Truce - History of the Christian Church

There was a time not so long ago when the value of an ounce of gold cost $20.67. That was true not just in one moment or one year. It was true in the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1920s... This was the gold standard. A person could take $20.67 to a federal bank and receive an ounce of gold in return. This system worked really well... for a while. But by the 1890s the constant deflation caused by the increa...

This season of the Truce Podcast tracks the history of Christian fundamentalism. So far we've covered the rise of para-church ministries through preachers, the creation of dispensationalism, and the rising threat of modernist theology in the late 1800s. That is a lot to digest! So in this episode, I thought it would be helpful to sit down with some of the smartest guys I know and ask them, "how do...

George Marsden characterized Christian fundamentalism as "militantly anti-modernist protestant evangelicalism". Right there you see that fundamentalism is a reaction against something. And that something is modernist theology. Modernism is a broad term used to describe a few different schools of liberal theology. In this episode, we discuss the Tubingen and Berlin schools. Modernist theology is of...

The 1800s were a time of milking cows and going to the county fair. Sure... but what else? We tend to think of this century as a quiet, pastoral era when people were friendly and life was simple. But the 1800s were a crazy time! The American Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish-American War, conquest, the suffrage movement, the prohibition movement, massive technological changes. It's a won...

Become a patron of the show and help make the Truce episodes you love. This season we're tracing the history of Christian fundamentalism through the life of William Jennings Bryan. But first, we need to learn some important definitions. Our big word of the week is dispensationalism. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Dispensationalism is (in part) the notion that God treats humankind differentl...

Give to help keep Truce going! What is the difference between premillennialism and postmillennialism? And what does it matter? After the French Revolution in the late 1700s, Christians began to see the world as coming to an end. Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 describe an oppressor who will wear the people out for a period of time. Some Christian interpret that as being 1260 years. That 1260 years can...

Donate to support the Truce Podcast! Correction: The original version of this episode incorrectly represented Arminian belief. It involves the belief that once grace is offered by God that a sinner can reject the offer. The original version stated that the sinner made the first move to initiate a relationship. That is incorrect. Arminians believe that God makes the first move, but His offer can be...

Become a patron of the Truce Podcast! In our present moment, it seems that people are inclined to extremes. Christian fundamentalism seems to be on the rise. This season we're examining the history of Christian fundamentalism. We'll start by defining terms like "evangelical", "premillennialism", "dispensationalism", "modernist theology", and "fundamentalism". Then we'll work our way to the Scopes...

Christmas can be a difficult time for many of us. How do we love people who disagree with us? How do we cope with people who don't seem to make sense anymore? In this bonus Christmas message, I just want to remind all of us of Jesus' command to both love our God AND love our neighbor. How has 2021 been for you? Leave a comment on social media or on the website at www.trucepodcast.com. God willing,...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast When you think of the world's worst mass murderers, King Leopold II doesn't usually come up. But due to his forced labor practices in the Congo, nearly 10 million people lost their lives. He did this by pretending that his actions in that region were a missionary effort. In realit...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast The British slave trade had several well-known opponents: William Wilberforce and John Newton (who wrote "Amazing Grace") to name a few. But historian Adam Hochschild ("King Leopold's Ghost", "To End All Wars") argues that history has largely forgotten the most valuable member of...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast So many Christians are angry at the Church. Not just the Church but their local churches as well. Producer Chris Staron decided to take a look inside one small congregation to see how Black Lives Matter, COVID, the 2020 Presidential Election, and more have impacted one community....

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Truce usually uses research, music, sound effects, and expert interviews to tell complicated stories about the Christian Church. We've made something like 100 episodes! Our listeners recommended that we celebrate by asking Chris questions submitted by audience members. Special tha...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Jackson, Wyoming is a small tourist town in the middle of nowhere. It is just a few miles south of Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Millions of people pass through each year as tourists. It's a vacation hotspot. But for those who choose to stay in this region, Teton Coun...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Some of the wealthiest people in the world live (or pretend to live) in Jackson, Wyoming. That includes some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Digging into the property tax records, we discovered that one of the most successful actors in film history pays less in property tax tha...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast The myth of the American cowboy features a lone man who makes his fortune on the open plains. He doesn't need the government, and he doesn't need some big corporation telling him what to do. But that myth is far from the reality in the west. Many cowboys worked for large corporate...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast What do you think of when you picture a cowboy? A rugged, handsome individual? A lover? Someone who doesn't need the government's help? Evangelicalism has long pushed this as the ideal model for the Christian man. What is the impact of that set of ideas? John Wayne and Ronald Reag...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Christians throughout history have responded to politics in different ways. In our modern era, it can seem like Christianity and Republican politics are one and the same. But what do we do when the Bible clashes with our political party? What if our economic model leaves no room f...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Do systems really keep minorities down? Even asking the questions sound socialistic to some. But we need to go through our society to root out systems that breed inequality. But how? Sometimes discussions of racism can make us feel helplessly lost. That's why I called in an expert...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Some of the most common feedback I heard about season 3 of Truce is that I didn't give the Christian America camp enough time to back their opinion. In this mini-episode, I discuss my reason for leaving people like David Barton of Wall Builders off of the show. I also play a short...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast At the 2019 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Los Angeles, I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Richard Land. Dr. Land is a man of the company line who mixes Republican thought with Christianity. At this interview, Dr. Land said (off mic) that the reason this generation...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast A few months ago I produced two episodes about the Christian roots of American labor unions. And... a bunch of people stopped listening to the show. It turns out that many American Christians are conservative and, therefore, anti-union. This mini-episode is the counterbalance to t...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast Season three of Truce has been all about how the rise of communism in Russia impacted the Christian Church. As we approach the end of the season, I want to highlight some of the important takeaways. One of them is that communism can be used as a scapegoat. That is used by some peo...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast MAGA folks look back on the history of the United States and see a golden era: the 1950s. When religion was in the public eye, television and movies were clean, and father came home from work with dinner hot on the table. The trouble is that this vision of the 1950s only existed i...

Become a patron of the show and help me make even more great episodes! Donate by visiting www.patreon.com/trucepodcast The January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol demonstrated the dangers of extreme Christian nationalism. When we allow our ideas about God and His protection to overrun the Bible, we get into serious trouble. Now, many Christians are questioning their faith. Why does the Jesus of the...