• 1 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google Season 1, Episode 2 (Spring Season, 2018) In this episode, Kurt Willems chats briefly with N.T. Wright about Revelation. Kurt spends significant time discussing Wright’s work on ‘new creation’ and attempts to frame any conversation of the so-called ‘end times’ around that theme. Here’s a free resource: Revelation Cheat …
Rapture Drill: Preparing for the End | S1 E1 (EP-1)
• 1 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google Season 1, Episode 1 (Spring Season, 2018) In this first episode of Rapture Drill, Kurt Willems introduces the motivations for a show like this. Why do we need a podcast that is devoted to such a controversial and confusing topic? What is a “rapture drill” anyway? Why do …
Paul within Judaism with Mark Nanos | S1 E4 (EP-62)
• 1 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google Season 1, Episode 4 (Spring Season, 2018) This conversation with Mark D. Nanos explores some of the broad themes of Paul within Judaism. How does it contrast with the New Perspective on Paul? What do they share in common? Why is it important for Paul to remain …
Love is the Only Way: Why I Loved the New Paul Movie (And I’m Not into “Christian Movies,” Typically)
• 6 Minute Read My Interview with writer and director, Andrew Hyatt, of Paul, Apostle of Christ: //html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/6433141/height/90/theme/custom/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/000000/ Subscribe via iTunes or Google This past weekend was full. Perhaps it was for you too. Before I tell you about my experience with the Paul movie, it is worth mentioning the most meaningful weekend of the Church calendar. …
Paul Movie with Director/Writer Andrew Hyatt | S1 E3 (EP-61)
• 2 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google Season 1, Episode 3 (Spring Season, 2018) This is a conversation with Andrew Hyatt, writer and director of Paul, Apostle of Christ, a new film from Sony. We talk about the background of the film, major themes, and why he was compelled to tell part of Paul’s …
The Good Friday Agreement: What Peace in Ireland Can Teach Us About Peace on Earth
• 4 Minute Read On my commute home this evening I was listening to the Fundamentalists podcasts hosted by Peter Rollins in which he mentioned an event called ‘the Belfast Agreement’ or because of the day it was signed, ‘The Good Friday Agreement.’ This was an agreement signed Good Friday, April 10, 1998 that …
How Will You React to Jesus? A Lenten Reflection
• 4 Minute Read A few weeks ago, I was preparing a sermon on Mark 14:1-11, where Jesus is anointed by an unnamed woman at Bethany during Holy Week. This Markan text is a rich character study: there is the unnamed woman who so generously and lavishly anoints Jesus, giving to him in his …
Scot McKnight on Slavery and Philemon | S1 E2 (EP-60)
• 1 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google Season 1, Episode 2 (Spring Season, 2018) Scot McKnight comes back to the podcast to discuss his new commentary on Philemon. Also, hit up a free book giveaway: Every Book By NT Wright, Ever! GIVE THE SHOW SOME LOVE 1) If you would be so kind to hop …
Revelation’s climactic verse is dirty & powerful (how to avoid spiritual STDs)
• 3 Minute Read I grew up around charts. Big. Scary. Charts. Can you relate? And on these charts were several pictures accompanied by verse labels and a timeline. Oh, yeah, gotta have the timeline figured out. These always came with the acknowledgement that no one could truly know the day or the hour. …
This Compelling Jesus
• 5 Minute Read Recently, I was chatting with one of my professors from college. He shared with me how he was preaching through 1 Peter. I responded by saying that I had been doing a fair amount of guest preaching as of late, at various churches in the area. I told him that, …
Let’s bring the soul back to biblical scholarship
• 2 Minute Read Recently I had a unique opportunity. I was asked, by members of the Comparative Religion M.A. cohort at the University of Washington, to lead a conversation on being a pastor who is also an aspiring scholar. Most of them were not Christian in any sense of the word. And yet, …
N.T. Wright Talks about Paul’s Biography (Judaism, Empire, Anabaptists, and Jesus) | S1 E1 (EP-59)
• 2 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google Season 1, Episode 1 (Spring Season, 2018 [Brand New Format!]) In this episode, N.T. Wright talks about his new book, Paul: A Biography. He discusses the sources we need to do good historical biographical work on Paul. We also might chat about Romans 13 and Anabaptists. You won’t want …
The Poisonwood Bible and Me
• 5 Minute Read The Mark of a Good Book If you asked me to recommend a theology book, it is quite probable that I will emphatically ask: “Have you read Miroslav Volf’s Exclusion and Embrace? No? You HAVE to. It’s a game changer!” So emphatic is this answer that I wrote a previous …
Name Change Myth: Saul Never Became Paul
• 4 Minute Read Today, I have something that may be a huge paradigm shift for you. You’ve heard the story: Saul became Paul. It is a powerful story. A Jewish man once hell-bent on the destruction of Christianity became convinced that his life was nothing without Christ. The name change from Saul (old …
Saul Never Became Paul (The Name Change Myth) (EP-58)
• 1 Minute Read Subscribe via iTunes or Google What’s in a name? When it comes to Paul the Apostle, quite a bit. It’s likely that you’ve heard that Paul the lover of Jesus used to be Saul the hater of Christians. The name change was an identity shift. In this episode, Kurt confronts this idea as …