Life at the Corner

Today Pastor Nate talks to Nancy Guthrie about the book of Acts. This book shows the historical transition from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant after the ascension of Christ. As such, there is a lot of interpretation required to apply it to our own lives. But there is lots of room for interpretations and applications that miss the point of a text or teach something contrary to the Bible's teaching. So, today Pastor Nate and Nancy talk about some hermeneutical principles and some of the weird stories in Acts as an aid to anyone teaching or preparing to teach through this book.

This episode is unique on Life at the Corner, because Nancy is hosting it. It will air in a few months on her podcast ("Conversations on the Bible with Crossway Books"), so this is an advance release. It was a long interview, so this is part one. Part two will release next Monday and will focus more on application.

It is counter-cultural to speak of the importance of the discipline of self-examination for two reasons. One, because it is a discipline, and two, because its goal is to discover the truth about yourself: that you are a sinner in the eyes of a holy God. This is a difficult and necessary practice, so today, Pastor Nate explains how it works and gives some helpful practices and questions to ask yourself.

Some Bible passages clearly point to Christ, like the promises in Genesis 3 and Isaiah 53. But many others seem far away from indicating anything about his person and work. Should we seek to find Christ in every passage of Scripture? Is that a valid hermeneutic, and if so, how do we go about finding him in passages that seem to be talking about completely different things? In this episode, Pastor Nate argues for this Christo-centric focus in your Bible reading and gives four hermeneutical principles to help you see Christ in all of Scripture.

The Scriptures are our only infallible rule for faith and practice. But they leave room for us to make wisdom calls and decisions about things they do not speak specifically to, like whether or not to give to a particular ministry or buy a particular house. And so, we often look to other resources to help us in making wise decisions. The internet contains a multiplicity of those resources, some more helpful and honest than others. How can we know which to trust and which to discard? Pastor Nate offers a few questions we should ask when evaluating a source and a few guidelines for using a trustworthy one.

When you hear the word fundamentalism, what comes to mind? For some, it's a negative term synonomous with mean spirited and narrow mindedness. For others, it's a positive term related to the recovery of the tried-and-true claims of historic Christianity.

In today's episode, Pastor Nate takes you on a tour of early 20th century church history in North America. He explains the rise of liberalism, the life and influence of J. Gresham Machen, and the movement known as fundamentalism. By the end, you will learn why the fundamentals of the faith must be fought for in every generation.

Reading the Scriptures can be difficult. Even the apostle Peter admitted as much when he said certain things in Paul's letters were hard to understand.

What principles should we keep in mind while reading God's Word? Today, Pastor Nate lays out a few of them for your daily devotional reading. When you sit down to read, should your focus be on how the text applies to you? Or should you worry when you read a passage and just don't understand it? Pastor Nate lays out some guidelines to help and encourage you in the daily meditation on God's word.

Recently, someone asked Pastor Nate to talk about things he has been reading, listening to, and watching. So today he is doing something a little different and talking about some recent books, articles, music, and movies he's enjoyed.

Every now and then, Pastor Nate will do something of this sort to spice up the podcast, and so we are calling this kind of episode a "Medley."

Are we able to please God by our works? Can we do "good works"? Today Pastor Nate tackles this question from a biblical perspective, connecting such topics as original sin, union with Christ, and the Christian's striving to obey God.

Today, Nathan Johnson joins Pastor Nate on the podcast to talk about the resurrection. In the church today, often the emphasis is on the cross of Christ and his atoning death—and those things should be emphasized. But sometimes this means the resurrection of Christ is sidelined in ways unhelpful for the Christian trying to live a faithful life. And so, Nathan and Pastor Nate are here to discuss the historicity of the resurrection and what its living consequences are for us.

Nathan Johnson is Assistant Dean of Academics and professor of philosophy and theology at New College Franklin as well as a teacher-in-residence at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church. He is working on a Ph.D. in the Humanities with a concentration on literature.

Per his promise last week, today Pastor Nate lays out several principles for how Christians can and should interact with those struggling with deconstruction. He also received a question after the last episode release regarding the recent rise of deconstruction, and so he also spends some time explaining why it has grown so much.