Was Jesus merely an “emergency measure”? Did Kuyper take the creation and culture far enough? Is the goal of life to “get saved” or is it to get saved unto the end that God intended all along? Do we overemphasize Jesus at the expense of the Trinity? All this, and more, is what the great Dutch Theologian AA Van Ruler causes us to consider. Join us as we sit down with Ernst Conradie and discuss Ernst’s project that saw a series of AA Van Ruler’s essays, called “This Earthly Life Matters," made available in English.

This might be the most important interview we have ever done. We Christians have been so concerned with maintaining our "rights" and focusing on maintaining our (pitiful) "freedom" in society that we have abdicated the very glory and honor of King Jesus and have allowed His good decrees to be trampled. Rather than asserting the crown glory of Christ we have sought ease and comfort at the cost of far too much. In this interview we sit down with the great implicational thinker David Fowler of the "God, Law & Liberty" podcast and we are given a wake-up call. It is time to think through the utterly wicked and far-reaching implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s analysis in its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges where the state-demi-gods have redefined marriage. But, we also discuss our own wickedness in doing nothing and seeking ease and peace. By doing nothing we have become guilty of standing approvingly while the state audaciously plays God and assumes it is the arbiter of truth. Yet, as Fowler reminds us, the government doesn’t create truth - its job is to acknowledge truth. Marriage is, and has always been, between a man and a woman who exchange promises before man and God. The shocking reality is that every minister who signs a state marriage license bends their knee to the government's arbitrary definition of marriage and takes it on as their own. It is simply an evil we can not abide. The disastrous and far reaching implications of living in a post-Obergefellian world are daunting, yet, there is much that can and should (must!) be done. We are grateful for David Fowler in sounding the alarm on this great evil. After a damning diagnosis we are offered tangible steps to see true piety take shape not just in our prayer closets but in the halls of congress and every square inch of this world that belongs to our mighty King of Kings. Pro Rege!

In this episode we are joined by Stephen O. Presley, author of "Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church." to see if we might glean some insight on how to engage our post-post-Christian-now-pagan-nation.

In an increasingly secular world, Christians are often pulled in two directions. Some urge us to retreat and build insular communities. Others call upon us to wage a culture war, harnessing the government to shore up Christian cultural power.

But there is another way—and it’s as old as the church itself. Stephen O. Presley takes us back to the first few centuries AD to show us how the first Christians approached cultural engagement. Amid a pagan culture that regarded their faith with suspicion, early Christians founded a religious movement that transformed the ancient world. Looking to great theologians like Augustine, Origen, and Tertullian, Presley shows how the early church approached politics, family, public life, and more. From these examples, he draws lessons for practicing authentic, pious discernment in how we engage with the wider culture.

The Christians who came before us endured persecution to share a vision of human flourishing that changed the world. Following in their footsteps, we can sanctify our society through social witness. Readers anxious about shifting cultural tides will be left with hope in the already-present kingdom of God and the promised resurrection.

Today talking with Pastor Timothy Decker author of “A Revolutionary Reading of Romans 13: A Biblical Case for Lawful Subjection to the Civil Magistrate and Dutiful Resistance to Tyrants”

Does Romans 13 command Christians a near unqualified obedience toward the civil magistrate? Is there an appropriate occasion and even a duty to resist tyranny, even if the tyranny is not sinful, per se? The aim of this book is to shed light on the fact that Paul's appeal for submission to governmental authorities in Romans 13 is far narrower than it so often gets treated. The many events and crises of 2020 revealed the broad brush strokes Christians often painted with it and thereby abuse of it. It is here argued that the apostle Paul wrote Romans 13 within a specific historical context, a pastoral occasion if you will, to take up the matter of warding off the common Jewish revolutionary spirit so pervasive in that period. Such a sentiment of private revolution among church members of Rome would have undermined a Gentile government and thereby destroyed the gospel influence of the Christian church in Rome. In this way, this book offers a revolutionary reading of Romans 13—that Paul opposed private revolution among private citizens. Therefore, rightly understood, Romans 13 teaches lawful subjection to the civil magistrate while at the same time affirming a Christian's duty to resist tyranny.

Today we are talking with the delightful Dr Paula Maddox. Author of "THINK Globally LEAD Strategically: A Christian Guide to Building Effective Leaders" and are reminded of the wisdom of slowing down and listening. Dr Maddox, like Proverbs and Francis Schaffer reminds us to walk/talk in humility and be wise with our words and lead with our ears.

Many Christians are wearied by the self-censorship at our workplaces for fear the blue-haired they/them in the next cubicle will report us for microaggression and misgendering the man with the dress. Join us as we sit down Andrew Crapuchettes, founder/CEO of RedBalloon, America's largest and most successful non-woke job board and talent connector. In this interview we discuss the potential folly of a college degree, why businesses will still push the woke agenda even if it costs them customers, how organizing at the worker-level to fight against woke-requirements is both a legal and advisable action plan, and how to find a good job for freedom loving, God fearing Christians who have conviction that the lord really is Lord of all.

Join us as we sit down with Stephen Wolfe, author of “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” and consider what the specifics of a Christian Nation might look like when applied (what to do with Mormon? Effeminates and butch ladies with blue hair? Taylor Swift, etc.).

A Church for the Rest of Us

What is the CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches)? How can such a small group of churches make such a national impact? What itches does this crew scratch, and what is it about these churches that result in such a jolly band? All this and more as we sit down and chat with CREC’s Presiding Minister Uri Brito.

After receiving a devastating brain cancer diagnosis, Jay Hewitt had a decision to make: Should he give up on faith or practice what he preached and trust that with God all things are possible? In I Am Weak, I Am Strong, Jay chronicles his journey of turning toward Jesus even when circumstances urged him to turn away. Faith in action for Jay included competing in an IRONMAN triathlon while undergoing cancer treatment. His race was a grand gesture of love for his young daughter--and a call to resilience for all of us. Join us, in this episode of The Laymens Lounge, as we survey a few areas where our Lord caused Jay to be strong in the midst of his weakness.

Join us as we sit down with Zachary Garris author of "Masculine Christianity" and ask: Should wives always submit to their husbands (what if he is a pagan? What if he's a lazy gamer)? Can women at least Pray in Church (or must they always remain silent)? Can a woman be a professor (or is she really to have no teaching authority over a man)? Can a woman Tweet out an admonishment? What is the connection between universal suffrage, feminism and being trans.? All this and more...

The Western church has gone feminist. God has given men authority in the home, church, and society. Yet the church has rebelled against God’s design and embraced the unbelieving world’s teaching that women should take on the same roles and duties as men rather than focus on the home and children. Christian scholarship and Bible commentaries are dominated by feminist arguments that both husband and wife should submit to each other (“mutual submission”), that women may be pastors and preach sermons to men, and that the Apostle Paul’s teaching on men and women was limited to Greco-Roman culture and has been transcended by our unity in Christ.
Sadly, the conservative response to feminism—complementarianism—compromised several historic Christian teachings and has thus given feminism an even stronger foothold in the church. Many complementarians fail to root gender roles in the differing natures of men and women. As a result, they have refused to apply the Bible’s teaching about men and women beyond the home and church, leading to the embrace of women in civil office and military combat. In addition, the vast majority of complementarians have adopted the novel interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (“the women should keep silent in the churches”) that Paul only prohibited women from evaluating prophecy, which has opened the door to women preaching and teaching men in the church.
The result is that the Western church has become effeminate and weak. Pastors are afraid to teach important Bible passages on the roles and duties of men and women, and it is no surprise that young Christian women are trading babies for careers outside the home and that churches are regularly capitulating to subversions of biblical sexual ethics. What the church needs is to recover its masculine calling, where men embrace their God-given authority—and responsibility—in the home, church, and society. This book affirms the historic Christian teaching on men and women, critiques feminist scholarship, and urges complementarians to hold a more robust and consistent position. This is a call to return to the Bible’s teaching on men and women. This is a call to Masculine Christianity..