
Restitutio
Restitutio is a Christian theology podcast designed to get you thinking about biblical theology, church history, and apologetics in an effort to recover the original Christian faith of Jesus and the apostles apart from all of the later traditions that settled on it like so much sediment, obscuring and mutating primitive Christianity into dogma and ritual. Pastor Sean Finnegan, the host of Restitutio, holds to a Berean approach to truth: that everyone should have an open mind, but check everything against the bible to see how it measures up. If you are looking for biblical unitarian resources, information about the kingdom of God, or teachings about conditional immortality, Restitutio is the Christian podcast for you!
Latest episodes

Jun 3, 2022 • 1h 4min
446 Resurrection Objection 3: Supernatural Inaccessible? (Aaron Shelenberger)
Have you heard of historiography? Your historiography is the method you employ in doing history. This is especially relevant when the scholars who make the rules for doing history decide to exclude any supernatural events from their historiography. Today, my guest, Aaron Shelenberger, continues his rebuttal to Ehrman’s three main objections to the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. We discuss Ehrman’s contentions that supernatural events are inaccessible to historians and the prevalence of methodological naturalism. Also, Shelenberger briefly reviews the recent debate between Mike Licona and Bart Ehrman.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
—— Links ——
For Shelenberger’s thesis, see part 1: 444 Resurrection Objection 1: Unreliable Gospels?
See also part 2: 445 Resurrection Objection 2: Improbable Miracles?
Follow Aaron Shelenberger on his YouTube channel: Life and Beyond and on his blog: Abandoning the Trinity
See Mike Licona’s Why Are There Differences Between the Gospels?
Check out Shelenberger’s interview on the Trinities podcast (part 2 here)
Other episodes referenced include 390 God Is Real (Why Christianity 3), 53 Does God Exist?, 54 Four More Reasons God Exists
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

May 29, 2022 • 58min
445 Resurrection Objection 2: Improbable Miracles? (Aaron Shelenberger)
Today my guest, Aaron Shelenberger, and I are tackling a second scholarly objection of Bart Ehrman against the resurrection of Jesus. We're taking a deep dive into the historian's use of probability to establish whether a particular event happened. Are miracles by definition improbable? Does the rarity of miracles preclude the historian from talking about them? Like last week, Shelenberger will guide us through his master's thesis to deal with this issue.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
https://youtu.be/swvCj4uVeJU
—— Links ——
For Shelenberger's thesis, see part 1: 444 Resurrection Objection 1: Unreliable Gospels?
Follow Aaron Shelenberger on his YouTube channel: Life and Beyond and on his blog: Abandoning the Trinity
See Mike Licona's Why Are There Differences Between the Gospels?
Check out Shelenberger's interview on the Trinities podcast (part 2 here)
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

May 20, 2022 • 52min
444 Resurrection Objection 1: Unreliable Gospels? (Aaron Shelenberger)
Aaron Shelenberger who studied under Mike Licona at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, shares about his research on the historicity of the resurrection. In particular, his thesis tackled three main objections brought forth by popular author and anti-Christian Bart Ehrman. Now, I realize this episode and the next two that follow are a tad technical, so if that's not your jam, then you may want to skip them. However, what I've noticed in the past is that our most technical episodes tend to get lots of downloads. In our conversation today we discuss the importance of resurrection and how Ehrman's attack on the reliability of the Gospels fails to undermine the case for the resurrection. Also, I bring up Licona's somewhat controversial book, Why Are There Differences in the Gospels and get Shelenberger's take on it.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ9xpP2c89E
Here is Shelenberger's thesis for your consideration.
—— Links ——
Follow Aaron Shelenberger on his YouTube channel: Life and Beyond and on his blog: Abandoning the Trinity
See Mike Licona's Why Are There Differences Between the Gospels?
Check out Shelenberger's interview on the Trinities podcast (part 2 here)
More information about Family Camp here.
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

May 13, 2022 • 1h 16min
443 Generational Differences 2 (Daniel Calcagno)
Last time Pastor Daniel Calcagno spoke to us about the older generations. Today we'll get into discussing Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. We explore pivotal events in each of these younger generations as well as how Christianity uniquely appeals to them. Hopefully this conversation will spur some thoughts for you, regardless of your age, and how you can reach people for Christ in your own world.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZHTrMvzYyY
—— Links ——
Listen to "Generational Differences, Part 1"
Check out these other episodes with Daniel Calcagno, including “From Pentecostal to Messianic Unitarian“
Check out his church: Glad Tidings Church of God in Fonthill, Ontario
Follow his YouTube channel and his website MessianicNiagra.com
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

May 6, 2022 • 56min
442 Generational Differences 1 (Daniel Calcagno)
Daniel Calcagno serves as the pastor of Glad Tidings Church of God in Fonthill, Ontario (just west of Niagara Falls). He is the owner of MessianicNiagra.com along with the associated YouTube channel, which has several thousand subscribers and a video with over 400,000 views. Today he’s talking to me about generations based on a sermon series he preached at his home church. This week we’ll cover the older living generations include the greatest generation, silent generation, and baby boomers. Not only will Calcagno sketch out some of the key experiences and attitudes of each, but he’ll also talk about how they relate to Christianity.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
—— Links ——
Check out these other episodes with Daniel Calcagno, including “From Pentecostal to Messianic Unitarian“
Check out his church: Glad Tidings Church of God in Fonthill, Ontario
Follow his YouTube channel and his website MessianicNiagra.com
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

Apr 29, 2022 • 50min
441 Tribalism in Times Like These
Tribalism is a major problem in our society today. If we're honest, tribalism is a major problem in Christianity today. If I'm really honest, I have to admit that tribalism is a major problem in me today. Do you feel it too? Are you tempted to blow your ideological, theological, or political enemies out of the water when they say something ignorant or obviously wrong? Are you tempted to lump people into a group, label them, and stereotype them? As our society has increasingly become polarized on issues from the environment to immigrants to sexuality to wearing masks we must resist the temptation to get sucked into tribal thinking. In the end, we are the Church with a commission to reach outsiders with God's love. How can we do that if we circle the wagons, or worse, cast stones?
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYlCo9SEMfg
—— Links ——
Check out these other podcast episodes about culture and polarization
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

Apr 21, 2022 • 32min
440 Non-Trinitarian History in the Stone-Campbell Movement (Eric Miller)
Eric Miller begins by covering Alexander and Thomas Campbell's beliefs about the Trinity. Then he talks about his own experience as a non-Trinitarian in the Independent Christian Churches community. He explains how the Christian Churches have become stricter on this issue in recent years. We discuss the possibility of reforming his church to be more in line with the tolerance expressed by Campbell and Stone in the early years.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
—— Links ——
Check out Eric Miller's YouTube channel here
See more episodes about the Trinity
More about Jeff Deuble and his book Christ before Creeds here
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

Apr 15, 2022 • 36min
439 The Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement (Eric Miller)
Have you heard of the Restoration Movement? In today’s interview Eric Miller recounts the history of Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell as they initiated the movement to get back to the Bible over against denominational divisions. He explains the differences between the Disciples of Christ, the A Capella Churches of Christ, and the Independent Christian Churches. He also explores why the Independent Christian Churches is growing today.
Eric Miller is a Bible college student with the Independent Christian Churches in Cincinnati, Ohio. He’s passionate about evangelism and Spanish ministry.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
—— Links ——
Check out Eric Miller’s YouTube channel here
See more episodes about the Trinity
Support Restitutio by donating here
Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.

Apr 8, 2022 • 1h 8min
438 Is God a Trinity of Persons? (Sean Finnegan)
The Trinity remains a massively popular theory to understand God in Christianity today as it has since the fourth century. Some go so far as to condemn any attempt to understand the concept while others are content to allow their faith to seek understanding (fides quarens intelectum). Nevertheless, most Christians have never honestly assessed this doctrine in light of scripture, reason, and history.
In what follows, we'll begin by taking systematic theologian Wayne Grudem's definition of the Trinity to build an understanding of this model of God (social Trinity). Next we'll take a brief survey of the history of the idea from it's antecedents in the second and third centuries to the full-blown understanding in the sixth century. Lastly, we'll evaluate the concept based on scripture and reason.
Whether you believe in a Trinity theory or not, I hope this presentation will help you understand it better and see why an increasing number of people are questioning the idea.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDGNGWf2buM
—— Notes ——
Definition
God is three persons
Each person is fully God
There is one God
History
Theophilus (184)
Tertullian (208)
Alexander (313)
Nicaea (325)
Constantinople (381)
Ephesus (431)
Chalcedon (451)
Athanasian Creed (500s?)
Bible
God is one person (Deuteronomy 4.35, 39; 6.4-5; Mark 12.28-34; John 17.3; 2 Kings 19.19), routinely referred to as “he” rather than “they.” Since every time people in Scripture speak to or about God, they always use singular pronouns, we should be suspicious of affirming plural persons within God.
The Holy Spirit is not a different person from the Father or Son since it lacks a name, never sends greetings (Romans 1.7), is left out of fellowship (1 John 1.3), is intrinsic to the Father’s mind (1 Corinthians 2.11), is never prayed to, is left out of key Christian creedal statements (1 Corinthians 8.6; 1 Timothy 2.5-6; 2 Timothy 2.11-13), is left out of end times knowledge (Mark 13.32), and is never given a throne like the Father and Son (Revelation 3.21).
Jesus is not fully God because he is not the same substance (1 Timothy 2.5), not eternal (Matthew 1.18; Hebrews 1.5), not a se (John 6.57; Mark 10.18), not omnipotent (John 5.19, 30), not equal to God (John 14.28; 1 Corinthians 15.28), not omniscient (Mark 13.32), not immortal (1 Corinthians 15.3), not invisible (1 Timothy 1.17; 6.16), and temptable (Hebrews 4.15) unlike God (James 1.13).
Not only do the words “Trinity,” “same substance,” “eternal generation,” “three persons,” etc., fail to occur in the Bible, but Scripture likewise lacks any explanation of the concept of the Trinity. Furthermore, if the apostles were teaching about the Trinity, why is it missing from their recorded sermons in Acts? If the Apostle Paul taught the Trinity, why didn’t any of his opponents bring up that issue either during his missionary journeys or among the many issues he dealt with in his letters? Furthermore, if Jesus were merely playing the role of a lowly human in his “incarnation,” why does the resurrected, ascended, and exalted Christ still refer to the Father as “my God” (Revelation 3.12) and remain in subjection to God for all of eternity (1 Corinthians 15.28)?
—— Links ——
See Five Major Problems with the Trinity
See

Apr 1, 2022 • 1h 13min
437 High Control Groups and Judging Other Christians (Lori Jane)
Are you in a high control group? How would you even know? Lori Jane shares her story of waking up after attending Kingdom Halls for thirty years as a Jehovah's Witness (JW). Although the Watch Tower organization claimed they were the one true church, Lori discovered in Pioneer School the many "corrections" that had been handed down, which indicated they didn't have a monopoly on truth.
In today's conversation, we talk about how to recognize if you are in a high control group. Still, even if you aren't in a high control group, you might have their exclusive mentality that looks at all outsiders as beyond salvation. Lori explains why humility is important as an antidote to the arrogance that can accompany doctrinal pride, leading to sweeping statements about who is saved or not in other Christian groups.
Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swvBx8_A6S8
—— Links ——
Follow Lori Jane on Youtube at her channel: Finding Lori Jane and check out her popular video "Waking up in Pioneer School"
Email her at lorijaneusa@gmail.com
Visit her website SimplyChristian.faith
Support Restitutio by donating here or designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases
Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @RestitutioSF
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
Who is Sean Finnegan? Read his bio here.