers engaging in world missions.

Since the late 1990’s, the concept of multi-site/multi-campus churches has grown is great popularity across North America. One model for church “scalability” has been the idea of “video campuses” wherein one campus of a church has a video feed or prerecorded sermon played during the teaching time of a Sunday morning service in lieu of a live communicator. Is this sinf...

In this episode, our host Kenny answers the question “Are Tattoos Wrong?” He reminds us that God did indeed command the Jewish people in the Old Testament to refrain from tattoos, but Kenny makes the point that New Testament Christians are no longer under the mandates of the Old Testament. We can reasonably state that there is no Biblical argument against tattoos for modern Christians....

While it may be rare in our modern Western world, there are some Christian communities and church leaders that hold to a more strict and more conservative view on women’s fashion and modesty. Some church leaders prescribe what types of clothing a woman should or should wear in her everyday life, and sometimes that may include the claim that women ought to never wear pants or jeans. Again, th...

In this episode, Kenny addresses a question that he has been asked many times over the course of his ministry experience. Often young Christians have asked him whether or not they should jump into dating someone who is not a Christian? Kenny makes it clear that, if you understand the purpose of marriage, then you will know that it us unwise for Christians to date non-Christians.

Along with the expansion of new technologies and new media forums, has also come the availability of new Christian media too. One of the forums that has grown in popularity and availability over the last ten years is the live streaming of church services and sermons. So this begs the question: Is it okay for me and my family to just skip attending church services, and just watch the live stream at...

We live in a world filled with people in need; people facing difficulties such as hunger, poverty, educational needs, advocacy, injustice! One very simple way to serve people is to meet these needs with a Gospel focus. In this episode, Kenny interviews pastor, author, professor Tony Merida about the importance of “mercy ministry.” In the interview Tony challenges all “ordinary&#8...

Multiple times in the Gospels, Jesus is called the “son of man.” In fact, it seems to be Jesus’ favorite term to use when referring to Himself. In this episode, Kenny dives into the importance of the term “son of man” and its reference to Jesus’ humanity. The term also refers to a Messianic symbol found in the book of Daniel. When Jesus uses this term to describ...

In this episode, Kenny interviews pastor Matt McAfee for a second time. In this interview, Kenny and Matt dive into a conversation about understanding the “fruit of the Spirit” and why that is more important than seeking the “gifts of the Spirit.” Matt makes two great points that all of us need to consider: 1- The fruit of the Spirit is how we judge the Christian life, not...

In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the term “earthly things” as He is telling the inquiring Nicodemus that some spiritual things are simply just not going to be understood by humans (see John 3). A regular listener of the podcast sent in an email asking for clarity on Jesus’ intent when using that specific term. In this episode, Kenny explains what the term “earthly things&#...

Many people have asked, “Why didn’t God send Jesus to Earth sooner?” It seems that God waited too long. Why did God choose to send Him at that particular time in human history? In this episode, Kenny highlights Galatians 4:4, which tells us that Jesus came when the “fullness of time” had come. Kenny makes the case that, in essence, God waited for the perfect moment in...

Jesus promised us “abundant life” but whenever we honestly consider and examine the life of most believers, we discover that most believers are not experiencing an abundant life at all. The problem is that many believers have never found the “breathing room” they actually need in this life in order to experience the vibrant abundance that Jesus wants to give to His follower...

We received an email, from a regular listener, asking about how we, as Bible-believing Christians, ought to approach areas and genres of our lives that the Bible isn’t totally clear about, and whether or not our convictions in those genres of life should or should not be built upon any sources of information other than the Bible. In this episode, Kenny dives into understanding how we ought t...

The baptism of Jesus is outlined in all four Gospels, and in each case we are told that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove immediately after His baptism. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit (the 3rd person of the Godhead) took on a bodily form and descended on Jesus. Why did this happen? And what is its significance? In this episode, Kenny explains that the Holy Spirit descended on...

In this episode, Kenny responds to an email that came from a regular listener, asking him to clarify a term he used in a previous episode. Kenny used the term “God-Man” in a previous episode, and he explains what that term means by explaining the doctrine known as the “Hypostatic union.”

There are two commonly held beliefs examined in this episode. The first is the fact that most people believe that one of the greatest themes of the New Testament is taking care of the poor. The second common belief among many people in modern Western societies is the idea that American Conservative Republicans don’t care about the poor, and that Republican politicians supposedly are fighting...

Is every area of doctrine important? Or are there areas of doctrine that matter more than others? Yes, every area is important, but not every area of doctrine is of equal importance. Some issues are “closed-hand” issues and some are “open-hand” issues. Closed-hand issues we hold tightly; these are essential and non-negotiable). But open-hand issues are areas of doctrine whe...

As a celebration for the 100th episode of the podcast, Kenny shares the greatest lesson he has learned since launching the podcast back in January 2016: God can use anyone! After giving us that lesson, Kenny then gives us a preview of what to expect over the course of the next 100 episodes.

What does it take to be a genuine Christian? What must a person believe and embrace in order to be considered a true Christian? Must a person embrace everything related to Christianity? There are certainly many different perspectives on this topic, and many related sub-topics as well. Many different church leaders would likely answer this question in a variety of different ways, but Kenny takes a...