The Laymens Lounge

In John 15, Jesus says, “I have called you friends.” But what does it mean to be friends with Jesus? In the early 1650s, theologian John Owen attempted to answer this question through a series of sermons, eventually compiled as Communion with God. The book is full of truths about having fellowship with God, but Owen’s work is often a struggle for modern readers to understand. 

In Friendship with God, pastor Mike McKinley takes a key idea or insight from Communion with God and clarifies it for readers in each chapter, giving them practical guidance for how to develop fellowship with God—such as obeying the Father’s commands, acknowledgment of sin, and prayer. Perfect for new Christians or for those without a church background, this accessible resource offers an introduction to the God who “wants you to know him and be known by him.” 

Join us as we sit down with Mike and discuss the expectations and nature of friendship with God.

Tracing the History of Abortion in America by Looking beyond the Laws to the Dramatic Stories and Colorful Personalities of the People They Touched

Fifty years ago, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion-on-demand sparked nationwide tensions that continue to this day. In the decades since that ruling, abortion opponents and proponents have descended on the Capitol each year for marches and protests. But this story didn’t begin with the Supreme Court in the 1970s; arguments about abortion have been a part of American history since the 17th century. So how did we get here?

The Story of Abortion in America traces the long cultural history of this pressing issue from 1652 to today, focusing on the street-level activities of those drawn into the battles willingly or unwillingly. Authors Marvin Olasky and Leah Savas show complex lives on both sides: Some sacrificed much to help the poor and others sacrificed the helpless to empower themselves. The Story of Abortion in America argues that whatever happens legally won’t end the debate, but it will affect lives.

Join us as we sit down with Leah Savas as we discuss "The Story of Abortion in America: A Street-Level History, 1652–2022" (Crossway).

The gLAWspel is Depressing but the Gospel is Sweeeeeet!

Happy new year! To kick off season 4, hosts Benji and Jason chat (this is episode 1 of 2) a bit about their own stories and the glory of the Gospel over and against the old man, about how legit it was when when we realized the Gospel is actually good news when its rightly divided, and we also touch a lil on your boy Kuyper as well.

Because there are no throwaway verses

When starting a new Bible-reading plan, many readers begin enthusiastically in Genesis but then lose momentum when they encounter the Old Testament laws and genealogies. But the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Bible—has much to offer today’s Christian; it is the foundation for understanding the rest of the Bible, pointing forward to the coming Savior, Jesus Christ, in profound ways. In this interview with Ian J. Valiancourt, author of “The Dawning of Redemption: The Story of the Pentateuch and the Hope of the Gospel”, we learn there are no throwaway verses and that we need to immerse ourselves in the Bible getting pickled in the glory-book!

Trevin Wax is a pillar of the SBC and recently wrote a book called “The Thrill of Orthodoxy Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith” published by IVP. Join us as we see just how far the creeds and orthodoxy touch on so much of life.

“Orthodoxy, like the spires and beams in a gothic structure, can uphold a bigger and stronger roof. Heresy, however, is like a series of cracks that tend to multiply in ways that, over time, can’t sustain the weight of such beauty. By spreading throughout the structure, heresies lead to collapse. Some doctrines are like load-bearing walls in a house. You can’t remove a load-bearing wall without destroying the structure. But sometimes errors become like cracks in this wall, weakening the structure so that over time the result is the same.” – Trevin Wax

“It’s beside the point to argue that marriage and sexuality are not explicitly spelled out in the creeds. Neither is infanticide. Neither is theft. Neither is the command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Neither is a whole host of issues connected to Christianity’s moral vision. And yet few would argue that these and other unique and powerful elements of Christianity’s testimony are “optional,” to be taken or left depending on societal preference. We must not think we can take shelter under a minimalist interpretation of the creeds, so as to get out from under the Scriptures.” – Trevin Wax

Toward a Christian Vision of Government

The cult of Climate, Covid, CRT, LGBT, and "unity. We’re at a cultural moment. It’s a product of counter reformation. Success involves 0 carbon, 0 Covid, 0 intolerance. They are impossible utopian goals… This all gives justification for state to have ultimate reach and authority power to get us to the place of ultimate simplicity. Total oneness and unity. The Bible teaches us Jesus is King and Kuyper (this does NOT include the libbed-out "neo-Kuyperians" who are preachers of heresy of and lovers of Totalitarianism) and Boot teach us there is, in fact, a Christian Vision of Government. Join us as we sit down with the Ezra Institute's Dr. Joe Boot as we discuss Dr. Boot's new book “Ruler of Kings: Toward a Christian Vision of Government.”

The Rule of Faith for Reading the Bible

Today we sit down with Todd Hains, author of “Martin Luther and the Rule of Faith” (IVP), and we learn there is more to Luther than his emphasis on salvation by faith alone. How should we read the Bible? What lens should we have when reading the law? What guide for the Psalms? Indeed, Luther and Hains have much to offer. Happy Reformation Week!

Jacob & the Old Testament Guide to Messy Discipleship

“I have entitled this book, "Limping with God" instead of Walking with God or Running with God, not because there would be anything wrong with those metaphors, but because, as Jacob limped away from his famous wrestling match with God, so we all get by on bum hips and bad knees. Following Jesus, we gimp our way down the dark and slippery paths of life. “

- Chad Bird

In this interview we sit down with Richard Gaffin, author of “An Introduction to the Biblical Theology of Acts and Paul - In the Fullness of Time” (Crossway) where I pepper Dr Gaffin with every question under the sun in regards to neo-Calvinisim (and its drift to liberalism), Kuyper & Bavinck (and translations), Geerhardus Vos (was he a neo-Calvinist?), Ridderbos (did he cave to liberalism?), Romans 7 (is it a Christian speaking or pre-Christian?), the fact that Pentecost is more than just a blip in the history of redemption (but one of the most important scenes), what the Christian life is made of (“Christ is both the means and the end”), and much more. Pro Rege!

The Baptist shift from Calvin’s “Feeding” to Bunyan’s “Memorial”

When it comes to baptism and the Lord’s Supper, many Baptists reject the language of sacrament. As a people of the book, the logic goes, Baptists must not let tradition supersede the Bible. So Baptists tend to view baptism and Communion as ordinances and symbols, not sacraments. But the history of Baptists and the sacraments is complicated. In “Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands,” Michael A. G. Haykin argues that earlier Baptists, such as Charles Spurgeon, stood closer to Reformed sacramental thought than most Baptists today do. More than mere memorials, baptism and Communion have spiritual implications that were celebrated by Baptists of the past. Haykin calls for a renewal of sacramental life in churches today—Baptists can and should be sacramental. All this and more as we sit down with Dr Haykin.

Do you know you would have done otherwise?

Jonathan Edwards owned a slave. George Whitfield owned slaves and was a pro-slavery activist. Thomas Jefferson, who said “all men are created equal part,” was a slave owner. Should we cancel Whitfield, burn our “Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy” shirts, and take some dynamite to Jefferson’s face on Mount Rushmore? But should we ask a few questions first? Hypocrisy of the highest order to be sure - yet baked into the culture was slavery. What was the silver bullet verse that prohibits slavery? Surely these people turned a blind eye, right? Surely there is no excuse, right? Surely YOU would have done different… Right? Right?...? We ask all these questions and more on this episode with Thomas S. Kidd (author of Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh, God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution, George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding). Here is frustrating and horrifying subject, but one that we do well to have.

Translating Kuyper, the rise of liberalism amongst the ICS and Neo-Calvinists, and reformation not revolution.

In this episode with Harry van Dyke, we talk about translating Kuyper and Groen van Prinsterer, the liberal shift of many Neo-Calvinists and the ICS, sitting under H. Evan Runner, gun control, "Gay Christians", a new Neo-Calvinist research center, and growing up and playing on the same streets as Geerhardus Vos.

Steve Bishop

Ruben Alvarado

Francis Schaeffer

Hans Rookmaaker

H. Evan Runner

C.S. Lewis

Gordon Spykman

Henry van Til

Albert Wolters

Abraham Kuyper

Dutch immigration to USA and Canada

Redeemer University

Henry De Bolster

The Groen Club

Bernard Zylstra

Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer

S.G. De Graaf

The Anti-Revolutionary Party

Growing up and playing on the same Dutch street as Geerhardus Vos,

Reading 20,000 letters written into Kuyper (as well as BB Warfield)

Kuyper's visit to Canada

Herman Kuyper (Who was Abraham's son and was out beyond curfew)

Herman Bavinck

Herman Dooyeweerd

The unfolding of the liberal drift Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) liberal drift and Bernard Zylstra's and Calvin Seerveld's fight to remain in the "first love" as it was slipping... "We had a hard time because that institute was the love of our heart"

The CRC course-correcting on the LGBT+ issue

Why have the bulk of the Neo-Calvinists the last 20 years focused chiefly on philosophy and politics rather than Theology

LGBT+

French Revolution and the program of liberalism 

Reformation not revolution

The overturning of the christian worldview and christian arrangement of society...

Individualism and the state

Christians schools being recognized by the state

Principal against principal

Tim Keller, Masks and Mandates, Kuyper on forced vaccinations and sphere sovereignty

Christian Union (Netherlands)

The Joustras

David Beldman

Craig Bartholomew

A Neo-Calvinist research center to launch at Redeemer in September. 4 seminaries - Edinburgh, Kampen, Vrije, Redeemer 

The Dooyeweerd center

Gun control, where do we draw the line, and the fact the Russians wouldn't last a month if they invaded America

If we give up guns to stop shootings then men should also give up their penis cut off to stop rape

Roger Henderson

"It’s no secret that the Bible has a lot of stories; at Covenant [they] are concerned to show how it all fits with the Big Story. But what are we to do with the littler stories? We warn you about an overly simplistic approach, “be like David.” But still; might there not be more? I am sure that there is; but how do we get that “more”? This class will straddle hermeneutics, Biblical theology, and apologetics; in it we will work together to develop an approach that does justice to redemptive history, story, and worldview, as well as to the place of these stories in the moral formation of faithful communities, shaping their likes and dislikes for virtues and vices. We will consider narratives from both the Old Testament and the New."

The above is a description from C. John Collins forthcoming fall class, OT505 APPLYING BIBLICAL NARRATIVES, at Covenant Theological Seminary - join us as we discuss what a faithful reading of Biblical narratives might look like. If you would like to jump in on the class (in person or via zoom) email inbox@covenantseminary.edu

To silence the silent screams of a desperate conscience that longs to be free and forgiven

Help! I keep sinning!!! 

Join us as we sit down with Sam Storms, author of "A Dozen Things God Did with Your Sin (And Three Things He'll Never Do): And Three Things He'll Never Do" (Crossway), and discuss assurance, doubt and rest.

“It’s called a defiled conscience... everyone knows exactly what I’m talking about when I refer to those occasions when your conscience feels dirty. I’m talking about what you feel and sense deep within as you lie on your bed at night and reflect on the events of the day: the harsh words you spoke to your kids, the lie that you told your boss hoping to gain advancement, the pride you felt in your heart when someone praised your efforts. I’m talking about what you feel and sense deep within when you wake up in the morning and lustful thoughts and sinful fantasies race through your mind. 'Where did that come from,' you wonder aloud? 'What will God think of me now?'... The fact that we could treat God with such indifference is profoundly unsettling.”

“The single overriding and most debilitating factor that threatens to undermine everything in our Christian lives and in our relationship with God is the failure to understand, embrace, and enjoy the full and final forgiveness of our sins. The reason you and I struggle to enjoy God is because we live in constant fear that he doesn’t enjoy us."

“Let me tell you why we think this way. Let me tell you why you aren’t living in the fullness of the joy and peace and satisfaction in your relationship with God that you so desperately desire. It comes down to one thing and one thing only: you and I have failed to believe what God himself says he has done with our sins. What consumes us is what we have done by sinning. What ought to consume us is grateful meditation on what God has done with our sinning.”

“This is what I mean when I speak of your eternal union with God. It is your position as a saved, redeemed, forgiven, justified, adopted child of God. It is eternal in the sense that it lasts forever. Nothing can change it, undo it, or reverse it. But these are also nonexperiential realities. In other words, you don’t “feel” justification when it happens. You may feel an emotion of joy and gratitude because you are justified, but justification is not something that you experience in your body or your hormones or even in your emotions or affections. Nothing that happens in this life can affect your eternal union. Your obedience doesn’t add to it and your disobedience doesn’t detract from it. It is perfect and complete and final. But that doesn’t mean your disobedience has no effect whatsoever on your relationship with God.”

“David had committed adultery. He had stolen from another man. He had defiled a woman who wasn’t his wife. He had defiled himself. He schemed to have her husband killed. But worst of all, he had violated the honor, glory, and goodness of his God. Is forgiveness still possible for someone like that?”

“Whereas God is now and always will be my Father, my experience of that truth can go up and down. One day, I might enjoy his fatherly affection, but on another day, I may have lived in such a way that this enjoyment diminishes. My sonship didn’t diminish. My status as God’s child is unchanged. But my capacity to enjoy and feel the glory of being a child of God can be undermined by unrepentant sin. Many have failed to properly differentiate between these two realities. They don’t fully grasp the distinction between what is eternal and what is experiential, and they don’t carefully differentiate between what is true of my union with God and my communion with him.”

Getting at the Fundamentals via a Survey of History

Today we are joined with Greg Parker Jr., editor and translator of the recently released book from Herman Bavinck called “What is Christianity?”

No mere theories. No lofty principles to form society... Just get to Church

"The Cultural Mandate" - who said it first? Of course the idea was there in both Kuyper and Bavinck, but who coined, and helped further nuance, it? Indeed you know and love/hate, Kuyper, you are familiar with Bavinck, and you glean from Vos and Berkouwer... but who is Klaas Schilder (1890 - 1952)? Listen in as we are joined with Marinus De Jong, co-editor (along with Richard Mouw and George Harinck) of  "The Klaas Schilder Reader: The Essential Theological Writings", as we discuss this oft-forgotten, yet monumental, second generation Neo-Calvinist.

“Whatever is true of Christ is true of humanity.”

Today we chat with Dr. Ross Hastings, author of “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Exploring Its Theological Significance and Ongoing Relevance” to nuance and discuss the implications of the Resurrection. We touch on everything from Atonement models, sanctification, and the favor of God to the Cultural Mandate, Participation and Union. Dr. Hastings brings in Torrance, Barth, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine and provides a helpful big-picture of the history of Jesus and how His history becomes ours.

Are we Human Beings or Human Doings?

Join us as we sit down with Christopher Holmes, author of A Theology of the Christian Life: Imitating and Participating in God, as we discuss the nitty gritty of the Christian life. Questions like, should all Christians (like my busy wife) be reading Theological books? Do we over-emphasize the Second person of the Trinity at the expense of the First? How does one “experience” God? Etc. All this and more.

Most Christians around me seem to be answering questions that nobody is asking. Christianity seems more to answer the question of a damned-soul and ethical living rather than scratching our most felt needs like: longing for romance, acclaim, self-confidence, and so on. Does God really care about those things because it seems the NT is chiefly concerned with Jew/gentile relations and helping Christians to get along. In what ways does the Gospel address my “secular” hopes and fears? Is everything a “Gospel issue”?

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Daniel Strange, author of “Making Faith Magnetic: Five Hidden Themes Our Culture Can't Stop Talking About... And How to Connect Them to Christ.” Dr Strange helps set us up with a working theological anthropology and connects the dots on how our faith scratches all human itches.

Rejoice! God is interested in your hobbies, your projects, and the things you love

“Glorify God and enjoy Him forever…” That sounds great, but how exactly does one do that? In what way does my considering the lilies of the field glorify God? Does God care about my hobbies, my stamp collection, and my walks on the beach? Does God have enjoyment when I enjoy my favorite baseball team? What does Christianity applied look like for normal folk?

Join us as we sit down with William A. Dyrness, a breath of fresh air in contrast to the musty, disconnected, Christian “academic” world of talking-heads. Dr. Dyrness said “Over the years we were grappling with an underlying issue. If all Christians have a responsibility to bring their deepest convictions into contact with their most everyday concerns, what are the most effective ways for doing this?’” Theorists are a dime a dozen and just a master’s degree away, but clear thinking belongs to everyone (or so it should), yet clarity of faith in our lived-lives often seems so illusive for so many of us – not least the “professional Christians.” Dr. Dyrness is having none of that. Please join us and be edified as we discuss how to live an extraordinarily normal life in the face of our extraordinary God in the context of stamp collecting, cold beer, and considering the lilies of the field.

Christian Democrats? Church & State? “Not of this world”?

Join us as we sit down with Bruce Ashford (author of “Letters to an American Christian” and “One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics”) asking questions like:

1. Should Christians even concern themselves with Politics? Jesus didn’t care about polotics, so should we?

2. It just seems like an abyss of lies and a world a million miles away if which the small people can do nothing, so why even bother?

3. Should we be “one issue voters” (anti-Abortion)? Can you be a Christian and Democrat?

4. Should we vote Republican – where there are more abortions, or for Democrats – where there are less abortions? Can you explain that tension?

5. Small or large government?

6. The god of “progress”? And the religious overtones taken on by liberals.

7. Is it the roll of the government to put in place Covid restrictions? If so, what are the parameters?

8. How can so many Kuyper-loving neo-Calvinists be flaming liberals?

Let God be true and every hermeneutic a liar

John Walton appreciates Calvin, gleans from Vos, and his happy to draw from the ancient confessions - but he offers them no allegiance. Metanarratives and hermeneutical grids abound, but so do the interpretive pitfalls that come with them. Walton gets right to the heart of it saying, “The labels we use are the ones we are accountable.” He just wants us to read our Bible faithfully, even if it means we can’t be card-carrying members of any one interpretive school. His hermeneutic is simple and one every Bible should adopt before all else: “The strongest interpretation is the one with the strongest evidence.”

What does Neo-Calvinism applied look like? 84 years of insight

Today we sit down with Jan Boer, an 84 year old Dutch/Canadian who is a translator of Kuyper, student of Evan H. Runner, and a missionary in Nigeria for over 30 years where neo-Calvinism was no theoretical exercise, but a world-and-life-view applied in the day-to-day of everyday life. Of neo-Calvinist philosophers, political theorists, and cultural commentators there are no end, but rare is the neo-Calvinist missionary and practioner who labor in planting and watering the seeds of the holistic Gospel, and then walk with them as they face draught as well as yield fruit – and that is what we have in Jan Boer. Upon returning to North America after decades in Nigeria, and seeing the folly that makes up so much Christianity today, Jan’s is a voice we modern’s need to hear and heed.

Listen in as we discuss:

- Studying under Evan H. Runner

- Translating Abraham Kuyper (including many of his devotional work)

- The wholistic Gospel vs the bifurcated message

- Applying Kuyperian thought in Nigeria to issues like roads and bridges, water pumps, polygamy, church, and every square inch of village life

- The CRC, the fact that we neo-Calvinists no longer create institutions, and the fact that “We produce nothing new.”

And more…

When Union & Theosis Shake Hands

“These themes of perfection, union with Christ, and the necessity of the incarnation point to the fact that Bavinck’s theology is profoundly ripe for the incorporation of the summative theme of theosis. This is the notion that humanity is meant to be united to and participate in the trinitarian life of God… There is a fundamental similarity between this element of Bavinck’s thought and the doctrine of theosis… Thomas F. Torrance’s doctrine of theosis, as a facet of his broader trinitarian theology, to highlight that not only do Bavinck and Torrance bear some surprising similarities, but also Torrance provides language helpful to reexamine Bavinck’s eschatological anthropology in light of the category of theosis” – Dennis Greeson

Join us as we sit down with Dennis Greeson, author of “Theosis in the Thought of Herman Bavinck?: Thomas F. Torrance’s Reconstruction of the Doctrine and its Promise for Bavinck’s Theology,” and discuss the big picture of Christianity. Aided by Herman Bavinck, drawing from Thomas F. Torrance, and nuanced by Myk Habets – Greeson does us all a favor here helping us to rebuke the false hierarchy of evangelism, prayer, etc.

Grace restores nature. Indeed.

If you know only one thing, know this

“Whoever knows well this art of distinguishing between Law and Gospel, him place at the head and call him a doctor of Holy Scripture." – Martin Luther

“The distinction between law and gospel is the highest art in Christendom.” – Martin Luther

“The reality of God’s grace is so radical that we often find ourselves trying to domesticate it, unconsciously (or not), imposing all manner of fine print about what constitutes acceptance or rejection… Our tit-for-tat programming is so strong that it tends to hijack the beauty of grace, and instead position it conditionally.” – David Zahl

“It is finished.” – Jesus

Today is our 100th episode and so I thought we would discuss, what I believe to be the most important topic in all of Theology and all of life and that is THE LAW & GOSPEL. Join us as we sit down with David Zahl, co-author of “Law & Gospel: A Theology for Sinners (and Saints)” – because, indeed, “It is finished.”

“Humanity is no aimless mass of people which only serves the purpose of giving birth to the elect. On the contrary, the world now, as well as in the beginning, is the theater for the mighty works of God, and humanity remains a creation of His hand, which, apart from salvation, completes under this present dispensation, here on earth, a mighty process, and in its historical development is to glorify the name of Almighty God.” --- Abraham Kuyper

“Abraham Kuyper loved Calvinism. We might even characterize his passion for Calvinism as unusual; most Calvinists today try to appear as nonthreatening, beer drinking, bearded hipsters. Kuyper was none of those things. [It was a] passion for Calvinism as “a true world and life system.” --- Robert Joustra

Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch Neo-Calvinist theologian, pastor, and politician, was well-known for having declared that there is "not a square inch" of human existence over which Jesus Christ is not its sovereign Lord.

This principle is perhaps best reflected in Kuyper's writings on Calvinism originally delivered as the Stone Lectures in 1898 at Princeton Theological Seminary. These lectures reflecting on the role of the Christian faith in a variety of social spheres—including religion, politics, science, and art—have become a touchstone for contemporary Reformed theology.

How might the lectures continue to inform the church's calling in a secular age? In this book, Jessica Joustra and Robert Joustra bring together theologians, historians, scientists, and others to revisit Kuyper's original lectures and to critically consider both his ongoing importance and his complex legacy for today.

Join us as we sit down with Jessica and Robert and discuss their own stories and why they are drawn to Kuyper - we discuss what neo-Calvinists, since Kuyper’s lectures, have said, done, and are poised to do. Reformed, always reforming indeed. Petrification is not an option. Pro Rege!

Means, Ends & Expectations of Personal Devotion

What should my “quiet time” consist of? What should be taking place – increased knowledge? felt experience? And, either way, what are the appointed means? Are “quiet times” even a biblical concept? What did the people of God do before the printing press? Join us as we sit down with Jonathan Gibson, author of “Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship” (Crossway), and discuss the most illusive facts of the enshrined “quiet time.”

Satiated with Kuyper as Mystics or the with Kuyper as Cerebral Theologians and Worldviewers? 

Join us we sit down with Steven Garber and identify and discuss the core longings of the human heart – especially those of the Christian. We ask questions like “how can Christian’s experience God?” - “Is Abraham Kuyper’s mysticism unachievable?” - “What values is there in merely reading about God and Theology?” - “What should the Christian life consist of?” – and more…

The Rise, Demise, and Global Resurgence of Abraham Kuyper

Listen in as we sit down with the treasurer of the heritage of neo-Calvinism himself: Dr. George Harinck. In this episode we survey the spread and implications Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck thoughts and teachings. 

This interview is kicking off a series that will run the next few months at TheLaymensLounge.com called "The State of Neo-Calvinism." Come back each week to read about the state and influence of neo-Calvinisim in nations ranging from Mexico and the Philippines to Wales and Egypt.

Naming the presence of God in our midst

“God with us.” God with us? “YHWH with us” (But isn’t that the first person of the Trinity?)? Jesus left, but he leaves the Spirit? And that’s better how? Join us as we sit down with Myk Habets to nuance the points of contact, the roles of, and the relations of the Trinity in our life as well as praying in a Trinitarian way.

Gettin’ stoked on metaphor, allusion, & foreshadowing

Chad Bird is in the business of turning on lights. If you crack open one of his books, or listen to his podcasts, don’t’ be surprised if one of his hands comes out of the book and flips the switch on your Old Testament understanding. Most of us see the Old Testament like a pepper-sprayed collection of curiosities and divinely bizzarro truth and most of my life has been riding shotgun with the Ethiopian Eunuch saying with him “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And then your boy Chad the “Phillip” Bird drops a few podcast episodes and pens a couple books in my chariot, and just like that, I’m looking around screaming “where’s the water?!!!!” cause it’s all starting to make sense and I’m stoked cause I see Jesus on every page.

“Moses-centrality holds true for the apostles... Study Romans, Galatians, Peter’s epistles, Hebrews, James, or Revelation and ask yourself, ‘Why do these authors quote or allude to the Torah much more frequently than they do the words of Jesus? Because no gospels had yet been written?’ No, that can hardly be the reason. Even if Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not yet written, the teachings and sayings of Jesus would have been circulating orally. Then why does Moses get more apostolic press than Christ’s own words?”

Join us as we sit down with Chad Bird, co-host of “40 Minutes in the OT” and author of “The Christ Key: Unlocking the Centrality of Christ in the Old Testament” (1517 Publications), as he shows us “What the Gospels will shout from the rooftops has already been whispered from the foundation of the Torah.” Yet “the majority of Christians prefer to meander down the well-worn paths of the smaller NT garden than to venture among the weird and wild prophetic fauna of the Tanak,” but once you get a lay of the land with a guide like Chad Bird, you’ll be equipped to head off on your own down the road to Emmaus.

Genealogy, “14 Generations,” the "Son of David," the “Christ," the Exile

We had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Tom Schreiner to discuss the first chapter of Matthew – asking how best to make sense of it all and have our calloused hearts hear the story afresh. Join us as we take a Christmas stroll through advent portions of Matthew with the sweetheart of sweethearts the good Dr. Tom Schreiner.

Everybody loves Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (well, at least the movies), but who was this man? Was he best friends with Hudson Taylor and annoyed with Charles Spurgeon? Was he an ideal husband or a bit of a playboy? Did he leave his children to their own devices, or did he pen an entire book solely for their edification and growth in Christ? Listen in as we are joined with Charles Dickens go-to scholar, and author of "God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author,” Dr. Gary L. Colledge and discuss all things Dickens.

Questions about what we have assumed

A few weeks ago, I happened upon a 2-part article series by Michael Cooper called “Ephesiology and the Critique of Church Planting Movements” and “Is Church Planting a Biblical Mandate?” and so, I’m not a deconstructionist, but I do appreciate a good questioning of what has been assumed. Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Cooper and discuss Paul’s model of making disciples, and all the rage that is “the church planting movement.”

Getting the Big Picture of the Pilgrims. Fact vs Fiction. Pilgrim Theological Emphasis. Theonomy Applied. Etc.

Thomas Kidd just showed me that I really am a product of the California public school system as he separates pilgrim, Mayflower, and Thanksgiving fact from fiction. It’s not just that he corrects snippets of legend-as-history, but he fills out the pilgrim experiment and gives us the big picture and goals of these "separatists." Not just "why did they leave England?" - but what did they do when they got here? What happened to them after 10, 20, 100 years of being here? Just who were these pilgrims? What was their theology? Did they read Calvin and Luther – and who are their modern counterparts (and Ill just tell you now: it might be the OPC and PCA)? What was so horrible in England that they would endure 9 months on a ship and possibly freeze to death? Did they evangelize the native population? Did they eat turkeys or fill their bellies with a big ol' plate of eel? And what became of them - are Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards and the East Coast Congregationalists their successors? Was Squanto really a figure in their lives? Did they implement the mosaic law on the colony (what would you do if you could have a fresh start and surrounded by Christians and could do anything you felt was wise), and was a man caught in bestiality stoned to death? And, of course, the pressing question: should Christians cancel Thanksgiving or redeem it?

Lim Swee Hong and Lester Ruth

“God inhabits the praises of His people” Psalm 22:3. With this verse as the Theological lynchpin, a new way of worshipping God took root, and continues to this day.

New forms of worship have transformed the face of the American church over the past fifty years. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including interviews with dozens of important stakeholders and key players, this volume by two worship experts, Lim Swee Hong and Lester Ruth, offer the first comprehensive history of Contemporary Praise & Worship. The authors provide insight into where this phenomenon began (by the way, it was NOT the Jesus People hippies in California… But was in Jan ’46 in Canada) and how it reshaped the Protestant church. They also emphasize the span of denominational, regional, and ethnic expressions of contemporary worship, taking into account the liturgical dynamics involved it its emergence and the dynamics that led to its growth. The authors show that Contemporary Praise & Worship came about through theological reflection on the Bible, not merely as the result of cultural impulses. In this interview we hit emotionalism, hype, the goal of worship, liturgy, trinitarian theology, compelling artists (Kanye West, the Gettys, Bethel, Jesus Culture, Sandra Sandra McCracken).

15 years ago Collin Hansen identified a movement; “Young, Restless and Reformed.” John Piper, Mark Driscoll, John MacArthur were all pillars. With a heavy emphasis on a Calvinist soteriology, many of them, mostly from the Baptistic tradition, were pleased to cultivate a little bit of rootedness in the 2006 world of relativism and “you do you.” But, its been a long 15 years and now these guys have grown up. Some are now pastors, some are apostate and “deconstructed”, and no small amount have taken their own lives. There was no agreed upon natural progression of "what’s next?" and we haven't seen a cohesive YRR 2.0 planned or executed. After awhile, most of them broke out of the cage-stage and began to ask questions like “Ok, so I'm elect – what does that mean for me as a dad, as a pastor, and as someone who is still hungry for truth? What is the telos of my faith other than being theologically sound? Is Christianity just a heaven to gain and hell to shun?” 

Jonathan Edwards is still Collin Hansen’s homeboy – but so is James K.A. Smith, Charles Taylor, Tim Keller (while for others its Bavinck, Joe Rogan, Martin Luther, Jordan Peterson, Abraham Kuyper, etc.). The John Piper books are still on Collin's shelf it's just now they are covered with a light dust. Indeed, YRR was never to be the end. It was never the final word and there were still many itches that YRR didn’t scratch. Many of the ever-hungry (and dissatisfied) YRR alumni have gone the way of liturgy, Anglican/Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic. Some sought to see their faith applied to “every square inch” of their lives and so fell in with the Kuyperians (the OG “neo-Calvinists" by the way), still others became Sacramentarians, and a few to the Lutheran camp with the much-needed reality of a proper Law/Gospel distinction (especially those who thought to be "radical" meant being anything other than a pastor or missionary was sub-Christian, at best, and a "wasted life" at worst). Regardless where the YRR alum have ended up, most all of them have seen the fact that useless are the days of the “Theological cultural warrior” for the day-to-day.

Join us as we sit down with Collin Hansen and survey the YRR movement asking “where are they now?” and attempt to connect dots of progression (and sometimes the regression) from that starting point. 

A Trinitarian Theolog of Gratitude and Giving

“We swim in gifts, in things given freely by God… But you don’t feel this very often though, do you? Neither do I. The greatest irony of being alive is that we treat gifts as possessions, generosity as commonplace, grace as summer grass-something to be stepped on and forgotten with every lifting muscle… We unwrap so many gifts every moment that we forget it’s Christmas morning, that God is watching every spark of joy, and every shrug of the shoulders.”

– Pierce Taylor Hibbs from “The Book of Giving: How the God Who Gives Can Make Us Givers”

Join us as we sit down with Pierce Taylor Hibbs while helps us to major on the majors. The attributes of God, trinitarian realities, “the giving circle”, and all manner of truth that does something for our lived lives.

Join us as we sit down with Pastor Benji Magness and discuss the life of the believer and the enjoyment (or rejection?) of Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone, creepy stuff and horror films, punk rock and burning your CDs at church camp. 

Dr. Sandra Richter speaks all manner of ancient languages, has a doctorate from Harvard, is a professor, an archeologist, a leading voice in academic theological/historical/hermeneutical discussions, and she wants to help normal Christians read and understand the Old Testament. 

Dr. Richter is the author of the heavily circulated book “The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament”, it really is the go-to book for getting the big picture of the Old Testament and informs our New Testament reading as well. 

Father as “Not Begotten” – Son as “Begotten” – Spirit as “Spirated”

Join us as we sit down with the Trinity powerhouse Dr. Matthew Barrett author of “Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit” (Baker). Dr. Barrett has done the heavy lifting for us in reviewing the last 2,000 years of making sense of the Trinity and how it functions, while also dealing with some of the whack and novel ideas that have risen the last hundred years (especially the last 20 years).

Attempting to Apply a Mystery to Daily Life

Join us as we sit down with Trinity-nuance master Fred Sanders and bombard him with questions on all things Father, Son and Spirit. Dr. Sanders is the author/editor of “The Third Person of the Trinity Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics”, the modern classic “The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything” and just released “Fountain of Salvation: Trinity and Soteriology”

“Eastern Orthodoxy is perceived as an exotic and picturesque remnant from an alien past”

-Bartholomew I (the 270th and current archbishop of Constantinople)

“It is the stability of thought in Orthodox theology that has generated the greatest interest from my Protestant students, primarily because of their often-new realization that there still exists a “predenominational” and Apostolic Christian worldview that is largely unaffected by the polemical debates of the Reformation. In fact, many of the doctrines and dogmas of Eastern Orthodoxy can certainly be embraced by those outside the Orthodox Church, such as its trinitarian theology and its conciliar approach to leadership and administration.”

-Eve Tibbs

Dr. Eve Tibbs (Affiliate Associate Professor of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary) and author of “A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology: Introducing Beliefs and Practices” (Baker Academic). Join us as we try to get a big picture of what Eastern Orthodoxy is, especially as it is contextualized to Protestants, Lutherans, Reformed, Kuyperians, etc. In this episode we ask Dr. Tibbs questions like:

- What is the chief end of man for Eastern Orthodoxy?

- Why didn’t Luther just become Eastern Orthodox since he thought they hadn’t veered like Roman Catholic? Was Eastern Orthodoxy an option for him?

- What steps did Melanchthon and other Lutherans take to discuss being united with East?

- Who/what defines orthodoxy? Creeds? Confession? What do Orthodox folks gather around?

- What does ultimate piety look like for Eastern Orthodoxy?

- Why the beards and black garb?

- What is the function of the sign of the cross?

Fuel for Ethics from WWJD? Fake it ‘til You Make it? “Kingdom”? Gratitude? Imitation? or Creation?

“As Bavinck works out the concrete content of his ethics in this volume (Reformed Ethics Volume 2), he joins the long tradition of Reformed ethicists and turns to the Decalogue and the notion of duty. That move could be disconcerting for some who have recently turned to the “kingdom ethics” of union with and imitation of Christ because that emphasis is seen as a counter to the role of law and duty in Christian living.” – John Bolt

Listen in as we sit down with Dr. John Bolt (editor of Herman Bavinck’s 4 volume “Reformed Dogmatics” as well as Bavinck’s “Reformed Ethics Volume 1”, and the forthcoming “Reformed Ethics Volume 2: The Duties of the Christian Life”) and have a compelling discussion on WHY we Christians live ethically and what our MOTIVATION for ethical living springs from.

BAVINCK “REFORMED ETHICS VOL. 2” BOOK GIVEAWAY:

· Thanks to Baker Academic, were giving away a copy of Bavinck’s “Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2” and thanks to us - a Herman Bavinck sticker (as well as an Abraham Kuyper sticker). To enter, join the “Theology Applied” Facebook page (link here), and simply join the conversation (this a place for butchers, bakers and candlestick makers as well as failures, know-it-alls and jerks to discuss Theology as it applies to our lived lives).

To pre-order the book please reach out to the pillars of kindness and customer service, the beacons of hope for the brick-and-mortar bookstores, the good people of Hearts & Minds Books. Please reach out to them, they will take care of you. 

A glimpse into “Holy Worldliness” across the globe

“Through the making of culture, as opposed to simply criticizing it, Christian architects, entrepreneurs, farmers, and city planners offer their neighbors new ways of living and being in the public square.”

“The flourishing of one individual requires the flourishing of schools and families, courts and businesses, artist guilds and sports teams, newspapers and unions, churches and sewer systems. Public theologians therefore refuse to narrow their theological conception of flourishing to just the political, the economic, the spiritual, or the aesthetic. Instead, they aim to further the manifold flourishing of public life.”

“Public theologians endeavor to serve as translators and bridge builders across worlds long divided. When they do speak, public theologians tend to engage in two primary forms of discourse: public persuasion and public critique.”

Join us we sit down with Dr. Matthew Kaemingk and discuss “Reformed Public Theology A Global Vision for Life in the World” – a book that celebrates Richard Mouw and seeks to continue his legacy that encourages a “holy worldliness”, a truly “Reformed public theology”.

“You don’t use your job as an excuse to evangelize, but you treat people as full human beings – and part of being a human being is you have spirituality, and they may not even be a Christian, but they are still a spiritual person, and they have spiritual needs." - J. Richard Middleton

"The proper way to exercise dromion is through love and generosity and in a world of evil that will inevitably involve suffering. That’s what happened with Jesus – He is manifesting what it means to be human” - J. Richard Middleton

Listen in as we sit down with Dr. J. Richard Middleton to discuss the forest and the trees of being image-bearers, God's purpose for the world, God's generosity, the great change that took place the moment God resolved to create humanity and good Jamaican and world reggae for your listening pleasure.

Christ infuses purpose into every facet of the ordinary.

Folding laundry. Weeding the garden. Cooking dinner. Changing diapers. Work in the home can seem so ordinary. Does any of it matter? Is there meaning in our most mundane moments at home? When the work of the home fills our days, it is easy to get disillusioned and miss God’s grand purpose for our work. As image bearers of the Creator who made us to work, we contribute to society, bringing order out of chaos and loving God through loving others—meaning there’s glory in every moment. Join us as we sit down with Courtney Reissig, author of “Glory in the Ordinary: Why Your Work in the Home Matters to God” as she combats the common misconceptions about the value of at-home work—thus helping us see how Christ infuses purpose into every facet of the ordinary.

We’re giving away two copies of the book, share this interview and tag us to be entered.

Before the Fall, we were all artists and poets

“Can our churches be beautiful again, and not just promote goodness and truth?... It’s one thing to make our work, our business, our arts and our political endeavors good and even ‘successful.’ It’s another to aspire to make them beautiful. It’s one thing to try educate and raise our children to be good and ‘successful,’ but it’s another to try to raise them to be beautiful.”

Listen in as we sit down with Makoto Fujimura, author of, “Art + Faith: A Theology of Making” and discuss the living-and-beautiful reality of God and His image-bearers. Makoto gives no quarter for mere Theology-as-a-hobby or for a truncated Gospel (or “plumbing theology”). In sitting down with Makoto we don’t get novel and new, rather, we get original telos and tangibles implications of creation and new creation. This interview is for humans seeking full humanity.

“The Bible became alive to Him, it was not as some Elizabethan artifact but as a living book, appropriate for the gritty lives of butchers, cement layers, radio-preaching mothers, and the drunks who lounged in the alley behind his father’s Butcher shop.

People around the world were picking up books with his name on it--picking them up and sensing they’d found a voice that spoke their language. Vast numbers of readers recognized in Eugene’s words a hunger they’d forgotten, a craving for an authentic encounter with God. They were hungry for a vision calling them into the wondrous expanse of a life that honored what it meant to be a beloved (yet finite) human living under the mercy of God. They found all this in the words of Eugene Peterson.”

Join us as we sit down with Winn Collier, the authorized biographer of Eugene Peterson, and discuss his book “A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson”.

“His life and work had been more like tracing a scent than following a map. Discovery, not direction.” – Winn Collier

“I keep a stack of cards of people that Im supposed to call on my desk and whenever I get tired of seminary and begin to get that dusty, mink-like perspective, I grab some cards, jump on the subway and presto!-Im back in a real world again.” – Eugene Peterson

“Ive grown to detest the dry, unreal academic life. If there is anything I don’t want to be it is a tiresome, tedious, cold exacting seminary professor.” – Eugene Peterson

Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Bruce Pass and discuss his book “The Heart of Dogmatics: Christology and Christocentrism in Herman Bavinck”. Here we are guided by the hand of Bavinck and Dr. Pass into a Theology that is no mere academic hobby but where Theology is a living-being animated by true religion. Like a heart this living-being pumps blood and life to the needed areas in the body. Dr. Pass shows us how Bavinck’s though that, much like the Universe is the center of the solar “system”, Christ is the center of the Christian theological system.

“I immediately saw that neither pious homilies or straightforward religious education were cutting it. Instead, I brought in albums, video and newspaper clips. By exploring the stories behind pop music, entertainment and sports reporting with them I was able to unpack the underlying worldview. Not only does this approach work, it works without any complaints of preaching or indoctrination. Vital in today’s pluralist society. Stories are disarming!... We’ve used the same approach to name and shame the individualistic and materialist belief system that mugs so many today.” – Mark Roques

“Our weary hearts long to hear the gospel reverberate around us in surround sound. We hear the voices of our fellow church members and remember that were not in this alone. God has welcomed us into his family.”

Listen in as we sit down with Matt Merker, author of “Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God’s People” (Crossway, 2021), asking him about all things worship/singing at church. Questions include:

1. Can you give us a historical overview of worship since Jesus?

2. What trends are very much products of the 21stcent?

3. Is worship with singing more sacred than, say, worship by other mediums (like presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to God… praying to God in lament… swimming in the ocean with a grateful heart… leading a peaceful and quiet life, etc.)?

4. Who is the singing for?

5. How should we views questions/comments like “How was worship?”… “Worship was awesome today!”?

6. To what end do we worship?

7. Is worship an experience or a transaction?

8. Can you help us set a proper expectation of a dedicated time of worship?

9. Can you speak to a few of the current trends we might hear in a worship time like “We want more” and “Who needs a fresh touching?”

10. What if I go to a church where the lyrics are just completely off? Do we just check-out and read the Psalms - or do we full-on find a new church - or do we sing-a-long with things we can’t sing in-faith about?

Ok, so were saved… Now what? Once we know we are firm in Christ, we ask, along with Luther, what should we do now? We know we don’t perform good works to get saved, or to stay saved, or to improve our salvation, or to impress God… So why do works at all then? We agree with Luther/Wingren saying “God doesn’t need your good works… But your neighbor does.” We are free to work, we are free to return to a pre-fall era where work was first introduced as the original great commission (in the great cultural mandate “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it…” “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…’”). Join us as we sit down with Dr. Michael Berg, author of “Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing”, and have one of the most edifying and compelling nuts-and-bolts discussions on the Christian life as we have ever had where Dr. Berg, so clearly shows us, that vocation is “the setting for human flourishing”. Amen.

When the desire to be on fire for Jesus is a living hell

“Is there a God for those who are not changing anything but diapers? Is there a God for those who simply love their spouse and pour out rarely appreciated affection on their children day after day? Is there a God for the mom who spends what feels like God-forsaken days changing diapers and slicing up hot dogs? Is there a God for the man who hammers out a day’s work in obscurity for the love of his wife and kids? Is there a God for just and kind employers? Generous homemakers? Day-laborers who would look at a missions trip to Romania like it was an unimaginable vacation?... The question stretches out into the pew where it steals away into suburban homes and places of work and various schools. It breaks into bedrooms and boardrooms... Is there a God who makes sense of the life lived between the seismic and the extraordinary? Between the missions trips? In between the joy and the pain? Is there a God for the meantime? …I think there is.”

There are some great books out there for us Christians: There’s Calvin’s Institutes, Bavinck’s Dogmatics, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Confessions of St Augustine, Pilgrims Progress… There's James KA Smith, Tish Warren, and NT Wright… All great books and brilliant authors, But, this book, Matthew B. Redmond’s - "The God of the Mundane: Reflections on Ordinary Life for Ordinary People" – (perhaps my favorite book of all time) might be the most important book written the last 40 years. This is the one I want my kids to read, this is the book that I want every Christian I know to read. This book scratches the collective itch most 21st century Christians have. Indeed, it’s a lovely thing when the Gospel really becomes truly good news for all of life and Matthew B. Redmond does just that. Now, give is a listen and let all of God’s people say “amen”!

The Trinity is not a Mere Concept, Idea or Formula

Questions to Dr. Sonderegger

1. What did God’s internal relationship look like as Father, Son and Spirit BEFORE anything was ever created?

2. Does understanding their pre-creation relationship explain why the Son was sent by the Father instead of the Son sending the Father to be incarnate and save us?

3. Explain Eternal generation and Is Eternal generation still happening?

4. Was creation some kind of overflow or byproduct of God’s internal relationship as Father, Son and Spirit?

5. When people believe the gospel they are placed in Christ. Since we are now one with Christ by the Spirit are we now in the Trinity? If we are in the Trinity by grace what does that mean for us?

6. After Christ return or the day of the Lord will the Trinity just get back to business as usual however with the difference only being the Son has a bride now?

7. What do you think it will be like to experience the Trinity forever in glory?

Dr. Ross Hastings is a pure and utter delight and a fount of wisdom - a medium for compelling truth for the Christian just trying to make it through the day. Bombarded with temptations from within and without, how do we actually wage war, how do we “by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh”, and is this moral battle itself the telos and goal of the lived-Christian-life? What is participation and what does the Trinity have to do with ethics, making good choices and being a better dad neighbor? Please, please, take some time to listen-in as we sit down with Dr. Hastings and discuss years of his gathered wisdom and nuggets from his book “Theological Ethics: The Moral Life of the Gospel in Contemporary Context” (Zondervan Academic, 2021). Truly one of the best interviews we’ve had – may it be a blessing to all weary and rooted saints as it was to us.

WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK - Go to our Twitter or Facebook or Instagram to enter (just share this interview wand tag us)

In the late 1960s and on into the next decade, Francis Schaeffer regularly received requests from evangelicals across North America seeking his help to replicate his innovative learning community, L'Abri, within their own contexts. At the same time, an innovative school called Regent College had started up in Vancouver, British Columbia, led by James Houston and offering serious theological education for laypeople. Before long, numerous admirers and attendees of L'Abri and of Regent had launched Christian "study centers" of their own―often based on or near university campuses―from Berkeley to Maryland. Join us as we sit down with Dr. Charles Cotherman, author of “To Think Christianly: A History of L'Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement” (IVP Academic) to discuss the beginning, and lasting legacy, of both L’Abri and Regent College - and how people like C.S. Lewis, F.F. Bruce, R.C. Sproul, Hans Rookmaaker, John Stott & J.I. Packer all were a part of this noble endeavor.

We all know Santa Claus didn’t really punch Arius in the face at Nicea (but we still share the memes), but there are a few other urban legends of Church history we need to come corrected on. In this episode Dr. Michael J. Svigel, author of “Urban Legends of Church History: 40 Common Misconceptions” (B&H Academic), takes us on a fact-checking crusade and puts some serious chinks in the armor of pseudo-history. 

An Introduction, Overview & Step-by-Step Guide

“The Book of Common Prayer” seems amazing but having grown up Baptist I have no idea what this thing is and how its to be used. So, we wrangled in the editors of IVP’s release of “The 1662 Book of Common Prayer”, Samuel L. Bray & Drew Keane, and asked them everything you need to know on what this thing is all about, how to best use it for personal devotion, etc. Listen in as we ask them:

1. Can you introduce yourselves perhaps sharing your background, involvement with the project of reprinting “The 1662 Book of Common Prayer”?

2. What is the Book of Common Prayer, and what is the 1662 version and what are the other versions?

3. Was it first written to teach folks, or bring unity, or to increase piety or correct errors or did it have some other desired function?

4. How has this book been used through the years?

5. There’s 767 pages in this thing and it’s a bit intimidating. Can you drill down in it for us giving us the forest and some trees?

6. Of the 29 sections in the BCP where does the avg. laymen spend much of his or her time, and is it all prayers?

7. How much is spent alone, with the gathered church, at home with family, for special events, etc.?

8. Can you walk us through a typical day’s reading for say, April 8th or something like that?

9. How can the BCP be used if Im happy with my church and tradition, but think there could be benefit?

10. How best used individually and devotionally?

(Ep. 56) Jordan Ballor: Being Discipled by Abraham Kuyper

“Kuyper Must be Understood as an Artist”

Few people have read, and know the works, of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) better than Dr. Jordan Ballor – editor of the 12 volume series: “Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology from” (Lexham Press). We might say that, though removed by over 100 years, Abraham Kuyper has discipled Jordan Ballor. Having sat down and read-through (and prayed-through, preached-through, written-through and applied) Kuyper as much as Dr. Ballor has, he is able to see what Kuyper majored on, assumed, put consistent weight in, what he valued as highest priority, and even read between the lines deducing what sort of man Kuyper was. Indeed, the Spirit has been pleased to use Abraham Kuyper for many of us in seeing how, and working out the implications of the fact that “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Ballor asking him:

1. You’ve been working on this project for years now, you are ultra-familiar with Kuyper now, you might even say that you have been discipled by the man. That said, where have you personally gleaned the most from reading the thousands of pages of Kuyper?

2. In your spending so so much time with Kuyper where have you deduced what subjects or doctrines, or exhortations are most important to him?

3. Where have you seen his personality come through in reading in between the lines in the way he carries himself on paper, and the pulpit, and the political floor? If you two were to go grab a beer today after this interview how did you think that session would unfold as far as tone and topic and vibe?

4. What have you noticed is the spiritual and practical trend that happens to people as the Lord is pleased to use Kuyper to shape them?

5. Where do we see Kuyper in this book (“On Business & Economics”) speaking plain truth in the domains of business and economics that might mark the reader?

6. Kenneth Barnes says “Indeed, in the metanarrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation that pervades these writings, Kuyper provides a very helpful framework for developing a theology of business and economics.”... With that in mind, what was Kuyper’s thesis, or his chief program, when it comes to economics, money, wealth-accumulation and so-on as a whole…?

7. If we were to hand Kuyper a mic today in just a general context and say “give us the big picture – give us the forest” what do you think he would say?

8. From where did you gather all the fodder that comprise these books and on what basis do you select them, and what hath the Heidelberg Catechism to do with commerce?

9. Will the laymen glean from these writings or is it reserved for statemen ad business owners?

On a Sunday afternoon in 1935, J. Gresham Machen stepped into a broadcast booth at WIP Radio in Philadelphia and began something no one had tried before: teaching Reformed theology over the radio. In the vein of C.S. Lewis’s landmark “Mere Christianity” talks, Machen’s addresses are a crystal-clear articulation of the basics of the Christian faith, unfolding into an exceptional and persuasive explanation of Reformed theology.

Things Unseen is both an accessible systematic theology, and a masterclass in evangelistic apologetics. Introduced by Timothy J. Keller, Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson, Historical Preface by Stephen J. Nichols, Afterword by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. Join us as we sit down with Dr. Nichols and get a glimpse into the life, context, and work of J. Gresham Machen.

Part 1 of our 3-part-series where Danny Hyde gives us a primer on each of the 3 documents that comprise the Three Forms of Unity. Today Danny Hyde takes us to school on the gloriousness that is the Belgic Confession. Listen in as we ask discuss:

1. Can you give us a quick intro on what this thing is and why it should matter to a busy mom in 2021? 

2. What groups or denominations use the Belgic Confession?

3. How does one use the Belgic Confession in their daily lives and what would a life marked by its usage look like?

4. How does the Belgic Confession compare with the Westminster Confession, and why didn’t the Westminster divines just use the Belgic, and why do North Americans chiefly use the Westminster over the Belgic?

5. Do you have, or have you ever met someone who has, any Belgic Confession tattoos?

6. Weren’t their Confessions before the Belgic, if so, what was wrong with those ones? Was author Guido de Bres just reinventing the wheel?

7. What was the desired function of the Belgic Confession: was it apologetic, was it to highlight differences, was it to notate conformity or specific truths? etc.

8. Article 1 says “We all believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, that there is one only simple and spiritual Being, which we call God; and that he is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good.”  When it says “We believe…” Who is Guido de Bres, the author, speaking for when says “we”? Was he sanctioned or commissioned, or did he just rise to the occasion?

9. When did it get officially adopted and sanctioned to be used beyond just the initial purpose?

10. The Belgic is broken into 37 "articles” what’s an article? If we were to print this thing out, about how many pages would it be?

11. What is the tone, the heart and vibe of the Belgic Confession?

12. How has the Belgic Confession been used throughout history? How can it best be used now? And are there any versions that you suggest?

13. Where is it dated or a product of its time? And what are we to make of the Belgic Confession's usage of a 1 John text that is not in any modern translations (and is probably not part of the autograph). that is, how does one subscribe with issues with the proof texts?

14. Must we memorize the Belgic Confession? Why not Proverbs or the Gospels before?

15. Where is the Belgic Confession at its best?

https://threeforms.org/

https://danielrhyde.com/

https://thelaymenslounge.com/

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Guy Waters, contributor and co-editor of Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives (Crossway, 2020), and discuss Covenant Theology asking:

Is the principal of Covenant Theology something that a Bible reader could easily, or difficultly, glean from actively engaging their Bibles apart from secondary sources? How do we see Covenant Theology in seed form amongst the Church prior to Augustine? In your own life, as you are commuting to work, BBQing with friends, looking around at this world and thinking about your creator – in what ways has Covenant Theology enriched your day to day as you encounter the hopes and fears of all the world? Which came first: the covenant with the Son to dwell with his church, or the covenant with the Son to redeem lost sinners? If God’s eternity means that he is outside of time (not just before time), do reformed people place too much emphasis on his eternal past?

Dr. Craig Keener is a world-renowned Biblical scholar, and so, naturally, he believes the Bible, and takes seriously the command, when it says “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” Listen in as we ask Dr. Keener (in connection with his book “Gift and Giver: The Holy Spirit for Today” Baker Academic) what the Biblical warrant to believe that Spiritual Gifts continue (and have not ceased as the post-enlightenment West would have us believe) and then how to actually operate in them without being a heretic.

Join us as we sit down and pick the brain of the gracious T. Desmond Alexander in connection with his book "From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology" (Kregel Academic & Professional). Questions include:

A Glorious Discussion on How to Joyously Read the Old Testament

I think this is one of the most practical and applicable interviews we’ve had yet.

“Joy is the word that comes to mind when I reflect on writing about typology and allegory” is how Dr. Mitchel Chase opens up his book “40 Questions About Typology and Allegory” (Kregel Academic). Listen as we sit down with Dr. Chase and discuss a way we can read the Bible the way it was intended to be read – to be read in such a way that results in, as we echo what Cleopas said on the road to Emmaus “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

Listen in as I try to interview John Goldingay on Genesis.

What are “Ethics”? What is the need for Ethics when we have Theology? What do ethics have to do with my normal life? How can I become the person I want to be? How can I try to live like Jesus and Hudson Taylor when they were at another level? How can I be a better human when Im depraved? All these, and more: listen in as we have a discussion with Dr. Pieter Vos around his new book “Longing for the Good Life: Virtue Ethics after Protestantism”.

“Dogmatics is far from an abstract business but is connected by a thousand and one threads to everyday life.” - Cornelis van der Kooi

Is it weird to anybody else that Theology often seems like a gentleman’s club, a hobby for academics and has really very very little to say about the rest of us as we try to “work out [our] salvation”? Why must high-truth be placed so high so that I need astronomical training to get there? Why are our seminary professors content with asking about (in Latin, of course) if God can make a martini so large that He cant drink it, instead of asking things like: “I know God loves me, but does He like me?”, “What does the Gospel have to do with the fact that I hate how I’m getting fat as I’m getting older?”, “How should my faith inform my life as I’m driving my kids to baseball practice?”, “Does God love a backyard BBQ as much as I do?”, etc. I’m not saying that Cornelis van der Kooi and Gijsbert van der Brink answer these questions directly in their “Christian Dogmatics: An Introduction” (Eerdmans 2017), but they sure do give us the tools we need to get there. This is, hands down, the best Systematic Theology I have ever read. Please do buy a copy as soon as you have a chance, and until then, listen in as we sit down with Dr. van der Kooi and discuss a few aspects of the Christian life that many of us face in 2021.

"Unless we rest in God's personalizing of us, we will try and 'personalize' our faith through our own intensity and emotions. Often, the 'personalness' of the gospel is secured through second-rate means, such as gratitude for salvation, or an individual sense of God's presence, or a missional call. These are wonderful things, but they are false securities. On the contrary, the only thing that can guarantee the personal nature of our faith is God's own personhood… Framing our whole existence around the personalness of God-as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- is what ensures that our "spirituality" (or "piety") remains personal." - Julie Canlis

"In an era of 'doing' - of activism, of measurable ministry - "being" can be one's personal hell. It is the hard task of laying tasks aside in order to contemplate and receive the words 'This is my beloved SOn, in whom I am well pleased' (Matt. 3:17). Only when we hear that word can our tasks have any meaning at all. Spiritual formation is all about entering this Father-Son relationship, about living out the truth of our adoption. It is formation as relation." - Julie Canlis

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Julie Canlis and discuss ordinary life for ordinary Christians.

Join us as we sit down with J.D. Greear and discuss the implications of Christmas and how the “hopes and fears of all the years are met in” Jesus.

We had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Tom Schreiner to discuss the first couple chapters of Luke - asking how best to make sense of it all and have our calloused hearts hear the story afresh. Join us as we take a Christmas stroll through advent portions of Luke with the sweetheart of sweethearts the good Dr. Tom Schreiner

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Bird and discuss the second edition of his Systematic Theology and what needs he saw that would cause him to take the time to offer the world yet another Systematic Theology.

“I have generally believed that some theologians should be routinely slapped in the face with a soggy fish in order to try to smack some exegetical sense into them. You can only watch someone struggling to push a round peg into a square hole for so long before you finally snatch the peg from them and say, “Just give it here; I’ll do it for you.” - Michael Bird

The life and trials of Nicholas of Myra the Saint who would be Santa Claus. Listen in as we sit down with Dr. Adam English and trace the evolution of Saint Nicholas of Myra, a 4th century Bishop (in modern-day Turkey), to who would become everyone’s favorite jolly toy yielding fat man: Santa Claus. Did he punch Arius? What's the deal with the red suite? Stockings and fireplaces? Saving prostitutes and boiling children? The North Pole? And a bunch more separating fact from fiction.

Listen as we sit down with Dr. Andrew Abernethy to discuss what the Old Testament expected of the coming Messiah and to what end? A conquering King? Forgiveness of sins? Flourishing? Justice? A suffering Servant? God Himself? Shalom? Fiscal Security?...

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Greg Lanier and discuss all things incarnation, asking questions like:

1. Why did the Messiah need to be born of a virgin so meek and mild?

2. Why did the Messiah need to be fully God and fully man?

3. What does it mean that Mary was “overshadowed” by the Spirit?

4. Is Mary to be called the “mother of God”?

5. In the humanity of Jesus He was like us in every way, but can we really say that since we have original sin and He didn’t?

6. What does the title “Son of God” mean?

7. Was Jesus the “son of God” before the incarnation?

8. What does “only begotten son” mean?

9. How did Jesus view his own incarnation?

10. What role does each member of the Trinity play in the incarnation?

Join us as we talk all things Christmas carols with the ever-gracious and holistic Richard Mouw. Dr. Mouw says, “I love Christmas carols, and I even find it inspiring to hear them sung in shopping malls. Some lines in particular tempt me to stop in my tracks. When, surrounded by bustling crowds, I hear that “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight,” I want to pause and try to imagine the ways in which the coming of Christ speaks to the deepest yearnings of the people.”

Join us as we sit down with leading Islam and Quran scholar Dr. Gordon D. Nickel and ask questions in connection with his recent book, “The Quran with Christian Commentary: A Guide to Understanding the Scripture of Islam”:

- If one were to read the Quran with a complete open-mind, and never heard of Islam or Christianity before, what would the main takeaways be as the big picture?

- What are the issues that even Muslims themselves must concede as far as the Quran perhaps being in error or falsification or a-historical?

- What sort of things should we look for when reading the Quran when we read with the desire to have constructive conversations with Muslims from the source?

- Have you ever encountered anyone who ended up fully rejection or seriously begin to question their belief in the Quran?

- What claims does the Quran make about itself and what claims do others make about it?

- What do the rank and file Muslims think about the Quran? What are their take aways when read it?

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Robert Tracy McKenzie as he helps separate fact from fiction on Pilgrims, the Mayflower and Thanksgiving. Dr. McKenzie is the author of “The First Thanksgiving What the Real Story Tells Us About Loving God and Learning from History” (IVP Academic 2013), and we ask him:

1. Any notable people in that band, or did they leave anything behind as far as books or dogma that we moderns might have caught wind of?

2. Why do we love the drama of finding out history is embellished and uncovering misconceptions…? Like, realizing the Pilgrims didn’t actually have little buckles on their somber black shoes?

3. Who were these people, where did they come from and why?

4. Where does our historical info for the pilgrims come?

5. If there wasn’t a holiday after these guys what would be compelling about them?

6. Is it anathema to put up Christmas decorations prior to Thanksgiving?

7. What can we keep in our minds about these pilgrims and how can we benefit beyond a couple deviled eggs and a Macys Day Parade?

Join us we sit down with J.V. Fesko and ask him, in connection with his new book “The Need for Creeds Today: Confessional Faith in a Faithless Age”:

- In what ways are some Confessional Christians like grouchy territorial local surfers?

- Is the Presbyterian Westminster Confession more bonafide and cooler than the Baptist 1689 Confession?

- Are Baptists truly “Reformed”

- What do you say to “No Creed but the Bible”?

- Why do some Reformed Confessional Christians come off a lil’ on the smug side, almost like an acceptable cage-stage vibe? 

- Can I pick and choose from the various confessions/catechisms, or need I only choose one?

- What are the benefits of the confessions/catechisms beyond mere mental assent to the vital doctrinal truths for, say things like, low self-esteem, listening to music (non-“Christian”), weekend beach trips, etc.?

- If you’re a person who is in the Word, engaging in reading and Bible study, won’t they naturally end up where the authors of the confessions end up?

- Why have confessions largely fallen into disuse? And where are we seeing it taking its toll on us?

- Where do we see the confessions at their best?

- Doctrinal issues are timeless and there is a clear need for those to be set in stone (as they are in the confessions), however, we are “Reformed and always reforming”, as such, shouldn’t we be updating them to speak to issues and questions that we face today?

- It seems the Westminster Standards have heavier rotation than that of the 3 forms of unity why is that?

What is the focus of the Bible? Heaven? Kingdom? Covenant? Justification? Glory to God? Join us as we sit down with J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays as we discuss the unity of the whole Bible. Listen as they speak to God's desire to be with his people is a thread running from Genesis through Revelation. Duvall and Hays make the case that God's relational presence is central to the Bible's grand narrative. It is the cohesive center that drives the whole biblical story and ties together other important biblical themes, such as covenant, kingdom, glory, and salvation history.

Apart from the doctrine of God, no doctrine is as comprehensive as that of creation. Join us as we sit down with the Rev. Dr. Craig Bartholomew as we discuss creation and how it is woven throughout the entire fabric of Christian theology. It goes to the deepest roots of reality and leaves no area of life untouched. Across the centuries, however, the doctrine of creation has often been eclipsed or threatened by various forms of gnosticism. Yet if Christians are to rise to current challenges related to public theology and ethics, we must regain a robust, biblical doctrine of creation.

“Who would have thought that dropping your kids off at school is a moment of glory?”

-Craig Bartholomew

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Carl Trueman and discuss Martin Luther on the Christian Life, the Cross and Freedom.

The Dogmatics and Ethics of Herman Bavinck applied to daily life. Herman Bavinck gave much thought to Dogmatics, ethics, and being a human created in the image of God, or “imago Dei” – join us as we sit down with Dr. Nelson Kloosterman, who has played a part in the translation of many modern Bavinck works we read, and ask: What is the difference between ethics and Dogmatics? If we were to ask Bavinck “What does it mean to be human?” what would his response be? What are the implications of being created in the image of God for a non-Christian and what are the implications of being created in the image of God as a Christian? Can you speak to the Biblical referents of the term “imago Dei”? Can you touch on the unfolding, developmental character of the imago Dei? If you and Bavinck were to come over to Hawaii, and sip on a mat tai with me, and have a profitable discussion - what do you think he would exhort us to in this our cultural moment?

Join us as we sit down with Mike Wagenman to discuss one of the most important theologians of the last 300 years: Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper still speaks powerfully to our day. The battle he was  fighting to confess the Lordship of Jesus over all of life and the  public truth of the gospel in the face of the powerful currents of  modern humanism that sought to privatize the Christian faith is as  important to the church today as then, if not more important! Michael  Wagenman has given us a great popular introduction to Kuyper’s thought  on the mission of the church in the public square set in his original  context but with helpful reflection on its contemporary significance.

Today we sit down with Michael Horton and ask him to ask him a thousand questions about justification. The doctrine of justification stands at the center of our systematic reflection on the meaning of salvation as well as our piety, mission, and life together. In his two-volume work on the doctrine of justification, Michael Horton seeks not simply to repeat noble doctrinal formulas and traditional proof texts, but to encounter the remarkable biblical justification texts in conversation with the provocative proposals that, despite a wide range of differences, have reignited the contemporary debates around justification.

"Rightly Distinguishing the Law and Gospel is the Most Difficult & Highest art of Christians" - CFW Walther

Today we sit down with Dr. Jordan Cooper and discuss the proper distinction between the law and the Gospel - as well as CFW Walther's contribution to the subject. 

In this episode we sit down for an interview with Dr Matthew Barrett to learn how to read the Bible as one story (and not just a bunch of bizarre un-related scenes) and how Jesus Himself read the Scriptures (as all pointing to Him). 

Join us as we interview Danny Olinger, author of the definitive Geerhardus Vos biography. We explore Vos’ personal life, his theology, and we learn of Vos the poet and the sad reality of how he died in obscurity with less than 10 people at his funeral, but how his work has become the go-to for doing proper Biblical Theology and seeing the big picture of the story of God unfold.

An Interview with N.T. Wright on C.S. Lewis, Demons, Lament and More.

Join us as we sit down with N.T. Wright to discuss, in connection with his new book “Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World”, things like:

1. How do things like Justice, Beauty, Freedom, etc., in all their fleetingness, make sense of this world and point towards Jesus?

2. C.S. Lewis and the “moral argument” for God

3. Should we share the Gospel with a family who are minding their own business at the beach and having a great time?

4. It seems every third person in the NT was demon possessed, it was a part of daily reality for many… How come we don’t see this anymore?

5. What does it mean to be “filled with the Spirit”, and how do I get filled?

6. If you had one message to share with the world – with your own grandchildren, what would that message be?

Paul says we must walk by the Spirit - did Jesus walk by the Spirit? When we walk by the Spirit are we functioning like Christ? Was Jesus Obedient to the Father Through the Spirit? Dr. Leopoldo Sanchez articulates Jesus' life in the Spirit and what this means for us who desire to live like Jesus.

Join us as we pick the brain of Old Testament scholar Jeffrey Niehaus on Genesis 3:1-3 (and more):

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

In this episode we discuss:

- What was the nature and location of the garden in Eden?

- Why did God want to plant a garden in the first place?

- What’s the deal these trees that God has placed in the garden?

- Why would God have even put a tree in there for them specifically to not eat?

- Why the punishment of death if they ate the fruit?

- Who, and what is this, “serpent” thing, and how did it get in God’s good creation?

- In what ways would their eyes have been opened?

- What’s so bad about “Being like God knowing good and evil”? And what would that look like?

- At what point did Eve actually sin?

-Did Eve add to God’s prohibition by saying “neither shall you touch it”?

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” - Abraham Kuyper

What hath Jesus to do with fashion? What hath Paris to do with Jerusalem?Well, if every square inch of this world belongs to the Lord, then much!

Listen in as we interview Dr. Robert Covolo (PhD, Free University Amsterdam/Fuller Seminary) on the place of fashion in Christianity. Dr. Covolo has just blessed Christians across the globe, and centuries (yes, we just said that), by releasing his groundbreaking "Fashion Theology" (Baylor University Press, 2020), the importance of this book simply can't be overstated as a glaring hole has finally been filled.

Topics like fashion might not be the preferred subject of the old guard crammed in the ivory towers, but for the normal Christians of the world, each in their own vocations and spheres, a topic like fashion is of the utmost importance. Christians are concerned, and often utterly lost, as to the intersection of King Jesus and this wonderful/horrible thing called fashion (as well as with the minivan, date night, the new Taylor Swift album, white teeth, backyard BBQs, eczema, data-entry, isolation, restless hearts, etc.) - in “Fashion Theology” Dr Covolo has scratched a massive Theological and practical itch.

Dr. Covolo has done the Christian Church a great favor, as well as set a precedent, in vigorously researching and covering what is one of many, often-overlooked, subjects that plays no small significance in our lived everyday normal lives. We need our scholars to, like Covolo does in "Fashion Theology", take every prevailing idea, every dominant cultural artifact, and every core human longing of our day captive - bringing them to be seen in the light of the Gospel.

In this podcast Dr. Covolo speaks to the often default judgement that fashion is bad, only bad, and just a gateway sin to lust, opulence, and false identites. While these realities are sometimes a reality, there is yet a place – a God given and God honoring place, for fashion and our daily dress in the “theater of God’s glory”.

Semper reformanda indeed - thank you brother Covolo.

WE'RE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF "FASHION THEOLOGY"!!!! To enter:

We all know God delights in the sacred activity of prayers and songs of Christians, but does He also delight in "secular" things as well? Can He appreciate an amazing one-handed catch at a football game? How about ancient Chinese pottery? A soaring Hawk? A family trip to Disneyland? What about Haitian Voodoo art, The Game of Thrones and Zombies? And why do we talk with such joy when discussing backyard BBQs and beach trips, but we become very somber and heavy when we shift to the topic of discipleship? Listen in as we interview the great Richard Mouw as he unpacks his decades of study to equip the saints to further Glorify and enjoy God.

Listen in as we interview Pastor/Scholar Danny Hyde and discuss how Christians are weary from thinking they always need to be "doing stuff" to impress Jesus and to "stay saved" rather than resting in Christ and His finished work on our behalf. Pastor Danny takes us through the history of Western Christianity's decay into self-centered pietism, and lost sight of the historical and longstanding Christian saints who have gone before us - especially that of the Reformers and the early Church. We ask: What hath welding to do with Christianity? What about restoring old gas pumps? Was Billy Grahm a Guru? What does a Reformed Chruch worship service look like when ordered in an intetional Christocentrc fashion? All this, and a few dad jokes along the way, in this episode of The Laymens Lounge podcast! Visit www.TheLaymensLounge.com for more

Join us as we sit down with Reformed scholar/pastor/theologian, Sam Storms, who believes the Spiritual Gifts are still alive and that the church despertaley needs the power of God. We ask Sam: Are tounges just insane jibberish or are they something actually from God? Are the gifts for today or have they ceased with the Apostles? How can we actually believe the gifts when most people who "do" them are clearly charlatans? Should we seek the gifts or leave that to the charasmatics? Ive tried praying for healing, but have never seen it - why should we keep praying for them? Can we have joy, love our spouses, etc. apart from the Spirit? Are Christians commanded to pursue the gifts in their daily lives? For more interviews, articles, to equip normal Christians for noral life visit www.TheLaymensLounge.com

Join us as we talk with Dr Edwin van Driel as we ask: what is Jesus doing? Is He even doing anything at all (because it seems like this world is going to hell and the Church seems to have no influence)? Is Jesus just a mental truth from 2,000 years ago or is He up to something today? Listen in on this edifying conversation. This, and all our transcribed/audio interviews, can be found at www.TheLaymensLounge.com

Join us as we interview Dr John Walton (professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and one of the world's most prominent scholars and voices on Ancient near east background to the Bible) with crucial questions like 1. How do we read/interpret the creation account (literal 24 hours or something else)? 2. How did the original readers of Genesis read the creation account (function vs origin/house vs home). 3. What does it mean made in the image of God? 3. What was significant about "God resting on the 7th day"? And much more. This, and all our transcribed interviews, can be found at www.TheLaymensLounge.com

Join us as we interview Amos Yong (professor of Theology and Mission at Fuller Seminary) who seeks to bring Biblical clarity to the person and work of the Spirit, in the academy as well as the Church. In this discussion we ask who is the Spirit? What does the Spirit do? How do we get "filled" with the Spirit and what does that even mean?... This, and all our transcribed interviews, can be found at www.TheLaymensLounge.com

Bruce Ashford is Professor of Theology & Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and seeks to cultivate a “Christianity for the common good" with his conviction that Jesus is Lord and, for that reason, we should be thoughtful and intentional about how our belief in him should shape our lives. Join us as we discuss the storyline of the Bible, what cleaning cats has to do with Jesus, how to be a Christian where your just doing normal stuff. This, and all our transcribed interviews, can be found at www.TheLaymensLounge.com