The Protestant Libertarian Podcast

In this Theology Thursday, I replay an LCI Greenroom episode I recorded with Cody Cook and Jacob Winograd about some of the themes which I address in my book Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation, particularly how New Testament scholarship has misunderstood fundamental political and economic concepts. Enjoy!

Media Referenced:

 Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Dr. Gerald Hiestand, senior pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois, about his brand-new book Justification and the Churches: Pastoral Questions at the Heart of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Theology. Without minimizing the differences between the three great Christian traditions, Hiestand demonstrates that each communion's approach to the doctrine of justification includes valid theological insights. He argues that theology is almost always a response to pastoral questions and that the Protestant concern for extrinsic acquittal, the Catholic concern for internal healing, and the Orthodox concern for eschatological glorification shape the way each tradition approaches the question of justification. He argues that Nicaea, Genesis 1-3, and Paul all address these questions, and that ecumenical dialogue on the nature of justification is both possible and necessary. He discusses the legacy of the Reformation and why he is still a Protestant, and explains the pastoral implications for wrestling with the doctrine of justification.

Media Referenced:

Justification and the Churches: https://a.co/d/08tlUgdk

The Pastor Theologian: https://a.co/d/0i1YXtdC

Center for Pastor Theologians: https://www.pastortheologians.com/

Bio: https://www.calvarymemorial.com/leadership

Buy my new book Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation: https://a.co/d/027bElXP

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

In this episode, Dr. Eric Schansberg returns to the show to discuss his book College 101: What Students and Parents Should Know About Universities. In this book, Schansberg cuts through the mythology of higher education and offers parents and prospective students advice on how to negotiate the complex college landscape. He explains why college isn’t always the right choice and how students should not go into debt to pay for schooling, how school rankings are less important than the school’s teaching styles, why paying for ‘the college experience’ is a bad investment, the economics behind the increasing cost of higher education, the purpose of earning a degree, how Christian parents and students should think about the value of college and much more. 

Media Referenced:

College 101: https://a.co/d/0gGc3tFX

Schansberg on Politics: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-266-christians-and-public-policy-with-eric-schansberg/

Gen Men Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-234-biblical-masculinity-and-the-men-of-genesis-with-eric-schansberg/

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Richard Krauland about his book The Bridge from Science to God. Krauland discusses his background as an entrepreneur and mathematician and how his early years as a skeptic led to him finding faith. He explains how the complexities of science must lead us to the conclusion that there is a God behind it while encouraging the church to think critically about intelligent design. He also describes how his personal experiences with illness and family death shaped his appreciation for both God and science, how loving others even when we disagree with them is essential to our faith, and why skeptics should think critically about the relationship between God and science without dismissing the work of the divine. 

Media Referenced:

The Bridge from Science to God: https://a.co/d/0ejZd49r

Enlightened in the 21st Century: https://a.co/d/0d6WUvPF

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

In this episode I talk once again with Dr. Allan Bevere about the current state of American politics and how the church should respond. We discuss the second Trump term and compare him to his predecessors (including his own first term), why America is always at war and how the church doesn’t seem to care too much, how political divisions are fueled by the social media and plague the church, and how believers can faithfully respond to these divisive times.

Media Referenced:

The Politics of Witness: https://a.co/d/9OehoFs

Allan Bevere on X: @arbevere

Website: http://www.allanrbevere.org/

Substack: https://allanrbevere.substack.com/

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

Amazon: https://a.co/d/031IwQ0F

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

In this episode I talk with Scott Lackey, pastor of New Story Church in Buffalo, New York and host of the Creating Space podcast, about Paul’s letter to Rome. We discuss the challenges of studying Romans while preaching and teaching it to a lay audience. Scott then explains why Paul wrote Romans and the major themes, particularly of community formation, that shape the letter. We then work through Romans on a section-by-section basis, addressing Paul’s arguments and concerns and working through huge concepts like faith, righteousness and justification, judgement, Abraham, Christ and Adam, sin, death, Law, grace, the Spirit, and more. Scott then explains how Paul expects his audience to worship God through the way they live, and how the modern church can reclaim the vision of Romans today. 

Media Referenced:

Creating Space podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/creating-space/id1730849984

New Story Church: https://www.newstorybuffalo.com/

New Story Church YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@newstorybuffalo

Scott’s Substack: https://scottlackey.substack.com/

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

In this episode I explore Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he “desired to know nothing among you [the Corinthians] except Jesus Christ and him crucified”. I explain how Paul always has the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in mind and that Christ’s death is always conceptualized as crucifixion. In this context, Paul is appealing to the Corinthians to imitate Christ and overcome the divisions which are plaguing the church, and how the cross serves as the model for Christian ethics. I argue that the cross must be the starting point for Christian discipleship, and that there is no area of life, including political and economic activity, which isn’t, for the believer, conditioned by the cross. What would happen if the church of today determined to know nothing except the crucified Christ?

Media Referenced:

https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation-with-alex-bernardo/

https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/all-things-to-all-people-1-corinthians-919-23/

https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-257-the-rulers-of-this-age-are-passing-away-1-corinthians-26-8/

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

In this episode I talk with Dr. Brandon Crowe about his brand-new book James Revisited: Christology and Biblical Theology in the Letter of James, out now on Baker Academic. In this book Crow examines James in light of the biblical canon and Christology, showing how Jesus and the rest of Scripture illuminate and are illuminated by James. We discuss the authorship, dating and purpose of James, suggesting it might be one of the earliest letters in the New Testament, and talk about the centrality of themes such as kingdom, Christology, and eschatology. We also discuss the role of moral development and hypocrisy, the complex question of the Law, and the notorious debate about whether the assertion in James 2 that a man is justified by works contradicts Paul’s claims in Romans 3 and Galatians 2. We then talk about the practical application of James for the church today. 

Media Referenced:

James Revisited: https://a.co/d/07hpXArs

Crowe on X: @brandondcrowe

Substack: https://brandondcrowe.substack.com/

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation: 

LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aFo5AeD

In this episode I talk with Dr. Mark Nanos about the Paul Within Judaism school. Paul Within Judaism scholars seek to understand Paul in his Jewish context without assuming that Paul was somehow opposed to or abandoning his Jewish heritage. Dr. Nanos explains how PWJ scholars interpret Paul, why the “Two Covenants” or Sonderweg approach is not the predominant view among PWJ scholars, and why we need to reconceptualize Paul outside of traditional Protestant categories. We discuss Paul’s much-debated phrase “works of the Law”, which Nanos argues should be understood as ‘rites of a custom’, or an initiation by Gentile proselytes into Judaism. According to Nanos, Paul argues that the promise to rescue the nations through Israel cannot be fulfilled unless the nations are incorporated into Abraham’s family as Gentiles, and that Paul is not arguing against either the Law or good works in general but rather Jesus-believing Gentiles proselytizing to Judaism. Nanos also explains how this should impact modern Christian discourse. 

Media Referenced:

Mark Nanos Website: https://marknanos.com/

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/ 

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Order my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation here: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/ 

In this episode I address a question that Christians have been asking for centuries: do Paul and James disagree about faith and works? In passages like Romans 3:27-30 and Galatians 2:15-16, Paul says that we are justified by faith and not the works of the Law. In James 2:14-26, however, James claims that faith without works is dead. What’s going on here? I explore how the word ‘faith’ itself is a dynamic term which denotes action, including the concepts of faithfulness and obedience, and that Paul and James are both arguing that true faith acts. I then look at the text more carefully, showing that Paul is not arguing against good works in general but against “works of the Law”, claiming that Gentiles are incorporated into Abraham’s family without having to adopt Jewish rites and identity markers such as circumcision and dietary laws. James, on the other hand, is arguing that faith that isn’t put into practice is dead, a sentiment with which Paul would be in full agreement. In other words, Paul and James have the same perspective on faith and works. 

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com. 

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!