Restitutio

When Joshua Anderson left home and attended a secular college, the environment bombarded him with skepticism and criticism of Christianity.  He internalized the general attitude manifested on campus from professors, students, and text books to such a degree that he began doubting his faith.  He fell into a two year period of existential despair as he desperately read book after book trying to find satisfying answers to his nagging anxieties about Christianity.  In this episode he shares how he was able to escape his dark night of the soul and reclaim his walk with God.  If you've ever struggled with your own doubts about God's existence or the bible's veracity, or the Christian worldview, this episode will help you understand the mental forces at work as well as the limits of absolute certainty. —— Links —— More Joshua Anderson podcastsSee Anderson's 5 part evangelism class, called "Announcing the Kingdom"Visit Anderson’s website Pascal’s JacketMore episodes about doubtIf you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

I love hearing people's stories--especially people of faith. In this episode you'll get to know Bob Jones, a professor at the Atlanta Bible College. He's equally adept teaching chemistry or physics as he is Old Testament or Systematic Theology. Now in his seventies, Jones looks back on his life to see how God led him through it all, even in the darkest of times. —— Links —— To get in touch with Bob Jones, you can email him at rjones@atlantabiblecollege.comCheck out his distance learning classes at the Atlanta Bible CollegeIf you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Although powerful preaching, serving the poor, and missionary work often take the lime light in Christian ministry, the truth is that home groups, churches, and especially denominations will fall to pieces without competent and consistent administrators. The job isn't glitzy or glamorous and it is often beset with equal parts of tedium, stress, and failure, but without it nothing gets done--or at least not for long. Meet David Krogh, a faithful servant who who has found himself in roles ranging from pastor to executive director in a denomination to academic dean of a bible college. Over more than five decades of ministry, Krogh has been involved with countless decisions that have made the Church of God General Conference what it is today. —— Links —— More about David Krogh on the staff page for the Atlanta Bible CollegeSee also the main website of the Church of God General ConferenceLearn more about the missions organization: Lord's Harvest InternationalIf you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

We’re delving into a topic rife with controversy, polarization, and intense emotion.  We’re asking the question, how should bible-based Christians respond to the Black Lives Matter movement.  No doubt, some of you will answer that we should all be out marching in full support while others think BLM is itself racist and should be resisted.  Of course, between these two extremes are many more options for responding to this.  In order to navigate our way through the choppy seas of this issue, I’ve invited on Russell Brown who offers an interesting perspective, since he finds himself at the intersection of all three camps. —— Links —— More podcasts from Russell Brown Check out Brown’s parenting teaching, “Disciplining Children“ More YouTube videos featuring Russell Brown If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Last December the Coronavirus pandemic began spreading from Wuhan, China across the world. As of today, globally we know of approximately 30 million cases across 188 countries and territories resulting in 941,000 deaths and 20.3 million who have recovered. The United States has the most cases with 6.7 million infected (roughly 2% of the population) and nearly 200,000 deaths (a mortality rate of almost 3%). In this interview, I'm bringing on Russell Brown (my brother-in-law) to share about his own COVID-19 experience, including his symptoms and recovery. He is a passionate Christian who can bring a faith-based perspective to this situation. —— Links —— Watch Russell and Joelle Brown's video retelling their experience, "Trusting through Storms"More podcasts from Russell BrownCheck out Brown's parenting teaching, "Disciplining Children"More YouTube videos featuring Russell BrownIf you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today, we've got three more texts to look at in our selection of unitarian Bible translations. Unlike last time where we focused on Christologically interesting passages, today, we'll examine Luke 23.43, John 7.53-8.11, and 1 Thessalonians 1.3 to look at a punctuation issue, a textual issue, and a grammatical issue. By the end of this episode we hope you'll have a firmer grasp on the differences between these translations. Of course, we could go on to compare many more verses, but we're going to draw this to an end here and this episode will round out this series on unitarian Bible translations. —— Links —— Read Wierwille's research paper on John 7.53-8.11, "My Favorite Fake Bible Passage"354 Unitarian Bible Translations 1 (Jerry Wierwille)355 Unitarian Bible Translations 2 (Jerry Wierwille)Check out these other episodes with Jerry WierwilleFor my class on How We Got the Bible, half of which covered translation issues, follow this link.If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Last time we reviewed six unitarian Bible translations, covering some basic information about where each came from and their overall strategy for translation. Today, we're going to analyze how they translate three key texts, including Philippians 2.6, John 1.1-3, and John 8.58. Our goal is to measure these translations against what the Greek says as well as noting significant variations from mainstream translations and each other. —— Links —— Check out these other episodes with Jerry WierwilleFor previous episodes that cover these verses in greater detail see God’s Form or God’s Nature (Translating Philippians 2.6-7) and Did Jesus Claim to Be the I AM? (Translating John 8.58)For John 1, see Dale Tuggy's "Trinities" podcast episode 290: Is the “Socinian” interpretation of John 1 correct?For my class on How We Got the Bible, half of which covered translation issues, follow this link.If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

In our last episode, I recommended some mainstream Christian Bible translations, but I would remiss if I didn’t also review some important unitarian Bible translations.  Although often overlooked, these versions are important because they have the opposite bias when it comes to passages commonly offered as proof texts for the Trinity.  Also, I asked Dr. Jerry Wierwille to join me today, since he is Bible translator, currently working on a unitarian bible translation.  In today’s episode we’ll review the following: Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson (1864) New European Version by Duncan Heaster (2013) New World Translation by Jehovah’s Witnesses (2013) Kingdom of God Version by Raymond Faircloth (2018) The One God, the Father, One Man Messiah Translation by Anthony Buzzard (2020) The Revised English Version by Spirit and Truth (ongoing) In this episode, we’ll offer some background on each of these versions and in our next episode we’ll compare them and see how they handle a number of interesting texts. —— Links —— Check out these other episodes with Jerry Wierwille Episodes mentioned in this podcast: Evaluating the Message Bible and the Passion Translation, Evaluating the King James Version, Reconstructing the New Testament, and New Testament Textual Criticism If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

This is now our last episode in this 24 part class on How We Got the Bible.  Today after a quick review and an appeal to learn the biblical languages, I’ll recommend a number of Bible translations.  Although I’m hesitant to do this, so many have written in asking for it that I would be negligent to avoid making some recommendations in this last episode.  Additionally, we’ll cover a list of 7 verses you can use to check translations accuracy (see below). —— Verses to Check for Translation Accuracy —— Genesis 4.8 Cain says “Let’s go into the field” (SP, LXX, Syriac, Vulgate) Isaiah 53.11 “he shall see light” not “he shall see it” (DSS, LXX) 1 Samuel 14.41 does it say “Urim?” (LXX) Psalm 145.13 is it 2 sentences or just 1? (DSS, LXX, Syriac) Honesty about Mark 16.9-20 and John 7.53-8.11 Revelation 22.19 “tree of life” not “book of life” Matthew 2.2 “pay homage” not “worship” —— Recommended Translations —— Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (JPS): dynamic equivalence from Jewish perspective English Standard Version (ESV): formal equivalence from evangelical perspective New English Translation (NET): dynamic equivalence from evangelical perspective New American Bible (NAB): dynamic equivalence from Roman Catholic perspective New Revised Standard Version (NRSV): formal equivalence from a mainline/liberal perspective —— Biased Translations to Avoid —— Message Bible (MSG): extreme dynamic equivalence Passion Translation (PT): extreme dynamic equivalence New Living Translation (NLT): dynamic equivalence —— Outdated Translations —— 1769 King James Version (KJV): formal equivalence 1982 New King James Version (NKJV): formal equivalence 1995 New American Standard Bible (NASB): formal equivalence any versions not taking into account the Dead Sea Scrolls (see verses above to check) —— Links —— Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

This is our fifth and final example of bias in translation. After this episode, we’ll have one more to conclude our class on How We Got the Bible.  Today our focus is God’s spirit.  Should it have an uppercase ‘S’ or a lowercase ‘s?’  Should pronouns referring back to spirit be masculine (like “he”) or neuter (like “it”)?  Is the spirit a “who” or a “which?”  In this episode we’ll get into the grammar of holy spirit in an attempt to show how translation bias steers unsuspecting readers in the direction of the traditional teaching about the personality of the spirit. —— Books & Papers —— Truth in Translation by Jason David BeDuhn Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics by Daniel Wallace “Greek Grammar and the Personality of the Holy Spirit” by Daniel Wallace “The Holy Spirit and Translation Bias: A Smoking Gun of Trinity Mischief (1)” by Sean Finnegan “The Holy Spirit and Translation Bias: A Smoking Gun of Trinity Mischief (2)” by Sean Finnegan —— Links —— Watch “The Holy Spirit” video by the Bible Project (note the lack of personhood) Listen to podcast Theology 14 — The Holy Spirit to hear a biblical theology of the spirit and five biblical reasons why the spirit is not a person apart from either the Father or Jesus Listen to podcast Theology 15 — Challenging the Holy Spirit to hear sound biblical explanations of misunderstood verses that defenders of the spirit’s personality point to as evidence of their position More posts and podcasts about the holy spirit Check out all the lectures in How We Got the Bible See what other classes are available here or on the Restitutio Classes podcast (subscribe in Apple, Spotify, RSS feed) If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library