In this episode, Nate gets brutally honest in his assessment of the American church and how it operates. Why do churches advertise the way they do? Why do churches advertise at all? Is the goal really to preach the Gospel and see souls saved, or to just recruit other Christians to come to our churches instead of the other ones? While many churches appear different, or even opposed to one another, deep down, many of them are exactly the same-and not in a good way. If you listen really carefully, you can hear the sound of people pressing the "unsubscribe" button at the end of this episode...
What are some of the major differences between Catholic and Protestant theologies? Is there common ground? Protestantism has traditionally stood on the "Five Solas" and some other differences. Nate takes a look at these differences and realizes that there just might be more in common than we think, and we might not want to start pointing fingers too quickly...
Nate comes back from the podcast dead with an episode on what has been keeping him away since May. Fair warning, this is not your average A Word About God podcast episode. Nate gets as real as maybe he's ever been and opens up about being diagnosed with anxiety disorder, depression, and what going through personal, painful experiences have taught him about the real purpose of studying theology. Mental illness is a real thing, and pain in life is real-sometimes the realest thing you'll experience. But true hope is intricately linked to pain.
If you, or someone you know has suicidal thoughts, please visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or call 1-800-273-8255.
This week, Nate takes on the headlines in a way that only a total non-professional can. Vaccines, masks, politics, cancel culture and more! The moral of the story: Christians should be peacemakers, and not stirrers (is that word?) of the pot like everyone else.
In a recent episode of the "Building Bridges" podcast, guests Kris Valloton, Kim Maas and Mark Chironna attempted to defend those (including Kris Valloton) who made "prophecies" that Donald Trump would win the most recent presidential election. In this episode of the A Word About God podcast, Nate responds to their claims about modern-day prophecies, and begs believers to, as we reevaluate modern-day prophecies, to not only reevaluate the words spoken, but reevaluate whether or not these men and women should even be bearing the title of "prophet".
As we wrap up 2020 and our study of theology, Nate takes a look in this episode at the prophecies of the book of Revelation. Are they of horrifying things to come? Have they already happened? How has the Church interpreted this book in the past? Will there be a rapture? What verse is it again that talks about a seven-year tribulation? All this and more in the final episode of 2020.
Surprise! There's still time in 2020 for the world to end, so we're pushing out not one, but TWO EXTRA EPISODES! In the first episode of this two-part series on the doctrine of the end of the world (Eschatology), Nate looks at heaven and hell and the different ways that the Church has explained the eternal outcome of every living soul.
As we get close to the end of 2020, Nate also gets close to the end of the study on theology. In this episode, we look at who makes up the Church, what a church service looks like, as well as the different interpretations on communion and baptism.
Woo-hoo! We're back after a long hiatus. The world might be crazy right now, but at least you can buy a cube from Joel Osteen that gives you encouraging words, and at least Kenneth Copeland finds a way to laugh through the pain.
Nate picks up on our theological studies with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? Does the Bible claim that He is God? What does the work of the Holy Spirit look like in our lives? Is He just for miracles, or more? Do the supernatural gifts of the Spirit still happen today? How can Joel Osteen sleep at night charging $39.99 for this stupid cube? Answers are revealed...mostly.
David Bentley Hart is one of the leading voices in the recent resurgence of universalism. Compared to his extreme intelligence and brilliant writing, Nate is a dum-dum. However, no matter how smart Hart may be, anyone armed with half a brain and (most importantly) the Word of God, you can start to see that when it comes to his belief that all people will be saved and hell is simply some sort of personal experience we go through on earth, welp...even this dum-dum can see that he's flat-out wrong.
In this episode, Nate reviews Hart's book, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation. What we see is that Hart's attempt to support universalism relies on taking Bible verses out of context (or ignoring other ones altogether), pretending that universalism was a valid belief in the historical church, and, mostly, on making people who disagree with him look dumb.
Up next in our theological journey is an overview of the doctrine of Christ. Who was Jesus, really? Was he really God? Could it be that he was just a really good guy? Was he really man? Could it be that he was just God pretending to be a man? Does it matter? Spoiler alert...it does matter...a lot. All this and more on this episode of A Word About God.
Back on theology train! This week, Nate goes over the doctrines of creation and how sin came into the world in what's called the "fall". Although there are a few different theories out there as to how God did it, the Bible is clear that He DID it-creation, that is. And when He did it, it was good. Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way, and after the rebellion of mankind, things went downhill fast, and we found ourselves in desperate need of a savior.
In this special episode, Nate has a video chat with Joe Musten, vocalist for Advent and Torn and drummer for Beloved and The Almost (this guy can basically do it all) to talk about his Instagram page called Wisdom of the Cross. Each week, Joe posts old paintings/pictures of the cross and shares a devotional about how the cross, no matter how ugly, violent, or defeating it looks, is the only place where we as Christians can find true victory, salvation and wisdom. Of course, we start talking about the hardcore scene for a while too. Make sure to look up @widsomofthecross on Instagram, and go follow all of Joe's bands, and join us in prayer that (Please, God!) live music will happen again someday...
Continuing on in our dialogue about racism and reconciliation, Nate interviews his friend Doug. Doug moved from his home in Ghana fifteen years ago, and has been figuring out how to live in North America ever since. Doug brings a great balance to firmly finding his identity in Christ, rather than in racist opinions of him, but also refusing to ignore the hurt and suffering that his brothers and sisters in North America are going through. Nate also concedes that Black Panther was a good movie. At one point Doug laughs so loud that the microphone cuts out, but if you know him, that's not surprising.
A Word About God unflinchingly stands on the truth that all people are created in the image of God, and therefore, all people have intrinsic worth. While all lives do matter, at this point in history and with the recent events, it is vital to affirm that black lives matter. In light of all this, we will be dedicating the next series of episodes to interviewing some good friends who are people of color in order to get their perspective on issues of racism, police brutality, reconciliation and the role of the Church and the Gospel in all of this.
In this episode, Nate interviews his good friend Kyle Jones. Kyle calls Christians to focus on Christ, the Gospel, and the compassion of Jesus when dealing with these issues within the Church.
This week, we tackled another theological topic-the doctrine of Scripture. What does it mean that the Bible is the Word of God? Can we really trust that the Bible is without error? What happens if something in life seems to contradict what the Bible says? In a world filled with anger, turmoil, and racial injustices, Nate talks about how the Bible is the only place we can turn to to affirm that there is such things as right and wrong.
In this episode, Nate answers some follow-up questions from our discussion on the doctrine of God. Also, Nate addresses the whole topic of wearing masks in public during a pandemic. How should Christians be handling this whole thing? Should we fearfully wear them? Should we obstinately refuse, and smack people with an American flag instead? There's also some random thoughts about coffee. And a new intro song.
This week Nate kicks off our series on theology for normal people by taking a look at the doctrine of God. What does it mean that God is three in one? Do Christians worship more than one God? What do the names of God tell us about Him? Is this topic way over Nate's head? The answers to these questions and more in the latest episode of A Word About God Podcast.
In this episode, Nate kicks off a new series on (surprise, surprise) theology! Now, more than ever, it's so important for Christians to actually know what they believe about God, humanity, sin, Jesus, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the end of the world (no, it's probably not right now, sorry Hal Lindsey) and all of that good stuff.