The Blue Collar Scholar

Happy Halloween! Christians may disagree about whether to celebrate Halloween, and how to do so. The celebration of holidays seems to fall into a "freedom of the believer" issue. But Christians should still be on guard against the Devil, not only on Halloween, but always. This episode wrestles with these arguments, and ultimately encourages us to keep our eyes fixed on God.

As Halloween approaches, I figured that End-of-the-World predictions might be an appropriate topic for the History in My Lifetime class. Whether it was Y2K, the end of the Mayan long-form calendar in 2012, or any of the dozens of religious teachers and groups predicting dates for the end of the world, ... we are still here. ... Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:36 that "no one knows that day or hour," but way too many of His followers think they know better than He does and played the game of predicting the Rapture, Judgment Day, the Second Coming, or some other End-of-the-World scenario.

The books of the New Testament that are believed the be the newest are also the 5 books that are traditionally believed to be written by the Apostle John. It goes without saying that most secular scholars (and even some Christian scholars) dispute Johannine authorship of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, & Revelation. However, there are some arguments for genuine Johannine authorship of each book. In this episode we dig into each of these books, looking at authorship, structure, genre analysis, and a brief survey of each book's main points.

The New Testament tells us 2 facts that are in tension with one another: (1) If you give your heart to Jesus Christ, you are saved (see Romans 10:9). And (2) there is such a thing as false salvation (see Matthew 7:21-23). So what missing ingredient separates the true Christian from the wayward or the false Christian? I contend that it is a humble spirit of teachability & self-evaluation. This sermon analyzes each of those key terms: (1) humility/humble, (2) teachability, & (3) self-evaluation.

From Chernobyl to Bhopal to East Palestine (Ohio) to the Port of Beirut explosion, manmade disasters have been a frequent driver of the news cycle, and have shaped our memory of history that we have lived through.

This episode continues in our journey through the New Testament into the "Catholic Epistles." (Note: Catholic in this context means "universal.") These books also go by the name "General Epistles," as these non-Pauline books were typically distributed widely, instead of going to an individual or to a single church. James is a Catholic Epistle, but we discussed it already because it was a very early epistle. 1st, 2nd, & 3rd John, likewise, are Catholic Epistles, but we will discuss them next week, along with John & Revelation. So this episode dives into 4 books: Hebrews, 1st Peter, 2nd Peter, & Jude.

Inspired by my recent sermons that covered the entire books of 2nd John & 3rd John, I thought I'd try my hand at covering a whole book that is a little bit bigger. So this sermon flows more like a Bible study, analyzing the text of the Book of Jonah in order. Sometimes an individual verse is analyzed, sometimes it is a set of verses, but the analysis goes in order, covering the text of the book from start to finish. In the short Book of Jonah we see an imperfect and disobedient prophet who repents and does his job, but afterward gets upset that the people he hates won't get destroyed by a merciful God. May we learn from his failings ad from his successes.

This episode briefly discusses some of the biggest and most disastrous earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes (typhoons/cyclones), floods, tornadoes, and wildfires of the last 80 years.

As the Book of Acts draws to a close, the Apostle Paul is under house arrest awaiting trial before Caesar. It is during this time that he writes "the Prison Epistles," which are Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, & Philippians. (Some scholars like N.T. Wright advance the idea that these books were written during an otherwise undocumented imprisonment in Ephesus about a decade earlier.) After the close of Acts, Paul apparently is released, and he returns to ministry. It is during this time that he writes "the Pastoral Epistles" (1 Timothy & Titus, as well as 2 Timothy) to two of his missionary colleagues: Timothy & Titus. (Nearly every secular scholar of the New Testament is adamant that Paul did not write the Pastoral Epistles.) These 2 sets of epistles compromise most of Paul's smaller and medium-sized books, and are some of his best writing.

The New Testament class is arranged so that we examine each book of the New Testament more-or-less in the order that they were written. Having looked at James, the early epistles or Paul, Mark, & Matthew, we are ready to look at Luke & Acts. Chronologically, it is likely that these books were written while Paul was in house arrest in Rome in Acts 28. This episode looks into the author Luke, the recipient of these books (Theophilus), and the unique qualities of the books known as the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.