First, you take people engorged on turkey, which makes you sleepy. Then you let them go out and get drunk. Then you let them go and try to shop. And the crowds turn ugly. And for someone reason, no one could see this coming? It's all a ruse. Black Friday is a parody of Good Friday. The crowds surrounding Jesus didn't want him. The crowds around the stores this past Friday want everything they ever wanted. They'll sacrifice everything for a cheap television. Yup, that's Black Friday. Visit Matthe...
Dec 06, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 141
As Advent approaches, I want to talk about the light of hope that enters the world in Jesus Christ. We all have to admit that if hope fades, our humanity fades along with it. If there is no Christ, there is not hope. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com...
Dec 02, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 140
Today Radical Grace Radio has been overrun by the NSA. They don't get the Gospel, they think it's some sort of plot to overthrow the government. But the roman thought that might be happening as well back in the First century AD, so is it any wonder that today's governments might think that as well? Also, hating Strange fire for 300 dollars or more. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our...
Nov 22, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 139
This is an Ancient Rerun, from back when Radical Grace Radio was just "Radical Grace". The episode was called "the Only Solution", and was recorded live on AM 920 WMEL. Once in a while it's fun to listen to an old show, and this is no exception. Pastor had a list of questions he brought with him to the studio... The first question was "can you know, right now, if you're righteous enough to go to heaven?" Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary H...
Nov 15, 2013•50 min•Season 4Ep. 138
The Episode titled "Live Stoned Nudes" has reached more people on X-rated websites than any other program we've done. I wonder why? Either way, this episode gets started with show titles and my obsession with naming them weird titles, plus the challenge that is the Gospel, in a funny way, where you wouldn't expect it. That's law and Gospel for you. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our...
Nov 08, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 137
It's Reformation Day, Every Day! Seriously, if we are repenting, defecting, every day of our Christian lives, than that means it's Reformation Day every day. So for this Reformation Day, Pastor Gary coined a term, "religious industrial complex" to refer to any system that gets turned around to making a buck off of Jesus' name, or even the crass works righteousness systems so may people think gets the brownie points with God. Any system like this is pretty much brown, because it's slathered in, w...
Nov 01, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 136
This Episode of Radical Grace Radio is filled with Monkey Business. Too much of it, in fact. Romanistic Reformed Christians calling the Pentecostal Kettle black, Crazy Taliban hoopla, Congressional upheaval, and tiny little spoons. You'll have to email me to find out what the spoons reference even means. Either way, this pre-Reformation Day show sets up our talk next week, Where of course we talk about Grace Alone, Faith alone and Christ alone, and why they are important. Visit Matthew Pancake's...
Oct 25, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 135
In a show about Christian Freedom and how to exercise that freedom, we wound up talking about our individual stories. Now, we're not talking about our individual testimonies or anything like that, but the simple story of each of us, and in the larger context the history of individual congregations. Those stories, both individual and corporate, are subsumed into God's story the same way our flesh is subsumed into Christ. Our lives, our stories, everything we are, have become part of God's story. ...
Oct 18, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 134
Feelings, nothing more than feelings. Or at least that's what most of the church at large would say about being a Christian. Here's how they do it. The Holy Spirit indwells a believer, changes that believer's heart to where they feel like they want to follow God's law, and the feelings sustain the believer through hard times. Sounds nice but, what about those days when you don't "feel" like being a believer? Oh wait, what you do is manufacture a feeling, which is something the modern, feelings d...
Oct 11, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 133
So we hit two topics today that people tend to ignore. One is death itself. People don't want to be reminded of their own mortality. Sooner or later it's coming, but we all tend to put it out of our minds, especially when you live in a culture that goes out of it's way to rid itself of reminders of death. The other topic is the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Most people solve this parable by trying to ignore it. Why? Because it's a terrifying parable on its face, that's why. But there's an...
Oct 04, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 132
Part of my personal re-evaluation includes trying to discover both the lies in the world around me and the lies that I tell myself about the world around me. Lately, the world around me seems nuts, but I can also imagine that people who read Jesus' parables think that he was nuts as well. One such parable doesn't seem that strange when you realize that the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) came to a realization about the world around him. I can imagine that he also realized he'd been lying to himself as we...
Sep 27, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 131
So The Pope went viral again, stating to an Italian Newspaper Magnate that Atheists and Agnostics can go to heaven if they just follow their conscience and do good works. Now, why do Lutherans care about this? And why should you? This on Radical Grace Radio. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com...
Sep 20, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 130
In this edition of Radical Grace Radio we're talking about Jesus' saying in Luke 14, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple." This is the Gospel of the Lord. The Good News of the Lord. Doesn't seem like good news now does it? We're not promising a law and gospel interpretation for this, but what we've got is pretty interesting. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.face...
Sep 13, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 129
The Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark Texas recently had an outbreak of Measles. Yes, that's Measles, the disease we all get immunized for when we're kids, that one. The church in question is the same church that noted Word of Faith teacher Kenneth Copeland planted many moons ago. Now, the focus of our commentary isn't on the irony of the situation (an irony that we do recognize as tremendous), but rather on how Copeland and his church parrot many of the objections to vaccinations th...
Sep 06, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 128
With the Fiftieth Anniversary of the March on Washington happening this week, I've been thinking about something controversial. I think that with all the fist pumping, speech making and slogan chanting there should have a been a moment where everyone makes a pledge. A pledge to take a hard look at ourselves, make an effort for personal responsibility and take an oath to be the kind of people who treat others with respect and dignity. Take a listen and see if you agree. Visit Matthew Pancake's Fa...
Aug 30, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 127
While he was writing his sermon for the days service, Pastor Gary noticed something that's likely true about every person he reads this verse from Hebrews. They likely read this verse like this, even though the word "obedience" is not in the verse. Hebrews 11: 39 These were all commended for their obedience, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook htt...
Aug 23, 2013•59 min•Season 4Ep. 126
This week we're taking a break, but we're posting the very first Radical Grace Radio program. In this program our first caller, ever, wondered what he should do to "cover all his bases" with God. You guys will enjoy this, but Pastor Gary and I would just cringe at how inexperienced we sound. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com...
Aug 16, 2013•53 min•Season 4Ep. 125
Because someone said, "that line 'I'm too holy for you' is from Monty Python and the Holy Grail," here's the scripture verse. "Isa 65:5 (I say to a people) who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too holy for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day." So in this special edition on how to Drive the Millennials away, we let Good Charlotte answer some of the nonsense spewed over Millennials. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matt...
Aug 09, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 124
The question that keeps coming up, over and over again, is how to attract and keep the so called "millennial" generation. We at Radical Grace Radio take a different approach. We're going to research how to drive them away. Yes we are, folks. All the stupid, obnoxious things that are done in the name of Christianity that tends to make millennials roll their eyes. You betcha. All that stuff. Maybe we can get a government grant for this... Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ma...
Aug 02, 2013•55 min•Season 4Ep. 123
I thought that this weird doctrine about the Mark of Cain had long since been put to bed. Apparently there are still some people who say that the "Mark" is that God turned Cain black. Seriously. This is still being taught. Pastor Gary, however, put that to rest in 3 seconds flat. Also, we talked about Repentance. Pastor Gary seems to have found something interesting comparing how the word "repent" is used either by St. Paul or Jesus. Fascinating stuff. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www...
Jul 26, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 122
It's possible to angry and still be level headed. Don't argue, yes, it is possible. If you have to be angry with the criminal justice system, try to be level headed about it. Of, we're talking about the Zimmerman/Martin case, but in what we hope was a level headed way. We also talk about the last of the old testament Prophets as part of an extended study on the inter-testamental period. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook htt...
Jul 19, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 121
A few years ago we did a program called "The United States of the Beast" in which we showed that if you use the presuppositions that many Christians use to interpret Revelation you clearly find that the Beast of Revelation is the United States. Well, we weren't seriously proposing that this is true, but apparently there are people out there who believe it's true. They believe that United States IS the Beast of Revelation. Incredible. Also on Radical Grace Radio, a Pastor has a Hissy Fit in the P...
Jul 12, 2013•55 min•Season 4Ep. 120
It's always good to be prepared. No one I know of would disagree with that. But isn't it interesting that we spend a lot of time being prepared to be frightened? Or depressed even? It's like that for us sinners all the time. Back in the wilderness when the people had been led by Moses out of Egypt it seems that all the people were prepared to do was complain. All too often, that's how it goes with us. We at RGR think that it's not supposed to be that way for us. We have been prepared by the migh...
Jul 05, 2013•56 min•Season 4Ep. 119
In this show we were able to make one point and make it well. That people stop and listen when you mention "Zombies", and people really are interested in how to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. Wait, that's two points. Maybe we made another point about remember that the actual coming apocalypse reveals Jesus as the winner, the victor, the King... And that there's a way in which being prepared for a "zombie" apocalypse means being ready for the physical trouble that would come with the actual apocaly...
Jun 28, 2013•57 min•Season 4Ep. 118
When the Prophet Haggai delivered to Zerubbabel and Joshua the Word of God to rebuild the temple, not only did the new temple lack the literal glory of the original temple, but the Glory of the Lord never seemed to come to the temple again the same way it did in Solomon's day. So what happened? Did God's word not come to pass? Well, let's find out on Radical Grace Radio. Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook...
Jun 21, 2013•57 min•Season 4Ep. 117
D. L. Moody once said "I can write the Gospel on a dime", and ever since then that's exactly what the Church at large seems to want to do. But if you do that, you wind up leaving out a full, robust proclaimation of the Gospel, leaving people with some "spiritual laws" to keep or who knows what. Whatever it is, it usually winds up leaving the believer in a quagmire of confusion. So this episode is dedicated to a different way of seeing the Gospel and all it's parts, seeing them rather through the...
Jun 14, 2013•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 116
How much would a place in Heaven be worth? Better question, how much would YOU pay for a spot in the glorious hereafter? $10,000? $50,000? $100,000? Or better yet, what's the going rate for saving the life of a dying servant? Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com...
Jun 07, 2013•57 min•Season 4Ep. 115
When troubles or disasters come, and we know they will, do we have to be uber-ministers? What I mean by that is, do was absolutely have to give an answer as to why the troubles have come to us? Or, is it better to keep silent, at least in the beginning? Particularly if it's our neighbor who is in pain, do we have to run in and be super Christian Ministers or is it OK to just be silent and listen? Also, since it's Trinity Sunday, we talked about a certain long and scary creed. Visit Matthew Panca...
May 30, 2013•55 min•Season 4Ep. 114
After Christmas and Easter, what do the majority of Christians do with Pentecost? Is it even really on the radar? Is it just lost in the morass of mis-focused Pentecostalism? Or was there more to it than just people speaking in tongues? Visit Matthew Pancake's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/matthew.pancake Visit Pastor Gary Held's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/garyheld Visit our Website www.RadicalGraceRadio.com...
May 24, 2013•57 min•Season 4Ep. 113
In today's show which has not been hacked by anyone (seriously, who would retitle a Christian Radio show "LIVE STONED NUDES") we talk about Pietism, beating your brothers and sisters about the head and neck with made up rules, Orbital videos, Nudes, marijuana, and broadcasting live from outer space... Not exactly in that order. We ARE the epitome of disorganized religion. Music today: Space Oddity - David Bowie, performed by Col. Chris Hadfield Space suit - They Might Be Giants Man on the Moon -...
May 16, 2013•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 112
