Restitutio exists to restore authentic Christianity and live it out today. As a restorationist, it really does matter to me how the earliest Christians practiced their faith. A question I ask myself is if I jumped in a time machine and went back to the late first century and attended a house church meeting, would I fit in? Is what I believe about the bible what they believed? Is how I do Christianity how they did it? Or, to bring in today's topic, would tongues, interpretation, prophecy, or other holy spirit activity be part of the service?

Today we are beginning a new series on the manifestations of the spirit. We'll begin with John Truitt, a founder and leader of Alegiance to the King, a ministry with a thriving virtual fellowship and lots of teaching resources. He's also a successful entrepreneur and the CEO of Kalleo Technologies an IT company based out of Paducah, Kentucky. He's going to provide evidence for the view that the gifts of the spirit are available for all Christians today. Then, next week, we'll have Greg Deuble from Australia share an opposing viewpoint. Lastly, we'll listen in as these two discuss the subject more in depth.

This should be a rewarding time for all of us, whatever your current views of the spirit are. It will at least help us to understand the other side. And...who knows, you may change your mind on this subject.

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• Check out Truitt's ministry: Allegiance to the King
• Watch past meetings of his virtual fellowship on YouTube
• You may also want to hear the interview we did with Sam Storms on this same subject
• More podcasts with John Truitt
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

As our society increases in polarization and ideological tribalism, it's easy to become thin-skinned, taking offense at the slightest remark. Even certain words can trigger us to explode in outrage and vitriol. What are we to do? Should we cloister ourselves in echo chambers, surrounded by those who already agree with us? Should we listen when criticisms come our way? After all, sometimes they may be right? Should we always avoid emotional pain or can insensitive remarks, ideological attacks, and harsh criticisms ultimately make us stronger? In this sermon, you'll see how God's love is a game changer that anchors your value in his opinion of you while simultaneously freeing you to engage with offensive statements by others in a healthy and productive way.

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• This sermon came from Revive 2020. Listen to other sermons about anger, jealousy, anxiety, and not being good enough by a variety of speakers on this page.
• You may also enjoy this teaching about Resilience on YouTube
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today in our fourth and final part of our series on postmodernism Pastor Jacob Ballard explains four key guidelines for cross-cultural ministry.

1. Always change the language, but never change the message
2. Exchange meta-narrative for personal narrative or community narrative
3. Exchange certainty for humility, clues, hints, and mysteries
4. Exchange absolutist morality for personal accountability and communal action

—— Links ——

• Find out more about Jacob Ballard at the Timberland Bible Church website
• Books mentioned: They Like Jesus but Not the Church by Dan Kimball and Who's Afraid of Postmodernism by James K. A. Smith
• Check out our episode about Gender in Bible Translation
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Today, in part three of our series on postmodernism we ask the question, "How is postmodernism affecting our world today?" Pastor Jacob Ballard explains how narrative, experience, community, and subjective truth are key ways that postmodern-minded people go about making sense of reality. Then he shows how movements like Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ rights draw strength from these postmodern ways of thinking.

—— Links ——

• Find out more about Jacob Ballard at the Timberland Bible Church website
• check out episode 358 A Christian Perspective on BLM (Russell Brown) and 292 A Change of Affection (Becket Cook), which was recorded just after Cook lost his job for no longer agreeing with the gay lifestyle
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

In our last episode, Pastor Jacob Ballard explained what worldviews are. Today he covers the two major worldviews: modernism and postmodernism. Although many today still approach life from a modernist mindset, postmodernism is here in increasing force. What are we as bible-believing Christians to do about this? The first step is to become aware of what's going on and how it both fits with and challenges the biblical worldview.

—— Links ——

• Find out more about Jacob Ballard at the Timberland Bible Church website
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Have you noticed the shifts happening all around us in our culture? Skepticism of traditional institutions from the government to the media to churches is at an all time high, while increasingly we're told to discover our authentic self and live it out courageously. Universal truth claims sound like power grabs while individual personal truths are celebrated no matter how patently false they seem. Corrosive deconstructionism has decimated traditional virtues, traditional ethics, and traditional ways of making sense of the world. The only hero that remains is the triumphant victim who boldly stands against the majority, shouting "This is who I am, you must accept me or we will take you down."

Ok, so I hammed it up a little there. Not all expressions of postmodernism are so strident. Even so, what is going on?

Pastor Jacob Ballard from Timberland Bible Church in Indiana will help us understand and engage with this incredible worldview shift that has occurred over the last few decades. Over the next four weeks, Ballard is going to share key insights from a class taught at the Atlanta Bible College designed to help students understand and minister to our changing society.

—— Links ——

• Find out more about Jacob Ballard at the Timberland Bible Church website
• Check out Dan Kimball's They Like Jesus but Not the Church
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Have you noticed the shrill tone that permeates public discourse in our time? It seems like everyone is on a hairpin trigger ready to rage and vent at their ideological enemies. What is a Christian to do? Should we stand up for our beliefs, morals, and politics? Should we disengage from conversation about controversial issues? Is there another way? Peter Miano, my guest for today, shares how respect, courtesy, and love can navigate us through these stormy waters. After earning degrees from Boston University, Union Theological Seminary, and Harvard Divinity School and becoming an ordained United Methodist Minister, Miano founded the Society for Biblical Studies, which coordinates trips to the Holy Land and other interesting places where conflict abounds.

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• Learn more about Peter Miano and get in contact with him at The Society for Biblical Studies of which he is the executive director.
• You may also like to read this article: "The Power of Unity in a Polarized Time"
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library

Did you know the Unitarian Christian Alliance just launched a podcast? In this interview, Mark Cain explains what he aims to do with this newest addition to one God podcasts and how the UCA podcast is different from the others. Ultimately, he wants to see unitarian Christians carry ourselves with confidence, knowing that our faith is firmly rooted in the scriptures.

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• Contact Mark Cain: [email protected] or by calling 615-581-1158 and leaving a message
• Check out the UCA podcast webpage or subscribe on Spotify
• More about Cain's church: Church of the Open Bible in Bedford, OH
• More about Cain's denomination: Church of God General Conference
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio

Sam who asked me not to use his last name for fear that he will get kicked out of his current church, tells his story of navigating evangelical Christianity as a biblical unitarian. He shares two sad stories of excommunication from a college ministry and a local church. As you might suspect, this harsh treatment drove Sam to question his non-trinitarian beliefs. Even though he had every reason to abandon his unorthodox convictions, his research into bible, theology, and history strengthened his faith that the Father of Jesus is the only true God. Now he has a YouTube channel where he interviews theologians and recently he debated Chris Date on Preston Sprinkle's Theology in the Raw podcast.

—— Links ——

Pastor Jeff Deuble of the Churches of Christ in Sydney, Australia shares his journey to uncover the genuine Jesus from scripture alone. After his brother Greg challenged him to understand Christ from a Jewish perspective, Jeff set out on a quest, reading through all of scripture to see what it really said about the Messiah. What he found upended his life, bringing both delight at his clearer understanding of Christ and heartbreak over losing the church he planted and pastored for 19 years. This is his story.

Here are some of the questions that caused Deuble to doubt the "traditional" understanding of Christ taught in the creeds:

• How can you have a singular God who is also plural?  How can you explain three “persons”, who constitute one “being”?
• How can Jesus be both “fully human” and “fully God”?  How does that work?
• How can Jesus be eternal, yet “begotten” by God? 
• The Bible says that “God cannot be tempted” but Jesus was tempted – in fact “in every way, just as we are” (Hebrews 4 says)
• We know “God alone is immortal” and therefore unable to die (Rom 1:23; 1Tim 6:16) yet Jesus was died, and was raised to life again by the Father. 
• We read that “no one has seen, or can see” God (1Tim 6:16) - that “no one has ever seen God” (Jn 1:18; 1Jn 4:12) yet Jesus was seen.
• God “knows everything” (1 Jn 3:26) yet Jesus himself admitted there were things that his Father knew that he himself did not (Mt 24:36; Mk 13:32).
• Why would “all authority in heaven and on earth” have to be given to him (Mt 28:18)?  Wouldn’t this already be his by virtue of him being God?
• If Jesus is God, how can he have a God over him (Which Paul clearly states is the case on many occasions, especially in 1 Cor 15)

—— Links ——

• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments
• Get in touch with Jeff Deuble via email: [email protected]
• Check out the interview with Greg Deuble (Jeff's brother) They Never Told Me This in Church
• More interviews with those who studied their way out of the Trinity
• If you’d like to support Restitutio, you can donate here.
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio