Weighed in the Balance

Send us Fan Mail Keith Nestor says there were five Protestant beliefs he could no longer defend—and that those beliefs eventually led him into the Roman Catholic Church. As a Presbyterian pastor, I watched his arguments carefully. Surprisingly, I agree that several of those beliefs are indefensible. The problem is that they aren't actually historic Protestant doctrines. In this episode we exa...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , we take a deep dive into the historical and theological relationship between the Reformer John Calvin and the early church father Ignatius of Antioch. Recently, Roman Catholic creator Cameron Rieker claimed that Protestants "fear" Ignatius and that Calvin attempted to "erase him from history." But is that an accurate...

Send us Fan Mail I received five all-caps comments from a skeptic that demanded a response. Today, we're putting those claims—from the trial of Jesus to the dating of the Gospels—under historical scrutiny.   Was Jesus a failed Revolutionary executed by the Romans for sedition? Did Augustine change Christian doctrine to make it Manichaean and Neoplatonist? Are the Gospels just “fan fiction”? W...

Send us Fan Mail Is the King James Version the only trustworthy English Bible? How should Christians think about textual criticism, Bible translations, and the doctrine of preservation? In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , Jonathan Brooks is joined by Rev. Don Baker to bring the King James Onlyism series to a close. Having both grown up in Independent Fundamental Baptist churches, they disc...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , we conclude the 2021 King James Onlyism debate between Nathan Cravatt and Mitch Canupp, focusing on a key moment involving Titus 2:13 and the translation of “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We walk through the Greek text, discuss the Granville Sharp construction, and examine claims about whether modern translations (like the ESV...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance, we continue our review of the 2021 debate on King James Onlyism by examining two audience questions that reveal what I believe are significant inconsistencies within the King James Only and Landmark Baptist positions. First, we look at the question of Baptist history. Why are some groups throughout church history embraced as spiritual for...

Send us Fan Mail Can Christians disagree on doctrine and still recognize one another as genuine believers? In this episode of Weighed in the Balance, we examine arguments against Protestantism that claim doctrinal disagreement inevitably leads to chaos, relativism, or endless division. We discuss the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary doctrines, why Protestants reject false teachi...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance, we continue examining audience questions from the 2021 debate between Mitch Canupp and Nathan Cravatt on the King James Only controversy. This section of the debate reveals some of the deepest theological differences between the two sides. We discuss: Textual variants and how textual criticism actually works Translation differences vs. ma...

Send us Fan Mail Are we studying Scripture to discover what’s true—or just to defend what we already believe? In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , we break down a key issue behind so many theological debates: confirmation bias . Using a real exchange on Bible translations, we look at what happens when someone prioritizes their conclusions over the evidence. We cover: Why “uniformity” in man...

Send us Fan Mail Do modern Bible translations actually remove references to the blood of Christ? And what about people who struggle to understand the KJV—don’t we want people to actually read and understand the Bible for themselves? In this episode, we look at two major audience questions from the KJV Onlyism debate: Should Christians be expected to read a Bible they cannot understand? Are modern...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance, we continue working through audience questions from the Cravat–Canupp debate, focusing on King James Onlyism and textual criticism. Can anything good come from Egypt? Should manuscripts be dismissed based on their origin? Did Origen corrupt the text of Scripture? And what exactly is textual criticism anyway? We take a careful and charitab...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , we examine a common Roman Catholic objection: that sola scriptura is logically inconsistent . But is that actually true? Before responding to that claim, we lay out the positive case for sola scriptura , grounded in the Westminster Confession of Faith, and present a clear syllogistic argument :  God alone is the final authority   We acce...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to Weighed in the Balance , where we examine whether claims can hold up to scrutiny. In today’s episode, we wrap up the debate between Mitch Canupp and Nathan Cravatt—but the most interesting part is just beginning: the audience questions. We cover:  Nathan Cravatt’s final speech and whether it actually addressed the debate question   The credibility issue and histori...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we continue analyzing the 2021 debate on King James Onlyism—and take a closer look at a historical claim that simply doesn’t hold up. Was James I of England a Presbyterian but not a Calvinist? Did he reject the Geneva Bible because of Calvinist theology? The historical record tells a very different story. Drawing from the Hampton Court Conference and the contempor...

Send us Fan Mail Weighed in the Balance helps Christians evaluate arguments and discern truth. In an age of well-produced, eloquently spoken, and highly persuasive claims, this channel asks a simple question: Is this true? In this episode, we continue analyzing the debate between Nathan Cravatt and Mitch Canupp , focusing on a critical question: Which manuscript tradition is most trustworthy? But...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we continue analyzing the 2021 debate on KJV-onlyism and examine two key passages—1 John 5:7 and Revelation 16:5—that raise serious challenges for the position. While the King James Version remains a faithful and valuable translation, elevating it to the only acceptable English Bible creates major apologetic, theological, and interpretive problems. We also address...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance, we continue analyzing the debate between Nathan Cravatt and Mitch Canupp on King James Onlyism. By examining the different types of KJV-Only positions—from simple preference for the King James to claims that the KJV itself was re-inspired—we evaluate the arguments, evidence, and reasoning used in the debate. Along the way we look at textu...

Send us Fan Mail What is worship, and who decides how it should be done? In this episode, Jonathan Brooks and Ryan Biese discuss the biblical definition of worship, the regulative principle, and how modern evangelical practices compare to historic Reformed theology. 00:00 Introduction and General Assembly discussion  12:55 What is worship? Definition and biblical meaning  16:28 Creation and redemp...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , I respond to Mitch Canupp’s speech from the King James Only debate. His argument raises familiar claims about King James I, Westcott and Hort, and textual variants in modern Bible translations—but do those claims actually address the question being debated? We examine key passages such as John 7:8, Matthew 5:22, 1 Timothy 3:16, and the C...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , we return to the 2021 debate between Mitch Canup and Nathan Cravat to examine the second major question: Which Bible on the market today contains the words of God? This question gets to the heart of the King James Only controversy and the doctrine of Scripture itself. If God has preserved His Word—as Christians confess—where do we find i...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , I explain how I became convinced that Scripture teaches infant baptism. Both Roman Catholic apologists and Baptist critics often claim that infant baptism cannot be defended from Scripture alone. John MacArthur made that case clearly and forcefully for decades. But what if the real issue isn’t a lack of biblical evidence — but a misunder...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Weighed in the Balance , Jonathan Brooks examines a common claim in the KJV-only debate: that faithful Bible translations must follow a strict “word-for-word” method. Engaging arguments made by James Canupp and Jeff Cravat, this episode explores what the King James translators themselves believed about translation, how Hebrew and Greek actually work, and why “wo...

Send us Fan Mail In this crossover episode, Jonathan is joined by his friend Rev. Don Baker—Presbyterian minister, YouTuber, and fellow former Independent Fundamentalist Baptist—for a wide-ranging conversation about growing up in Fundamentalism, wrestling with dispensationalism and King James-onlyism, and eventually embracing the Reformed faith. From Israel trips and rebaptisms in the Jordan River...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I analyze Mitch Canupp’s rebuttal in the first question of the Canupp–Cravatt debate on King James Onlyism. After summarizing the structure of the debate and the opposing positions, I focus on Canupp’s central argument: that if God has preserved His Word, then that preservation must involve a re-inspired English translation—specifically, the King James Version. I...

Send us Fan Mail What does a good theological argument actually look like? In this episode of Weighed in the Balance, I return to the 2021 debate between Nathan Cravat and Mitch Canupp—not to rehash personalities or score cheap points, but to use the debate itself as a case study in how arguments should (and should not) be made. Focusing on Cravat’s response to the opening question—“Do we have a p...