Are you interested in online ministry?  Would you like to reach more people?  Ryan Maher shares what he’s learned about combining his love for God and graphic design into his bible lock-screen app.  Once Instigram came out, he jumped on board and developed a following that numbers around a million people.  In this interview Maher talks about his journey of faith, how he’s found success in reaching people online, as well as some tips on how to be more effective on social media.

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How does your belief in the God’s coming kingdom affect your life now? Now that we’ve looked at the kingdom as hope (what we look forward to) and gospel (what we preach to others), we’ll examine how God calls us to embody the kingdom now.  Taking our cue from Jesus’ kingdom-saturated ministry, we’ll see how he enacted the future in the present as a testimony and a taste of what’s to come.

This is lecture 8 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

three dimensions of the kingdom

Jesus was obsessed w/ the kingdom

J. Dan and Sharon Gill are part of a growing movement of bible students who have concluded that the Father of Jesus is the only true God.  They’re so passionate about this truth that in 2008, they launched their website, called Twenty-First Century Reformation (21stcr.org).  To date they’ve received over 700,000 views on YouT ube, not to mention visitors to the site.  In this interview you’ll here a bit about the Gill’s journey of faith from oneness to one, why they decided to launch 21st century reformation, how Sharon became “the most tech savvy grandma in America,” how they came up with the name, and their vision for the future.

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What is the gospel of the kingdom of God? It’s not about Jesus dying for your sins or going to heaven when you die. In fact, Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom is not new at all; it’s the message the prophets of old proclaimed–that one day God was going to make everything wrong with the world right and extend his reign from heaven to earth. In this lecture, you’ll see how John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, the twelve, the seventy, and Philip the evangelist, and Paul the Apostle all preached about God’s coming kingdom.

This is lecture 7 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

first off, what is the gospel?

begin by looking at an interesting incident (why did Jesus rebuke peter?)

John the Baptist preached the kingdom gospel

Jesus preached the kingdom as gospel

Sir Anthony Buzzard has led a fascinating life.  He grew up in the Church of England in the 1930s and 40s.  While at Oxford, he attended a “get saved” meeting and went forward.  Next he joined Herbert Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God, but then left and studied with the Christadelphians, before joining the Church of God General Conference.  He’s written seven books, publishes a monthly magazine, co-founded the annual Theological Conference, initiated a thriving mission in Africa, trained dozens of current pastors, launched a radio program, and produced nearly a thousand YouTube videos.  He’s tirelessly promoted Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom and the simple truth that the Father is the only true God (biblical unitarianism).  In this interview, you’ll learn about Buzzard’s journey of faith as well as his hopes for the future of the movement.

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What happens when you die? Is there an intermediate state? What does the bible teach about the dead before resurrection? These questions are important for our study of the kingdom of God.  If you go straight to heaven when you die, you’re not going to care very much about what happens when Jesus returns.  You may find it marginally interesting, but it’s what’s next for you.  In this way, the doctrine of heaven-at-death eclipses Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom.  However, as it turns out, the bible teaches that the dead are asleep until the resurrection on the last day.  In this lecture you’ll learn the primary texts that support conditional immortality and you’ll see how this Hebrew notion compares to what other cultures and religions say about the afterlife.

This is lecture 6 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

difference between conditional immortality and natural immortality

death is sleep (sleep = not awake)

sleep is the dominant metaphor the bible uses to talk about death

Nicholas Hlifka grew up as an atheist until a Christian teacher shared his faith with him in high school.  While attending the State University of New York at Fredonia, he took a class with Dale Tuggy.  When he found out that Tuggy was a biblical unitarian, he was immediately wary of such a heretical belief.  Over time, he challenged Tuggy, his best trinitarian proof-texts to him.  Tuggy explained the various texts and eventually Hlifka felt compelled to follow the evidence where it was leading.  Next, in an online coversation with Kegan Chandler, he learned about how God plans to establish his kingdom on earth (rather than going to heaven at death).  Once again Hlifka didn’t balk at the challenge, but embraced the biblical teaching.

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After a bad divorce, Chad Hoffman became a Christian.  He attended a number of different churches and something didn’t sit right at each.  In 2006, he was diagnosed with a inoperable tumor on his brain stem.  After some treatment it shrank and grew back.  During this tumultuous time, he started considering what he believed about the afterlife.  He took some seminary courses to get more information and learned about hermeneutics (how to interpret the bible).  Armed with these tools, he began understanding that the bible taught that the dead are asleep until resurrection.  He continued in his studies and discovered more about God’s nature and his coming kingdom.  He still battles cancer, but since this recording a recent mri has revealed this his tumor is currently stable.  Please pray for the Hoffmans as they continue in the walk with the Lord.

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Steve and Phyllis Carouthers have attended many churches throughout their Christian journey.  A couple of years ago Phyllis was researching the gifts of the spirit and came across an article on the Truth or Tradition website and saw that they were biblical unitarians.  Initially she found this quite disturbing as she associated all unitarians with the very liberal Unitarian Universalist denomination.  However, after learning that biblical unitarians actually hold to the inspiration and authority of scripture, she began considering the idea that the Father is the only true God.  She searched around online and began watching the free classes from Living Hope International Ministries.  After much study she came to agree that Jesus is not God the Son, but the Son of God.  She shared this with her step son, Thomas Brewer who had been studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses for a year.  (He could never quite bring himself to join them because of their opposition to blood transfusions.)  He came to see the light and attended the Theological Conference in 2016.  This year the whole family came.

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Even though he grew up in the Calivinist Reformed tradition as a pastor’s kid, Jouke Elsinga was not sure he believed in God’s existence.  After reading Frank Turek’s I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, he came to believe in God and started searching for apologetics.  He came across my apologetics class on youtube (also available on podcasts 50-65) and deepened his reasons for believing in the bible.  Next he began digging into theology, trying to discern the teachings of the bible.  He came to believe in conditional immortality (the sleep of the dead), but still held to the doctrine of the trinity.  However, after researching a little more he came across the Trinity Delusion website and youtube channel and found the arguments there very convincing.

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