Love is a multifaceted thing. Sometimes this complex nature can be masked in English by the use of the umbrella term “love” (or even by the exclusion of concepts that really fall under that umbrella — e.g., “friendship”). In this first episode in our (planned) three-episode series on love, we discuss agape (i.e., self-sacrificing or sacrificial love) and caritas (i.e., charity), their interrelationship, and some of their connections to other facets of love (e.g., storge [i.e., familial love]). L...
May 15, 2024•1 hr 44 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Leadership is a natural aspect of the interrelationships of men. Any given group of men, left to its own devices, will form into a hierarchy, with a leader at the top. The modern world would have us deny this reality, because it runs directly counter to Egalitarianism. To men, God has given many gifts, but He has given them unequally — this is part of His design, and we are not permitted to deny or to ignore it. The husband is the head of his wife — he must lead, and she must submit. The leader ...
May 01, 2024•1 hr 57 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Christian men exist in two kingdoms (the right and the left ‘hands’ of Christ) and three estates (family, Church, and State). Many modern men neglect the fullness of this reality via excessive focus on the Kingdom of the right hand of Christ (i.e., the Church). Further, and perhaps worse, many pastors believe that their role in the right-hand Kingdom entitles them to honors, respect, or other deference with regard to the left-hand kingdom — it does not. The domain of the pastor is the preaching ...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Knowledge is not what saves us, but faith cannot be devoid of content, for one must have faith in something. Part of being a Christian is, unsurprisingly, knowing the content of the Christian faith. Or, perhaps, this would be surprising to many, given the state of knowledge and belief among those claiming to be Christian — even among the best (in terms of knowledge and right belief) of those claiming to be Christian. In today’s episode, we return to the state of the churches. This time, we exami...
Apr 17, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 69
All that we have comes from God. As we covered in the episode on jealousy, we are, in fact, to be jealous, to be protective, of the things that are ours. However, this must be balanced against the fact that much of what we hold we hold in trust. There are things which are solely ours and there are things which are ours for the sake of serving God and neighbor. Ultimately, we are stewards of this Creation, and we owe duties to God. One such duty is the duty to render thanks to God in the form of ...
Apr 10, 2024•1 hr 40 min•Season 2Ep. 68
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” All that we have and all that we are flows from God, and yet, as covered in previous episodes, God acts in time via means. Your height and your intelligence, God transmitted to you via your ancestors, via your nation; your material prosperity, God transmitted to you via your forebears and your country; and your faith, God transmitted to you via f...
Apr 03, 2024•1 hr 44 min•Season 2Ep. 67
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” The modern world would have us believe that jealousy is a purely negative matter — we all know the tropes. Scripture teaches something entirely different. God tells us that one of His names is Jealous. To be jealous of the things that God has given us is not only not sin, but an affirmative duty for every Christian. You must be jealous of your wi...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 2Ep. 66
When the world demands that we speak falsely about the faith, we are required to speak the truth; when the world demands that we speak truthfully about the faith, but neglect certain truths, then it is those very truths the world tells us to ignore that we must profess all the more loudly. Satan, although he is the father of lies, does not always lie; where it is possible to do so, it is often far more effective to mislead with the truth — to lie by omission. This is what the world so often dema...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Technology is a part of our daily lives. In fact, technology has been a part of the daily life of man from the beginning. Whether that technology is relatively simple — a garden hoe or a flint knife — or incredibly complex — a nuclear reactor or a quantum computer — it is, nevertheless, technology, which is to say that it is a material application of science (i.e., knowledge) to achieve a human end. Technology may be good, bad, or neutral, but it cannot be truly or fully assessed in the absence ...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 47 min•Season 2Ep. 64
Repentance consists of contrition and faith. Contrition is sorrow for sin, the terrors of conscience that are attendant the realization of the nature of sin and God’s wrath toward it; faith, in this case, is the entirety of the Christian life — the ‘and then what’, which follows regeneration. But more than this, to be truly repentant is to turn from one’s sins and move toward God. In the Greek (μετανοια), repentance is a ‘change of one’s mind’, or, in the verbal form, ‘to change one’s mind’ — li...
Feb 28, 2024•1 hr 55 min•Season 2Ep. 63
Once taken, a man’s reputation is nearly impossible to restore to him. In the 8th Commandment (and many other places in Scripture), God enshrines and makes abundantly clear that He hates slander and the man who spreads it. And yet Scripture goes further: Not only must we not slander our neighbor, but we must rebuke the one who does so. Scripture calls the one who hears slander but does not rebuke the slanderer evil. Next to his life, wife, and possessions, the most dear thing a neighbor has is h...
Feb 14, 2024•1 hr 53 min•Season 2Ep. 62
Galatians 3:28 is, perhaps, the most abused verse in modern churches (a term that should, arguably, be in quotes), and this is not without reason. Satan attacks where he knows there is purchase to be found or headway to be made. In entirely unambiguous terms, Galatians 3:28 affirms the very real existence of race, hierarchy, and sex (i.e., that we are created either male or female) — the very things that the modern world constantly attacks and denies. We must be careful readers when it comes to ...
Feb 07, 2024•2 hr•Season 2Ep. 61
By the time Josiah, King of Judah, noticed that pagan worship practices had crept into the land of Judah — and even into the Temple itself —, apostasy, wickedness, and idol worship were rampant. The Temple was filled with altars to and symbols of false gods, the area around the Temple and around Jerusalem was filled with centers of false worship, and the valley adjacent to Jerusalem even saw the sacrifice of children to demons. Undoubtedly, these false beliefs and false practices did not creep i...
Jan 31, 2024•2 hr 36 min•Season 2Ep. 60
Gnosticism is one of the oldest religions of man. When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden, it was with an invitation to learn secret — explicitly forbidden, in this case — knowledge. From the mystery cults of Ancient Greece and Rome to modern Pentecostalism, Mormonism, and any of dozens of other cults, Gnosticism has always been a major font of false religion and corruption. Christianity is not a mystery religion; Christianity is a religion with mysteries. The Sacrament is a mystery, because we can...
Jan 24, 2024•2 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 59
Judaizing has been a problem in the Church from the beginning. Even St. Peter fell prey to the Judaizers and their attempt to import into Christianity the false beliefs of Judaism. Today, Judaizing takes a number of forms. In this episode, we will cover circumcision, the use of “Yahweh” (and “Yeshua”), and several related matters. As Christians, we must always ask ourselves both what the source of the thing is and what the purpose of the thing is. When it comes to Judaizing, the source is not Go...
Jan 17, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 58
Man is, by nature, religious. The Atheist or the agnostic is no less religious than the Buddhist, the Muslim, or the Christian. The question is not whether or not a man is religious, but which God or gods he worships. As Christians, it is incumbent on us not just to recognize this reality, but also to recognize how it plays out in our world, in our culture, and in our own lives. We may believe that because we attend church on Sundays (perhaps even also on Wednesdays), read our Bibles, and do all...
Jan 10, 2024•1 hr 59 min•Season 2Ep. 57
Unlike the Old Testament Israelites, New Testament Christians are not required to observe any particular set of feasts, festivals, or commemorations — Scripture does not lay out a Church Year that we are required to follow. However, the Christian standard is not ‘What is required?’, but rather: ‘What is profitable?’ When we ask, instead of what we must do, what we should do for the sake of unity, instruction, and order, we arrive at a far different answer from that of most modern Christians, who...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 56
What do we mean by “Church” or “church”? When we use this term (or these terms, when writing permits distinguishing them with the capital letter), we really mean a handful of distinct things — it is important to keep these clear. In today’s episode, we go over the Church (universal), the church (institutional), and the church (local, congregational). For the Christian, there is great comfort in recognizing the reality of the Church, even when the churches may be in disarray. “In short, according...
Dec 13, 2023•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 55
We are told to ‘test the spirits’, and this is a blanket admonition. You should test the things we say on this podcast against the Word of God; you should test the things your pastor says against the Word of God; you should test the things you believe against the Word of God. Yes, there are things that belong to natural revelation — to wisdom that can be gained from exploration of God’s Creation —, but, where Scripture speaks, Scripture is binding and final. In today’s episode, we will subject E...
Dec 06, 2023•2 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Whether our gifts are many or few, great or small, God has most assuredly prepared beforehand opportunities for us to use those gifts to serve our neighbors. We, in fact, have a duty to use what God has given us for the good of our neighbor. All that we have we hold in trust as stewards, for all comes from God and all belongs to God. It is through our good works that we demonstrate, both to ourselves and to the world, that we have a living faith. There are no hard and fast rules or mathematical ...
Nov 22, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Of all the idols of modern man, Capitalism may be one of the most challenging to overcome. Not because the wickedness of Capitalism is not manifest, for it is (and we will demonstrate this in today’s episode), but because it has been sold as the only alternative to Communism — a system so wicked that no Christian can possibly support it. Yet the choice is not binary, and those who would claim that it is seek to mislead the Christian into supporting a system that is, in point of fact, anti-Christ...
Nov 15, 2023•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.” In the same way also, He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in rememb...
Nov 08, 2023•2 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Dispensationalism is a modern heresy. (No, we are not going to bury the lede.) Taking shape, primarily, in the 1800s and 1900s, Dispensationalism posits a distinction between God’s plans for ‘Israel’ and the Church — this is contrary both to Scripture and to the historical teachings of the Church. God is no polygynist — He has but one bride. Today, the churches, particularly in the US, are rife with Dispensationalist teachings, and it is our duty as Christians to refute these lies. God has only ...
Nov 01, 2023•2 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 50
The Reformation was not the beginning of the problems in the Western Church, nor in the Church more generally. Over the centuries before the beginning of the Reformation, generally accepted as 31 October 1517, the Church faced a number of heresies, divisions, and other problems. Yet God has always seen her through these tumultuous waters. Today, we find ourselves yet again in need of reformation, for the existing church bodies are corrupt — virtually all from the top down. This does not mean tha...
Oct 25, 2023•2 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Modern churches, by and large, have been subverted — we all know this. Is the subversion of the churches an argument against Christianity? Of course not. The Church fought for decades against the very sort of infiltration and subversion that is, today, destroying our churches before our very eyes. Further, the Christian faith is the foundation of the West — the West is Christendom and Christendom is the West. Without a restoration of the Christian faith, there will be no revival in the West. As ...
Oct 18, 2023•2 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Our second listener feedback episode. It took us only five months this time (the last one took six). If you have more questions, submit them now to make it into the next listener feedback episode. Subscribe to the podcast here. Show Notes Myth of the 20th Century: Stone Choir after Dark — Good versus Evil Podcast Apps Overcast (iOS): App Store, Web Podcast Addict (Android): Web Bibles Generally: BibleHub.com ESV: Web, Reader’s Edition (Premium) Amazon or ChristianBook.com (also available in leat...
Oct 04, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Much less so is tomorrow guaranteed to be the same as yesterday. And yet we, as human beings, have a tendency to think of the world as a sort of constant or given — we do not by nature adequately assess the likelihood of catastrophic or even merely significant change. This is not to say that we should be pessimists, alarmists, or paranoiacs; it is, however, to say that we should spend more time thinking about the information we encounter in our lives and what it means...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 46
The Sacraments are a key — a central — part of the Christian life. And yet there are disagreements about the nature of the Sacraments — what they are and what they do. As Christians, when disagreements about doctrine, dogma, or theology arise, we turn to one source — God’s Word. In today’s episode, we go over the theology and the doctrine of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. We do so from an admittedly and unashamedly Lutheran position; however, we ground everything we say in the Word of God. In es...
Sep 20, 2023•2 hr•Season 1Ep. 45
If you are in Christ, then your sins are forgiven. Yes, Christ paid the price for all sins on the Cross, but it is only those who are in Christ — those who have faith — who benefit from this forgiveness. And this forgiveness is total, God promises not only to forgive, but says that He will forget our sins — a total erasure. ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.’ As Christians, we are called to turn and show the same forgiveness and mercy to our b...
Sep 13, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Season 1Ep. 44
The modern world presents many challenges for and to the young man, particularly the young man who would be a Christian. Often men, and particularly young men, may feel that they have been forgotten or written off by society. In today’s episode, we focus on the issues that concern young men — here and now. As Christians, we must contend with the fact that, although we are sons of God and predestined for glory, we yet live in a fallen world plagued by sin, temptation, and suffering. The promises ...
Sep 06, 2023•2 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 43
