Podcasts about baptist theological seminary

In episode 465 of The Reformed Brotherhood, hosts Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb explore Jesus's parable of the wheat and tares (weeds) from Matthew 13. This thought-provoking discussion examines Christ's startling teaching that good and evil will always coexist within the visible church until the end of time. The brothers carefully unpack the theological implications of Jesus's command not to separate wheat from weeds prematurely, challenging our natural tendency to judge others while offering wisdom about God's sovereign plan for final judgment. This episode wrestles with difficult questions about church purity, assurance of salvation, and how believers should approach the reality of false professors within Christ's church—providing biblical guidance for faithfully enduring in a mixed communion. Key Takeaways The Coexistence of True and False Believers: Jesus teaches that the visible church will always contain a mixture of genuine believers and false professors until the final judgment. The Danger of Premature Judgment: Christ explicitly warns against attempting to completely purify the church before the harvest (end of age) because doing so would damage the wheat (true believers). Proper Biblical Interpretation: Unlike some parables, Jesus provides a detailed allegorical explanation of this parable—the sower is Christ, the field is the world, the good seed represents believers, and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. The Challenge of Discernment: One of the most difficult theological pills to swallow is that it's often impossible to perfectly distinguish between true and false believers. Final Judgment as God's Prerogative: The separation of wheat from weeds is reserved for the angels at the end of the age, not for current church leaders or members. The Reality of False Assurance: Some professing Christians may have false assurance of salvation while genuinely believing they are saved. The Importance of Theological Integrity: Public theologians and pastors have a moral responsibility to be transparent about their theological convictions and changes in their beliefs. Deeper Explanations The Difficult Reality of a Mixed Church Jesus's teaching in the parable of the wheat and weeds directly challenges our natural desire for a perfectly pure church. By instructing the servants not to pull up the weeds lest they damage the wheat, Christ is establishing an important ecclesiological principle that will hold true until His return. This means that no matter how rigorously we apply church discipline or how carefully we examine profession of faith, we will never achieve a perfectly pure communion this side of eternity. The visible church—which can be understood as those who profess faith and are baptized—will always include both true and false believers. This reality should cultivate humility in how we approach church membership and discipline. Jesus isn't suggesting that all attempts at church purity are wrong (as other Scripture passages clearly call for church discipline), but rather that perfect purification is impossible and attempts at achieving it will inevitably damage true believers. This teaching directly refutes movements throughout church history (like Donatism) that have sought absolute purity in the visible church. The Problem of Discernment and Assurance One of the most challenging aspects of this parable is Christ's implicit teaching that true and false professors can appear nearly identical, especially in their early development. Like tares growing alongside wheat, false believers can profess orthodox doctrine, participate in church life, and exhibit what appears to be spiritual fruit. This creates profound implications for how we understand assurance of salvation. As Tony notes, while "assurance is the proper and rightful possession and inheritance of every Christian," there's also the sobering reality of false assurance. Some may sincerely believe they are saved when they are not, raising difficult questions about self-examination and spiritual discernment. This doesn't mean believers should live in perpetual doubt, but rather that we should approach assurance with both confidence in God's promises and healthy self-examination. True assurance must be grounded in the finished work of Christ rather than merely in our experiences or behaviors, while false assurance often lacks this proper foundation. The brothers wisely note that final judgment belongs to God alone, who perfectly knows who belongs to Him. Memorable Quotes "The visible church is set before us as a mixed body. Maybe everybody else's churches, but certainly not my church, like the one that I actually go to on the Lord's day. So it seems like there might be this shocking statement possibly that he has for us, whether you're Episcopalian or Presbyterian or independent or Baptist or Christian life assembly, whatever it is, that no matter what we do to purify the church, our churches, we're never gonna succeed in obtaining a perfectly pure communion." - Jesse Schwamb "I think that's what I find shocking. It is like a massive statement of reality that is at equal points totally sensible. And other times we would think, 'well, surely not in the church Lord, like of all the places, like aren't we talking about a kind of purity of your people?' ...and what I think he's striking at, which I do find a little bit wild, is that Jesus is essentially saying, at least to my ear, anything we try to do, even the purest preaching of the gospel, is not gonna prevent this in every age of the church." - Jesse Schwamb "I'm affirming that assurance is the proper and rightful possession and inheritance of every Christian." - Tony Arsenal Full Transcript Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 465 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I am Jesse. Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. Guess what? It looks like you and I are taking another trip back to the farm on this episode. Tony Arsenal: Yes. For a couple episodes. Jesse Schwamb: For a couple episodes. Yeah. [00:01:01] Exploring Jesus' Parables in Matthew 13 Jesse Schwamb: Because what, Jesus will not stop leading us there. We're looking at his teachings, specifically the parables, and we're gonna be looking in Matthew chapter 13, where it seems like, is it possible that Jesus, once again has something very shocking for us to hear? That is for all the ages. 'cause it seems like he might actually be saying, Tony, that good and evil will always be found together in the professing church until the end of the world. Like in other words, that the visible church is set before a mixed body. I mean. Maybe everybody else chose churches, but certainly not my church, like the one that I actually go to on the Lord's day. So it seems like there might be this shocking statement possibly that he has for us, whether you're Episcopalian or Presbyterian or independent or Baptist or Christian life assembly, whatever it is, that no matter what we do to purify the church, our churches, we're never gonna succeed in obtaining a perfectly pure communion. Could that possibly be what Jesus is saying to us? I don't know what we're gonna find out. Tony Arsenal: We are. We are gonna find out. Jesse Schwamb: It's gonna be definitive. And if now that makes sense. If you don't even know why we're looking at Jesus' teachings, you could do us a favor even before you go any further. And that is just head on over in your favor, interwebs browser to or reform brotherhood.com, and you can find out all of the other episodes, all 464 that are living out there. There's all kinds of good stuff, at least we think so, or at least entertaining stuff for you to listen to. And when you're done with all of that in a year or two, then we'll pick it up right back here where we're about to go with some affirmations or some denials. [00:02:39] Affirmations and Denials Jesse Schwamb: So Tony, before we figure out what Jesus has for us in Matthew 13, in the parable of the weeds, or the tears, or the tears in the weed, what gets all of that? Are you affirming with, are you denying against, Tony Arsenal: I am denying. First of all, I'm denying whatever this thing is that's going on with my throat. Sorry for the rest of the episode, everyone. Um, I'm denying something that I, I think it is. How do I want to phrase this? Um, maybe I'll call it theological integrity, and maybe that's too strong of a word, but maybe not. So the listener who's been with us for a little while will remember that a while back. Um, you know, we've, we've talked about Matthew Barrett and he was a Baptist, uh, who's heavily involved in sort of the theology, proper controversies. He wrote Simply Trinity, which is just a fantastic book. He was a teacher or a professor at Midwestern, um, Baptist Theological Seminary. And he recently, um, uh, converted is not the right word. I hate calling it a conversion when you go from one faithful Bible tradition to another. But he recently, um, changed his perspective and joined the Anglican Church. And at the time I kind of, you know, I kind of talked about it as like, it's a little bit disappointing, like the reasons he cited. [00:03:57] Theological Integrity and Public Disclosure Tony Arsenal: Where I'm bringing this into a matter of sort of theological integrity. And it's not, it's not just Matthew Barrett. Um, there's other elements of things going on that I'll, I'll point to too is it's often the case when someone who is in some form of professional theological work or professional vocational ministry, that as they start to change perspectives, um, there comes to be like an inflection point where they should notify whoever it is that they are accountable to in that job or vocation, uh, uh, and then do the right thing and step down. Right? And so with Matthew Barrett, um. He continued to teach systematic theology at a Baptist Theological Seminary, which has a faith statement which he was obligated to affirm and hold in good faith. He continued to teach there for quite some time, if, you know, when he, when he published the timeline and he's the one that put all the timelines out there. So it's not like people had to go digging for this. Um, he continued to teach under contract and under that, that faith statement, um, for quite some time after his positions changed. I remember in college, um, sim very similar situation, one of my professors, um, and I went to a Baptist college. It was a General Baptist college. Um, one of my professors became Roman Catholic and for quite some time he continued to teach without telling anyone that he had converted to Roman Catholicism. Um. And I think that there's a, there's a, a level of integrity that public theologians need to have. Um, and it, it really makes it difficult when something like this happens to be able to say that this is not a moral failing or some sort of failure. Um, you know, James White has jumped on the bandwagon very quickly to say, of course we told you that this was the way it was gonna lead. That if you affirm the great tradition, you know, he was very quick to say like, this is the road to Rome. And I think in his mind, um, Canterbury is just sort of one, one stop on that trip. Um, it becomes very hard after the fact to not have this color and tarnish all of your work before. 'cause it starts to be questions like, well, when, when did you start to hold these views? Were you writing, were you, were you publicizing Baptist theology when you no longer believed it to be the truth? Were you teaching theology students that this is what the Bible teaches when you no longer thought that to be true? Um. Were you secretly attending Anglican services and even teaching and, and helping deliver the service when you were, you know, still outwardly affirming a Baptist faith statement. And the reason I, I'll point out one other thing, 'cause I don't want this to be entirely about Matthew Barrett, but there's a big, uh, hub glue going on in the PCA right now. Um, a guy named Michael Foster, who some of our audience will probably be familiar with, um, he and I have had our desktops in the past, but I think he and I have come to a little bit of a, of a uneasy truce on certain things. He, uh, went to work compiling a, a list and there's some problems with the data, like it's, it's not clean data, so take it for what it's worth. But he compiled a list of. Every publicly available church website in the PCA. So something like 1800 websites or something like that. Huge numbers. And he went and looked at all of the staff and leadership directories, and he cataloged all the churches that had some sort of office or some sort of position that appeared to have a, a woman leading in a way that the Bible restricts. And that more importantly, and starting to say it this way, but more importantly, that the PCA itself restricts. So we're not talking about him going to random church websites and making assessments of their polity. We're talking about a, a denomination that has stated standards for who can bear office and it's not women. Um. So he compiled this and people in the PCA are coming out of the woodwork to basically defend the practice of having shepherdess and deacons. There was one that he cataloged where, um, the website actually said, uh, that was the pastor's wife and the title was Pastor of Women. Um, and then as soon as it became public that this was the case, they very quickly went in and changed the title to Shepherd of Women or Shepherdess of Women or something like that. So it's, it's really the same phenomena, not commenting, you know, I think we've been clear where we stand on the ordination of female officers and things like that, but not that all that withstanding, um, when you are going to be a part of a body that has a stated perspective on something and then just decide not to follow it, the right thing to do the, the upstanding morally. Uh, in full of integrity move would be to simply go to another denomination where your views align more closely. PCA churches, it's not super easy, but it's not impossible to leave the PCA as an entire congregation and then go somewhere like the EPC, which is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which still on the spectrum of things is still relatively conservative, but is in general is in favor of, uh, female officers, elders, and diegans. So I, I think, you know, and you see this with podcasters, there was the big, there was a big fu and Les became a Presbyterian, and then when Tanner became a Presbyterian on the pub, I think it is, um, incumbent on people who do any form of public theology and that that would include me and Jesse when our views change. There comes a point where we need to disclose that, be honest about it, um, and not try to pretend that we continue to hold a view that we don't be just because it's convenient or because it might be super inconvenient to make a change. I don't even want to pretend to imagine the pressures, uh, that someone like Matthew Barrett would face. I mean, you're talking about losing your entire livelihood. I, I understand that from an intellectual perspective, how difficult that must be, but in some ways, like that kind of comes with the territory. Same thing with a pastor. You have a Baptist pastor or a Presbyterian pastor. It can go both ways, I think. I'm more familiar with Baptist becoming Presbyterians. I don't, I don't see as many going the other direction. But you have a, a Baptist pastor who comes to pay to Baptist convictions and then continues to minister in their church for, I've, I've seen cases where they continue to minister for years, um, because they don't, they don't have the ability to now just go get a job in a Presbyterian context because there's all sorts of, um, training and certification and ordination process that needs to happen. Um, so they just continue ministering where they are, even though they no longer believe the church's state of, you know, state of faith statement. So that's a lot to say. Like, let your yes be yes and your no be no, and when we really all boil it down. So I think that's enough of that. It, it just sort of got in my craw this week and I couldn't really stop thinking about it. 'cause it's been very frustrating. And now there are stories coming out of. Doctoral students that, um, that Barrett was teaching who have now also become Anglican. Um, so, you know, there starts to be questions of like, was he actively pros? I mean, this is like Jacob Arminius did this stuff and, and like the reform tradition would look down on it, where he was in secret in like sort of small group private settings. He was teaching convictions very different than the uni. I'm talking about Arminius now. Not necessarily Barrett. He was teaching convictions very different than the, the stated theology of the university he taught for, and then in public he was sort of towing the line. You have to ask the question and it is just a question. There's been no confirmation that I'm aware of, but you have to ask the question if that was what was going on with Barrett, was he teaching Baptist theology publicly and then meeting with, with PhD students privately and, and sort of convincing them of Anglican theology. I don't know. I'm not speculating on that, but I think it, the situation definitely right, brings that question to mind. It forces us to ask it. Um, and had he. Been transparent about his theological shifts sooner than that may not be a, a question we have to ask. Um, the situation may not be all that different, but we wouldn't have to ask the question. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that's totally fair. I mean, disclosure is important in lots of places in life and we shouldn't think that theological dis disclosure, especially like you're saying among our teachers, among our pastors, it is a critical thing. It's helpful for people to know when perspectives have changed, especially when they're looking to their leaders who are exhibiting trust and care over their discipleship or their education to express that difference. If there's been a mark, change it. It's worth it. Disclose, I'm guessing you don't have to over disclose, but that we're talking about a critical, we're talking about like subversive anglicanism, allegedly. Yeah. Then. It would be more than helpful to know that that is now shaping not just perspective, but of course like major doctrine, major understanding. Yeah. And then of course by necessary conviction and extension, everything that's being promulgated or proclamation in the public sphere from that person is likely now been permeated by that. And we'd expect so. Right. If convictions change, and especially like you're talking about, we're just talking about moving from, especially among like Bible believing traditions, just raise the hand and say loved ones, uh, this is my firm conviction now. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I think if someone walks up to you and says, do you think that we should baptize babies? And you're like, yeah, I think so. Then you probably shouldn't be teaching at a Baptist seminary anymore. Like, seems like a reasonable standard. And that seems to be what happened, at least for some period of time. Um, you know, and, and it, that's not to say like, I think, I think there are instances where the church, a given church or um, or a university or seminary or, or whatever the situation might be, can be gracious and recognize like, yeah, people's perspectives change and maybe we can find a way for you to continue to finish out the semester or, you know, we can bridge you for a little while until you can find a new, a new job. Um, you know, we'll, we'll only have you teach certain courses or we'll have a guest lecturer come in when you have to cover this subject that is at variance and like, we'll make sure we're all clear about it, but it doesn't seem like any of that happened. And that's, um, that's no bueno. So anyway, Jesse. What are you affirming and or denying Tonight? [00:13:43] Music Recommendations Jesse Schwamb: I'm just gonna go with something brief. I suppose this is an affirmation of me. I'm saying that like somewhat tongue in cheek, but maybe it's, wait, I'll rephrase. It's because this will be more humble. I'm affirming getting it right, even more than I thought. So I'm just gonna come back to the well and dip it into something that I mentioned on the last episode. So the keen listener, the up-to-date listener might remember. And if you're not up to date, uh, just let this be fresh for you. It'll, and I, it's gonna be correct because now I have posts, you know, I'm on the other side of it. I've clear hindsight. I am affirming with the album Keep It Quiet by Gray Haven, which I affirmed last week, but it came out on the same day that the episode released. And since you and I don't really like record in real time and release it like exactly as it's happening, I only did that with some, a little bit of reservation because I only heard they only released three songs in the album. And I thought I was overwhelmed that they were, they were so good that I was ready to jump in and loved ones. Oh, it, it turns out. I was so correct and it was, it's even better than I thought. So go check it out. It's Grey, GRE, YH, and they are, this is the warning, just because I have to give it out there and then I'll balance it with something else for something for everybody here today. So, gr Haven is music that's post hardcore and metal core. You're getting two cores for the price of one, if that is your jam. It has strong maleic sensibilities. It's very emotional, it's very experimental. But this new album, which is called, um, again, keep It Quiet, is like just a work of arts. It real like the guitar work is intricate haunting, lovely, and it's bold, like very intentional in its structure and very el loose in its construction. It's got hook driven melodies and it's got both heart and soft. It really is truly a work of art. So if you're trying to, to put it in your minds, like what other bands are like this? I would compare them to bands like, every Time I Die, Norma Jean, let Live Hail the Sun. If you just heard those as combinations of words that don't mean anything to you, that's also okay. No worries. But if you're looking for something different, if you're looking for something that's maybe gonna challenge your ear a little bit, but is like orchestral and has all of these metal core post hardcore, melodic, textured movements, there's no wasted notes in this album. It's really tremendous. If that's not your thing. I get, that's not everybody's thing. Here's something else I think would be equally challenging to the ear in a different way. And that is, I'm going back to one other album to balance things out here, and that's an album that was released in 2019 by Mark Barlow, who I think is like just. So underrated. For some reason, like people have slept on Mike Barlow. I have no idea why he put together an album with Isla Vista Worship called Soul Hymns, and it's like a distinct soul and r and b album of praise with like these really lovely like falsetto, harmonies. It's got these minimalistic instrumentation, warm keys, groove oriented percussion, like again, like these false soul driven melodies. It's contemplative. It's got a groove to it. This is also equally a beautiful album for a totally different reason. So I think I've given two very book-ended, very different affirmations, but I think there's something for everybody. So my challenge to your loved ones is you gotta pick one or the other. Actually, you could do both, but either go to Gray Havens, keep it quiet, or go to Mike Bellow's Soul hymns. I do not think you will be disappointed. There's something for everybody on this one. Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, it was funny because as you were saying the names of those bands, I literally was thinking like Jesse could be speaking Swahili and I wouldn't know the difference. And then you, you, you know me well, yeah. Uh, I haven't listened to Gray Haven. Uh, I probably will give it a couple minutes 'cause that's how it usually goes with songs that meet that description. Uh, I can always tell that the music that Jesse recommends is good from a technical perspective, but I never really, I never really vibe with it. So that's okay. But I mean, lots of people who listen to our show do so check that out. If, if you ever. Want a good recommendation for music. Jesse is the pers so much so that he can recommend amazing music before it's even available and be a hundred percent correct, apparently. That's right. So Jesse Schwamb: affirm with me everybody, because turns out I was right. Uh, it was easy to be correct when of course I had all of that fair sightedness by being able to listen to those. Yeah, those couple of songs, it, this is a kind of album. Both of these, both of these albums. When I heard them, I reacted audibly out loud. There are parts of both of 'em where I actually said, oh wow. Or yeah, like there's just good stuff in there. And the older you get, if you're a music fan, even if you're not, if you don't listen to a lot of music, you know when that hook gets you. You know when that turn of melody or phrase really like hits you just, right. Everybody has that. Where the beat drops in a way. You're just like, yes, gimme, you make a face like you get into it. I definitely had that experience with both of these albums and because. I've listened to a lot of music because I love listening to music. It's increasingly rare where I get surprised where, you know, like sometimes stuff is just like popular music is popular for a reason and it's good because it's popular and it follows generally some kind of like well established roots. But with these albums, it's always so nice when somebody does something that is totally unexpected. And in these, I heard things that I did not expect at all. And it's so good to be surprised in a way that's like, why have I never heard that before? That is amazing. And both of these bands did it for me, so I know I'm like really hyping them up, but they're worth it. They're, they're totally worth it. Good music is always worth it. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I think that is a good recommendation. I will check those out because, you know, you're a good brother. I usually do, and I trust your judgment even though it, you'll like the second one. Yes. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Jesse Schwamb: You'll like the second one. Second one is like, just filled with praise and worship. And like, if, if you're trying to think, like say, here's how I'd couch the proper atmosphere for Mark Barlow's soul hymns you're having, you know, it's, it's a cold and chilly. A tal evening, the wind is blowing outside. You can hear the crisp leaves moving around on the pavement and the sun has gone down. The kids are in bed, the dinner dishes are piled up in the sink. But you think to yourselves, not tonight. I don't think so, and you just want that toneage to put on. You want that music as you dim the lights and you sit there to just hang out with each other and take a breath. You don't just want some kind of nice r and b moving music. You don't want just relaxing vibes. You want worshipful spirit filled vibes that propel your conversation and your intimacy, not just into the marital realm, but into worship and harmony with the triune God. If you're looking for that album, because that situation is before you, then sol hymns is the music you're looking for. Tony Arsenal: See, I'm gonna get the, I'm gonna get the recommendations backwards and I'm gonna sit down with my wife with a nice like evening cup of decaf tea and I'm gonna turn the music on. Yes, it's gonna be like, yes. That was me screaming into the microphone. That was not good for my voice. Well, the good news is it's gonna, it's gonna wake the kids up. That's, I'm gonna sleep on the couch. That's, it's gonna be bad. That's, Jesse Schwamb: honestly, that's also a good evening. It's just a different kind of evening. It's true. So it's just keep it separated again, uh, by way of your denial slash affirmation. Tony disclosure, I'm just giving you proper disclosure. Everybody know your music KYM, so that way when you have the setting that you want, you can match it with the music that you need. So it's true. Speaking of things that are always worth it. [00:21:30] Parable of the Weeds Jesse Schwamb: I think the Bible's gotta be one of those things. Tony Arsenal: It's true. Jesse Schwamb: And this is like the loosest of all segues because it's like the Sunday school segue into any topic that involves the scriptures. We're gonna be in Matthew 13, and how about we do this? So this is one of these parables and in my lovely ESV translation of the scriptures, the, we're just gonna go with the heading, which says the parable of the weeds. You may have something different and I wanna speak to that just briefly, but how do we do this, Tony? I'll hit us up with the parable and then it just so happens that this is one of the parables in the scripture that comes with an interpretation from our savior. It's true. How about you hit us up with the interpretation, which is in the same chapter if you're tracking with us, it's just a couple verses way. Does that sound good? Tony Arsenal: Let's do it. Jesse Schwamb: Okay. Here is the parable of the weeds. Jesus puts another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sewed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sewed weeds among the weeds and went away. So when the plants came up and bork rain, then the weeds also appeared, and the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then, do you want us to go and gather them? Then he said, no. Lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them, but let them grow together until the harvest and at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first, and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. Tony Arsenal: Alright, so then jumping down. To verse 36. We're still in Matthew 13, he says, then he left the crowds and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angel. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age, the son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom, all that, all causes of sin in all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. It is that in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears let him hear. Jesse Schwamb: So let me start with just like a little bit of language here, which I've always loved in this passage because where else in like the contemporary context, do you get the word tear? Yeah. Aside if you're like using a scale, and that's a totally different definition. I like this. I like the word tear. It force, it forces to understand that what's common to our ear, why that's being used, it often is translated weed. Here's just like my, my little like linguistic addition to the front end of our discussion and is the reason I like it is because here does have a specific definition. If like you were to look this up in almost any dictionary, what you're gonna find is it's like a particular type of weed. It's actually like an injurious weed that is indistinguishable in its infant form from the outgrowing of green. So I like that because of course that is exactly why. Then there's all this explanation of why then to not touch anything in the beginning because one, it causes damage to it looks like everybody else. I just thought I'd put that out there as we begin our discussion. Tony Arsenal: Yeah, yeah. You know, I, um, I am a homeowner and I don't own the land that I'm on, but I'm responsible for the land that I'm on. And we have this really gnarly weed problem. There's this, uh, sort of floor growing, uh, carpeting weed called, uh, I think it's called like a carpeting knob, head weed or something like that. Some really descriptive thing. And I went out there the other day and there's really nothing you can do about this other than to rip it up. But I went out there the other day to start to pull some of it up and it totally wrecks the yard. Like it totally pulls up the grass, it destroys the sod. And when you're done, this is why it's kind of nice that I don't have, I'm not responsible for the land as I'm not gonna have to pay to resod the land. But when you're done pulling up this weed, you have to resod the whole place. You have to regrow all the grass because it, first, it takes over for the grass, and then when you rip it up, it rips the roots of the grass up as well. And so this parable, um, on one level is immediately obvious, like what the problem is, right? The situation is such. That the good, uh, the good sower, right? He's a good sower. He knows what he's doing. He understands that simply ripping up the weeds. Even if you could distinguish them right, there's this element that like at an early stage, they would be very difficult, if not impossible to distinguish from, uh, from wheat. Even if you could distinguish them, you still wouldn't be able to pull up the weeds and not do damage to the grain. And so we, we have this sort of like, um, conflict if you wanna follow like literary standards, right? We have this conflict and as we come to sort of the climax of this, of this plot is when all of a sudden we see that, that the problem needs a resolution and there is a resolution, but it's not necessarily what we would think it would be. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, I think that's what I find shocking. It is like a massive statement of reality that is that like equal points or equal times totally sensible. And other times we would think, well why surely not in the church Lord, like of all the places, like aren't we talking about a kind of purity of your people, the very people that you're assembling together, the chief of which is Christ and the apostles being the building stones and Christ of course being the cornerstone. And I, I think that's what I find and I wonder the people hearing this, if they thought like, well, surely Lord, that not be the case like you are bringing in and ushering in this new kingdom. Isn't this new kingdom gonna be one of absolute purity? And, and what I think he's striking at, which I do find a little bit wild, is that Jesus essentially saying, at least to my ear, anything we try to do, even like the purest preaching of the gospel, is not gonna prevent this in every age of the church. The same state of the things that's existed in that is in the time of the early fathers. In the first century, and the church as it stands right now in the land and the time of the reformers, and of course with the best ministers at this hour right now and on your next Lord's day, and everyone after that, there is always and ever will be a visible church or a religious assembly in which the members are not all wheat. Yeah. And then I like what you're saying. It's this idea that. There's a great harm that's gonna come about if you try to lift them up because you cannot tell. So, and this is what's hard, I think this does influence like how we interact with people online. Certainly how we interact with people in our own congregations, but we are going to have no clear convicted proofs. We might only have like probable symptoms if we're really trying to judge and weigh out to discern the weeds from the weeds, which at most can only give us some kind of conjectural knowledge of another state. And that is gonna sometimes preemptively judge cause us to judge others in a way that basically there's a warning against here. It, it's, it's not the right time. And ba I think mainly from the outside where I find like this parable coming together, if there's like maybe a weird Venn diagram of the way Christians read this and the way unbelievers hear this, the overlap between them is for me, often this idea of like hypocrisy and you know. When people tell me that the church is full of hypocrites, either like Christian or non-Christian, but typically that's a, a, you know, statement that comes from the non-Christian tongue. When people say that the church is full of hypocrites, I do with a little bit of snark, say it's definitely not full of hypocrites. There are always room for more in the church and, and there's like a distinction of course between the fact that there is hypocrisy in the Christian or whether the Christian is in fact or that person is a hypocrite. So like when I look through the scriptures, we see like Pharaoh confessing, we see Herod practicing, we see Judas preaching Christ Alexander venturing his life for Paul. Yeah, we see David condemning in another, what he himself practiced and like hezeki glorifying and riches Peter. Doing all kinds of peter stuff that he does, and even all the disciples forsaken Christ, an hour of trouble and danger. So all that to say, it goes back to this like lack of clear, convicted proofs that I think Jesus is bringing forward here, but only probable symptoms. And I'm still processing, of course, like the practicality of what you're saying, Tony, that in some ways it seems like abundantly clear and sensible that you should, you're, you're gonna have a problem distinguishing. But our human nature wants to go toward distinguishing and then toward uprooting sometimes. And the warning here is do not uproot at the improper time. And in fact, it's not even yours to uproot because God will send in the laborers to do that at the time of, of harvest. And so there will be weeds found among the wheat. It's just like full stop statement. And at the same time it's warning, do not go after them now. Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I, I'm sure this, um, I, I'm sure this will spill over into a second conversation, but we, I think we have to talk a little bit about the interpretation here before we, before we even like talk more about the parable itself, because if you're not careful, um, and, and. I need to do a little bit more study on this, but it, it's interesting because Matthew almost seems to want you to sort of blend these parables together a little bit. Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Tony Arsenal: Right. These, these, there's three, um, there's three, maybe four if you count the parable of the treasure in the field. But there's three agricultural parables that have to do with sowing seed of one, of, one way or another. And in each one the seed is something different. And I, it almost seems to me. And then on top of that, the parables are like interwoven within each other. So like right smack in the middle of this, we have the parable. Uh, is given. Then the next parable of the mustard seed, which we're gonna talk about in a future episode, is given, and then the explanation of this parable of the tears is given. Um, and so we have to talk a little bit about it and sort of establish what the seed is, because we just spent three weeks talking about the seed in the par of the sower. Um, or the parable of the, of the soils. And in that parable, the seed was the word of God in this parable. And this is where I think sometimes, um, and again, this is like the doctrine of election in parable form, right? Yes. I think sometimes we read this and we, we misstep because the seed is not, uh, is not the word of God in this. The seed is the believers. Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Tony Arsenal: Right. So the good seed is sewn into, uh, into the field, which, you know, I think maybe there'll be some, we, we can save this for, for next week. But a little sneak peek is, it's not always clear exactly what the field is. Right. And I think we often, we often talk about the field as though it's the church that doesn't necessarily align a hundred percent with how Christ explains the parable. So we'll have to, we'll have to talk through that a little bit. I affirm that it is the church in, in a, a broad sense. Um, but, but the, the way that Christ explains it slightly different, but the, the seed is sewn into the world. The sons of the kingdom of heaven are sowed into the, into the world. And then the seed of the enemy, the bad seed, is the sons of the devil that's also sewn into the world. And so these two seeds grow up next to each other. If we think about the seed here as though it's the word of God, rather than the, the actual believers and unbelievers that elect in the ate, we're gonna make some missteps on how we understand this because we're not talking about, um, the, the seed being, you know, doctrine being sewn into the world. And some of it grows up good and some of it grows up bad or good doctrine and bad doctrine. We're talking about the believers themselves. Sorry, Jesse is mocking my rapid attempt to mute before I cough, which I, I did. That was pretty good. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, that was, that was pretty good. Listen, this is real. Podcasting is how it goes. Yeah, I'm with you. Thank you for pulling out that distinction. 'cause it is critical. We, we have some overlap of course, with Jesus being really ascribed as the farmer, the son of man, right. He's sowing this good seed, but not the word. It's believers or the sons of the kingdom. And it is into his field, which is the world. Part of that world of course, is necessarily the church, right? But while everybody's sleeping, this enemy, the devil, he comes, he sows weeds or unbelievers, the sons of the evil one among this weed, they grow, go up together. And of course, like if I were servants in this household, I'd ask the same thing, which was like, should we get the gloves out? Yeah. Just pull those bad boys out. Like and, and so again, that's why I find it very so somewhat shocking that. It's not just, you could see like Jesus saying something like, don't worry about it now because listen, at the end of all time when the harvest comes, uh, I'm gonna take care of it. Like it's just not worth it to go out now. Right. That's not entirely The reason he gives, the reason is lest they uproot the wheat by mistake. So this is showing that the servants who are coming before Jesus in the parable, in this teaching here to really volitionally and with great fidelity and good obedience to him to want to please him to do his will. He there, he's basically saying, you are not qualified to undertake this kind of horticulture because you're just not either skilled enough or discerning enough to be able to do it right. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I think, um. Maybe just a word of meth methodology too. Um, this parable also flies in the face of all of the, like, parables are not allegories, kind of kind of people. Um, and this is, we talked about this in our introductory episode. You have to take each parable for what it's worth, this parable very much is explained like a traditional allegory, right? Right. [00:35:39] Understanding the Parable's Symbols Tony Arsenal: It's got, it's got several different elements and Christ goes through and the first thing he does is tell you what each element represents, right? The sower is the son of man, the field is the word. The good seed is the sons of the kingdom of the weed. It's like, he's like clicking down all of the symbols and then he explains how all of it works together and like a good, all like a good allegory. Once you understand what each element and each symbol is, the rest of it actually is very self-explanatory, right? When you understand who's what in the parable. The outcome and the sort of the punchline writes itself as it were. And I think this is one of those parables that we would do. [00:36:18] Challenging Our Sensibilities Tony Arsenal: I think we would do well to sort of let marinate a little bit because it does challenge a lot of our sensibilities of what, um, what is real in the world, what is real in terms of our interaction with the world, right? What's real in terms of the role of unbelievers in the life of a Christian, um, whether we can identify who is or isn't an unbeliever. Um, I think we, you know, I, I'm not one of those people that's like, we should assume everyone's a Christian. And I'm certainly not one of those people who's like, we should assume nobody is a Christian. But I think there are a lot of times where we have figures either in public or people in our lives. Like personal acquaintances that have some sort of outward appearance. And, and that's like the key here that that distinction between weeds is a, is not a great translation as you said. Right. Because right. That distinction between wheat and weeds, to go to my analogy, like it's very clear what is grass and what is this like carpeting, knob weed. Like there's no, there's no doubt in my mind, which is the weed and which is the grass. Um, that's not what we're talking about here. And so it does, it does say here, I mean, it implies here that it's not going to be easy to distinguish the difference between exactly. The, a son of the kingdom and a son of the evil one. And I think that's a, that's a. A theological pill that is very difficult to swallow. Yes. [00:37:43] Personal Reflections on Identifying Christians Tony Arsenal: Because a lot of us, um, and this goes back to like what I, what we were saying in the last, the last parable, A lot of us were reared in our Christian faith on sort of this idea that like, you can check your fruit or you can check other people's fruits and you can determine, you can easily identify who's a Christian and who's not. I remember when I was in high school, you know, I got, I was converted when, when I was 15 and, um, I got to high school and it felt very easy to me to be able to identify the people who were play acting Christianity and the people who were real Christians. That felt like the most natural thing in the world to me. Um, it, it's an interesting story, but one of the people that I was absolutely sure was not a Christian. That he was just doing kinda civic Christianity. He was in confirmation 'cause his parents wanted him to. Um, and I had good reason to believe that at the time he was very worldly. He, he, um, did not seem to be serious about his faith at all. There was good reason to make the assessment that I did. And then I ran into him on Facebook like 15 years later and he's a pastor at the Lutheran Church and he's, you know, he loves the Lord Jesus Christ. And he would not explain it as though he had a later conversion story. It's not as though he would say like, well yeah, in high school I pretended to be a Christian. And then, you know, I got through college and uh, I really became like I got converted. He would, would grow this, or he would explain this as slow, steady growth from an immature state that knew the facts of the gospel and in a certain sense trusted that Jesus was his savior and didn't fully understand the ramifications of that. I mean, who did at 15 years old? Mm-hmm. Um. And, and that it was a slow, steady growth to the place that he's in now. [00:39:21] The Difficulty of Distinguishing Believers Tony Arsenal: So I, I think we should take seriously, and maybe this is the takeaway for this week at least, and we can, we can talk about it more, is we should take seriously the fact that the Sons of the Kingdom and the Sons of the evil one in this parable are not only inseparable without doing damage, but in many ways they are not easily distinguishable. Jesse Schwamb: Right. On. Tony Arsenal: Um, and that, that's a baked into the parable. And I think we do spend a fair amount of time and I, I'll. I'll throw myself on on this. You know, this, we, I'm not just saying we, um, we as a genuine statement, like I have participated in this. I'm sure that I still do participate in this sometimes intentionally. Other times, uh, subconsciously we spend a fair amount of time probably in our Christian lives trying to figure out who is a Christian who's not. And it's not as though that is entirely illegitimate, right? The, the, as much as we kind of poke at the, the, um, workers in this who sort of are kind of chumps, right? They're sort of like the idiots in this. They, they don't seem to know how this happened. They propose a course of action that then the master's like, no, no, that's not, that's not gonna work. They can tell the difference, right? They can see that some are weeds and some are are weeds, and they're asking, well, what do we do about it? But at the same time he is saying like, you're not really competent to tell the difference, Jesse Schwamb: right? On Tony Arsenal: a good, uh, a good. Competent farmer could probably go out and take all the weeds out. Just like a really good, I dunno, landscape technician, I'm not sure what you would call it. I'm sure someone could come into my yard and if I paid them enough money they could probably fix this knobby grass, weed, whatever it is. Um, infestation. They could probably fix it without damaging the lawn. Like there are probably people that could do it. I am not that competent person and the workers in this are not that competent person. And I would say by and large in our Christian life, we are not that competent person to be able to identify who is and who isn't, um, a Christian who is or isn't a son of the kingdom versus a son of the devil. Jesse Schwamb: And there's sometimes like we just get history reprised, or it's like, again, the same thing microwaved over and served to you three or four times as leftovers. So it's also gonna remember like any as extension that like any attempt to like purify the church perfectly, and this has happened like donatism in the fourth century I think, or even like now, certain sectarian movements are completely misguided. Yeah. And Jesus already puts that out ahead of us here. It's almost like, do not worry what God is doing because God again is, is doing all the verbs. So here's a question I think we should discuss as we, we move toward like the top of the hour. And I think this is interesting. I don't know if you'll think it's interesting. I, I kind of have an answer, but I, I'll post it here first. [00:42:01] Visible vs. Invisible Church Jesse Schwamb: So the setup like you've just given us is two things. One, we got the visible church, we talk about the visible church. I think a lot across our conversations. Yeah. And we might summarize it, saying it's like the community of all who profess faith, maybe even the community of all who are baptized. Right. Possibly. Yeah. And it's going to include then necessarily as Jesus describes it here, true and false believers. So that's one group. Then we've got this invisible church, which as you said is the elect. Those who are known perfectly to God. So the good seed is those elect true believers. The weeds, then the weeds to me, or the tears, even better, they sound a lot like that. Second and third soils that we talked about previously to some, to some degree. I'm not, I'm not gonna lump them all in because we talked about receiving the word and it taking root, all that stuff, but to some degree, and also probably like a soil one. But here's, here's the way I would define them up and against or in contradistinction to the elector believers. They're the reprobate. They're false professors or they're children of the evil one. Now here's the question, Doni, Alex, I, I think this is very interesting. I'm trying to build this up for like more dramatic effect. 'cause now I'm worried it's not that good. The question is, I'm going to presume that this good seed, the elect, true to believers, the confidence of perseverance of the saints, the justification in sanctification of God's children is in fact though we at some points have our own doubts, it is made fully aware and known to the good seed. That is, we should have, as you and I have talked about before, the confidence that God has in fact saved his elect. So the question that on the other side is for the ta, do the tears always know that they are the tears? Tony Arsenal: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think, um, I've said this before and I, I mean it, and I think it takes probably more. More discussion than we have time for tonight. And and that's fine because we can do as many episodes on this as we want to. 'cause this is our show and you can't stop us actually. Jesse Schwamb: Correct. [00:43:56] Assurance of Faith and False Assurance Tony Arsenal: Um, I've said before that assurance is the proper and rightful possession and inheritance of every Christian. Jesse Schwamb: Amen. Tony Arsenal: Right. So I, I am not one to say that the technical terminology is that assurance is not of the essence of faith. Um, I think we have to be really careful when we say that it's not, but we have to be equally careful when we say that it is. Because if we say that assurance is of the essence of faith, then what that means is someone who doesn't have assurance, doesn't have faith. Um, the reason I say that we can say that is because there's a sense that that's true, right? If you don't believe you're saved, then you don't believe you're saved and you don't trust that you're saved. But that doesn't mean that you always have full awareness of that confidence. And, you know, I think, um, I think. I think you're, you're right that, um, it may not always be, let me put it this way. I, I think that we have to consider the entire life of a Christian when we're, when we're making that analysis. And in a certain sense, like, I'm not even sure we should be making that analysis. That's kind of the point of the, the, um, the parable here, or at least one of the points. But, um, when that analysis is made, we'll, we'll channel a little bit of RC sprawl. It's not as funny when he's actually, uh, gone. I don't really mean channel RC sprawl. We will, uh, speak in the tradition of RC sprawl, um, in the final analysis, whatever that means. Whenever that is. You have to consider the whole life of a Christian, the whole life of a believer. And so there may be times in the life of a believer where they don't possess that full assurance of faith or that that full assurance is weak or that it seems to be absent. But when we look at the entire life of a believer, um, is it a life that overall is marked by a confident trust, that they are in fact children of God? Um, that a confident, uh, a confident embracing of what the spirit testifies to their spirit, to, to borrow language from Romans, I think in, in the life of a true elect Christian, um, that with the perseverance of the saints, uh, with the persistence of the saints and the preservation of the saints, um, I think that yes, those who are finally saved, those who are saved unto salvation, if you wanna phrase it that way. They finish the race, they claim the prize. Um, that assurance will be their possession in their life as a Christian. Jesse Schwamb: Right on. Tony Arsenal: All of that to say, I think there are, are, there's a good case to be made for the fact that there is also people who have false assurance, right? And this is where it takes a lot more, you know, finagling and jockeying and theological explanation of how can we know we have true assurance versus false assurance. You know, it's kinda like that question, like, does an insane person know they're insane? Well, does a false, does someone with false assurance know that their assurance is false? I don't think, I don't think so. Otherwise, it wouldn't be false assurance. Um, if they knew it wasn't real assurance, then they wouldn't have any kind of assurance. So I, I think I agree with you at least where, where I think you're going is that we do have to, we do have to make some judgements. We have to look at our own life, right? Um, there is an element of fruitfulness in this parable, right? We'll talk about that. I, I think we'll get into that next week. But it's not as though this is entirely disconnected from the parable of the soils. Both of them have a very similar kind of. End point. [00:47:20] Final Judgment and Eschatology Tony Arsenal: At the end of all things, at the end of the harvest, when the end of the age comes, and the reapers, the angels are sent, what they're gathering up are fruitful Christians, right in the parable, he sends out the, it's funny be, I love my dispensational brothers and sisters, but in this parable, like the rapture is the rapture of the unbelievers, right? The angels go out and reap the unbelievers first. The, the weeds are bundled up and thrown into the fire, and then the, the fruitful wheat is gathered into the barns. Um, there is this delineation between the fruitless weeds and the fruitful wheat or the, the grain that has borne, you know, borne fruit. That is part of what the, the outward. Elements of this parable are, so we should talk about that more, of what is this trying to get at in terms of not just the difference between weeds and wheat and how that maps up to those who are in Christ versus those who are not in Christ, but also like what is this telling us about the, the end of the age eschatology. All of that's baked in here and we haven't even scratched the surface of that Jesse Schwamb: yet. Yeah, we, we, I, and we just can't, even on this episode, probably, you're right, we're gonna have to go to two so that, I guess it's like a teaser for the next one. I'm told they're with you. It's interesting. I've been thinking about that, that question a lot. And I do like what you're saying. You know, at the end here, it's almost as if Christ is saying at the time of harvest, things become more plain, more evident In the beginning. The chutes are gonna look really, really similar, and you're gonna go in and you're gonna think you're guessing properly or using your best judgment, and you're gonna get it wrong in the end when he sends out those who are harvesting. I liken this passage here in the explanation as you read to us starting in verse 36, how there's this comparison of heat and light. And so there is the heat and light of the fiery furnace into which, as you said, all of those who are the children of the enemy will be gathered up and burned. And then there's that contrast with in verse 43, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. So there is like a reward that comes from the bearing of the fruit and that made evidence by a different type of heat and light. So I do struggle with this question because. It's easy to answer in some ways if we're defining the weeds in pirate or the tears in pirates as false professors typically. Let's say false professors of a nefarious kind, then it seems pretty plain that somebody, right, that the enemy has implanted certain people to stir up trouble with the intention to stir up trouble that is in fact their jam. Or they know that even if they're putting on heirs, that they're in fact play acting that the hypocrisy is purposeful and that it is part of like the missional efforts that they're doing to disrupt what God is doing in the world. So I might think of somebody like when we go, when we're looking in, um, Exodus, and we find that at least to some degree, all of Pharaoh's magicians can replicate everything that Moses is doing. Moses doing that by the power of God. But the magicians are so good and whatever means they're using, but they know, I presume they know they're not, they're not using Yahweh, they're not drawing their power or their influence from Yahweh. Tony Arsenal: Right? Jesse Schwamb: But it's so convincing to the people that Pharaoh is like, eh. Obviously I've seen that before because we just, we just did that here. Come back with your next trick until God flexes his mighty muscles in a really profound way, which cannot be replicated. And at some point there's a harvest that happens there. There's a separation between the two, those who are truly professing, the power that comes from God, the one true God, and those that are just replicating the cheap copy, the one that's just pure trickery and smoke and mirrors. So. That's an easy category. I'm with you. And I'm not saying that this is an invitation to bring the kind of judgment here that we've just spoken against. I'm not condoning this. What I do find interesting though is if the enemy is crafty, is it possible that they're always going to be forms of terror in the world that do feel that they have very strong conviction and belief about biblical things? Maybe there's, there's strong hobby horses or there are misguided directions here that pull us apart, that become distractions. Or maybe it's just even attitudes, uh, things that can be divisive, disruptive, derogatory that again, pull us away. For making the plain things, the main things and the main things, the plain things, which in some ways draws us back to like the whole purpose of you and I talking every week, which is we wanna get back to what the scripture teaches. We wanna follow the our Lord Jesus Christ very, very closely. I'm gonna clinging to the hymn of his rob as we walk through life so that we do not fall to those kind of false convictions. So I'm not, please hear me, loved ones. I'm not trying to call into question your faith as Tony just said. I am saying that there, this is kind of scary, just like we talked about. There are elements of the parables of the, of the soil that were equally scary. And so it's just in some ways to say, we gotta keep our heads not theological, swivel. We, we gotta be about the Lord's business, and we gotta be about understanding through prayer and study and communion with him, what it is that he wants to teach us in the purest way, knowing that the church itself and the world, of course, is never going to be entirely pure. At the same time, it is our responsibility to, as you already said, test for ourselves to understand what is that true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because some tears are going to be maybe easy to identify and with without, you know, throwing too much shade or. I was gonna say spilling the TI don't think that works here, but I'm not young anymore, so I'm trying to use or or put on blast. Yeah. I'm looking at you Mormons or Jehovah's witnesses. Like it's, it's easier there to be like, yeah, right, this is wrong. It is a false profession, but we've just gotta be careful even in our own hobby, horses not deviates into ground. I think that doesn't preclude us from being children of the light and children of the kingdom, but can still be disruptive or uh, you know, just distracting. But either way, yeah. I think what's scary to me about this is exactly what you said, Tony, is, is could it be that there are people that are very sincere about the Christian faith, but are sincerely wrong? Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Jesse Schwamb: And what does that mean for God's elected purpose? What does that mean for our understanding of how to interact in our churches in the world? Does that make sense? Tony Arsenal: It does. And I'm not sure whether you were trying to set up the, what might be the first genuine reformed brotherhood cliffhanger, but you did. Because we're on minute 54 of a 60 minute podcast, and, uh, there's no way we're gonna get into that and not go for another 60 minutes. So, Jesse, I, I'm, I'm glad that we are taking our time. Um, I know that sometimes it's easy when you put out a schedule or you put out a sort of projected content calendar to feel like you have to stick to it. But I wanna give these parables, the time they deserve and the effort and the, uh, the, uh, study and the discussion that they deserve. And I think the questions you're posing here at the end of this episode are really, really important. And they are questions that this parable forces us to ask. Right, right. It's not as though we're just using this as a launching pad. Um. If the workers can't tell the difference between the, the seed and the, or the, the weeds and the weeds, it's reasonable to think that the weeds themselves may not be able to tell the difference. Right? The sons of the evil one, um, are probably not in this parable, are probably not the people like in the back, like doing fake devil horns, right? And like, you know, like there's, there's probably more going on that we need to unpack and, and we'll do that next week. Jesse Schwamb: I love it. So we've got some good stuff coming then, because we've gotta, this is like, do you ever remember when you were in, uh, you know, doing your undergraduate postgraduate work, you'd get like a topic or an assignment or a paper and you'd be super stoked about it and you start reaching it, be like, okay, researching it. And you'd be like, all right, I've got some good topics here. And then you get into it, you're like, oh, but I'm gonna have to talk about this. And Oh, like before I could talk, I'm gonna have to explain this. Sometimes when we get into these, as you and I have been talking, that's what it feels li

It has been a rough couple of decades for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but the school seems to have turned a corner and is headed in a new, positive direction. If the saga of SWBTS does indeed have a happy ending, or at least a thriving next chapter, a good bit of the credit can be attributed to one man: Dr. David Dockery. The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. Until next time, may God bless you. LINKS MENTIONED IN TODAY'S PROGRAM: Dr. Russell Dilday Thomas Kidd's excellent work, especially The Baptists In America, which he co-wrote with Barry Hankins. Mark Wingfield's recent article “How Southwestern Seminary Is Bouncing Back From Financial Catastrophe” . 20 years of detailed financial audits.

This episode will be the first in a series that explores how the Church and the Christian faith is doing globally. In each episode I will have a guest from a different country or area to talk about the Christian experience and the Church's challenges in the place of my guest. My guest for this episode is Dr. Bennett Uche Enyioha. Dr. Enyioha is an experienced Baptist pastor, author, educator, and leader. He is an Associate Professor, having taught at various theological seminaries and colleges in Nigeria. For ten years he was the president of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Kaduna, Nigeria. He has served in leadership positions both in the Nigerian Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance. Since his retirement, Dr. Enyioha has worked to establish the B. U. Enyioha Foundation for the purpose of assisting gifted students that need resources to make possible their education, helping hospital patients with their hospital expenses, and establishing a lectureship that will be a resource for educating the people and churches of Nigeria. For enquiries about the Foundation, its work, and how to contribute and donate to the foundation, contact Dr. Enyioha at either: buenyioha@yahoo.com buenyioha@gmail.com The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called 'Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.

Guest: O.S. HawkinsOrganization: Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminaryPosition: ChancellorOrganization: GuideStone Financial ResourcesPosition: President EmeritusTopic: the book, The Spirit Code: 40 Truths About the Holy Spirit That Every Believer Should Know Website: oshawkins.com

Guest: O.S. HawkinsOrganization: Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminaryPosition: ChancellorOrganization: GuideStone Financial ResourcesPosition: President EmeritusTopic: the book, The Spirit Code: 40 Truths About the Holy Spirit That Every Believer Should Know Website: oshawkins.com

What up, Beasts? Welcome back to the show. Today I am hanging out with Jonna Rachele Garvin. Jonna is an ordained Baptist minister and a board-certified chaplain with The Association of Professional Chaplains.  She has experience as a healthcare chaplain, serving in both hospital and hospice settings, a therapist, and a pastoral counselor.   She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physiology from Michigan State University, her Master of Science in Patient Counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University, her Master of Divinity from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, and her PhD in Neumann University's Pastoral Counseling program.  Jonna's interests include spirituality, supporting individuals through bereavement, and finding meaningful ways to enhance personal and professional resilience through identifying inner resources and wisdom.   In this episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Jonna to hear her deeply personal journey into chaplaincy. She shared how the loss of her aunt inspired her path and her passion for helping others navigate life's toughest moments. We talked about the importance of trusting yourself and embracing growth at every stage of life. Together, we explored how generational perspectives shape our views on age, life transitions, and self-discovery. Jonna's insights about anchor people and practices were so meaningful, reminding me how vital it is to have those grounding forces during life's big shifts. We also dove into the ever-present challenge of balancing work and personal life, especially in this always-connected world. Jonna and I reflected on the pressures of "hustle culture" and why prioritizing rest, creativity, and self-care is crucial. We laughed about the different ways we approach transitions in our twenties versus our forties—how we lean on external support when we're younger and rely more on our inner wisdom as we grow. To wrap up, Jonna read Rumi's The Guest House, a beautiful reminder to welcome every experience, even the hard ones, as part of our growth. It left me feeling inspired and reflective—I think it will do the same for you. As always, I hope something lands with you today. I hope something you hear tugs on your heart-strings and/or I hope you laugh. Music by Prymary: Sean Entrikin (my hot husband) on guitar, Chris Quirarte on drums, Smiley Sean on keyboards, Rob Young on bass, and Jaxon Duane on vocals Connect with Jonna! Website: https://www.threeseesterswellness.com Where can you find me? Website: beautifulbeastwithin.com Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/beautiful_beast_within/⁠ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@beautifulbeastwithin Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulBeastWithin⁠ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4yNE6fXeDH9IsUoWfOf0pg To book a FREE 60 minute coaching session with me, go to ⁠beautifulbeastwithin.com⁠ Click on the big purple button, and book your appointment! Unveil the Beautiful Beast Within YOU! Zoom Background: By Behr --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beautiful-beast-within/support

Chancellor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and President Emeritus of GuideStone Financial Resources, O.S. Hawkins, discussed how the book of Philemon, written by Paul to an individual, addresses relationships, a topic he relates in the book, The Connection Code: Relationship Advice from Philemon. His website address is oshawkins.com.

Chancellor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and President Emeritus of GuideStone Financial Resources, O.S. Hawkins, discussed how the book of Philemon, written by Paul to an individual, addresses relationships, a topic he relates in the book, The Connection Code: Relationship Advice from Philemon. His website address is oshawkins.com.

One of God's greatest gifts to us is friendships, especially what our guest Rev. Dr. Victoria White calls “holy friendships.” These are the friendships that not only make life more enjoyable and more creative, but they are also core to who we are and who we become. They are “mutual and sacred relationships formed in God's love,” and they help us be who God designs us to be. She gives us permission to drop the idea that we have to be hyper-productive lone rangers in the world and calls us to spend more time with our friends. She points out that even Jesus depended on the diversity and friendship of his disciples for his ministry. We are excited for you to hear this conversation on the life-giving importance of holy friendship. Listen with a friend over coffee!Quotations"Our society has commodified friendship and developed it into something that can be consumed. The church offers a real opportunity for us to cultivate the conditions for more authentic, more mutual, more holy relationships that help form us into the people God is creating us to be."Rev. Dr. Victoria White"My holy friends are going to do that for me because they know that my work matters; they know that what I am doing contributes to the way that I am bearing witness to God's work in this world."Rev. Dr. Victoria White"You know you're in a holy friendship when you can be uber confident and unashamedly yourself."Rev. Dr. Victoria WhiteWe discuss:The different forms that holy friendships can take and how they can impact various aspects of life. (6:00)The power of friendship in forming disciples and the importance of cultivating authentic relationships in the church. (11:39)The positive impact of spending time with friends on energy, creativity, and overall performance in various aspects of life. (16:00)The significance of mutual respect, covenant, and conversation in friendships, especially in the face of inequality and social issues. (29:44)Exploring the connection between holy friendships and institutions, highlighting the need for friendships among institutions. (34:03)About Victoria Atkinson White is the managing director of grants at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity. In this role, she encourages traditioned innovation among Christian institutions and their leaders. For eight years, Victoria was a chaplain at the 900-resident Westminster Canterbury Community in Richmond, Virginia. Before that, she worked as minister to alumni at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Victoria is a graduate of Duke Divinity School, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and Rhodes College. She is an ordained minister affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.Victoria is author of Holy Friendships: Nurturing Relationships That Sustain Pastors and Leaders, a book about how pastors and Christian institutional leaders serve more creatively, effectively, and joyfully when they feel supported and art of an intimate community of colleagues and friends who care about their personal and professional wellbeing.Show NotesVictoria Atkinson White is the managing director of grants at

It's YOUR time to #EdUp In this episode, recorded LIVE from ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jenzabar's Annual Meeting (JAM)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 2023 conference in Orlando, Florida YOUR guest is Al Santos, Associate Director of Information Technology at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary YOUR guest cohost is Chris Myers, Product Manager at Jenzabar YOUR host is ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen in to #EdUp! Thank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp! Connect with YOUR EdUp Team - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Elvin Freytes⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠⁠⁠⁠ ● Join YOUR EdUp community at ⁠⁠⁠⁠The EdUp Experience⁠⁠⁠⁠! We make education YOUR business! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/edup/message

Mary Haskett, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University (NC State), where she directs the Family Studies lab. Her primary area of research is the causes and consequences of family distress on the social-emotional development of young children. Dr. Haskett co-founded the NC State Steering Committee on Student Food and Housing Security and led the development of a host-home program for local college students. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.Libby Stephens is the Program Coordinator for HOST. She brings over twenty years of non-profit experience to her role leading the program development and management of the HOST Program. Libby received a B.A. in History from Marshall University and a Master of Divinity from Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA.Housing insecurity is impacting college and university students at increasingly high rates. In a 2022 report from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), more than a quarter of respondents, approximately 27%, reported experiencing the inability to pay either rent or mortgage in full within the last year. While COVID-19 and the impacts of the pandemic played a role in heightened housing insecurity for college and university students, other factors contributed, such as rising costs across the country. While some federal, state, and local resources are available, housing insecurity is often overlooked, leaving institutions to take creative approaches to meet the needs of students.Learn more about CITI Program at https://about.citiprogram.org/ 

Matt Queen, who serves as L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism ("Chair of Fire") and Professor of Evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX and is Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Administration, discussed the book, co-written with O.S. Hawkins, called, The Gospel Invitation: Why Publicly Inviting People to Receive Christ Still Matters. You can find out more through thegospelinvitation.com. You can find him on social media as @DrMattQueen.

Matt Queen, who serves as L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism ("Chair of Fire") and Professor of Evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX and is Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Administration, discussed the book, co-written with O.S. Hawkins, called, The Gospel Invitation: Why Publicly Inviting People to Receive Christ Still Matters. You can find out more through thegospelinvitation.com. You can find him on social media as @DrMattQueen.

514. Part 2 of our conversation with Jacqueline Couti about her research into Creole folktale, "Djabe's Marriage." "Jacqueline Couti works in the area of French and Francophone Studies. Her research and teaching interests delve into the transatlantic and transnational interconnections between cultural productions from continental France and its now former colonies. Her work explores constructions of gender, race, sexuality, identity politics, and nationalism. A central theme of her research is how local knowledge in the colonial and post-colonial eras has shaped the literatures, and the cultural awareness of the self, in former French colonies through specific representations of sexuality" (Rice University). This week in Louisiana history. March 24, 1840. Calcasieu Parish created as largest in the state at the time, also had smallest population at time. This week in New Orleans history. The Christian Science Monitor reported on March 24, 1909 that Baptist churches in New Orleans are having a revival season. Among the speakers are the Rev. E.Y. Mullins, president of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville; Dr. WW Hamilton, evangelist; Dr. CA Stewsrt. This week in Louisiana. Baton Rouge Blues Festival 2023 247 Florida St. Baton Rouge, LA 70801 Sat, Apr 22 – Sun, Apr 23 Originating in 1981, the Baton Rouge Blues Festival is one of the oldest free blues festivals in America. Produced by the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, the festival is made possible in part by the Foundation's board of directors, a volunteer Blues Festival committee, local support and generous partners. Postcards from Louisiana. Big Dixie Swingers.Listen on Google Play.Listen on Google Podcasts.Listen on Spotify.Listen on Stitcher.Listen on TuneIn.The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.Like us on Facebook. 

Be forewarned, the topics discussed in this podcast, while not explicit, center around the topic of marital intimacy. Please be judicious as you listen to this podcast concerning those with whom you listen.Can we really say that the Bible is anti-sex when there is a whole book centered around it celebrated as a blessing? Listen in as Dr. Tim Little explains this somewhat misunderstood and perhaps controversial book of the Song of Songs. You will no doubt finish this episode with a greater appreciation and celebration of God's design for marital union.Check out the couples' retreat at the IARBC conference  where Dr. Little will be speaking this February.https://iarbc.org/event/2023-mid-winter-couples-retreat/Be sure to leave a rating AND a review on Theologic to make sure that our content reaches a larger audience! Check out our Facebook Page for more info: https://www.facebook.com/TheologicPodcast Check out our Bi-weekly Topical Episodes, Monthly Interviews, and Quarterly Debates!Support the show

Support the show: Patreon l Glow l Episode TranscriptThis was a fun, and live, episode of the show. Guest Bio:Paul Baxley is the CBF Executive Director. Baxley was ordained to gospel ministry in 1993 at his home church of First Baptist Church on Fifth in Winston-Salem, N.C. Baxley and his wife, Jennifer, a licensed physical therapist, have four children: Olivia (age 17), Maria (age 11) and twins Caroline and Matthew (ages 8). Baxley has also held a variety of leadership roles with CBF partner organizations including the Board of Visitors of Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology (member, 2012-2018 and chair, 2015-2016); Board of Directors of the Baptist House of Studies of Duke Divinity School (member, 2006-2012; chair, 2009-2010); and the Board of Directors of the Center for Congregational Health (member, 2004-2010; chair, 2009). In 2012, Baxley gave the Lawrence Hoover Lectures at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and delivered a sermon titled “Preaching as Participation” at the Mercer Preaching Consultation.Mark Snipes is the Coordinator for CBF of Virginia. Mark was born and raised in the small town of Rockmart, Georgia in the North Georgia mountains. A graduate of the McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia, Mark worked in local church ministry for seven years before becoming Missions Coordinator for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia in October 2013. In 2017, Mark's position was broadened and his title was changed to Associate Coordinator. In this role, Mark concentrates on global and local missions; advocacy; events; connecting with churches, ministers, and the Young Baptist Ecosystem.Check out all the things over at the store...it's a great way to support the show www.canisaythisatchurch.com/storeWhat are you waiting for; consider becoming a Patreon supporter of the show. You'll have access to many perks as well as guaranteeing the future of these conversations; even $3/Month goes so far as this show is 100% listener supported. Follow the show:Facebook, Twitter, Store, BookShop.orgAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

09/14/2022 - Rhyne Putman -New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary dean, on 8 ways to spot false teachers.

My guest is Joe Kendrick, who currently serves as the Executive Director of Christian Mission for the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City. Joe has a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from The Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He is married to Lacy Kendrick, the Vice President of Financial Development for the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City, and they have two boys: Connor, and Duncan, who are his absolute favorites. In his spare time, Joe volunteers as a coach for the YMCA, with Community Market at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, dabbles in toy photography, and pretending to be a pit master. Connect with my guest: You can connect with Joe Kendrick by email at JKendrick@ymcaokc.org, on Facebook @ major.fury, or Instagram @ major.fury.photography. Resources mentioned in this episode: YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City https://ymcaokc.org/ "Forest of Feelings" Care Bears song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFF-EYiYz5g Mentalitea and Coffee https://www.mentaliteaandcoffee.com Good Faith Media article https://goodfaithmedia.org/how-conflict-can-be-a-positive-agent-of-change/ Share and subscribe: Share this podcast https://www.fullintegrationcoaching.com/liveyourpurpose For more ways to share and subscribe https://anchor.fm/liveyourpurpose Thank you! Connect with Charles: Learn more about my life coaching, public speaking, and retreat services https://www.fullintegrationcoaching.com Follow along with me on Facebook and Instagram @ fullintegrationcoaching

Missie Branch currently serves as the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Graduate Life at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is married to Deuce and they have 4 children. Missie is passionate about women seeing themselves as disciples and theologians. She's a published author, chairwoman of the trustees at Lifeway Christian Resources, and of course, one of our beloved podcast hosts!   In this episode, Missie discusses: ✨Her journey from owning a successful cake business to becoming the Associate Dean of Students at SEBTS.  ✨Women and leadership and some of the messaging women hear  ✨Women leaders in the black church and the positive influence that has had on her. ✨Being in predominantly white spaces and what she has learned about being in a culture that is different than her own. ✨A kingdom-minded vision of all peoples living reconciled.    And so much more. Missie is so wise and we are so thankful for her contributions to our team and to the broader evangelical culture.  We loved this episode and getting to know her more and hope you were as encouraged as we were. 

Tara has loved Jesus for as long as she can remember. She was saved as a child at a Billy Graham crusade, and then surrendered to the ministry as a teenager. A few years later, she married her high school sweetheart, Dr. Jamie Dew, who is now the President of  New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College.    Together, they have 2 sets of twins: Natalie & Nathan (14 years old) and Samuel & Samantha (12 years old). Tara loves spending time with her family, trying out new restaurants in New Orleans, and teaching women to know and love the Word of God. She is the Director of Thrive: A Ministry Wives Certificate Program as well as an Adjunct Professor of Ministry to Women at NOBTS. Tara is also a contributing author to the book: The Whole Woman: Ministering to Her Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength published by B&H Publishing.  Resources Mentioned:   The Whole Woman (published by B&H, 2021)

03/31/2022 – Rhyne Putman –New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary dean, on 8 ways to spot false teachers.

Partner Portal: https://cbtseminary.org/partners/ (for password contact Pastor Bobby) Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary: https://cbtseminary.org/ Foundation Church: https://www.foundationfxbg.com/

Acts 8:18. A message from Dr. Adam Greenway, President of The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dr. Scott Callaham is Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary, Singapore. In this conversation with David Capes he introduces the podcast Daily Dose of Aramaic, which, along with his new book, Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters, helps users build knowledge of this third biblical language. They go on to look closely at the one Aramaic verse in the book of Jeremiah. Dr. Callaham demonstrates how knowledge of Aramaic grammar enables Bible readers to grasp the meaning of Jeremiah 10:11 more accurately than is possible through referring to English Bible translations alone.  

Dr. Jim Whitmire of the Mid-American Baptist Theological Seminary talks with Tim & Ben about tonight's big Passion Play fundraiser, featuring Honorary Chairman Todd Starnes! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10/15/2021 – Matt Mullins –Professor at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, with some literary approaches to help you enjoy the Bible

The Stone Chapel Podcasts Hosted by David Capes Dr. Scott Callaham

The Stone Chapel Podcasts Hosted by David Capes Dr. Scott Callaham

We were delighted to welcome Justin Pierson to our pulpit last Sunday! Justin serves as the Pastoral Resident at Richmond's First Baptist Church. His sermon was part of our worship for August 15, 2021, and was based on the story of the Fiery Furnace from Daniel chapter 3. It is part of our summer series we are calling "Childhood Stories of the Bible, Revisited." You can find out more about the series by visiting our website here: https://www.williamsburgbaptist.com/summer-2021-sermon-series.html. Justin: We are so grateful for your willingness to speak words of wisdom, encouragement, and challenge to us in worship! We are so grateful. If you'd like more information about our congregation, please check out our website at www.williamsburgbaptist.com. While you are there, drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you! Thanks so much for listening. Enjoy! Justin's Bio: Originally from Roanoke, Virginia and a graduate of Virginia Tech, Justin Pierson is the pastoral resident at Richmond's First Baptist Church. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond as well as a Masters of Theology from Union Presbyterian Seminary. Justin's ministerial interests revolve around the intersections of faith, culture, and justice as he tries to reclaim the identity of Christianity as a force for good in the world today. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife Tori and their spoiled mutt, Fanny. Justin enjoys traveling, cooking, the perfect cup of coffee, and anything happening outdoors.

Tim is joined by the Dean and Vice President of Mid-South Baptist Theological Seminary and first Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention: Doctor Lee Brand! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Scott Callaham is Lecturer of Hebrew and Old Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary, Singapore. Dr. Callaham has written extensively on Hebrew grammar and on broader issues of theology and ministry. In this episode, he discusses with Dr. Capes his mid-life calling to learn Chinese and then to teach through the medium of Chinese in Singapore. He shares special challenges he faces when explaining Hebrew grammatical concepts in Chinese. The Chinese language is quite different from that of English, and thinking critically about the language used for teaching can illuminate understanding of Hebrew grammar and pedagogy in fresh ways.

05/12/2021 - Matt Mullins - Professor at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, to help you enjoy the Bible.

This week's sermon is based on Luke 24:13–35, which is the Narrative Lectionary reading for the second Sunday in the Easter season this year. We are so grateful to Rev. Robbie Jones Miller for her willingness to step into the pulpit for us! Rev. Miller currently works at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society/Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies on the campus of the University of Richmond. She graduated from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond with a Master of Divinity degree in 2017. She served as the Children's Ministry Associate at Central Baptist Church in Chesterfield County while in seminary. Before attending seminary, Robbie taught elementary school for seven years. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2007 with a Master of Teaching in Elementary Education degree and a Bachelor of Arts in English degree. She is originally from Franklin County, Virginia, but now resides in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Alex Miller. If you'd like to find out more about our congregation, head on over to www.williamsburgbaptist.com. While you are there, drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you! Thanks for listening. Enjoy.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has gone woke. They are teaching CRT, hiring woke professors, defending professors with unchristian views, and silencing criticism from within the seminary. Listen to a personal story by a graduate and previous employee of the seminary. This needs to be heard. Please consider spreading this around. Southeastern and the Southern Baptist Convention cannot be allowed to let the places where our future pastors are educated leave the truth of the bible for the love of culture.Check out the full video by Scott Crawford here https://www.facebook.com/1589862001/posts/10223175330963511/?d=n _____________________________________________________________________ Good Monsters on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVwB26yxtYWUopfFPhAsb8wGood Monsters on BitChute https://www.bitchute.com/channel/CDw0Zu3shEqS/Good Monsters on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/goodmonsterspodcast/Good Monsters on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6CqhvtMGood Monsters on Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-monsters/id1528869516Podcast Episodes on Buzzsprout https://www.buzzsprout.com/1300948/episodesIntro and Outro is Dreaming Days by Ketsa and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...    

Dr. Scott Callaham is Lecturer of Hebrew and Old Testament at Baptist Theological Seminary, Singapore. He has authored and edited a number of books and articles and is currently completing a new teaching grammar of Biblical Aramaic. Dr. Callaham discusses the form, meaning, and theological significance of the Aramaic term Abba, which Jesus uses in his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and which also appears twice in Paul’s writings.

Hello and welcome to Episode 18 of This Little Light Of Mine.  My name is James Powell and I'm glad that you're able to join me for today's episode, ‘Scapegoat'. Over the past few weeks on IG and Facebook @MyLightShinesBright our trauma topic of conversation has been around the concept of ‘The Scapegoat'.  This is a relatively new term for me, and it seems like it's a term that resonates with many that are on similar journeys of trauma recovery, addiction recovery, those deconstructing their religious beliefs, people experiencing homelessness and many in the BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ communities. A scapegoat is a truth teller in a family, company or community.  They are the ones that will verbalize or act out “the problem” that others are attempting to cover up or deny. Scapegoats are also called many other names… negative, shit disturber, trouble-maker, problem child, killer of dreams and get labelled with words like hostile, angry, crazy or defiant. What I'm learning is that insecure leaders or people with insecure positions of power need to marginalize or try to sideline the scapegoat.  The truth-telling of the scapegoat brings issues to the surface, questions the status quo and calls for actual transparency and radical change in our world. On today's episode I'm in conversation with another radical truth-teller and scapegoat, Junia "June" Joplin. Junia “June” Joplin began serving in church ministry over twenty years ago, at nineteen years old. She has served congregations in the U.S. and Canada, most recently serving as a pastor in suburban Toronto. She holds degrees from Appalachian State University and the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.  A long-time advocate for greater LGBTQ+ acceptance in faith communities, June made international headlines last summer when she came out as a trans woman and was subsequently fired by her congregation. June has been acclaimed as a stirring preacher and graceful leader. Her sermons and other content can be found on her website, pastorjune.com. June is feisty, funny and incredibly vulnerable as she shares part of her story and message of hope and love for fellow truth-tellers. I hope you grow as much from this conversation as I did. James www.ThisLittleLightOfMine.CA

Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Lebanon Celebrates 60 Years (Whyte House Report 11.08.20) by Daniel Whyte III

Mental Health is an ongoing concern for all people during the pandemic. People are suffering, and it is important that we remember to talk about it. As Youth Workers, it is important to remember we serve young people that are being starved of meaningful connections during this time, and we have an opportunity to provide resources and techniques that might help.In this episode, the team has a conversation with Dena and Jason Hobbs on mental health with young people, warning signs, ending the stigma, techniques for self-care, and information from their new book When Anxiety Strikes. Listen in for the full conversation.Dena Douglas Hobbs, M.Div. served as a minister in the United Methodist Church for six years before leaving parish ministry to raise her two young children. She continues to preach, teach groups, and lead retreats and workshops in local congregations. Dena holds a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Georgia. She blogs at denadouglashobbs.com.Jason B. Hobbs, LCSW, MDiv, is a licensed clinical social worker in an outpatient mental health clinic. He has been in private practice for fifteen years in addition to having worked in hospice and homeless services. Jason also pastored a small United Methodist congregation near Savannah for three years.Jason has led mindfulness training groups in his practice using Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. He has been trained in Mindfulness and Cognitive Therapy in addition to other therapeutic modalities. He has also presented continuing education courses for the Georgia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Annual Meeting in Atlanta. These workshops were entitled Spiritually Sensitive Clinical Practice: Understanding and Honoring Diverse Religious and Spiritual Traditions and Mindfulness, Psychotherapy, and the Therapist: Knowledge and Practice for Clients and Clinicians and Integrating Spiritual Disciplines into Direct Practice. Jason holds a Master of Social Work degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Divinity degree from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.Their new book When Anxiety Strikes is now available from all major and most local retailers.

Dr Scott Callaham from Baptist Theological Seminary preached over Zoom from Psalm 27 - on how we as modern people could seek to faithfully face the future with the ancient Word of God. Message is preached in both mandarin and english.

Elie Haddad, president of Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, talks with Word&Way Editor & President Brian Kaylor about the work of ABTS amid various crises in Lebanon. He discusses economic and political struggles, as well as ministering in new ways due to coronavirus and the massive August 4 explosion in Beirut just miles from ABTS. (This episode is sponsored in part by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.)

Today, Kathrin sits down with Dr. Melissa Fallen to talk about the space between hope and hopelessness in the aftermath of loss.Melissa is the pastor of Glen Allen Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia, and author of Lost and Found: From Losing Your Pulpit to Finding Your Passion.We invite you to grab a cup and join us. We are your Friends for the Journey.Towel and Basin Memoir: Personal Reflections on Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is available through Amazon, Good Reads, or your local book seller.(https://www.ebookpbook.com/portfolio/towel-and-basin-memoir/)Glen Allen Baptist Church is located about 20 minutes north of Richmond, Virginia. https://glenallenbaptist.org/

Dr. David Tarkington is joined by Trinity Life Church - Toronto Pastor Dr. Michael Seaman and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Daniel Akin for this time of prayer for SEBTS, the faculty and staff, students, and all impacted by COVID-19. Praying as Dr. Akin and his team make needed decisions for the future as it relates to SEBTS.

Dr. David Tarkington is joined by Mayhill Baptist Church, NM Pastor Matt Henslee and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Adam Greenway for this time of prayer for SWBTS, the faculty and staff, students, and all impacted by COVID-19. Praying as Dr. Greenway and his team make needed decisions for the future as it relates to SWBTS.

Dr. David Tarkington is joined by Bradfordville First Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Ronny Raines and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Jamie Dew for this time of prayer for NOBTS, the faculty and staff, students, and all impacted by COVID-19. Praying as Dr. Dew and his team make needed decisions for the future as it relates to NOBTS.

IN THIS EPISODE: It can be hard to make tough decisions even in the best of circumstances. It’s even more challenging in times of crisis when you or a loved one are suffering with a chronic or potentially life-threatening illness or injury.  It can be overwhelming and it’s easy to feel lost. It's the job of hospital chaplains to support patients and family members in navigating these trying times and helping them make what can be some of the most difficult decisions they will ever face. Today’s guest, Ted Taylor, is a chaplain and Director of Pastoral Care & Training at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton.  Ted supervises the spiritual and emotional care provided by the hospital’s more than twenty volunteer and intern chaplains.  He also supervises a clinical pastoral education training program affiliated with the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP).  Ted is a liaison to nearby religious communities and partners with area congregations to provide compassionate support to neighbors in need.  He also is a clinical resource for bioethical and end-of-life dilemmas. In today’s episode Ted and I discuss: what a chaplain does in their everyday work life; using “reverent listening” to discover, understand and clarify what’s most important; making sense of complex and/or vague situations; defining hopes instead of outcomes; and how to maintain a sense of resiliency and calm when the world around you is chaotic and tumultuous. ABOUT OUR GUEST: Chaplain Tedford J. Taylor, MDiv, BCCC, FHPC, Dip. CPS, Director, Pastoral Care & Training Ted joined Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton in 2007 as the Director of Pastoral Care & Training. Prior to joining RWJ Hamilton, Ted spent five years as Manager of Spiritual & Complimentary Care for Samaritan Hospice, Marlton, NJ.  Prior to this, Ted served as the executive director of the New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (now Learning Ally) in Princeton, NJ.  Ted also has parish ministry experience as a lay pastor in the United Methodist Church and business administration experience as a community banking officer in the Baltimore, MD region.   Engaged in the life of our greater community, Ted has served on the Board of Trustees for Mercer Street Friends (a local human services agency). Ted is also a founding member of the NJ Goals of Care Coalition.  He is active as a member and treasurer of the Princeton Chapter of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy (CPSP) and serves on the Medical Society of New Jersey Bioethics Committee.  On a national level, Ted is a member of the Certification Committee for CPSP, and also recently chaired the steering committee for Quakers in Pastoral Care & Counseling. Ted holds a diplomate in pastoral supervision through CPSP, and is board certified as a clinical chaplain with CPSP, with a clinical fellowship in hospice & palliative care.  Ted is also a member of the Association of Professional Chaplains, the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, and the American Society for Bioethics & Humanities. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, a graduate certificate in Healthcare Law & Policy from Union Graduate College, and a Bachelor of Arts from The College of William & Mary. He has attended the theological studies programs at Regent's Park College at Oxford University, Oxford, England; and The Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, MD.  Ted completed Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) training through Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia and Cooper Hospital / University Medical Center, Camden, NJ.  He completed his CPE Supervisory training at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ.  Ted resides in Ewing Township, Mercer County, NJ with his husband Kevin Hulbirt.  He is a recorded minister in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and an active member of the Yardley Monthly Meeting in Yardley, PA, who endorse his pastoral care ministry.  SHOW NOTES: Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom, on Amazon at https://amzn.to/31kplJi. INSIGHT AT WORK PODCAST THEME MUSIC: Our theme music is composed by Chris Lucca, Jr.. You can listen to more of Chris’ work on SoundCloud: SoundCloud.com/fliplucca and find him on Twitter: @FlipLucca. ABOUT THE HOST: Ken Blackwell is a speaker, trainer, facilitator and executive coach. His signature practice is "rescuing Accidental Leaders and Dysfunctional Teams". His firm InKlaritas, based in Princeton, NJ, works with teams and leaders in companies in the U.S. around the world. You can find out more about InKlaritas at: www.InKlaritas.com and connect with Ken on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethjblackwell/.

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary announced Dr. Jamie Dew as its presidential candidate. Also, the ACP statistical summary was released this week and showed declines across the board.

A lecture on the Greek Middle Voice given at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in April 2019.

Sponsors: School of Divinity at Gardner-Webb Univ., Campbell Univ. Divinity School, David Correll of Universal Creative Concepts, Wake Forest School of Divinity, Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky, Ministering to Ministers, and Fellowship Southwest. Music by Nicolai Heidlas from HookSounds.com

I like Baptists. This episode focuses on righteous women of the Bible. (And, you’ll find out that King David was much worse than you thought – well, assuming you didn’t know anything shady about him.) Tracy Hartman is the acting dean of Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. I was fortunate enough to meet her in 2017, when I discovered her open spirit and loving heart. She uses the word “God” more than anyone else I interviewed. I love that. She is beloved by and loves God. Amen.

I like Baptists. This episode focuses on righteous women of the Bible. (And, you’ll find out that King David was much worse than you thought – well, assuming you didn’t know anything shady about him.) Tracy Hartman is the acting dean of Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. I was fortunate enough to meet her […]

Rev. Melanie Mullen lives her life in professional service to God and others as the Director of Reconciliation, Justice, and Creation Care at the Office of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. So this episode holds stories that connect her North Carolina roots, her time in Richmond, and certainly her time now in D.C., New York City, and everywhere Bishop Curry's staff goes! My original lead for the show notes was, "If you're wondering what a "drag show for the saints" is then this could be your favorite episode of the Coffeepot Fellowship Podcast," but I went another way. That statement, however, still holds true. This is another great story of an Episcopal priest truly asking herself (and letting congregants ask) what a gathering time together can and should look like, how it can be most fulfilling for participants? (I cannot help recall a future podcast guest, Rev. Megan Anderson, in California and several guests from the past. Keep your eyes open for Megan in the future.) We interviewed Melanie especially because I kept crossing paths with her in Richmond every time I showed up for a justice event! Often she would be one of the coordinating leaders. Clearly we were colleagues who cared about many of the same things in the world and it can feel lonely out there as clergy doing justice work. I'm sure, at least I hope(!), that Melanie wished I had been more present, more supportive at more justice advocacy events!  And she would not be surprised that I also wish I was able to be present for more advocacy ministry. The first place I met Melanie was requesting special assistance from an Episcopal priest as a Baptist seminary student. My final year of seminary I was fulfilling an internship and one of my personal objectives was to learn to offer Eucharist in the tradition of the Catholic Church. But no Catholic priest was allowed to teach a non-Catholic minister that holy sacrament. So my Sr. Pastor (past guest, Jim Somerville) reached out to to the Rector at St. Paul's and poor Melanie got asked if she would help me out. I met her in her office, we talked, she lent me some of her personal books on the matter and I kept them entirely too long! (But I did eventually return them.) It was after I graduated and engaged Richmond more widely as clergy that I began happily seeing her out and about. Melanie is also my second Episcopal priest friend who has worked closely with Bishop Curry. The Rev. Canon Catherine A. Caimano served as canon for regional ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina before launching her Free Range Priest ministry. Father Cathie speaks very well of Bishop Curry so I was frustrated when he came to Richmond recently and he was preaching at the same time as my wife. With so many Episcopal connections in Upstart Ministry, Free Range Priest, United Faith Leaders, the Coffeepot Fellowship, and social justice in general, it is no surprise that I keep crossing paths with Melanie Mullen. For Mellanie's time at Virginia Theological Seminary I checked her connections with our past podcast guests: Tricia Lyons, Kyle Oliver, Alex Moreschi, Sarah Stonesifer, and Taylor Devine. Another mutual friend was revealed because of ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) rather than being Episcopalian. That connection is with our common colleague Wendy McCaig.  Wendy and I both went to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. My wife, Kelli, also did her first year master of social work internship at Embrace Richmond, the ministry Wendy founded. Embrace Richmond has been implementing ABCD for over a dozen years. Now Wendy and Melanie have both taken this model of ministry to the national scene, Melanie with Called to Transformation and Wendy with View from the Bridge. I know Wendy and Melanie both want to spread this model as widely as possible so that the greatest benefit can be affected for the most people. So please review all of their resources and contact them both. The work is plenty and the laborers are few so this is an "all hands on deck" endeavor. There may be more, in hindsight, but I have only just realized before publication that past guest Stephanie Spellers is also an Episcopal priest and currently on the Presiding Bishop's staff! Maybe with all of these connections, we'll get to have the Bishop himself on the show!  Would he be the first bishop on the Coffeepot Fellowship Podcast?  Indeed, he would not.  Let the record show Coffee with Will Willimon Part 1 and Coffee with Will Willimon Part 2. Thought we had to be done? As we had photos to the show notes, more connections become apparent! Coffee with Phoebe Roaf and Coffee with Winnie Varghese! I may need to convert if this keeps up. Asset Based Community Development: Called to Transformation View from the Bridge From the Sanctuary to the Streets: How the Dreams of One City's Homeless Sparked a Faith Revolution that Transformed a Community by Wendy McCaig Coffee with Wendy McCaig LINKS: Sponsor: United Faith Leaders Sponsor: Free Range Priest Sponsor: Clergyprenuer Training Clark Atlanta University Virginia Theological Seminary University of NC Chapel Hill Coffee with Stephanie Spellers Coffee with Tricia Lyons Coffee with Kyle Oliver Coffee with Alex Moreschi Coffee with Sarah Stonesifer Coffee with Taylor (Poindexter) Devine

Episode Sponsored by the Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond (BTSR) & CBF Reference and Referral. Visit www.cbfchurchstarts.net or "CBF New Church Starts" on Facebook. Music composed by Nicolai Heidlas from HookSounds.com

Episode Sponsored by the Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond (BTSR) & CBF Reference and Referral. Visit www.cbfchurchstarts.net or "CBF New Church Starts" on Facebook. Music composed by Nicolai Heidlas from HookSounds.com

Episode Sponsored by the Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond (BTSR) & CBF Reference and Referral. Visit www.cbfchurchstarts.net or "CBF New Church Starts" on Facebook. Music composed by Nicolai Heidlas from HookSounds.com

Come enjoy Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond professor of ethics and theology Beth Newman's personal stories.  They are interwoven with a theme of 'unity in the Church' because today is the 499th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. As a Baptist professor at St. Mary's Catholic College in Indiana Dr. Newman truly lived a 12 year struggle embodied in a special participation in The Lord's Supper during her last baccalaureate mass. How would this Protestant be received by her Catholic students and the Bishop when she went forward during communion? Is this her biggest blunder story or her happiest ministry moment story? We'll let her tell her own stories on the podcast.

While being a dedicated servant of God's, faithful educator, and fun interviewee Jocelyn Blount is also a friend of mine. We were fellow Ambassadors at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. We went to conferences together wearing our blue polo shirts. We have talked with prospective seminarians, trustees, seminarians at sister institutions, and Baptist icons in our Cooperative Baptist Fellowship worlds. Please enjoy any time that you get to spend with Jocelyn for the gift that it is.

Travis, a "reformed leaning" student attending SWBTS, called in to discuss his own questions about Calvinism and to objectively evaluate his current soteriology as contrasted with Traditionalism.  For more visit us at www.soteriology101.com

Jim Peak is a VP and the CFO at The Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. He embodies a wonderful confluence of qualities. He is a pastor. He has his PhD. He is an accomplished musician. The tone of his natural voice has a gentleness with almost no edges. During our interview it was hard not to think about how easily his voice would be able blend, as desired, in most choral performances or how very pastoral he could be in a counseling situations when hard things need to be said without provoking aggravation. And yet somehow it surprises no one that Jim is the person who is occasionally characterized as "the muscle" or "the enforcer" at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.

A lecture given as a part of Southeastern Seminary's 2015 PhD Colloquium Series.