Restitutio

Happy New Year. I’m so excited to begin with you a new class that covers a whole range of biblical doctrines. In fact, I’m going to combine two classes into one and I think they will work together really well. The first class was originally titled “Basic Bible Doctrine” and it covered approximately fifteen different major beliefs. The goal was to explain these aspects of theology and give supporting scripture and reasons for them. I’m combining this with a more advanced class called “Solutions to Bible Texts,” which deals with commonly misunderstood verses on a bunch of doctrines. I’m going to attempt to interweave these two, so that you get a comprehensive understanding of theology. Now I realize that you very well may disagree with my understanding on some of these beliefs, so we may have some exciting dialog in the comments on these episodes.  I will freely admit at the outset that I don’t know everything and that I have been wrong in the past.  I just ask that you give this class a charitable listen and check it against the scriptures to see if it is true.  Hopefully, this will be a good way to lay it all out there and see what you think.  To begin with, this episode is an introduction that covers some important basics about approaching truth and building biblical doctrines. —— Notes —— In one sense there’s nothing basic about bible doctrine. Constructing a coherent biblical theology on any topic takes immense effort from collecting the many texts on the topic to interpreting each of them based on their own literary, historical, and theological contexts to conceiving of an understanding that simply yet elegantly embraces the most texts possible while minimizing the number of difficult texts to comparing other doctrinal systems both ancient and modern—the process is anything but “basic.” Even so, the end result is often simple enough to comprehend and communicate, though it rests upon the work of teams of specialists drawn from a variety of fields. the bereans Acts 17.11 what was Paul trying to convince them to believe? neither accepted nor rejected<–really impressed Paul tested Paul’s message against the scriptures   why is it so important to be willing to change our beliefs? b/c it’s easy to misunderstand the bible geographic separation (what’s the Arabah?) cultural separation (did they have divorce? could they read? did they have running water?) different religious groups (what’s the difference between a Saducee and a Pharisee?) language (what language did Jesus speak? how do we know that? ephphatha) metaphysics: function over essence (why did God call the light day?) anachronism: since everything is so different, it takes serious work to not read our own ideas into the bible   reasons why it can be hard to change our beliefs easier to keep them the same might need to leave our church might lose friends, relationship with kids (Ray Faircloth), marriage (1 Cor 7) might lose job opportunities identity might be wrapped up in being 3rd generation church of God or whatever remember when I went to BU and got asked what I was anabaptist, adventist, biblical unitarian, restorationist my core identity (what defines me at more core, but doesn’t change no matter where I am on my quest for understanding) love God follow Christ seek truth   typical to think doctrine doesn’t matter or worse that it’s divisive not taught to argue constructively head knowledge vs. heart knowledge mind vs. emotions vs. actions fal

Greg Deuble grew up in the Church of Christ in Australia, went to N.S.W. Bible College in Sydney, and spent fifteen years serving as a pastor and evangelist.  One day he attended a meeting during which Anthony Buzzard challenged him on his belief in the deity of Christ.  Rattled, Deuble began on a quest to reassess all of his doctrinal convictions in light of scripture.  As a lifelong member of the restorationist tradition, Deuble always wanted to practice the authentic Christianity of the apostles and couldn’t just slough off such important questions.  The result was his book, They Never Told Me This in Church, an exposé of how bad philosophy corrupted the teaching of scripture. —— Links —— Visit Greg Deuble’s website at thebiblejesus.com Get his book They Never Told Me This in Church on Amazon Take a look at this YouTube video where Deuble shares his testimony Get in touch with Deuble at greg@thebiblejesus.com Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

For more than a decade, Sam An has faithfully served as an administrator and teacher at the Korean Extension of the Atlanta Bible College.  In this interview, you’ll learn about his own story of faith as well as what God is doing through his ministry to touch Koreans both in America and in South Korea. —— Links —— Check out the Korean Extension’s website at abcke.weebly.com Watch Steve An teaching in Korean on his YouTube channel Apply to be a student at the Atlanta Bible College Korean Extension Get in touch with Sam An at info.abcke@gmail.com or by calling (678) 392 – 2600 Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Have you heard of the Christian Disciples Church?  They are a biblical unitarian group scattered throughout Asia primarily.  In this episode Calvin Chan, who has been with the disciples since the beginning, will tell you the story of how this group got started as a student disciple movement.  He also shares about how the founder, Pastor Eric Chang, reexamined what the bible says about Jesus and had the courage to change his mind when he was in his seventies. —— Links —— Check out the Christian Disciple Church online Take a look at The Only True God online or on Amazon. Also, here’s the sequel, The Only Perfect Man Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

This is the fourth and final part of our Misunderstood Texts about Jesus series with Bill Schlegel.  In this episode he offers remarks on Philippians 2.5-6, Colossians 2.9, and Revelation 1.17.  After this, I ask him one of the biggest questions on this subject: if Jesus isn’t God then how can his sacrifice possibly pay for our sins?  As usual Schlegel points out that this is not a biblical question–Jesus never asked it, Paul never asked it, and John never asked it.  If no one ever makes this point in scripture, maybe we should wonder why our questions are so out of line with theirs? —— Links —— Check out the other episodes in the Misunderstood Texts about Jesus series. To learn about Schlegel’s backstory, listen to Interview 31: Master’s University Prof. Finds Son of God, Loses Job Check out his excellent book, the Satellite Bible Atlas Follow Bill Schlegel on his blog or on YouTube For an extensive list of verses and explanations from a biblical unitarian perspective, visit christianmonotheism.com (use the scripture index on the right) Watch “Five Major Problems with the Trinity” on YouTube Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

In parts one and two, we examined ten misunderstood verses in the Gospel of John.  In part three, we’ll examine seven more texts from the rest of the bible: Genesis 1.26 Isaiah 9.6 Matthew 2.2 Matthew 28.9 Matthew 28.19 (cf. 2 Cor 13.14) Romans 9.5 Acts 20.28 Repeatedly, Bill Schlegel calls us back to understand each verse within its immediate and canonical contexts, rather than reading in later theological commitments. —— Links —— Check out the other episodes in the Misunderstood Texts about Jesus series. To learn about Schlegel’s backstory, listen to Interview 31: Master’s University Prof. Finds Son of God, Loses Job Check out his excellent book, the Satellite Bible Atlas Follow Bill Schlegel on his blog or on YouTube For an extensive list of verses and explanations from a biblical unitarian perspective, visit christianmonotheism.com (use the scripture index on the right) Watch “Five Major Problems with the Trinity” on YouTube Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

This is part two of my series with Bill Schlegel, former professor of the Israel Bible Extension and long time bible teacher and geography expert.  Last time we discussed five major texts in the Gospel of John and this time we cover four or five more: John 10.30 John 10.33 John 13.18-19 John 20.28 1 John 5.20 Next time we’ll discuss a number of more important verses in the rest of the bible. —— Links —— Check out the other episodes in the Misunderstood Texts about Jesus series. To learn about Schlegel’s backstory, listen to Interview 31: Master’s University Prof. Finds Son of God, Loses Job Check out his excellent book, the Satellite Bible Atlas here Follow Bill Schlegel on his blog or on YouTube For an extensive list of verses and explanations from a biblical unitarian perspective, visit christianmonotheism.com (use the scripture index on the right) Watch “Five Major Problems with the Trinity” on YouTube Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Today we are beginning a new series called “Misunderstood Texts about Jesus” with Bill Schlegel.  Professor Schlegel lived and taught the bible and geography in Israel for more than three decades.  Recently, he came to change his mind on the deity of Jesus, seeing him now as God’s man rather than a God-man.  Since he made this change, several friends and acquaintances have brought up a number of scriptures that they believe prove Jesus is God.  This podcast series is Schlegel’s opportunity to answer these commonly misunderstood verses and explain what they mean.  In this episode we discuss the following texts: John 1.1 John 1.14 John 1.18 John 5.18 John 8.58 Next time we’ll discuss five more scriptures from John. —— Links —— To learn about Schlegel’s backstory, listen to Interview 31: Master’s University Prof. Finds Son of God, Loses Job Check out his excellent book, the Satellite Bible Atlas here Follow Bill Schlegel on his blog or on YouTube For an extensive list of verses and explanations from a biblical unitarian perspective, visit christianmonotheism.com (use the scripture index on the right) Watch “Five Major Problems with the Trinity” on YouTube Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Q: How do you know the bible is true? A: Because God wrote it. Q: How do you know God wrote it? A: Because the bible says God wrote it. Q: But, how do you know the bible is true? Here we encounter the classic circular argument for the bible’s inspiration. Surely, there’s a better way to go about establishing God’s influence on this book. In this episode we’ll take a look at three main comparative texts from the same part of the world and same time as the bible was written, including the Enuma Elish, the Code of Hammurabi, and the Ebers Papyrus. By comparing the bible to these Babylonian and Egyptian texts we can see just how unusual it was in its own context. This, in turn, helps up have more confidence that God in fact did work with the authors of his book, providing them with an alternative source of information that cut against the grain of wisdom of their age. Stay tuned afterwards for a couple of event announcements Winter Teen Camp held at Living Faith Christian Church in Warwick, RI (Dec 28-30) winterteencamp.com a weekend for teens to learn about God and spend time together building relationships and serving the community early bird rate is only $60.00 for those who register by December 9th. After December 10th the cost is $75 Revive 2019 held at Woodstock, CT (Jan 4-6) lhim.org/revive a weekend for young adults (20+) to worship and enjoy time with other believers theme is Wisdom, looking at the wisdom literature, including Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes $146 per person, please register if you know you’re coming so we can get a good count —— Links —— See also the YouTube video God Speaks through Scripture (10 reasons to believe the bible is true) More resources on the reliability and trustworthiness of the bible Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Our world seems intent on trotting out the same extremist examples of Christianity as either a homophobic religion (think Westboro Baptist Church) or a totally accepting faith (think Episcopalians).  However, these are not the only positions Christians take on this subject.  In this talk, Wesley Hill, assistant professor of biblical studies at Trinity School for Ministry, not only advocates for but lives out a third way. Hill identifies as gay while agreeing with the historic view of the church that marriage is only between a man and a woman.  Not only that, he wants to help other gay and lesbian people come into Christianity without compromising what the bible teaches on sexuality or lying to themselves about same-sex attraction.  Consequently, he is committed to singleness for life.  This is hard road to walk, but he believes it’s the best way forward.  Even so, he’s concerned about gay Christians getting their needs met for intimacy and friendship within the church.  How tragic would it be to heroically sacrifice marriage and parenthood on the altar of biblical faithfulness only to wake up at 65 years old, alone, single, isolated, and without meaningful connections to anyone? Hill says the church needs to step up not only by rooting out homophobia, but also building and strengthening friendship bonds between singles and singles as well as singles and families.  He concludes, “God calls us precisely in saying, ‘No’ to same-sex marriage to say, ‘Yes’ to intimacy,  ‘Yes’ to Christian community, ‘Yes’ to same-sex friendship, ‘Yes’ to a life of love in the body of Christ.” —— Links —— Read more about spiritual friendship at spiritualfriendship.org Hill’s faculty page at the Trinity School for Ministry Check out his book, Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality, which tells his story of reconciling his faith with his sexuality and how he came to think of celibacy as his calling. See also Interview 18 with Becket Cook, a fashion set designer who likewise embraced celibacy to follow Christ For more, search Youtube for testimonies by Christopher Yuan, Rosaria Butterfield, Jackie Hill, and Sam Allberry. Also, see Podcast 82: Biblical Boundaries for Same-Sex Attraction as well as Podcast 83: Questions about Gay and Lesbian Christians Intro music: Jazzy Frenchy by bensound.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.