As promised on today's program I read through The Acts of Paul and Thecla, commented on the Orthodox veneration of Thecla as a saint and "equal of the Apostles," and what we can learn about the context of the origination of this apocryphal mythology from the second century. By the way, here is the article I mentioned from the OCA website about Thecla.

So Joel Webbon dropped a webcast about how the State is to correct the Church, and how this has been normative throughout church history. Well, do forgive me, but I've always opposed sacralism, still do, always will, and the errors and holes in the presentation, historically and logically, were big enough for me to drive my big GMC through, so, we did. Lots of stuff about Constantine, ecumenical councils, etc. Ninety minutes plus today! Also made reference to this article I wrote many years ago on the Council of Nicea. https://equip.org/PDF/DN206.pdf

Started off with more evidence of how divided a nation the US is, then moved on to listen to some brief comments from He Who Judges from Afar, and then we moved into some thoughts about the debate with Joe Heschmeyer, specifically on what his point was in emphasizing the time gap between the cross and the Ascension.

Reflected on the deep division that exists in Western Culture today and in the United States in particular, and then moved on to some of the Jay Dyer stuff and the continued need to have an in-depth discussion on the "7th Ecumenical Council," aka Nicea II.

About halfway through the program we had a power spike due to a storm blowing into Phoenix, but we got it all recorded anyway. First I dealt with the amazing explosion of infantile behavior by one Jay Dyer when I dared actually treat him like an adult in challenging him to defend Nicea II in debate. You won't believe his behavior. Then we transitioned into an examination of the reality, acknowledged by all, really, that "presbuteros" and "episkopos" in the Greek New Testament refer to the very same office, a reality disputed by Joe Heschmeyer in our debate in Jonesboro. Enjoy!

Spent ninety minutes talking Ignatius, recensions, manuscripts, etc. with Timothy Easley today! Definitely a program for church history geeks! Hope all two dozen of you enjoy it!

Excited to be home, but excited to head out in just a matter of weeks for the "Louisiana Loop" that will take me to southern Louisiana for a debate on April 4th, and then to northern Louisiana for a debate on the 10th. Talked a bit about last weekend's debates as well.

Though I really wasn't feeling well after I arrived here in Amarillo, I felt it was absolutely necessary to address the amazingly dishonest attacks that have been launched against me about a single cross-examination question from Saturday night's debate. So we did a full dive into Ignatius, his writings, the issues with the transmission of those writings, forgeries, you name it, and then walked through the actual text cited in the debate demonstrating that the actual answer I gave was fully substantiated by the text itself. It is my hope that those who are planning to continue this campaign of misrepresentation will listen to this presentation, realize the foolishness of such an action, repent of their intentions, and cease and desist with their activities. That is up to them. For everyone else, you get to learn a whole lot about issues related to ancient church history! Enjoy!

Mainly covered the upcoming debates, how to properly encourage someone interested in pursuing apologetics, foundational issues, etc., and then talked a bit about Gavin Ortlund and his videos, and the recent discussion about the canon of Scripture, the Deuterocanonical books, etc. Not sure about when we will be able to do programs next week, to be honest, as I drive back home, but we will see how it goes!

Snuck a quick program in today before teaching at the seminary this evening, talking about developments with what seems like the soon passing of Pope Francis, etc. Then we briefly discussed recent conversations concerning Cameron Bertuzzi, a convert to Romanism, and his claim that the supposed appearances of Mary at Zeitoun, Egypt, decades ago provide better evidence for the Christian faith than the resurrection appearances of Jesus. Hopefully get to do another program from Jonesboro on Thursday before the two debates this weekend.