In this episode of The Perspectivalist, Uri Brito sits down with Jordan Bush to explore a deeper question behind today’s financial debates: What should money be?

This conversation moves beyond investing strategy and into theology, ethics, and anthropology. Money, they argue, is not neutral. It shapes trust, power, authority, and social structures. Throughout Scripture, honest scales, just weights, and protection of the vulnerable reveal that how a society structures its money affects how it treats its people.

Jordan shares how his time ministering in Uruguay among Venezuelan immigrants exposed him to the devastating effects of currency collapse and hyperinflation. Churches, families, and businesses saw years of savings erased through monetary debasement. That experience led him to study the ethics of money production and eventually Bitcoin.

The discussion traces the history of money—from gold and silver to fiat currency—and considers Bitcoin as a digital form of scarcity designed to resist inflation and centralized control. Gold and silver historically functioned as stable money because of their durability, scarcity, and trustworthiness. Fiat currency, by contrast, can be expanded at will, often benefiting governments and financial elites at the expense of ordinary people.

Bitcoin attempts to combine the scarcity of precious metals with the portability and digital nature of modern currency. With a fixed supply of 21 million coins, it operates outside direct governmental control, raising important questions for Christians about limits, authority, stewardship, and economic justice.

The episode also addresses Bitcoin’s volatility. Jordan explains that price swings are normal in emerging technologies and compares Bitcoin’s market cycles to seasons in agriculture or stages of human maturity. For long-term holders, volatility is not necessarily a sign of failure but part of a developing monetary network.

The episode concludes with a brief discussion of Jordan’s children’s book, The Orange Umbrella—a story that introduces the themes behind Bitcoin without ever mentioning it directly.

This is not merely a conversation about cryptocurrency. It is a theological reflection on money, trust, power, and the kind of economic systems that best reflect biblical principles.

Perspectivalist Podcast — Season 7, Episode 2

In this episode, Uri Brito speaks with Pastor Levi Secord about the modern crisis of authority and why Christians instinctively sense that something is wrong when the state claims jurisdiction over education, family, morality, and worship.

Drawing from the historic doctrine of sphere sovereignty, Secord argues that God has established distinct spheres — family, church, and civil government — each with delegated authority under the lordship of Christ. When those boundaries collapse, the state becomes a functional god and citizens become its subjects.

The conversation explores:
• why statism grows when societies reject God
• how Scripture limits civil authority (Rom. 13; Matt. 22:21)
• lessons learned from COVID-era overreach
• why healthy families and churches restrain tyranny
• and what cultural renewal would look like if Christians recovered a biblical doctrine of authority

At stake is a basic question:
Is the state our savior — or God’s servant?

Levi Secord — Article
Christ Over Every Crown (Kuyperian Commentary)
https://kuyperian.com

Book
Servant Not Savior: An Introduction to the Bible’s Teaching About Civil Government

Biblical texts discussed
Matthew 22:21
Romans 13
Genesis 1
Deuteronomy 6
1 Corinthians 10:31

We live in an age drowning in words but starving for meaning. The modern world treats speech as a tool for power, outrage, and self-promotion. Scripture presents something radically different: words as covenantal acts before the living God.

The Perspectivalist Podcast exists to recover a distinctly Christian vision of language, culture, and public life. If Christ is Lord, then rhetoric is not merely technique; it is stewardship. The Christian task is not merely to win arguments, but to speak in ways that honor Christ, build neighbors, and cultivate a civilization shaped by truth, goodness, and beauty.

Season Seven begins with a simple conviction: culture rises or falls on the words it loves. And therefore, Christians must learn to love words rightly.

In this episode of The Perspectivalist, we examine a viral controversy that exposed a growing fracture within American Christianity. When Buddhist monks walked through central Louisiana promoting a “walk for peace,” many Christians applauded the gesture. Christ Fellowship pastor Jeff Mercer did not. In a brief, two-minute video, he stated a basic Christian claim: true peace comes not through mindfulness or meditation, but through Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.

The response was swift and severe. Accusations of intolerance followed, but most strikingly, the sharpest opposition came not from secular critics, but from fellow Christians. Within days, the United Methodist facility where Mercer’s church had met for nearly a decade revoked their access—explicitly citing his public statements.

In this conversation, Jeff Mercer joins us to discuss the video, the fallout, and what this episode reveals about contemporary Christianity’s discomfort with exclusivity, its accommodation to Eastern mysticism, and its fear of speaking plainly in the public square. We explore how ideas of peace have been redefined, why “vanilla” gospel claims now provoke outrage, and what it means to confess Christ openly in a culture—and church—that increasingly prefers silence over clarity.

This is a sobering but hopeful conversation about courage, faithfulness, and the cost of public Christianity in our time.

In this Advent episode of The Perspectivalist, Uri Brito is joined by Canadian pastors Dave Forsythe and Matt Hallick to discuss the growing threat to religious liberty in Canada, focusing on the proposed Bill C-9, known as the Combating Hate Speech Act. While presented as a measure to protect vulnerable groups, the bill increasingly places historic Christian teaching—and even specific biblical texts—under suspicion by the state.
🔗 Bill C-9 overview: https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-9

The discussion explains how Bill C-9 removes key legal safeguards, eliminates good-faith religious exemptions, and gives local law enforcement broad discretion to define “hate speech.” Forsythe and Hallick situate this moment within Canada’s longer trajectory of secularization, intensified by COVID-era church restrictions and a pietistic tendency within the Church to retreat from public life rather than confess Christ’s lordship over all things.

The episode closes with a call to courage. This is another defining moment for the Church—one that demands clarity rather than self-censorship. Canadian pastors are urged to speak boldly, engage publicly, and proclaim the crown rights of King Jesus with confidence and hope. Listeners are encouraged to support faithful advocacy efforts and remain vigilant.
🔗 ARPA Canada resources: https://arpacanada.ca

🎙️ The Perspectivalist Podcast

Episode Title: Canon, Clarity, and Claims of Certainty: Protestantism vs. Orthodoxy

Summary:
In this episode, Austin and Uri continue their series on the psychology of conversion, diving deeper into the claims of Eastern Orthodoxy—particularly on canonical authority and private judgment—as well as the nature of biblical interpretation within the wider Christian tradition.

Key Points Covered:

• Orthodox Claim on Canonical Authority
  Eastern Orthodoxy asserts that the Bible is recognized through the Church’s “faithful memory” or holy tradition, rather than being self-authenticating. Protestants argue instead for the clarity and authority of Scripture itself, upheld by the Spirit working through the Church.

• Private Judgment Debate
  Orthodoxy criticizes Protestants for reliance on private interpretation, pointing to "20,000 denominations" as evidence. But we challenge this narrative by noting that inescapable diversity and interpretive variance exist within Orthodoxy as well.

• Impressionism in Orthodoxy
  Drawing from Joshua Schuping’s Disillusion [Book Link], the episode explores both “high” and “low” impressionistic styles of interpretation in Orthodox circles—proving the charge of individualism cannot be laid solely at Protestant feet.

• Inescapability of Human Judgment
  Whether Protestant, Orthodox, or Catholic, all believers must wrestle with history, authority, and interpretation. We quote Robin Phillips’s excellent critique of Orthodox epistemology in Eastern Orthodoxy and the Lure of Epistemological Romanticism [Article Link], which highlights this unavoidable human condition.

• Challenges for Orthodox Unity Today
  Uri highlights practical and moral divergences among Orthodox jurisdictions (e.g. Ukrainian vs. Russian churches), raising questions about the practicality of universal conciliar authority in modernity.

• Biblical Witness to Clarity and Sufficiency
  The episode closes by grounding the Protestant view of Scripture in key biblical texts such as Luke 1:1–4, John 10:27, and 2 Peter 3:15–16.

“The quest for certainty is deeply human—but when we seek it beyond the sacred Scriptures, we multiply complexities. Sola scriptura is not isolationist: it’s an invitation to submit to the voice of God, amidst the counsels of the faithful.” – Uri Brito

• Disillusion: A Pilgrimage through Orthodoxy, Catholicism & Evangelicalism by Joshua Schuping – [Amazon Link]

• Eastern Orthodoxy and the Lure of Epistemological Romanticism by Robin Phillips – [Article Link]

• 1 John 1:1–4, Luke 1:1–4, 2 Peter 3:15–16 – [Bible Gateway]

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

Welcome back to The Perspectivalist. I’m your host, Uri Brito, joined again by my good friend Austin Brown. Our goal is simple: to think more clearly as Christians with Scripture as our starting point.

In today’s episode, we continue our series on the psychology of conversion, turning our focus to Eastern Orthodoxy. We’ll discuss the challenges of tradition, liturgy, and continuity, and interact with Pastor Josh Shooping’s book Disillusioned.

Along the way, we’ll raise some key questions: What does it really mean for a church to claim apostolic tradition? How do we discern between authentic continuity and the “mirage of the ancient”? And what can the early church fathers teach us about these debates?

Let’s dive in.

Resources:

Book: Disillusioned by Josh Schooping

Part 1: In this episode, Pastor Uri Brito welcomes Austin Brown for a thoughtful conversation on the psychology of conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy in the age of social media. They explore the rise of “Twitter conversions,” where personality-driven online voices attract seekers who are weary of shallow evangelicalism and searching for depth, antiquity, or beauty.

Together, they wrestle with the despair and uncertainty that often accompany these journeys, the overwhelming complexity of historical debates, and the temptation to trade truth for aesthetics or novelty. They reflect on the clarity and sufficiency of Scripture, the importance of local church community, and the need for patience and discernment in exploring different traditions.

The discussion offers both pastoral counsel and personal testimony, reminding listeners that truth, not taste, must remain central; that beauty and antiquity are valuable but secondary; and that faith should be nurtured in community, prayer, and Scripture before making life-shaping decisions.

Whether you’ve felt the pull of Rome or the East, or you’re walking alongside friends who are, this episode provides clarity, caution, and encouragement to walk slowly, faithfully, and wisely.

In this episode, Pastor Uri Brito welcomes Austin Brown for a thoughtful conversation on the psychology of conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy in the age of social media. They explore the rise of “Twitter conversions,” where personality-driven online voices attract seekers who are weary of shallow evangelicalism and searching for depth, antiquity, or beauty.

Together, they wrestle with the despair and uncertainty that often accompany these journeys, the overwhelming complexity of historical debates, and the temptation to trade truth for aesthetics or novelty. They reflect on the clarity and sufficiency of Scripture, the importance of local church community, and the need for patience and discernment in exploring different traditions.

The discussion offers both pastoral counsel and personal testimony, reminding listeners that truth, not taste, must remain central; that beauty and antiquity are valuable but secondary; and that faith should be nurtured in community, prayer, and Scripture before making life-shaping decisions.

Whether you’ve felt the pull of Rome or the East, or you’re walking alongside friends who are, this episode provides clarity, caution, and encouragement to walk slowly, faithfully, and wisely.

In this episode, we’re talking about the Lordship of Jesus—not as some abstract, future hope, but as a present, concrete reality. Too often, modern evangelicalism has reduced Christ’s Lordship to the realm of private salvation, personal piety, and quiet devotion. But the Bible paints a much bigger picture.

Paul tells us in Romans that Abraham was promised the world as his inheritance. Salvation is cosmic. Christ’s resurrection victory is undoing sin across creation. And as Abraham Kuyper famously said, there is not one square inch of human existence over which Christ does not declare, “Mine.”

When we treat Lordship as merely individual, we lose courage, we retreat into privatized religion, and we avoid confronting the idols of our culture. But when we confess that Jesus is Lord over family, church, state, and the whole created order, then our faith takes flesh. It marches, sings, builds, and leaves an imprint of righteousness wherever it goes.

This is no Gnostic mantra. “Jesus is Lord” is our dogma, and it means the earth belongs to Him and His people. The spoils of His victory are not hidden away for later—they are for His church to claim here and now.

Omnia et in omnibus Christus. Christ all and in all.

Welcome to The Perspectivalist

Today, I’m honored to host Reverend Grant Castleberry—Marine officer turned pastor, currently finishing his dissertation on Martin Lloyd-Jones. We gather to reflect on John MacArthur, a towering figure in pastoral longevity and biblical faithfulness.

Grant’s personal encounters with MacArthur go beyond admiration—they shaped his call to ministry and introduced him to Reformed theology. From late-night radio sermons after high school football practices to transformative theological tapes like Chosen for Eternity, MacArthur’s influence was profound and life-altering.

In our conversation, we explore:

• How conviction and clarity drove MacArthur’s preaching

• The weight of biblical authority and expository rigor

• The rare gift of decades-long pastoral ministry

• Personal reflections: the kind, humble man behind the pulpit

Join us for a meaningful tribute to a faithful pastor whose legacy continues to influence Christian ministry and leadership.