The Laymens Lounge

Listen in as two white guys, not woke, but not asleep, talk about race, place and parenting and what it all means for our Christian life. Jake Meador is author of “What is Christianity For?”

Please offer your thoughts, feedback, questions, etc at our Facebook Group Theology Applied

“Whatever is true of Christ is true of humanity.”

Today we chat with Dr. Ross Hastings, author of “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Exploring Its Theological Significance and Ongoing Relevance” to nuance and discuss the implications of the Resurrection. We touch on everything from Atonement models, sanctification, and the favor of God to the Cultural Mandate, Participation and Union. Dr. Hastings brings in Torrance, Barth, Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine and provides a helpful big-picture of the history of Jesus and how His history becomes ours.

Are we Human Beings or Human Doings?

Join us as we sit down with Christopher Holmes, author of A Theology of the Christian Life: Imitating and Participating in God, as we discuss the nitty gritty of the Christian life. Questions like, should all Christians (like my busy wife) be reading Theological books? Do we over-emphasize the Second person of the Trinity at the expense of the First? How does one “experience” God? Etc. All this and more.

Most Christians around me seem to be answering questions that nobody is asking. Christianity seems more to answer the question of a damned-soul and ethical living rather than scratching our most felt needs like: longing for romance, acclaim, self-confidence, and so on. Does God really care about those things because it seems the NT is chiefly concerned with Jew/gentile relations and helping Christians to get along. In what ways does the Gospel address my “secular” hopes and fears? Is everything a “Gospel issue”?

Join us as we sit down with Dr. Daniel Strange, author of “Making Faith Magnetic: Five Hidden Themes Our Culture Can't Stop Talking About... And How to Connect Them to Christ.” Dr Strange helps set us up with a working theological anthropology and connects the dots on how our faith scratches all human itches.

Rejoice! God is interested in your hobbies, your projects, and the things you love

“Glorify God and enjoy Him forever…” That sounds great, but how exactly does one do that? In what way does my considering the lilies of the field glorify God? Does God care about my hobbies, my stamp collection, and my walks on the beach? Does God have enjoyment when I enjoy my favorite baseball team? What does Christianity applied look like for normal folk?

Join us as we sit down with William A. Dyrness, a breath of fresh air in contrast to the musty, disconnected, Christian “academic” world of talking-heads. Dr. Dyrness said “Over the years we were grappling with an underlying issue. If all Christians have a responsibility to bring their deepest convictions into contact with their most everyday concerns, what are the most effective ways for doing this?’” Theorists are a dime a dozen and just a master’s degree away, but clear thinking belongs to everyone (or so it should), yet clarity of faith in our lived-lives often seems so illusive for so many of us – not least the “professional Christians.” Dr. Dyrness is having none of that. Please join us and be edified as we discuss how to live an extraordinarily normal life in the face of our extraordinary God in the context of stamp collecting, cold beer, and considering the lilies of the field.

Christian Democrats? Church & State? “Not of this world”?

Join us as we sit down with Bruce Ashford (author of “Letters to an American Christian” and “One Nation Under God: A Christian Hope for American Politics”) asking questions like:

1. Should Christians even concern themselves with Politics? Jesus didn’t care about polotics, so should we?

2. It just seems like an abyss of lies and a world a million miles away if which the small people can do nothing, so why even bother?

3. Should we be “one issue voters” (anti-Abortion)? Can you be a Christian and Democrat?

4. Should we vote Republican – where there are more abortions, or for Democrats – where there are less abortions? Can you explain that tension?

5. Small or large government?

6. The god of “progress”? And the religious overtones taken on by liberals.

7. Is it the roll of the government to put in place Covid restrictions? If so, what are the parameters?

8. How can so many Kuyper-loving neo-Calvinists be flaming liberals?

Let God be true and every hermeneutic a liar

John Walton appreciates Calvin, gleans from Vos, and his happy to draw from the ancient confessions - but he offers them no allegiance. Metanarratives and hermeneutical grids abound, but so do the interpretive pitfalls that come with them. Walton gets right to the heart of it saying, “The labels we use are the ones we are accountable.” He just wants us to read our Bible faithfully, even if it means we can’t be card-carrying members of any one interpretive school. His hermeneutic is simple and one every Bible should adopt before all else: “The strongest interpretation is the one with the strongest evidence.”

What does Neo-Calvinism applied look like? 84 years of insight

Today we sit down with Jan Boer, an 84 year old Dutch/Canadian who is a translator of Kuyper, student of Evan H. Runner, and a missionary in Nigeria for over 30 years where neo-Calvinism was no theoretical exercise, but a world-and-life-view applied in the day-to-day of everyday life. Of neo-Calvinist philosophers, political theorists, and cultural commentators there are no end, but rare is the neo-Calvinist missionary and practioner who labor in planting and watering the seeds of the holistic Gospel, and then walk with them as they face draught as well as yield fruit – and that is what we have in Jan Boer. Upon returning to North America after decades in Nigeria, and seeing the folly that makes up so much Christianity today, Jan’s is a voice we modern’s need to hear and heed.

Listen in as we discuss:

- Studying under Evan H. Runner

- Translating Abraham Kuyper (including many of his devotional work)

- The wholistic Gospel vs the bifurcated message

- Applying Kuyperian thought in Nigeria to issues like roads and bridges, water pumps, polygamy, church, and every square inch of village life

- The CRC, the fact that we neo-Calvinists no longer create institutions, and the fact that “We produce nothing new.”

And more…

When Union & Theosis Shake Hands

“These themes of perfection, union with Christ, and the necessity of the incarnation point to the fact that Bavinck’s theology is profoundly ripe for the incorporation of the summative theme of theosis. This is the notion that humanity is meant to be united to and participate in the trinitarian life of God… There is a fundamental similarity between this element of Bavinck’s thought and the doctrine of theosis… Thomas F. Torrance’s doctrine of theosis, as a facet of his broader trinitarian theology, to highlight that not only do Bavinck and Torrance bear some surprising similarities, but also Torrance provides language helpful to reexamine Bavinck’s eschatological anthropology in light of the category of theosis” – Dennis Greeson

Join us as we sit down with Dennis Greeson, author of “Theosis in the Thought of Herman Bavinck?: Thomas F. Torrance’s Reconstruction of the Doctrine and its Promise for Bavinck’s Theology,” and discuss the big picture of Christianity. Aided by Herman Bavinck, drawing from Thomas F. Torrance, and nuanced by Myk Habets – Greeson does us all a favor here helping us to rebuke the false hierarchy of evangelism, prayer, etc.

Grace restores nature. Indeed.

If you know only one thing, know this

“Whoever knows well this art of distinguishing between Law and Gospel, him place at the head and call him a doctor of Holy Scripture." – Martin Luther

“The distinction between law and gospel is the highest art in Christendom.” – Martin Luther

“The reality of God’s grace is so radical that we often find ourselves trying to domesticate it, unconsciously (or not), imposing all manner of fine print about what constitutes acceptance or rejection… Our tit-for-tat programming is so strong that it tends to hijack the beauty of grace, and instead position it conditionally.” – David Zahl

“It is finished.” – Jesus

Today is our 100th episode and so I thought we would discuss, what I believe to be the most important topic in all of Theology and all of life and that is THE LAW & GOSPEL. Join us as we sit down with David Zahl, co-author of “Law & Gospel: A Theology for Sinners (and Saints)” – because, indeed, “It is finished.”