Today's episode comes from a lecture I gave at Harding University's 2025 Inspire Lectureship. The theme for the entire conference was Oneness: An Ancient Vision for Unity, drawing on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. In this lecture I address Paul's use of "predestination" language in Ephesians 1.

Today's episode is a lecture I gave at the 2025 Inspire Lectureship at Harding University. The topic for this lecture was "Unity in the Body," going along with the theme for Lectureship, Oneness: An Ancient Vision for Unity.

We recently celebrated our first anniversary of being in Searcy ... but for vacation we went back to Corpus Christi where I preached at our old church. This last year has been filled with both blessings and challenges, and in my sermon I talked about how God sometimes calls us simply to endure well.

Internationally respected author and New Testament scholar Craig Evans joins me on the podcast today to talk about the current state of research into the life and teachings of Jesus.

Are the gospels legendary accounts of a normal person blown up to mythical proportions? Are they entertaining novels about a beloved teacher? Or, are they reliable accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth? What we think about the literary genre of the gospels matters for how we interpret them. In today's episode I discuss some of the work by Richard Burridge who argues that gospels are not just legends but biographies of a real person.

In this episode I also discuss the work of Michael Licona. I highly recommend his book Why Are There Differences in the Gospels? published by Oxford University Press.

Today I share some thoughts on David Lipscomb's use of Scripture in his classic work titled Civil Government: Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny, and the Christian's Relation to It. Although this book is well over a hundred years old, it is surprisingly relevant today as Christians wrestle with how to understand the Bible and how to apply it.

Today I talk with Reverend Dr. Drew Holland, pastor of the Shaeffer's Chapel Global Methodist Church in Mississippi. Drew and I discuss his upcoming book, A Place for the Past, where he argues for the value of studying the Bible from a historical perspective.

On March 18, 2025, Brad East wrote a short but powerful post for Christianity Today in which he argued that the Church has taken too light a view of baptism for too long now. I respond to East's article here. "Baptism in Not Optional" by Brad East: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/03/baptism-is-not-optional-theology-church-salvation/

If you believe in the kind of predestination that rejects free will, I don't think you can take seriously Jesus's call to repent ... nor any other command in the New Testament.

What is the number of the Beast in Revelation 13? In today's episode I discuss the ancient practice of gematria and its relevance for uncovering one of Revelation's most intriguing mysteries.