Podcasts about Canterbury

Hopes that Christchurch will become the city that never stops, as momentum continues. Provisional Stats NZ figures for the year to June show Canterbury's population has risen most, up 1.1 percent - more than anywhere else in New Zealand. Christchurch NZ Chief Executive Ali Adams told Mike Hosking that things are going well for the city on all fronts. She says although managing growth comes with problems, there are more opportunities LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand may be on the cusp of another measles outbreak. There are ten known cases: One of those cases came from overseas, and the other nine were contracted locally. Health NZ has said the risk of further measles cases, contacts, and exposures across the country remains ‘very high’. The confirmation of new cases unconnected to international travel though has experts worried. Today on The Front Page, University of Canterbury senior lecturer in epidemiology, Anna Howe, is with us to discuss what you need to know. Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network. Host: Chelsea DanielsEditor/Producer: Richard MartinProducer: Jane YeeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The bumper music for this episode, chosen by our Presbyterian producer, comes from the 1964 comic rendition of an Anglican homily by Alan Bennett ("My Brother Esau, Beyond the Fringe"). The subject discussed by pudcast co-hosts, Korey Maas (Lutheran), Miles Smith (Anglican), and D. G. Hart (Presbyterian) may be the same -- Anglicanism -- but the approach is not comedic. Anglicans around the world have been in the news, from the appointment of a new (and female) archbishop of Canterbury, to the decision by a prominent Baptist historical theologian to join ACNA. All the recent news deserves way more than roughly 55 minutes of banter. But with the help of our resident Anglican, Miles Smith, we learned about the choppy water in which the bishops, clergy, and laity find themselves.

In this episode, Father Wesley and Dr. Junius dive deep into St. Anselm's Proslogion, the short yet monumental work that introduced one of the most enduring and debated arguments in the history of philosophy and theology: the ontological argument for God's existence.The hosts explore Anselm's background as monk, abbot, and Archbishop of Canterbury, highlighting his tumultuous life amid royal and papal conflict, his intellectual lineage from Augustine and Boethius, and his place at the dawn of scholasticism. They also reflect on how his prayerful approach to theology—fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”)—blurs the line between philosophical proof and devotional meditation.Endnotes* Junius: The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm* Wesley:* “A Gift Exceeding Every Debt” by David Bentley Hart* “Anselmian Apocatastasis: The Fitting Necessity of Universal Salvation in St Anselm's Cur Deus Homo” by Roberto J. De La Noval Get full access to The Classical Mind at www.theclassicalmind.com/subscribe

In this episode, Nathan and Cameron dive deep into the theological and cultural earthquakes shaking the global church, beginning with the dramatic shift in the Anglican Communion as the Church of England appoints Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury—a move many global Anglicans see as proof that the English church has abandoned biblical authority. With sharp insight and theological nuance, they unpack the growing divide between progressive Western Anglicanism and the vibrant, Scripture-centered Global South, drawing powerful parallels to the recent Methodist split. The conversation explores not only gender and sexuality debates but the deeper issue of biblical authority, orthodoxy, and faithfulness to historic Christianity. Nathan and Cameron also react to Canon Press's $10 million offer to buy Christianity Today, analyzing what these events reveal about the realignment of authority, mission, and truth in the modern church. Perfect for Christians seeking thoughtful, Reformed, and intellectually rigorous discussion on current events in theology and the church.DONATE LINK: https://toltogether.com/donate BOOK A SPEAKER: https://toltogether.com/book-a-speakerJOIN TOL CONNECT: https://toltogether.com/tol-connect TOL Connect is an online forum where TOL listeners can continue the conversation begun on the podcast.

It's time for the All Blacks and Ireland to go at it again!The ARP crew breakdown where the game will be won and lost. We catch up with Ireland's kiwi attack coach Andrew Goodman about the Chicago clash, Andy Farrell, Joe Schmidt and Jamison Gibson-Park.In the wake of Jason Holland's announced departure from the All Blacks attack job, who should replace him and what do teams actually need from an assistant coach? How does coaching instability affect the players?Plus, we talk Bryn's old flat mate Tom Christie and how he led Canterbury to its 15th NPC title. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Massive voter turnout shakes the NYC mayoral race. Is socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani the future of the Left? Meanwhile, faithful Anglicans have severed ties with Canterbury. Why should Catholics care? And finally, young, conservative Catholic priests are being accused of being "out of sync" with the laity. All this and more on the LOOPcast!Nazareth Organics is a Catholic family-owned natural skincare company that handcrafts tallow balms with high quality, wild-crafted, and organic ingredients from nature. Check out the new Brightening Serum and other premium skincare products at https://nazareth-organics.com and use code LOOPCAST at checkout for a 10% discount. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook at: @nazarethorganics.Protect your equity with Home Title Lock's exclusive Million Dollar Triple Lock Protection, now for just $1 for 60 days when you use promocode LOOP60! Click here: https://www.hometitlelock.com/looper to learn more!TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Welcome to the LOOPcast01:22 Nazareth Organics04:02 What's going on in NYC?33:05 HTL34:45 Anglican Schism45:06 Good News52:20 The State of Campus Debate1:02:35 Twilight Zone1:16:27 Closing PrayerEMAIL US: loopcast@catholicvote.org SUPPORT LOOPCAST: www.loopcast.orgSubscribe to the LOOP today! https://catholicvote.org/getloopFOLLOW LOOPCast: https://x.com/the_LOOPcasthttps://www.instagram.com/the_loopcast/https://www.tiktok.com/@the_loopcasthttps://www.facebook.com/LOOPcastPodcastTom: https://x.com/TPogasic Erika: https://x.com/ErikaAhern2Josh: https://x.com/joshuamercerAll opinions expressed on LOOPcast by the participants are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CatholicVote.

The Bulletin with Robert van Royen on the NPC 2025, Canterbury winning another title, departing plyers, Marty Bourke, Heartland Rugby, South Island dominance, All Blacks Northern Tour, Blackcaps & more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of the recent appointment of the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, Azim Ahmed and guests examine whether women have shattered the glass ceiling of faith leadership.To discuss the issues Azim is joined by a panel of female faith leaders; the Very Reverend Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St. David's Cathedral. Chine McDonald who is the Director of the Theos think tank. Zara Muhammed made history as the first woman to lead the Muslim Council of Britain, serving as Secretary General between 2021 and 2025, Rabbi Charley Baginsky is the Co-Lead of Progressive Judaism in the UK and Ireland. Together they examine the challenges of leadership in faith traditions shaped by patriarchal societies, the qualities women bring to leadership and the hope they have for the future of religious leadership and inter-faith relations.

This is the third and final message of a three-part series on the English Reformation with a particular focus on the life, contribution, and martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury.

On Labor History Today: In 2005 the Guinness Brewery at Park Royal, West London closed after seven decades of production. Tim Strangleman spent the last six months of the Brewery's life working with a photographer to record in words and picture the site before it closed. Subsequent research revealed an incredibly rich story of corporate cultural change and the transformation of work and the workplace. Drawing on material from his 2019 book, Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery, Strangleman, Professor of Sociology, in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Canterbury, reflects on what that story tells us about work meaning, identity and organizational life in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Our show – which originally aired on October 24, 2021 -- is excerpted from Strangleman's Zoom presentation at the October 5, 2021 edition of Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives, the lecture series sponsored by the Michigan Traditional Arts Program and the Labor Education Program at Michigan State University. To get on the ODW/ODL email list email John Beck at mailto:beckj@msu.edu Click here for photos of the Park Royal Guinness Brewery.   And, on Labor History in 2:00, the year was 1940; that was the day that the federally mandated 40-hour work week went into effect for U.S. workers. Produced by Chris Garlock. To contribute a labor history item, email laborhistorytoday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. #LaborRadioPod #History #WorkingClass #ClassStruggle @GeorgetownKILWP #LaborHistory @UMDMLA @ILLaborHistory @AFLCIO @MichiganTradArts @MSUSHRLR @DIndustrialKent @SSPSSR @OxUniPress

Gaza priest Father Carlos Ferrero tells us how the ceasefire is holding and what difficulties his congregation are still facing.The Anglican Church is in the news. In Rome, King Charles becomes the first monarch since Henry VIII to pray with the Pope. Elsewhere the communion faces its biggest challenge as conservative Gafcon Bishops say they will no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury, in effect creating an Alternative Church. Audrey speaks to Madeline Davies from the Church Times.We also discuss the Enhanced Games – where athletes can use whatever they want to improve their performances. Is it actually fairer than mainstream competition? We discuss with broadcaster and former athlete Katie Kirk, Jonathan Pugh senior research fellow at the Uehiro Centre for practical ethics at Oxford University and Emily Ryall senior lecturer in the philosophy of sport at Gloucester university.

Send us a textWith the appointment of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, debates around “liberal Christianity” have reignited—but most people misunderstand what the term actually means. In this video, I trace the roots of liberal Christianity back to nineteenth-century thinkers like Schleiermacher, who, inspired by Kant, reimagined faith as an inner moral and spiritual experience rather than a set of metaphysical claims. I then contrast this historical movement with the modern political label often used in today's culture wars, showing why many arguments about “liberal” versus “conservative” Christianity miss the deeper theological questions at stake.Support the show--------------------------If you would want to support the channel and what I am doing, please follow me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/christianityforall Where else to find Josh Yen: Philosophy YT: https://bit.ly/philforallEducation: https://bit.ly/joshyenBuisness: https://bit.ly/logoseduMy Website: https://joshuajwyen.com/

Bill speaks with Religious affairs commentator Dr. Muriel Porter about the new Archbiship of Canterbury. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canterbury rugby coach Marty Bourke's hailing his team's culture and depth, after beating Otago in the NPC final in Christchurch. They were down 14-10 at halftime, the Cantabs turned it around in the second spell to win 36-28. Canterbury Rugby CEO Tony Smail unpacked the results further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canterbury are set to face Otago in the NPC final this weekend. Canterbury progressed to the final after beating Hawke's bay 43-19. Canterbury Winger Ngane Punivai told Elliott Smith that the team has been focused on keeping morale high ahead of the big game. 'We've put a real emphasis on, just really loving what we do each day and enjoying every day we're at work together.' LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The NPC final between Canterbury and Otago will take place tonight. This is the first time since 2005 that Otago have made it to the final, but winger Jae Bloomfield told Elliott Smith that the team is treating the game like any other. 'And at the end of the day, it's just another game of footy on that Saturday.' LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's program, Federal officials have declined to file charges against Olivet University. The Christian school in California has faced accusations of human labor trafficking and visa fraud—accusations the school denies. We'll have details. Plus, both news and scandal from the Anglican church. After the Church of England appointed Sarah Mullaly as its next bishop of Canterbury, another network of Anglican leaders have announced they are cutting ties with Canterbury and laying claim to the Anglican Communion. Just days later the archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, Steve Wood, faces accusations of misconduct. And, church experts have predicted that 100 thousand churches might close in coming years—we get an update on that number, and ask what it means for churches moving forward. But first, a Christian campus group wins in court after a Texas law tried to ban ‘expressive activities' at night. The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today's program include Kim Roberts, Stacey Horton, Jessica Eturralde, Fredrick Nzwili, Isaac Wood, Bob Smietana, Makella Knowles, and Christina Darnell. Until next time, may God bless you.

Church of England Revs with a difference Tom Pelham and Jamie Franklin sit down to talk about the big stories in church and state. This time: the Archbishop of York wishes everyone a Happy Diwali; Cathedral graffiti in Canterbury; the end of the Living in Love and Faith Process?; a split in the Global Anglican Communion; and much more as ever. Enjoy!You make this podcast possible. Please support us!On Substack - https://irreverendpod.substack.com/On Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/irreverendBuy Me a Coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/irreverend To make a direct donation or to get in touch with questions or comments please email irreverendpod@gmail.com!Notices:Buy Jamie's Book! THE GREAT RETURNDaniel French Substack: https://undergroundchurch.substack.com/Jamie Franklin's "Good Things" Substack: https://jamiefranklin.substack.comIrreverend Substack: https://irreverendpod.substack.comFollow us on Twitter: https://x.com/IrreverendPodFind me a church: https://irreverendpod.com/church-finder/Join our Irreverend Telegram group: https://t.me/irreverendpodFind links to our episodes, social media accounts and much more https://www.irreverendpod.com!Thursday Circles: http://thursdaycircle.com Support the show

Season 6 Episode 5 NEW YORK, NY - The Rugby Odds, with its animated opinions, questionable behavior, solid insight, and utter nonsense, has critics calling it, "Irreverent but necessary!" TRO has animated opinions, questionable behavior, solid insight, and utter nonsense. The star-studded panel of know-it-alls, includes: John Bradshaw Layfield: WWE legend and rugby advocate George Hook: Irish pundit with no filter Mike Friday: 3X Olympic 7s coach King Gift Egbelu: Inventor of Words Matt McCarthy: Hands-full Host

Meanwhile, a state of local emergency remains in place for Canterbury, which was lashed by gales yesterday. Thousands remain without power and key highways remain closed, as people begin to clean up ahead of more bad weather forecast for Labour Day. Keiller MacDuff reports from North Canterbury.

Conservatives Need to Stop Prioritizing Unity Over Truth Sponsor: https://catholicmatch.com Support the channel by visiting: https://brianholdsworth.ca/help The Church of England's decision to nominate a woman as Archbishop of Canterbury has sparked yet another fracture in global Anglicanism — a vivid example of how progressives often prize ideology over unity. Meanwhile, conservatives in both Church and politics repeatedly choose compromise and patience, valuing cohesion even as institutions crumble around them. In this video, Brian Holdsworth argues that conservatives must stop mistaking tolerance for virtue, recover the courage of the early Church, and push back against ideologies that destroy faith, culture, and community.

Andrew Saville joins Jack Tame to discuss the latest sports news. The NPC final, Canterbury vs Otago, who will walk away with the trophy? Jason Holland has retired as attack coach for the All Blacks, what's next for him? And the White Ferns exit the cricket world cup following a difficult run in Sri Lanka. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s farmer panel pits Otago against Canterbury, just like tomorrow’s NPC final. But in the meantime, there’s the small matter of the weather to talk about.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wild winds are proving the enemy of emergency services. Gusts are fanning fires around the country with power lines toppled and trees ripped up by their roots. A local state of emergency remains in place for Canterbury with wind gusts up to 150 kilometres an hour expected. Tens of thousands of properties are without power at the top of the South Island and bottom of the North. Fire and Emergency Assistant Commander Ken Cooper spoke to Lisa Owen.

Wild weather has battered parts of the country in both islands after rare red level wind warnings were issued. In the South, fire crews have had their hands full, combatting a large scrub fire in Hanmer Springs. Severe gusts have caused widespread damage across north Canterbury's Hurunui district. The West Coast is also cut off due to flooding. Christchurch reporter Adam Burns spoke to Lisa Owen.

Tens of thousands of people are without power, buildings have been damaged, trucks have flipped and the West Coast is cut off from the rest of the Mainland by road, after ferocious winds and heavy rain lashed the much of the country. A state of local emergency remains in place for Canterbury, with many districts under rare, red-level strong wind warnings. In Dunedin, Otago University postponed exams and urged students to stay indoors as wind gusts uprooted trees across the city. Katie Todd reports.

On today's episode of The Agenda, James McOnie and Finn Caddie join ACC Head G Lane to discuss the damp and depressing result of cricket in October (00:00)...WATCH THE FULL EPISODE ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE!Then the fellas preview the NPC Final and why everyone outside of Canterbury wants Otago to win (03:20) and the truth behind All Blacks Assistant Coach Jason Holland's departure (14:30)...Plus, the White Ferns CWC campaign comes to an end (20:20) and what the hell is happening in the NBA involving dodgy poker games and illegal gambling (23:30)! Finally, they get to your feedback in 'Yours Please' (28:40)... GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE AGENDA & BYC LIVE PODCAST HERE! Did you know that we've launched a new Facebook Group called 'The Caravan' JOIN HERE!Brought to you by Export Ultra! Follow The ACC on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok Subscribe to The Agenda Podcast now on iHeartRadio, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts! iHeartRadio Apple Spotify YouTube THANKS MATE! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MetService says the strong winds that battered the South Island and lower North are now easing - but there are still a few things to keep an eye on. Red wind warnings have lifted for Canterbury, Southland, Stewart Island, Clutha, Wellington and Wairarapa. Widespread power outages remain across Canterbury, Wairarapa, Manawatu-Whanganui, Marlborough and Southland, where some repairs could take more than a week. The Country's Jamie Mackay unpacks the damage further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in Tudor history, 23 October 1538, a frightened monk put pen to paper as the world he knew collapsed. Thomas Goldwell, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, wrote a desperate letter to Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief adviser and the man overseeing the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Goldwell begged to keep his “poor lodging” for life, adding the heartbreaking words: “I would rather die than live, if it were God's pleasure.” I'm historian and author Claire Ridgway, and today I'll take you inside that moment, when monasteries were being dissolved, fortunes seized, and centuries of service, learning, and charity wiped away in a few short years. Goldwell's letter shows us the human side of the Reformation. Behind every confiscated abbey and looted shrine was a person left wondering how to live in a changed world. If you found this glimpse of Tudor faith, fear, and survival moving, please like, subscribe, and ring the bell for more daily Tudor stories. Watch next: The Dissolution of the Monasteries - https://youtu.be/aELw2ss-xM8 #TudorHistory #OnThisDay #DissolutionOfTheMonasteries #HenryVIII #ThomasCromwell #ChristChurchCanterbury #ReformationHistory #ClaireRidgway #TudorEngland

The Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell has declared a local state of emergency for the Canterbury region. Fire crews are racing to put out a handful of large fires in Kaikōura before wind that's been hitting large parts of the country pick up again tomorrow, five homes have already been destroyed in Kaikōura. Wind warnings for central and southern parts of the country for Thursday have been upgraded to "red" level. Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell spoke to Lisa Owen. 

Canterbury is under a state of local emergency with damaging gusts of up to 140kph forecast under a series of high-level red strong wind warnings. Reporter Anna Sargent joins us now from Christchurch.

On today’s show: Ben finally gets his childhood dream—a retro Kiwis league jersey—but the family isn’t impressed. Jono recalls eating mystery yellow fruit on his long walk to school… turns out it may have had cyanide in it. Relationship pressure points: dishwashing direction, brushing teeth while walking, and hoodie sleeve crimes. We chat to a teacher from Redwood School about their seven-hour handball-a-thon next week! Michael (not Marco!) gives us a live weather update from Canterbury as deadly winds sweep the country. Plus, our entertainment correspondent Nicole Ryan shares disturbing details from Kevin Federline’s book about Britney Spears. Instagram: @THEHITSBREAKFASTFacebook: The Hits Breakfast with Jono, Ben & MeganSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Grimshaw is a sociologist at the University of Canterbury and joins Emile Donovan to put the case.

The Public Service Commissioner is suggesting unions are striking to get it out of their system. At least 100,000 workers in health, education and public service are walking off the job tomorrow, protesting pay and conditions. Some picketing's moving indoors and some rallies cancelled in Wellington and Canterbury - with extreme bad weather looming. Commissioner Sir Brian Roche says despite him being willing, unions haven't stepped up to negotiate for the most of the past two weeks. "It just seems to me, based on my engagement with the unions, that they had to do this for reasons that escape me. I think it was all avoidable, it's extremely regrettable." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if disability isn't something to fix, but a way to see God and one another more clearly? Theologian John Swinton joins Amy Julia Becker to explore how our ideas of perfection, healing, and humanity can distort—or deepen—our understanding of the good life. Together, they imagine a church and a world that welcomes every body as good, beloved, and whole. They explore:How culture shapes (and distorts) our perceptions of disability and beautyWhat it means for a world to be both wounded and belovedWhy the difference between goodness and perfection mattersHow interdependence includes both beauty and a cost__TAKE THE NEXT STEP PODCAST: amyjuliabecker.com/step/SUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's newsletter: amyjuliabecker.com/subscribe/__00:00 Introduction02:54 Significance of Disability in Faith05:50 Cultural Perceptions of Disability08:50 The Image of God and Human Relationships11:45 Understanding Goodness vs. Perfection18:18 Goodness and Suffering23:55 The Power of Naming and Identity27:38 Relationality and the Cost of Interdependence35:38 Resisting Culture's Distortions of the Image of God__MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Christianity Today essay: “It Was Good, Not Perfect.”Genesis 1-3_WATCH this conversation on YouTube: Amy Julia Becker on YouTubeSUBSCRIBE to Amy Julia's Substack: amyjuliabecker.substack.comJOIN the conversation on Instagram: @amyjuliabeckerLISTEN to more episodes: amyjuliabecker.com/shows/_ABOUT OUR GUEST:John Swinton is Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen. For more than a decade John worked as a registered mental health nurse. He also worked for a number of years as a hospital and community mental health Chaplain alongside of people with severe mental health challenges who were moving from the hospital into the community. In 2004, he founded the University of Aberdeen's Centre for Spirituality, Health and Disability. He has published widely within the area of mental health, dementia, disability theology, spirituality and healthcare, end of life care, qualitative research and pastoral care. John is the author of a number of monographs including Finding Jesus in the Storm: The spiritual lives of people with mental health challenges. (Eerdmans 2020) which won the Aldersgate prize for outstanding interdisciplinary work within theology. His book Dementia: Living in the memories of God won the Archbishop of Canterbury's Ramsey Prize for excellence in theological writing. We want to hear your thoughts. Send us a text!Connect with me: Instagram Facebook YouTube Website Thanks for listening!

In the space of a month, the Church of England has acquired its first female Archbishop of Canterbury, a majority of the world's Anglicans have left the Anglican Communion in protest at the mother Church's willingness to bless same-sex relationships – and the House of Bishops has suddenly backed away from introducing stand-alone gay blessings. The situation is chaotic. In this week's Holy Smoke, theologian Andrew Graystone talks to Damian Thompson about the almost insoluble problems that will face Archbishop Mullally after she is enthroned in January. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts. Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special episode was originally recorded for the Germany Travel Planning Podcast, where Tracy joined Cate to share insider tips for making the most of a London layover.Turn your short stop in London into a compact yet rewarding adventure. Learn how to plan 24 to 48 hours in the UK capital without feeling rushed, from choosing a central base to making the most of every meal and moment.Discover how to stay smart, move efficiently and see a few essentials deeply rather than frantically. We cover where to stay, what to eat, and how to fit in the top sights while leaving time to simply enjoy being in London.In this episode: • Why Zone 1 locations make the perfect layover base • Hotel and area tips around Covent Garden, the British Museum and Borough Market • How to combine Tube, bus and river boat travel, plus when to book a black cab tour • Food favourites: Borough Market picks, Pick & Cheese, Café in the Crypt and the V&A café • Afternoon tea tips: traditional vs themed and when to book • Must-see highlights: Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and the V&A • Why Greenwich belongs on even short itineraries and the best ways to reach it • Christmas in London: best lights routes, timing and warmth tips • Pacing your visit, footwear and layers to stay comfortable • Easy day trips from London, including Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury and WindsorIf you have enjoyed the show, please leave a quick review or send us feedback via text. We love hearing from listeners, and your comment might even get a shout-out in a future episode.

Rugby's most bizarre rules explained! Top ref Ben O'Keeffe joins the ARP crew to give insight into weird and wonderful world of rugby rules, as well as life as a ref.Jip, Ben and Ross also break down the NPC semis and ask whether Otago or Canterbury will win the trophy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rowing clubs around the country are imploring the sport's governing body to rethink its calendar after one of its major regattas was again hampered by weather. Adam Burns reports.

Five homes and another nine structures have been destroyed by fire in Kaikoura, as several blazes still burn in the region. Reporter Keiller MacDuff is in Kaikoura and spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

How do you get teens to talk to you? Why do they need to sleep so much? And where the hell are they putting all that food? Helping us to answer all these questions is author Nicole Howes! She tells us all about her new book, Not a Survival Guide. We talk about the highs and lows of having teenage kids, and share our top tips for getting through. Nicole reveals why it's important to manage our expectations, and suggests some ways we can make things easier on ourselves, and our teens. As always, we share some Scummy Mummy Confessions - this time involving shaving, a leaking swim nappy, and a smoking food processor. Plus: how does Ellie keep spoiling Love is Blind for Helen using just her eyebrows?You can follow Nicole on Instagram @bynicolehowes.Huge thanks to everyone who's already been to see our Hot Mess show . We're touring right through this year and next - Canterbury and Wimborne this week, then in November we're coming to Bath, Stamford, Leatherhead, Catford and Twickenham.Our Christmas tour kicks off on 26 November in Maidenhead, followed by Chelmsford, Chipping Norton, Guildford and Norwich. Many nights are already SOLD OUT so get your tickets now! And of course we're touring throughout 2026... Tickets make excellent Christmas gifts! Send us an Instagram DM and we'll happily do a quick video telling the recipient about their present! All dates and tickets via scummymummies.com.*WE HAVE A SHOP!* Visit scummymummiesshop.com for our ace t-shirts, mugs, washbags, sweatshirts and beach towels. FREE UK DELIVERY! We're on X, Instagram, and Facebook @scummymummies. If you like the podcast, please rate, review and subscribe. Thank you for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Monday, October 20th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes, written by Jonathan Clark, heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  Filling in for Adam McManus I'm Ean Leppin. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Human Rights Conference in Berlin Highlights Christian Persecution Human rights experts met in Berlin, Germany last Wednesday, highlighting the increased persecution of Christians worldwide.  The International Society for Human Rights released a new report on Christian persecution at the conference.  The report notes that Christians suffer under dictatorial states like China, Cuba, and North Korea. They remain victims of discrimination and violence without state protections in countries like Egypt, Syria, Nigeria, India, and Myanmar. And believers face persecution in Islamic republics like Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.  The conference also highlighted the suffering of Ukrainian Christians under Russian occupation. Johann Matthies with the Evangelical Alliance in Germany said, “Russian occupation authorities are specifically targeting Ukrainian religious communities: they are pressuring churches to cooperate or destroying them if they refuse.” Psalm 34:15-16 says, “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” President Trump Continues Efforts to End Russian-Ukrainian War U.S. President Donald Trump continues his efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. President Trump spoke over the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Thursday. He then met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last Friday. President Trump also plans on meeting with President Putin in Budapest, Hungary in the coming weeks. Listen to comments from President Trump. TRUMP: "I met with President Zelensky, as you know, today, and we had a very good meeting; very cordial meeting. In my opinion, they should stop the war immediately. You stop at the battle line, and both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it. Stop right now at the battle line. I told that to President Zelensky. I told it to President Putin. Thank you very much, everybody." Russia Proposes a Rail Tunnel Under the Bering Strait Reuters reports Russia proposed a “Putin-Trump” rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to link the two nations. The eight billion dollar proposal follows President Donald Trump's phone call with President Vladimir Putin. Russia's proposal would involve building a 70-mile rail and cargo tunnel between Alaska and Russia's eastern region of Chukotka. The plan suggested Elon Musk's Boring Company for the construction project. President Trump called the idea “interesting,” saying, “We'll have to think about that.”  Trump Moves to Reduce the Cost of IVF Last Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a deal with the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the cost of in vitro fertilization. The Trump administration hailed the move as pro-family. However, pro-life groups are criticizing the plan.  LifeSiteNews noted, “The IVF process is gravely unethical as it entails the conscious creation of scores of ‘excess' embryonic humans only to be killed and human lives being treated like commodities to be bartered over. It has been estimated that more than a million embryos are frozen in storage in the United States following IVF, and that as many as 93 percent of all embryos created through IVF are eventually destroyed.” Conservative Anglicans Split from the Church of England Conservative Anglicans formally split from the Church of England last week. The Global Anglican Future Conference, also known as GAFCON, declared itself to be the Global Anglican Communion. It will no longer participate in meetings called by the Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury.  Sarah Mullally is the recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. She is the first female to hold the position and supports same-sex blessings. Bishop Laurent Mbanda is the chairman of the GAFCON Primates' Council as well as the Primate of Rwanda. He wrote, “We cannot continue to have communion with those who . . . abandoned the inerrant word of God as the final authority.” Isaiah 8:20 says, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Pew Research: Divorce Rates are Down in the U.S. And finally, Pew Research reports divorce rates, and specifically refined divorce rates, are down in the U.S. Unlike the overall divorce rate, the refined divorce rate takes into account changes in the number of people who are married at any given time.  This refined divorce rate peaked in the U.S. around 1980 at 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women. By 2023, it had declined to 14.4 divorces per 1,000 married women.  The report noted that married men are more likely to be employed than divorced men. Also married adults have higher household incomes and hold more wealth than divorced adults.  Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, October 20th, in the year of our Lord 2025. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. Filling in for Adam McManus I'm Ean Leppin (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

This is the second of a three-part series on the English Reformation with a particular focus on the life, contribution, and martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), Archbishop of Canterbury.

Timothy Brown asks Canterbury employers if they are "crying out" for teenage workers following claims from the prime minister.

In late September, Senior Editor Will Kaback spoke with two experts on Russia, Ukraine, and the war. First was Richard Sakwa, a professor emeritus of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury and an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Sakwa has studied and written extensively on Russia and Vladimir Putin, including in his book Frontline Ukraine about the origins of the current war. This is part 1 of a 2 part interview series. Tangle LIVE tickets are available!* We're excited to announce that our third installment of Tangle Live will be held on October 24, 2025, at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, California. If you're in the area (or want to make the trip), we'd love to have you join Isaac and the team for a night of spirited discussion, live Q&A, and opportunities to meet the team in person. You can read more about the event and purchase tickets here.Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was hosted by Will Kaback and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Ball.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead.PREVIEW - The Friday Edition: Russian expert Richard Sakwa and the future of the Ukraine war Part 1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

The Church of England's Church Commissioners are ear-marking £100million (or is it £1billion?) for slavery reparations. Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology and Member of the House of Lords, Nigel Biggar says that this idea is ethically dubious and amounts to thinly-veiled self-flagellation in an effort to appear relevant to a post-Christian society in the face of the Church's dwindling numbers and influence. CofE rev with a difference Jamie Franklin sits down to talk with Lord Biggar about his new book and related issues:The shady world of the Church of England's Project Spire: its methodology, processes and rationale for reparations.Historical arguments for and against reparations by the Church of England.The wider context of the ethical debate around reparations including the ubiquity of slavery, British abolitionism and the suppression of slavery, and the "riotous jungle of history".Why arguments for reparations are based on a lack of understanding of, and sympathy for, our forbears.What is the relationship of Woke orthodoxy to Christianity.The Early Church and slavery.The legality (or not) of reparations.Hopes for the new book and the future Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, vis-a-vis this issue.Find Lord Biggar's Substack 'The Biggar Picture': https://www.nigelbiggar.co.ukYou make this podcast possible. Please support us!On Substack - https://irreverendpod.substack.com/On Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/irreverendBuy Me a Coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/irreverend To make a direct donation or to get in touch with questions or comments please email irreverendpod@gmail.com!Notices:Buy Jamie's Book! THE GREAT RETURNDaniel French Substack: https://undergroundchurch.substack.com/Jamie Franklin's "Good Things" Substack: https://jamiefranklin.substack.comIrreverend Substack: https://irreverendpod.substack.comFollow us on Twitter: https://x.com/IrreverendPodFind me a church: https://irreverendpod.com/church-finder/Join our Irreverend Telegram group: https://t.me/irreverendpodFind links to our episodes, social media accounts and much more https://www.irreverendpod.com!Thursday Circles: http://thursdaycircle.com Support the show

It's time for our monthly Favored or Forsaken! Join Erin, Evan, and Jamie as we discuss the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, the current shakeup with Maverick City Music, and create our dream CCM Super Bowl halftime shows. You'll also hear what's favored for each of us right now! MENTIONS​Want to hear the spicy version? Listen on PatreonThe Archbishop of Canterbury: Learn about Sarah MullalyLearn more about Guli Francis-Dehqani right hereWhat's happening with Maverick City Music? Learn more hereWe Keep Receipts: Listen to our 2025 Prophecies Family Friendly Super Bowl Halftime Show Alternative: Here is Cory Asbury's reel Evan's Favored: The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn SkyeErin's Favored: In the Low by Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson Jamie's Favored: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El AkkadThe Faith Adjacent Seminary: Support us on Patreon. I've Got Questions by Erin Moon: Order Here | Guided Journal Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith AdjacentFaith Adjacent Merch: Shop HereShop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacentFollow Faith Adjacent on Socials: Instagram See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The hostages in Gaza are headed home in a tentative peace deal, conversion therapy gets a hearing at the Supreme Court, and there is a new, controversial Archbishop of Canterbury    Segment 1 - News Headlines  PBS News: What we know about the deal to pause war in Gaza and what's next  Breakpoint: SCOTUS Decides Whether Christian Counselors will be Able to Help Children  Segment 2 - FDA Approved Generic Abortion Drug  The Hill: FDA approves new generic abortion pill, drawing conservative fury  Loyola Today: A Loyola Icon with an Enduring Legacy, Sister Jean Dies at 106  Segment 3 - New Archbishop of Canterbury  Substack: The Faith of a Mustard Seed: The New Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lections Appointed for the Day  Comments from Listeners  Substack: Kentucky's Custody Law Did Not Reduce Divorce    ______________________  Support Breakpoint by becoming a Cornerstone Monthly Partner between now and October 31 at colsoncenter.org/september.  Watch Truth Rising, now available at truthrising.com/colson.